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Andrew Freidman

The St Petersburg Times has an excellent article about Devil Rays' GM Andrew Freidman and the shrewd moves he's made in signing Brendan Harris, Carlos Pena, Al Reyes, Akinori Iwamura, Greg Norton and Ty Wigginton while refusing to sing either Aubrey Huff, Danys Baez and Julio Lugo.

There is little to no room to second guess any of those decisions.  However, Mr. Freidman cannot be lauded on his ability to recognize excess talent on the Devil Rays roster and sell it off while its value is still perceived to be very high by other major league clubs.  The question remains whether he has yet to learn when to do so or if he is tempermentally disposed to holding on to his assets for too long.  I think Greg Norton may already be in that camp along with Rocco Baldelli, Jorge Cantu, Jonny Gomes, and Elijah Dukes.

If other major league clubs do not become competitors for the Penas and Harris's of the world, then this will be a moot point as Freidman can constantly replenish his spent assets with new ones.  However, Devil Rays owner Stuart Sternberg made his money on Wall Street and should understand the short life span of any arbitrage situation.  Given Mr. Friedman was a Wall Street analyst prior to his move to baseball, I suspect he already does.