The Best

Everyone has his favorite everything. Every fan their favorite team, player, and coach both of the present and of the past. Whether its a favorite brand, company, or style everyone will go to war for what he sees as the absolute best. I have many favorites. In college basketball they presently are the Tarheels, Wayne Ellington, and Roy Williams. In professional sports the Lebrons, I mean Cavaliers, Browns, and most obviously the tribe. When considering the profession that I someday hope to hold I also have my favorites. Some of these favorites include Kevin Towers, John Schuerholz, and Omar Minaya. However, just like every other fan on the planet among my favorites is a clearcut and dominating best.

Dave Dombrowski, the current GM/president/CEO of the rival Detroit Tigers, has demonstrated the ability to effectively put together winning teams using his aggressive approach for three different organizations. In fact, during my lifetime the only winning that the former Expos, the Marlins, and the Tigers have experienced came with Dombrowski at the helm.

Everyone speaks of how great the Expos were in 1993 and how they would have won it all had the 1994 season not been cut short. But how many of the fans know how the Expos got to be that way. Of all of the impact players for the Expos in 1993 on 3B Sean Berry(who) and 5th SP Denis Boucher(again who) were not acquired by Dombrowski. In 1994, the only player added to that list is Pedro Martinez acquired in 1993. So outside of one of the lower quality position players and a middle rotation starter each year Dombrowski completely assembled the successful Expos of the mid 1990's.

Then in 1992 the expansion Marlins came knocking and Dombrowski began his second great challenge. Within 5 years, mainly through the help of free agent talent and trades, Dombrowski was able to claim his first World Series title in 1997. This one was especially painful as this was the tribe's series to win and they let it get away. Dombrowski barely had enough time to cherish the World Championship as ownership mandated he clear much of the teams payroll. This was a daunting task, but Dombrowski was able to successfully move all of the overpaid players stockpiled the years previous and set the team up for any Series crown in 2003. In fact, Ivan Rodriguez is the only notable player not acquired by Dombrowski on the Marlins 2003 World Series team.

Dombrowski began his time with his current team, the Tigers, in 2002. The woeful Tigers had not made the playoffs since 1987 when Dombrowski was named president and CEO in 2002. After another subpar season from then GM Randy Smith, ownership named Dombrowski the new GM of the Tigers in 2003. His first year seemed to be a step in the wrong direction as the team lost a record 119 games, however they were able to win at least 70 games each of the next two years as Dombrowski was able to rebuild the team by rebuilding the farm system and adding supplemental talent through trades and free agency. His efforts came to a peak last season as the pitching heavy Tigers won 95 games on their way to the World Series.

What makes Dombrowski the best is not necessarily the fact that he his teams have won. If this were the only telling factor, I would be a bigger fan of Walt Jocketty than of say Terry Ryan and this is not completely the case. What makes Dombrowski the best is his aggressive and versatile approach. Each situation he has been thrust into has been unique and accordingly he utilized a unique strategy to manufacture success. Whether it is patiently waiting for drafted talent to emerge or quickly adding free agent talent to win now, Dombrowski has shown that he can certainly do it all.

The idea for this article comes from today's deadline to sign June draft picks and the reported contract agreement between the Tigers and their 1st rounder Rick Porcello. This is the 3rd out of the last 4 years that Dombrowski's Tigers have signed an amateur talent to a ML contract. In 2004 the Tigers gave Justin Verlander a $4.5 million ML contract along with a $3.12 million bonus. They followed this up with a ML contract worth as much as $7 million with a $3.55 million bonus for Andrew Miller in 2006. What makes Porcello's contract most remarkable is not the guaranteed money nor the bonus that appears to be 3 times higher than the slot value, but the fact that he is only 18 years old. Both Verlander and Miller were college pitchers around 21 years old and fairly polished on draft day. It will be interesting to follow Porcello's career and quick jump to the ML.

This tendency of Dombrowski's Tigers to aggressively draft and sign the players he drafts is something that is lacking within MLB. Due to the new draft rules this year teams have to have their draft picks signed by midnight tonight or they lose the rights to sign that player. Many teams have yet to sign their top round picks and this year looks to have by far the highest number of top 5 round picks go unsigned. The most notable are the top 3 picks of the draft that are all yet to sign. It is difficult to understand why a team would draft a player that they would not be able to sign. At least our beloved Indians were able to draft a player that was easily signed weeks ago. From all this it is important to know that if you are smart enough, brave enough, and willing enough to start something you must also be smart enough, brave enough and willing enough to follow through and finish it *cough*Indians*cough