October 3^rd, 2011: Kawaguchi, Japan – While most of the players and team personnel were preparing for their most recent road trip after a 7-4 win against the Kure Arsenal, a few select front office people and the media gathered to introduce new Transmitters GM Sebastian Pruiti.  The hire was rumored for a few weeks, and was finally made official on Sunday.  Pruiti has a reputation of being a brash young GM who won’t mince words, and in front of the media, he showed that this reputation was well deserved.

“Let me start by saying this,” Pruiti started, not reading a prepared statement but speaking from the heart.  “The previous regime – and I didn’t even take the time to learn their names – did a lot of things wrong here.“  He continued, “We have a lot of money tied into two mediocre pitchers, but I think we can turn things around very quickly if we go about things the right way, and I am going to make sure that happens.”  Now this statement is a not-so-subtle dig at the top two Transmitters’ pitchers, Yoshisada Rin and Jesús “Evil Ways” Luna, who have gone a combined 14-14.  They are tied up for a combined $30.4 million over the next two years, and Luna is tied up for two more years after that at $14.9 million.

Pruiti continued on with his statement: “Kawaguchi has a great fan base, and I think the previous GM did a great disservice to this community with what they put on the field.”  After a brief pause and a cocky smirk, Pruiti finished up his statement.  “Well, that is all I have to say.  Any questions?”

That was my cue.  I raised my hand, and as Pruiti pointed to me, I was actually nervous.  Would he explode at me?  I have heard some crazy stories.  I stood, introduced myself and asked my question.  “How do you plan on going about turning this thing around very quickly, as you say?”

Pruiti stared at me, paused for a second, smiled, and started to speak.  “It is going to take a lot of hard work.  It all starts in the minors; we need to get cheap young talent with multiple years of club control.  To do that, we are going to have to draft smart, and scout even smarter.  Once we get the right guys in our system, we are going to have to make sure they are at the right level, working on the right things.”

Pruiti paused for yet another second, as if he was strategizing on the fly, “We are already in the process of totally revamping our minor league system.  After my first interview with the Transmitters, I was fairly confident I was going to get this job.  I started watching tape of our minor leaguers, and I plan on seeing an at bat from everyone in the system before the start of next year.  Daisuke Tanaka and I are going to have everyone in the right place, where they can learn and develop properly.”

After his answer, Pruiti opened the floor to more questions, but with most of the other beat guys preparing for the upcoming road trip, there were no more questions to be asked.  With that, Pruiti nodded and walked out of the room.  I have to say I was impressed with Pruiti’s plan, but talking about it and executing it are two completely different things.