Q&A With Lake Champlain GM Steve Beard

Burlington, VT

Here's the actual transcript between a new Burlington Free Press blogger and GM Beard.


Hello Steve. My name is Dinosaur Jib Tux, I am the NASBL Blogger for the Burlington Free Press. My (a-hole) editor asked I get an official comment from you regarding the upcoming season and the recent trades made by the perennial Taste Great East Cellar Dweller Illinois Chow Chows. So:
Q: Mr. Beard, in light of the aggressive moves made by Brad "The New Elder" Sherlag, do you feel your three-year stranglehold on 3rd place in the TG East is in jeopardy? Have the fans expressed anxiety?

As I said prior to this year's draft, I'm supremely confident LCC can return to its rightful 90+ win / 3rd place spot in the TGE. At the risk of angering a sleeping giant, I'm pretty sure 4th place in our division will once again be nailed down by a Sherlag with a good record. Have the fans expressed anxiety? Not in the least. Sales of giant LCC foam souvenir "thringers" (a slip-on sponge hand with three fingers proudly extended) have never been higher.


Q: In case the rumors from FireSteveBeard.com, a rabid LCC fan site, are true and your head has actually been in the sand, here are the deals for your review:

• GRK sends Carlos Zambrano and GRK #4 to ILL for James Shields and ILL #1

• LVI sends Angel Pagan to ILL for Chad Gaudin and ILL #2

  
  

Your comment?

I was surprised to see former Cannibal James Shields go. Just a few months ago, Brad had told me he was a believer in Shields. I actually was wondering who got the better end of the deal on this one just in terms of 2010 pitcher performance, but that was only until GRK GM Johnny Miller cued me in that Shields was getting consistently shelled in spring training action. We've seen Big Z before, in a Hawaiian cerulean wave shirt. But he may be a bit tougher on this year's Cannibal squad, as we've gone more RHB-heavy than normal.

Angel Pagan doesn't raise too many concerns in a strictly head-to-head sense. He's very tough against right-handed pitchers, but here at Lake Champlain we teach all our pitchers to throw with the left hand (except for the intransigent Edwin Jackson, who makes up for his right-handedness by having a left-hander's stuff: in an effort to fit in he gives up more bombs to RHB).

Q: LCC GM Steve Beard used to have the handle Trader Beard. But in recent years LCC has taken a more passive approach to the trade market. Should the CanniFans, as they call themselves, expect a swift and decisive response to ILL's statement moves?

I intend to act with a swift and decisive level of passiveness. Inaction, after all, is a form of action. I took the long view on this year's team, and had a plan for it almost from the day the 2009 season ended (for us that day was August 1st). Despite one somewhat more than casual flirtation with "that really hot girl who you know just wouldn't be good for you, but still" (Albert Pujols), I've been sticking with that plan pretty much straight through.

Q: It used to be hard enough to keep up with HHA and SPR. Now ILL is nipping at your heels. Will the realization that the TG East is getting even stronger rekindle the long-rumored realignment talks at the NASBL Head Offices in St. Albans, VT? Is it true that you commissioned a Blue Ribbon Panel of experts to examine how to broaden NASBL's appeal and one of their suggestions was a radical floating realignment plan?

Only one team in the TGE has ever proposed realignment, and it wasn't LCC. The proposal was several years ago, and the NASBL's annual Blue Ribbon Panel rightfully responded to the suggestion with much the same revulsion as Joe Buck responding to Randy Moss's moondance at Lambeau field several years ago. (Editor's Note: Ironic that GM Beard would drop a mooning reference, many in the FSB.com camp think that's exactly what he's been doing to his fanbase for the last 4 years)

Q: Additionally, a recent addition to ILL's rotation was 1st round pick Brett Anderson. Anderson was acquired with LCC's former #1 round pick and is seen by scouts as someone with a great future who also possesses a quality card for the upcoming season. We know how LCC historically adores 'backward cards', and Anderson certainly is a backward lefty. How do you feel now that in hindsight it's obvious LCC let a prototypical LCC-style player get through the cracks?

C'mon, this is a Barbara Walters style softball of a question. The pick with which we could've gotten Brett Anderson was the same pick that yielded us Troy Tulowitzki. As much as I would've like to have added a 7th left-handed starter to our rotation (seriously - we already have 6), it was definitely past time to replace Edgar Renteria at short. While Tulo didn't add much last year other than defense and occasional power (6hr in 204 ab with LCC), that's 2 more things than Edgar was bringing to the table. Okay, maybe that's not fair. Edgar was bringing several things to the table, not least of which were a fork, a knife, and a beer gut. But none of that was really translating as well on the field as we had hoped.

Q: Another LCC-mantra is to not value corner OFers and 1b-men too much. Players at these positions are easy to obtain and should not have too much invested in them in terms of salary, draft position, etc. Yet, with LCC's first 2 picks in the 2010 NASBL Rookie/Free Agent Draft, GM Beard pulled the trigger on Garrett Jones and Nick Johnson. Both of whom are defensive liability, 1b/OF/DH types. The exact type of player that has littered the Cannibals roster in the past. Fans were promised a shift away from this beer league softball roster management, but here we go again. Can you please explain why a) you seemingly reverted to the old beer league school and b) you used valuable draft picks on otherwise easy to obtain skill sets.

This in part goes back to the Tulowitzki deal - we actually spent our 1st round pick on defense at a critical up the middle position. Combined with the other big LCC in-season trade in 2009 where offensive and defensive OBA machine Chipper Jones went south (about 30 minutes south) for defensive whiz Ryan Zimmerman, and the defensive skills of incumbent flycatchers Curtis Granderson, JD Drew, and Chris Young, this could be one of the better defensive LCC teams ever. With regard to why GI Jones and Nick Johnson are now on board, they as well as fellow defensive liability Luis Castillo represented what we like to think of as singularities in the Strat world: The best at one phase of the game at one position. In the case of Jones, we looked at him as the best power-hitting corner guy in the deck. We looked at Johnson as the best OBA guy in the deck. And while Castillo isn't the best OBA guy in the deck, he's the best at one of those "add a bunch of categories together" comparisons that Bill James abhors so much: Best OBA guy vsR at 2b. Johnson and Castillo were 2 of the guys that were in The Plan for quite some time. Johnson since last fall, and Castillo after we were unable to pull of a Felipe Lopez trade with NJT prior to the roster cutbacks.

So while it's true LCC doesn't like to spend big on easy to obtain skill sets, on draft day the thought in the War Room was that "highest OBA card in the deck" wasn't so much an easy to obtain skillset as a unique skillset we only had one chance at grabbing. It could certainly be argued that we overpaid for that skillset, but I looked at it like it was a planned expense that was in the budget.

As far as old-school beer league softball is concerned, I guess ultimately I'm guilty as charged. I'm genuinely interested in seeing how close the LCC offensive plan of "two OBA guys followed by seven 20+ HR guys" can come to the annual Cannibal goal of 1,000 runs scored.