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Monday BP, 2/18/19

Chicago Cubs v Washington Nationals Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Who’s your favorite President and why?

Farhan Zaidi is my favorite President because he takes over control of my favorite baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, with both a clean slate and a track record of success. He helped the Los Angeles Dodgers lose two World Series, which makes him a hero in my book. Before that, he helped the Oakland A’s not win any World Serieses, but he also made them surprise contenders when everybody thought they would be bad.

He has a kind smile and genteel way about him, which will be effective in the heavy hatchet man work that has to be done to remake the entire organization. The Giants have ignored their #20-#40 spots on their 40-man roster spot for so long and even had trouble filling out their minor league rosters that he brings an urgent sense of triage to something as simple as major league average-caliber depth. I do not know why Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans ignored those roster spots, but they certainly did. Farhan Zaidi will not, and that will be fun.

In conclusion, America is a land of contrasts, where vice presidents choose to focus on punting draft picks and trading with the Rays and presidents recognize the value of having good backups and emergency backup players. It can be hard to argue with a winning track record created by the former practice, but the evanescent nature of success suggests the latter approach improves the odds of returning to the winner’s circle more often. Grover Cleveland did win non-consecutive terms, but FDR won three four in a row. And now I’ve run out inspiration for doing this essay response, so please start talking about your lunches and travel plans.