AA's Failure

Count me as one who thought AA was being too conservative.

My offseason plan may have produced a slightly better set of regulars, but it would have locked the team into those guys for multiple years, and there wouldn’t have been cash available for Keuchel.

Unlike the last regime, this AA FO is smarter than me. I like being able to say that.
 
AA probably should have done more in the offseason to address the pitching. I stand by that. We've had to add DK and Swarzak and probably still need more.

I will say I was wrong about Luke Jackson. Then again, so was everyone. Even AA. He doesn't make the squad if Minter and ODay are healthy. That breakout came out of nowhere.
 
striker42 said:
AA probably should have done more in the offseason to address the pitching. I stand by that. We've had to add DK and Swarzak and probably still need more.

I will say I was wrong about Luke Jackson. Then again, so was everyone. Even AA. He doesn't make the squad if Minter and ODay are healthy. That breakout came out of nowhere.
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Jackson has been a statcast darling for years now. I identified his stuff as legit years ago when I first started grading pitches. He was always going to get plenty of chances because of it.

Of course, there was no guarantee things would click, but this is the type of production teams hope for when they keep stuff like this in the system. Now we just need to hope they don’t go silly with some sort of extension for a volatile BP arm.
 
Enscheff said:
Jackson has been a statcast darling for years now. I identified his stuff as legit years ago when I first started grading pitches. He was always going to get plenty of chances because of it.

Of course, there was no guarantee things would click, but this is the type of production teams hope for when they keep stuff like this in the system. Now we just need to hope they don’t go silly with some sort of extension for a volatile BP arm.
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The stuff has always been legit. He, like many other fringy pitchers with good stuff, never displayed an ability to know where the ball was going.

His BB/9 dropped by over 1.5. That's huge and not something predictable.

The volatility of relievers is why smart teams stockpile more than reason says they'll need.
 
And just as quickly as Jackson figured it out, he can lose it again.

Use him up until he stops being effective.
 
striker42 said:
The volatility of relievers is why smart teams stockpile more than reason says they'll need.
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we did

Jackson carle Winkler Parsons o'day sobotka touki viz webb minter venters biddle Freeman Dayton

plus others including starters like Newk, Wilson, Wright who were candidates for conversion to relief pitching

they were all part of the stockpile during spring training
 
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Speaking of bullpen volatility

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thewupk said:
striker was right
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Oddly enough the recent struggles of the pen aren't as concerning to me. Martin, Greene, and Melancon have all been BAPIP'd to death since they were traded. It's kind of remarkable.

I wish we had a lockdown closer but I'm more comfortable with the pen depth now than I was when I started this thread.
 
I still think it was a failure, just by virtue of the fact that the majority of people knew this winter we needed pen help. You don't have to retroactively apply any new knowledge. And it's relatively the cheapest area to improve in terms of dollars (as long as you avoid Proven Closers), making it an even better spot to only spend dollars, saving that prospect depth for other, harder to fill needs.
 
Snowman said:
I still think it was a failure, just by virtue of the fact that the majority of people knew this winter we needed pen help. You don't have to retroactively apply any new knowledge. And it's relatively the cheapest area to improve in terms of dollars (as long as you avoid Proven Closers), making it an even better spot to only spend dollars, saving that prospect depth for other, harder to fill needs.
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Probably would've been disastrous, but Holland, Boxberger and Allen were all DFA'd (and then resigned) within the past few weeks. Could've likely signed any/all to a cheap deal
 
Snowman said:
I still think it was a failure, just by virtue of the fact that the majority of people knew this winter we needed pen help. You don't have to retroactively apply any new knowledge. And it's relatively the cheapest area to improve in terms of dollars (as long as you avoid Proven Closers), making it an even better spot to only spend dollars, saving that prospect depth for other, harder to fill needs.
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so who did you want to sign
 
Lots of posters come in to criticize with the benefit of hind sight, but a quick parsing of the ideas they pitched in the off season thread usually reveals their ideas were much worse. And they conveniently forget what their ideas were when the criticism is being thrown around.

AA handled the BP pretty well. He cycled through a bunch of arms, settled on a couple (Newk and Jackson), then added some more options throughout the year. Certainly better than giving some volatile BP arm 3 years and having him weigh down the payroll.

The Melancon trade is the worst BP move he did, and even that is only going to potentially hurt for 1 more season.
 
some of AA's critics need to repeat this: mistakes are going to be made, but a 1-year mistake is not nearly as bad as a 3 or 4 year mistake
 
seems a good portion of the RPs signed this offseason have flamed out. if you signed any, you'd better hoped you picked the right ones. if not..you're in a potentially big mess. am i broken record
 
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