nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
I like the Johnson for Bourn/Swisher deal regardless of what they were trying to do. I actually think that was a fairly unambiguously good move. They took on more money in the early days of the rebuild to have a salary flexibility in 2017. Didn't really give up anything.
I don't think there is any sort of hard pill to swallow in that one the way that some people have trouble with Kimbrell/Upton.
I have to say the Oliveira deal was a true failure in that they got the scouting so badly wrong and they also took on pretty significant long term salary. One upside of the Kemp deal is that it at least cleared the 2020 obligation to HO off the books. If Coppy can manage to move Kemp with the Braves paying less than they owed HO in 2018 or 2019 it would be a relatively decent payroll coup, I guess. I would fully support a deal sending Kemp and the Dodgers' contribution for Kemp and 6 million to whoever would take him for a bag of boiled peanuts.
i meant that was the deal that gave away that they wanted to have some money to build a more competitive team in 2017...i think they at one point really thought they could have a "young exciting competitive" team to open the new ballpark...they gradually adjusted those expectations down but still did not want a depths of rebuilding kind team out there...they've made compromises...mostly driven by the ballpark situation...
those compromises could have been fatal to the rebuild...but they got bailed out by two things...one was Dave Stewart...and the second was two unexpectedly valuable parting gifts from the ancien regime named Albies and Acuna