Around MLB 2017

Alex Wood is on another level right now.

Good thing our pitching isn't in shambles or we could have used a young, dominant, cost controlled left
 
Super said:
Which is why it's good to have a lot. There's a reason teams, even good ones, always need pitching.
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I'd rather have used our resources on more secure assets (hitters), and then fill in the blanks with pitchers.

But everyone has a different opinion. That's OK
 
sturg33 said:
I'd rather have used our resources on more secure assets (hitters), and then fill in the blanks with pitchers.

But everyone has a different opinion. That's OK
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Ok, but how do you fill in the blanks? I'm not sure what you mean by that.
 
I think low-to-mid payroll teams may be smart to acquire a lot of pitchers. Pitchers get expensive really quickly if they're halfway decent. Chances are we won't ever be paying someone like Lester the amount he requires. Gotta try and catch those guys while they're young, healthy, and cheap.
 
Super said:
Ok, but how do you fill in the blanks? I'm not sure what you mean by that.
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I think it's smarter to to acquire established pitching than it is to overload on pitching prospects

So I'd like to load up the farm on less risky assets (position prospects) and use our money and trade chips for established pitchers (Scherzer, Lester, Quintana, Sale, etc)

Rather than, load up on a bunch of risky assets, where history shows us we'll be lucky to get a 25% yield out of. We're already seeing folks like Sims, Fried, Weigel (injury), Touki, Blair, Wisler start to fall by the wayside. We used high draft picks and JUP, $10M, Kimbrel, Miller to acquire those folks.

(yes, I know that is not the full scope of trades and there is no need to go back and tell me who else we got).

Anyways, we got some good position prospects like Albies and Acuna left over from Wren - so that helps. Maitian is so far away I don't like to even think about him at the moment. The rest of the strategy has seemed to target pitching pitching pitching (although - we still got Dansby and Ender, which really really saved us from a potential catastrophe)
 
sturg33 said:
I think it's smarter to to acquire established pitching than it is to overload on pitching prospects

So I'd like to load up the farm on less risky assets (position prospects) and use our money and trade chips for established pitchers (Scherzer, Lester, Quintana, Sale, etc)

Rather than, load up on a bunch of risky assets, where history shows us we'll be lucky to get a 25% yield out of. We're already seeing folks like Sims, Fried, Weigel (injury), Touki, Blair, Wisler start to fall by the wayside. We used high draft picks and JUP, $10M, Kimbrel, Miller to acquire those folks.

(yes, I know that is not the full scope of trades and there is no need to go back and tell me who else we got).

Anyways, we got some good position prospects like Albies and Acuna left over from Wren - so that helps. Maitian is so far away I don't like to even think about him at the moment. The rest of the strategy has seemed to target pitching pitching pitching (although - we still got Dansby and Ender, which really really saved us from a potential catastrophe)
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It costs 2 arms and 2 legs to acquire guys like Scherzer and Lester when they're traded. Guys that good almost never become available in trades, anyway. I think you're relying on an incredible amount of luck if your plan is to get one of those guys, and you'll pay not only whatever their salary is, but an enormous cost in prospects. That strategy hinges on so much. I'm not really sure how it's doable unless your franchise spends money or is already loaded with talent in the farm/young, cost-controlled players at the MLB level, which we weren't armed with. None of the packages we traded would've netted us a proven ace like most of the guys you named..not even close. You need five guys for a rotation. The Red Sox have used a ton of starters, even with Sale, and they're going to need a lot of arms moving forward. They're paying Rick Porcello like $22M which is just wild, despite his great season last year. I don't know. I don't mind the loading up on young pitching strategy, especially is the market is giving them away far more easily.
 
Super said:
It costs 2 arms and 2 legs to acquire guys like Scherzer and Lester when they're traded. Guys that good almost never become available in trades, anyway. I think you're relying on an incredible amount of luck if your plan is to get one of those guys, and you'll pay not only whatever their salary is, but an enormous cost in prospects. That strategy hinges on so much. I'm not really sure how it's doable unless your franchise spends money or is already loaded with talent in the farm/young, cost-controlled players at the MLB level, which we weren't armed with. None of the packages we traded would've netted us a proven ace like most of the guys you named..not even close. You need five guys for a rotation. The Red Sox have used a ton of starters, even with Sale, and they're going to need a lot of arms moving forward. They're paying Rick Porcello like $22M which is just wild, despite his great season last year. I don't know. I don't mind the loading up on young pitching strategy, especially is the market is giving them away far more easily.
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I think we're talking different ball games at the moment.

I would have used Heyward, Kimbrel, Simmons, JUp, Gattis, Wood to trade for position prospects.

I'm also happy to pay FA deals like Max Scherzer or John Lester (not necessary trade). And also guys like John Lackey, Volquez, etc.

I wouldn't have traded established pitching (alex wood) for non-established 30 year old hitter (Olivera)

And my strategy doesn't IGNORE pitching. I was fine with drafting Allard & Wright bc they were the best players. I would target some pitchers in trades too. But our strategy seemed to be 80/20 pitching... whereas I would have reversed that.
 
As usual, sturg is right.

Shoulder surgery means Urias is likely done. That's the risk top pitching prospects hold, and is why an organization is better off stockpiling position players and then flipping those assets for MLB-ready pitching.
 
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