In 2004, Theo Epstein went out and grabbed Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke in the offseason to shore up his pitching. A few months later, he addressed needs at the deadline by acquiring Dave Roberts and Doug Mientkiewicz while simultaneously shipping out Nomar Garciaparra.
Those moves were as good a reason as any that the Sox erased an 86-year championship drought that fall.
This season, with the general manager situation in Boston up in the air to say the least, two other executives are staking their claim as two of the game's best.
The Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers will meet in the American League Championship Series starting Saturday night. If you dig a little deeper into their rosters, you'll see the same sort of blueprint that helped the Sox win in '04 is being executed by both Detroit's Dave Dombrowski and Texas' Jon Daniels.
Look no further than Thursday night's Tigers-Yankees winner-take-all Game 5 for proof of that. The Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, thanks in large part to a home run by Delmon Young. He was acquired in a waiver deal in August, a move that was an afterthought at best. All Young did in the LDS was hit three home runs in five games.
Doug Fister, who was acquired by Dombrowski in July in a relatively under-the-radar move, pitched five solid innings and gave up just one run. Fister was even more impressive down the stretch going 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA after coming over from Seattle.
This is nothing new for Dombrowski. This is the same man that made the Expos relevant and the Marlins world champions. He orchestrated the turnaround that helped morph a dreadful Tigers club that lost 103 games in '03 into a pennant winner in 2006.
Dombrowski has long been one of the best executives in the game, and he was rewarded as such. His title in Detroit officially is CEO, president and general manager, so he's in a pretty good place to say the least. He was also handed a new extension this summer.
Daniels, on the other hand, hasn't been around as long as Dombrowski. He was hired in 2005 as the youngest GM in baseball launching a career that has only success in common when compared to Dombrowski's.
He's already seen his team make it to one World Series, and he's hoping the Rangers can make it two trips in as many years. The Rangers are four wins away from doing so, an accomplishment made even more impressive by the fact that Texas was thought by some to be due for a down year after Cliff Lee spurned Texas (and New York) to go back to Philadelphia.
No worries for Daniels, though. He took that money and used it elsewhere. His big splash in free agency was inking former Sox third baseman Adrian Beltre to a contract. Beltre slugged 32 home runs and 105 RBIs this season fitting right in as a member of a loaded Texas offense in a hitter-friendly ballpark. Beltre's biggest contributions, though, came just this week. His three home runs made the difference in a decisive Game 4 win over the Rays in the first round.
A much smaller move — at least at the time — came when Daniels obtained Mike Napoli from Toronto after he was shipped there by the division-rival Angels. Daniels nabbed Napoli and signed him to a new deal. All Napoli did was turn in a blistering second half (.383 average, 18 home runs, 42 RBIs, 1.171 OPS) to help the Rangers hold off — who else — the Angels.
Daniels proved his mettle at the deadline too, when he acquired reliever Mike Adams from the Padres. Many expected them to grab Heath Bell, but instead, they went with Adams to set up closer Neftali Feliz. Adams posted an ERA below 2.00 in Texas, and he held batters to an average below .200. He was called upon to shut down the Rays late in Game 4 before Ron Washington handed the ball over to Feliz to close out the Rays.
The key to being a successful general manager isn't just putting together nine or 10 months of impressive moves, but those same moves can help set the tone for a successful season and ultimately push a team over the top down the stretch.
Still, it's no secret that in order to put together a good team that is built not only to succeed in the regular season, but the postseason as well, you need to make moves in the winter and midsummer.
Keeping an eye on both the long and short terms, both Jon Daniels and Dave Dombrowski have shown once again how it's done.
Now, the only thing that stands in the way of their clubs and the World Series is each other.
