"Damn, Vincent Cerrato sucks"
Obviously, this is not earth shattering or groundbreaking insight; but man, he is just sooooooo bad. Everything from his cap killing free agency moves to his lack of ability to draft and finally, giving away all of his draft picks for (usually) junk bonds.
This led me to think about other poor GM's, such as Wes Unseld, Debbie Yow (she counts right? Sports AD in a university is akin to a GM of a professional franchise) & Jim Bowden (speaking of which, why does he have his own piece on ESPN called "The GM's Office"...dude sucked w/ the Nats) throughout my young adult history and I sadly drank myself to sleep. As I woke up this morning with a hangover the size of Alaska, I thought to myself a happy thought:
The anatomy of the IDEAL DC GM!!!
What parts would you take? What would you do? I am taking parts from the current GMs of the Redkins, Nats & (yes, even the) Wizards. This is how I see it:
- Bruce Allen: Bruce has done an excellent job in placing the right people in the right positions to allow them to succeed. He realized that his scouting team is top notch and did a great job in placing them with The Shanny to draft successfully the pas few years. I remember, whenever the Redskins practice squad was built, teams all over the NFL would pick it apart by signing those guys to their contracts. This shows that Vinny NEVER listened to his scouting team and acted on his own accord. He never utilized his organizational tools he had. He also is known for budgeting and manipulating the salary cap properly to place the team in good financial situations.
- Mike Rizzo: After Jim Bowden left, the Nats minor league system was in discord. In comes Rizzo, a bulldog by nature, and an excellent scout throughout his career. His ability to draft players early and late has vaulted the Expos/Nats minor league system to the best (until they traded 3 or 4 of their top 10 players for Gio...a trade I would do again in a heartbeat). The lower draft picks such as Tyler Moore and Steve Lombardozzi are helping to contribute this year as rookies when stars such as Werth and Ian Desmond went down. Now their minor league system is ranked somewhere between 10-15 range with some nice budding (albeit injured) high level talent. He also knows how to build one hell of a bull pen by using throw away players from other teams. Him stealing players such as Tyler Clippard and stashing him in the bullpen-GENIUS! He just knows how to find the right players and put them together...a must for a GM!
- Ernie Grunfeld: This is a bit of a stretch but you need the guy who is going to listen to the boss and take the proper marching orders. I am just going to judge him by what he has done after Teddy Leonsis has taken over. He has accumulated a nice bit of young talent. He also masterfully manipulated the 2010 draft to get some very interesting pieces. Ernie drafted Wall with the first pick; then when he saw Chicago wanted to dump Kirk Heinrich's contract, he traded for him along with the 17th pick (who became Kevin Seraphin, who is turning into a beast of a player in the post...a rarity in the NBA now) and wheeled and dealed to get Trevor Booker (a nice young PF) with the 23rd pick. Finally, half way through the season, he traded Kirk to Atlanta for the hungry rookie SG, Jordan Crawford. These few pieces (along with acquiring Nene & Bradley Beal) can really help the Wizards finally be a team to compete in a tough Eastern conference play-off race!!
This bionic GM would be PERFECT to lead our DC franchises into constant domination.
Lets name him Meraj...lol
