What was the stupidest thing the three Johns did?

[GovClintonTyree]

I am torn between getting Miller and unloading Old Upton as the sharpest thing they did, but what is the stupidest?

I am nearly always underwhelmed by prospects for productive MLers trades, and I wasn't fond of the JUpton return, at least not yet. But I think the stupidest thing was acquiring Trevor Cahill and paying him $5.5m. It was stupid the instant we got him, and amazingly enough, he's pitched worse than that. And to spend $5.5m on the guy? You had Wandy and a half dozen prospects for that job, and Cahill was not a clear improvement over any of them.

[rico43]

Concerning Cahill:

1) Former 18-game winner
2) Had plenty of looks at Wandy in spring
3) One year deal can be dumped at any time
4) Could easily afford the contract
5) He still had/has a healthy arm
6) Elander no longer had any value (Except this)

This was a flyer that didn't pan out, nothing more.

My biggest boner was dealing Kubitza and Hyatt for a child who can't stay off the DL.

[thethe]

Kubitza has done well but he is still striking out at a very high rate in the minors. That doesn't bode well moving forward into the big leagues.

Like Rico said, Cahil was a smart move in the hopes he could recover his old form. Right now it looks awful but hindsight is always 20/20. I still have hope that he can recover. Its only been a little over a month in the season.

[Runnin]

Here's something that was actually stupid, Jason Heyward's baserunning leading to a triple play by the Pirates. He had plenty of time to run back to 2nd but for some reason thought he should maybe run to 3rd.

[Tino25Dynasty]

John Schuerholz, John Hart, and who else?

[thethe]

Coppola

[keithlaw]

Signing Markakis

[57Brave]

Did not know this.
..

CBS Sports MLB ‏@CBSSportsMLB 9h9 hours ago
Blown save for Kimbrel. He's allowed eight runs in 12 1/3 IP this year after allowing 13 runs in 61 2/3 IP last year.

[nsacpi]

Stockpiling pitching in an era where good hitting is scarce and pitching relatively plentiful.

[Knucksie]

They should have anticipated the possibility of Carlos Quentin retiring.

[dak]

When you think about impacts beyond this year (when it counts), then Markakis is the obvious one. Losing J. R. Graham seemed like a "maybe" at the start of the year, but his performance has been below average in low-leverage innings so far. I fear that calling up Foltynewicz 6 weeks too early from a service time perspective will end up being a mistake.

The mistakes that only impact this year are more plentiful, but don't matter too much: Cahill, EY Jr, Callaspo (?).

[dak]

They should have anticipated the possibility of Carlos Quentin retiring.

No way Quentin was going to retire before being DFA'd. It would be the equivalent if him setting a room full of his own money on fire.

[thethe]

Stockpiling pitching in an era where good hitting is scarce and pitching relatively plentiful.

Is pitching plentiful in reality though? Lots of teams are searching for it now.

[zitothebrave]

Is pitching plentiful in reality though? Lots of teams are searching for it now.

Not the same way they were 5 years ago.

As I told you before. Pitching was premium during the steroid era so that teams went out of their way scouting and signing pitchers. Top athletes saw this and became pitchers, teams converted position players to pitchers, so on so forth. In what other era would Micah Owings have been allowed to stay a pitcher? If he could have been mediocre offensively in this era he would have stayed in the outfield or maybe played 3B. What we're seeing now is the overcorrection of the market. Combination of supremely talented individuals meeting with less PEDs made for a stark drop in offensive production. If not for some truly great hitting talents that we have now, we'd be in another mini-deadball era like the 80s.

[keithlaw]

Other teams might have had lots of pitching when the offseason started, but we didn't. We had a projected rotation of Teheran, Wood, Minor, Hale, and Russell. Our minor league options were just as bad. Martin, Hursh, Sims, Parsons, Grosser, and Fulenchek were the only SP prospects worth a crap and all of them had serious issues.

[thewupk]

Is pitching plentiful in reality though? Lots of teams are searching for it now.

Runs per game at the MLB level is up this year to 4.26 which is higher then the previous two seasons. And that likely will go up as the summer usually generates more offense but we will see. That being said that's still a ways off from the 4.60's to 5 runs per game that the game say from most of the 90's ad 00's. It's still a pitching league even if it's not as much of one the previous two seasons.

[jason27nc]

Here's something that was actually stupid, Jason Heyward's baserunning leading to a triple play by the Pirates. He had plenty of time to run back to 2nd but for some reason thought he should maybe run to 3rd.

He did not know the 2nd baseman had not stepped on 2nd. He thought he was already out. Not stupid at all. The hatred toward Heyward however is.

[Dalyn]

Keeping Fredi.

[smootness]

I am torn between getting Miller and unloading Old Upton as the sharpest thing they did, but what is the stupidest?

I am nearly always underwhelmed by prospects for productive MLers trades, and I wasn't fond of the JUpton return, at least not yet. But I think the stupidest thing was acquiring Trevor Cahill and paying him $5.5m. It was stupid the instant we got him, and amazingly enough, he's pitched worse than that. And to spend $5.5m on the guy? You had Wandy and a half dozen prospects for that job, and Cahill was not a clear improvement over any of them.

We got a draft pick in that Cahill deal, so I'm ok with that one.

And the early returns on the Upton trade are extremely good. Peterson is proving he can play at the major league level, Mallex Smith keeps hitting and is turning himself into a legitimate future CF option, and Peterson is raking. The stock for all 3 is much higher than it was when we made the deal. And the best prospect we got won't even play until next year. It's tough to consider that a bad trade.

I hated the Heyward deal, but that one is looking good so far. The Gattis deal gave us a possible future ace and Ruiz, who has yet to hit.

The Kimbrel deal may end up looking like the worst in hindsight, though getting rid of BJ may alone be worth it.

[Millwood1Hitter]

I pretty much supported most of the moves throughout the offseason but their biggest mistake was keeping Fredi. Dissappointed in dumping Kimbrel but understood why it was made.

That being said, I just don't believe in Fredi taking this organization to the level that we want to reach, which is a championship caliber contender. They can make amends though by letting him go after the season, I just hope he hasn't ruined a few upside arms by that point.