Originally Posted by
bravesnumberone
I'm open to moving Simmons, but as young, cheap and controllable as he is, I don't think you give him away. In this regard, I'd try to get someone to overpay. I don't see why you trade Freeman with nothing substantial behind him, unless we're going to decide Olivera is a first baseman and we're getting a can't miss pitcher. Teheran has failed to convince me. With Miller, if we're trading him in the offseason, why did we even bother getting him? Just to give us an extra 5-6 wins in a year we knew wasn't going to turn out well? Is Tyrell Jenkins the savior? Were the Cardinals not willing to part with another pitching prospect or just didn't value Miller all that much?
You can say what you want about payroll and how it's likely to go up from 2017 going forward. Let me clue you in: The new park will not solve everything financially. People will not continue to come on those numerous week night games when the team completely sucks. If we continue to have this mindset that we're going to blow things up, horde prospects and always be psyching ourselves up that we're going to be the Royals Part 2, or that we're going to come up with the next Harvey/Syndergaard/Matz/DeGrom/Wheeler rotation, we're not going to go anywhere. A lot has to go right for any of that to come close to materializing.
If we're having to do this again, maybe it's a reflection on how last offseason's moves simply aren't paying off. That we misfired and didn't get enough, but went through with it so we could "make sure to at least get some value." The whole front office was a walking contradiction last year. We gave up young talent for Olivera because a scout or two had a chubby for him. We signed old-ass, no-power Nick Markakis to a 4-year, $40 million deal and gave most of our playing time at catcher to an old prick. Why? So they could show the young guys how you're supposed to lose with grace? So we could be "palatable?"
Does anyone actually give a **** whether we won 67 or 47 games? Half of you were bitching that we didn't get the No. 1 pick, that we didn't tank to get it, so we could get the No. 1 pick and then turn around in three years and trade them because the return would be enormous.
Organizations should be about moving forward. The Mets aren't likely to go anywhere anytime soon. The Nats will continue to be a threat. Who really knows with the Marlins, but with new leadership, the Phillies won't be down forever.
All I can say for this one is it's pissing in the wind. I don't have any interest in returning to the dark days, becoming another farm system for the big boys.
So yeah, we aren't going anywhere in 2016. Let's make a video game out of it. Trade every piece we have for people that might be pieces one day. Rinse, recycle, repeat.
By the time we're ready to win a championship in 2024, I'll be Dennis Quaid/Jim Morris leading the charge.