Agressiveness links Pritchard and Epstein

In the early 1840’s William Overton saw great potential for a piece of land that was called “the clearing,” halfway between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver, but he lacked the funds that were required to file a land claim. He struck a bargain with a partner by the name of Asa Lovejoy, of Boston, Mass.: for 25 cents he would share the 640 acres he had claimed. Overton later sold his part of the claim to Francis W. Pettigrove of Portland Maine. Now both Pettigrove and Lovejoy wanted to name the new city after their respective hometowns, which was to be decided with a coin toss. Pettigrove won in a best two out of three contest. So therefore the city was to be named Portland, forever linking the two cities.

To go along with the naming of Portland, Oregon, there is a more recent link between the two cities. Kevin Pritchard, the Portland Trail Blazers General Manager since the start of the 2007 season, has been very aggressive during his tenure as the leader of the team. His aggressiveness started even as a interim manager of the team in 2005, when he took over of a bad team after the firing of Maurice Cheeks. He spent the remainder of the season as manager evaluating talent, and in that off-season advised then-GM John Nash to select Chris Paul with the 3rd overall selection in that particular upcoming draft, but was overruled by Nash and his partners, as the team eventually traded the pick to the Utah Jazz (which they used to take Deron Williams). In the 2006 off-season, Nash was fired (probably after the team saw Paul win rookie of the year), allowing Pritchard to move on up the ladder. The team not only promoted him to the Assistant GM position, but gave him full control to orchestrate their 2006 draft, a draft in which he was very busy. He traded the teams’ fourth overall selection, Tyrus Thomas, along with Victor Khryapa to the Bulls for the 2nd overall pick, LaMarcus Aldridge, who is now a prominent part of the current team. Pritchard wasn’t done though, as he then traded the 7th overall pick (they traded Sebastian Telfair and Theo Ratliff to Boston for the pick prior to the draft) which they used on Randy Foye to the Timberwolves for Brandon Roy (who won rookie of the year that upcoming season). Both Aldridge and Roy are currently center-pieces for the teams future, and have already gained a lot of notoriety around the league for their outstanding play in their two years in the NBA. In 2007 Steve Patterson was fired, allowing the Blazers to give the reigns to the GM position to Pritchard. He didn’t stop his aggressive play, as he not only picked Greg Oden with the top pick in the 2007 draft, but made two more significant deals. He traded Zach Randolph, who had overstayed his welcome with the team, to the Knicks and acquired James Jones, and the 24th pick in the draft, Rudy Fernandez (who is now going to be another big part of the teams’ future) for cash in a separate deal with the Suns. Every one of these moves have been very good decisions by Pritchard thanks to his aggressiveness and determination to make this team better.

Now the Blazers are the youngest team in the league, and even though their players are immensely talented, that could be a bad thing if the team wants to go deep in the playoffs as soon as next season. The good thing about the lack of experience is that from here on the players will only gain experience with every game they play, especially incoming players like Oden, Jerryd Bayless and Fernandez.

The sports are different, but MLB’s General Managers have the same task: improve the team the way you see fit, and build towards the future. This is where the Portland-Boston connection comes in with Red Sox GM, Theo Epstein. He, like Pritchard, is very aggressive when it comes to making the team better. In the 2003 off-season Boston made a huge run at one of the games best players, Alex Rodriguez. Major League Baseball wouldn’t allow the trade to be completed, but it was his aggressive mindset allowed the trade to be a possibility. His determination to get the players he saw fit continued in 2006 off-season when he spent an obscene amount of money 52 million dollars just to talk to Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, whom they eventually signed for 50+ more million dollars. This is how Pritchard and Epstein are connected. They have the ability to look at every possibility to make their respective teams better whether it be by trade or free agency.

What allows Epstein to be aggressive is the amount of money at is disposal. The Blazers payroll for this past season was $57.6 million dollars compared to $133 million dollars for the Red Sox. The payrolls are drastically different, but so are the yearly salaries for the players in the two sports. Though the roster size is in baseball’s favor, 40-15, the teams go about making moves in similar ways, because of the amount of money each team has available. In spite of the difference in salaries and roster size, both the Blazers and Red Sox have the same opportunities to trade for high paid players, and be aggressive in their own ways, primarily because of the difference between yearly player salaries between sports.

One thing that helps Epstein is that he has a farm system, something Pritchard and the NBA do not. Though having a farm system for the Red Sox is a luxury, it is also tough to maintain.It has produced players such as Jacoby Ellsbury, Justin Masterson, Clay Buccholz, Jon Lester and Jonathan Papelbon, all of whom have played critical roles towards the teams’ success. A farm system for Epstein is the equivilant to draft picks for Pritchard. Some successful players in the minor leagues are trading chips for big name players in baseball, just like some draft picks are trading chips for big name players in basketball. Though Pritchard doesn’t have the advantage of having a minor league team, nonetheless four like Boston, he, and his team, still find a way to make bold trades, like the one recently to acquire Jerryd Bayless.

Pritchard’s agressiveness is shown in the trading of draft picks (they traded all five in this years’ draft) to get the right players for his team while Epstein’s aggressiveness is shown by paying high dollar for players that fit. Though the way they go by being aggressive is different, their primary goal is making their teams better not only for the present, but for the future as well.

The connection between the two cities started with Pettigrove and Lovejoy, but because of the aggressive style of Kevin Pritchard and Theo Epstein in modern time, the link continues.