Originally Posted by
clvclv
It "works that way" when you're willing to pay the price.
The point is - if AA's going to wind up having to overpay or roll with what he's got, go on and overpay now before everybody starts coming off the board. If the Dodgers really are interested in Smith, not only is it going to cost them big, it's another case where we lose ground that we can't make up. They're the better team already - if they scoop up the piece we need the most and lengthen their pen that much more, they start getting to the point where pretty much no one in the NL has a shot at taking them out. With a significantly improved pen we do, but if they've suddenly got Smith in front of Jansen and a couple of their rotation guys as pen pieces in October we might as well just stand pat.
No one's saying they don't understand the thought process behind that. The thing that drives lots of people nuts about it is that it then leads to the unanswerable question - "if you weren't going to do what it takes to have a shot, why in the *ell did you go out and spend the equivalent of $43 million on Donaldson and Keuchel this year???"