Pairs who've really shone - FreeTheFan.com

Pairs who've really shone
It's late June in a presidential election year, and you know what that means: lots of campaign fundraising trips, sniping via surrogates and wall-to-wall vice-presidential speculation. Will Barack Obama and John McCain opt for geographical balance, ideological compatibility or electoral math in choosing their running mates? Only time and the vetting process will tell. At the risk of torturing an analogy until it screams, synergy is an equally valuable commodity in the baseball world, where double plays, doubleheaders and ground-rule doubles are part of the lexicon. The biggest difference is that baseball puts an end to the suspense in October rather than November. In this week's installment of Starting 9, we pay tribute to the game's best dynamic duos of 2008 -- guys who feed off each other and make each other better. The individuals mentioned below are all very good in their own right. But like a ballpark hot dog and a frosty cold beer, they're more effective in tandem. Maddon Friedman Best performance by a general manager and manager: Andrew Friedman and Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay We really wanted to cite Baltimore's tandem of GM Andy MacPhail and manager Dave Trembley for their fine work. Trembley has injected the Orioles' clubhouse with a sense of energy and purpose, and MacPhail's fleecing of Seattle in the Erik Bedard deal looks better every day. But when it's late June and the Rays are 45-31 with baseball's second-lowest payroll, how can you ignore Tampa Bay? Maddon creates a productive environment for young players by giving them the freedom to fail, provided their mistakes are aggressive. He's shown he won't back down from the Yankees or the Red Sox, no matter how daunting their mystique, and lately it seems he's had a knack for pushing the right buttons. In a 4-3 victory over Houston last week, Maddon used three straight pinch-hitters in the ninth inning, and Eric Hinske and Dioner Navarro both reached base before Gabe Gross produced the game-winning double. You also have to love a guy who refers to an umpire's strike zone as "slightly amorphous" and to hyperintense pitcher Matt Garza as a "recovering emotionalist." Friedman is building an impressive body of work with assistance from consigliere Gerry Hunsicker. With the exception of Josh Hamilton's departure through the Rule 5 draft, it's hard to find a blemish on his résumé. In the past year alone, Friedman has made moves to fortify the Tampa bullpen (Troy Percival), defense (shortstop Jason Bartlett), starting rotation (Garza) and bench (Gross and Willy Aybar). In Tampa these days, nobody is lamenting the departures of Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes. Friedman acquired Dan Wheeler for Ty Wigginton, Navarro in a deal for Mark Hendrickson and Toby Hall, Edwin Jackson for Danys Baez, and workhorse middle man J.P. Howell for Joey Gathright. Carlos Pena, who hit 46 homers last year, was a non-roster invitee. Hinske, the team leader in homers and RBIs, signed for $800,000 in early February. Three years into his tenure with Tampa Bay, Friedman's résumé is starting to look like one giant heist fest. Honorable mention: MacPhail and Trembley, Baltimore. Santana Saunders Best starting pitching duo: Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana, Angels There was a reason Seattle emerged as a fashionable AL West pick late in spring training. With John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar out for an extended period with injuries, the Angels' big advantage -- depth in the rotation -- was all but nullified. Then Saunders and Santana stepped in and put an end to that nonsense. With the help of pitching coach Mike Butcher, they've tightened their mechanics and posted a combined 20-6 record with 21 quality starts. Most impressive, in a brutal year for road teams, they're 11-2 with a combined 2.57 ERA away from Anaheim. Saunders throws a fastball in the low 90s, makes deft use of his changeup and breaking ball and rarely throws anything down the middle. Santana routinely hits 96-97 mph on the gun and complements his fastball with a terrific slider. His stuff is so overpowering, you wonder how he went 7-14 last year. "A lot of teams are kicking themselves for not ponying up for Santana," said an American League executive. "I think if you were willing to trade value for value, you could have gotten him, but a lot of teams tried to pay 75 cents on the dollar. Who'd have guessed if you had stepped up on Cliff Lee and Ervin Santana this offseason, you'd have two All-Stars?" The best news of all for the Angels: Lackey has been superb since his return from a triceps strain, and Escobar is about to head out on a rehab assignment in his comeback from a torn labrum. Honorable mention: Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster, Cubs; Brandon Webb and Dan Haren, Diamondbacks; Roy Halladay and Shaun Marcum, Blue Jays. And feel free to raise your hand if you predicted that Kyle Lohse and T