MLB trade deadline
2003cobra
Registered Users, Member 2,720 Posts
As we wind down to the trade deadline I would like to hear your thoughts/opinions on what has already happened or what might happen. The Dodgers picked up Mad Max and Trea Turner-is that enough to get them to the series? The Yankees picked up Gallo and Rizzo but are still 3.5 games out of the wildcard. Will they even get into the playoffs? My beloved Reds picked up 3 bullpen arms but is it too little too late? They are 5 games behind SD in the wildcard but with a much easier schedule than the Padres. The Reds are linked with Trevor Story-does that happen and would it be enough? There are other big names still out there. What do you guys think?
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Now for my Yankees trading for Gallo and Rizzo. On the whole, I'm psyched that Cashman actually made some big moves this year. I can't complain about bringing in 2 big time lefty bats to balance out the lineup. I will admit that I'm more old school in that I hate the Three True Outcome guys. So Gallo to me is more of the same crap. Hit's HRs off the bad pitchers and strikes out when you need it the most. I don't care what people say, walks are not as good as a hit. I've never seen a walk drive a runner in from 2nd.
As for Rizzo, I love him and glad he is on the Yanks now. My problem is that I love Voit also and it pretty much means the end for him (Unless the impossible happens and they can trade Stanton). So I have mixed emotions about what the Yankees did.
The Reds are a funny organization. I don't really know the full story behind there minor sell off this off season, but they could have been better if they would have just kept those guys they traded away. But good for them for seeing an opportunity and going for it. Just a word of caution with Cessa, I always called him the "white flag". Any time he was in the game the Yanks were basically giving up. I could not be happier to see him gone. His numbers look good this year, but he makes a living giving up inherited runners (I did not look up the actual numbers, but that is what I remember about him). He will hang a couple sliders every outing. And Wilson has SUCKED this year. He is a better pitcher then he has shown so I hope he turns it around for you guys.
I honestly don't follow MLB at all today. The only reason I know who the players are is bc of this game.
MLB has become the NBA where only a few teams can compete. Everyone else gets scraps, but every few years a team like the Marlins will shock everyone.
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I do not like the "all or nothing" strategy these days but I'm slowly feeling like this will start turning around to a more contact minded mentality in the next 5 years.
Understand, my comment has nothing to do with the game of baseball itself. I LOVE the game. I attend a ton of LSU baseball games every year.
I'm referring specifically to how MLB is set up, and has been set up for a couple of decades now.
You have only a few teams that can trade their farms, compete, etc.
Look at yesterday, for example. Pretty much just LA, NY, Boston, making HUGE moves. That's it. Those are the teams. Everyone else fights for scraps.
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But I think we ARE entering the era of the "super" team, where the mega budget teams will spend and pay the comeptivie balance tax and see how that rolls for 5-6 year period: Dodgers, Padres, Hou, WhiteSox, Mets, Yankees, Braves, Phils, Red Sox aspire to be in this club, Jays knocking on the door, the Cubs exiting for the rebuild, and Rays, Cards, A's, Giants being the outliers. Everyone else on the fence. I'd like to see something like what the English Premier league does where they have a Champions league and they dump the bad teams to a lower league.
Also agree that salary caps suck. The quality of play in the NFL, IMHO, is horrible. No great teams, no dynasties, no rewards for scouting and management, no loyalty to players. I believe the popularity of the NFL is driven as much by gambling as it is by the quality of play (Office pools, Draft Kings, Fantasy Football). And the NBA is just a joke, with players forcing their way onto teams with their buddies.
Finally, who's in doc's league group chat, since that's where the hot wife pics are...
When the Dodgers have had their periods of poor performance, it was also the times when the owner was garbage (Murdock and McCourt) and/or the GM made poor decisions (Evans and DePodesta) and/or their draft picks, international signings, and trades consistently didn’t pan out.
The reason the Dodgers are widely considered the best run organization in US sports right now is because they have an ownership group that understands the balance between profitability/success/fan happiness and do not hesitate to put money right back into the team and facilities, while also trusting the guy they pay to run the show. Plus, the guy running the show learned how to build a team and organizational system in Tampa Bay, where they literally cannot afford to miss on draft picks, international signings, or trades.
The best example of this is when the Dodgers traded Puig, Wood, Kemp, and Farmer to Cincy. They got back 2 rising prospects and equally important, they cleared up a bunch of payroll. The 2 guys they got back were Jeter Downs and Josiah Gray — who they knew were going to become very valuable commodities, because of their excellent scouting department. This led to 1 hugely impactful trade and another trade that likely will be just as impactful:
1. Downs, along with 2 of their own draft picks (Verdugo and Wong) and an international signing (Maeda), enabled them to trade for Betts, Price, and Graterol. They were able to take on the salaries of Betts and Price because of the combination of their large market, the payroll cleared in the trade to Cincy, and ownerships willingness to spend.
2. Gray, along with 2 of their international signings (Ruiz and Carrillo) and a draft pick (Casey), enabled them to trade for Scherzer and Turner. They are able to take on those salaries because despite the utter backfiring of signing Bauer to the huge contract (basically Friedman’s only real mistake to date, but also a lesson that he will take to heart going forward), ownership was willing to add even more salary, along with the additional luxury tax penalties.
Meanwhile, a team like the Pirates, who can’t afford any mistakes in their smaller market — do things like trade away Gerrit Cole and eventually trade away the one good player they got back (Musgrove). Then trade away Meadows and Glasnow for basically nothing (Archer). For them, those moves were beyond crippling and with no cushion to absorb those mistakes, they dwell at the bottom each year.
The Dodgers do have the highest payroll by far this year, but they planned to do that and prepared by resetting their luxury tax at the end of last season and have a TON of salary coming off their books at the end of this season. Other big market teams are just resetting their luxury tax this year, in advance of the monster free agent class this coming off season. Another example of Friedman being ahead of the game.
Additionally — the Yankees, Phillies, Angels, Cardinals, Nationals, and Braves are 2nd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, and 13th in payroll this year respectively — yet they are 10th (tied), 19th, 16th (tied),16th (tied), 22nd, and 18th respectively in winning percentage.
Conversely — the Indians, Rays, Mariners, A’s, Brewers, White Sox, and Giants are 30th, 26th, 25th, 22nd, 19th, 14th, and 10th in payroll this year respectively — yet they are 15th, 3rd, 12th, 9th, 6th, 7th, and 1st respectively in winning percentage.
It’s easy to see that MLB currently has the best parity in US sports, while it also takes the most intricate organizational planning to be successful. Hell, sometimes even when an MLB organization makes mostly good decisions and does an overall great job of putting their team in a position to win, it just doesn’t pan out that year because unpredictable injuries occur (see 2021 Braves).
Much like raising children — building a successful, sustainable winning franchise — takes a village, with some luck sprinkled in.
My prediction is that because Story’s value is greatly diminished (unless he catches fire for the remainder of the season), he will actually accept the qualifying offer from the Rockies this off season (because it will likely be the highest AAV offer available to him) and use the 2022 season as a re-try audition for the other 29 MLB teams, in hopes of getting a much better long-term deal thereafter,
Thanks for the kind words guys! I really love baseball and since I don’t spend hours playing TSB anymore, I filled some of that time by reading lots of MLB articles. It also helps that I have a pretty good knowledge base for baseball history and I quit smoking weed a few weeks ago, so the insomnia and overactive brain were good contributors as well! 🤣🤣🤣
Another factor is something you alluded to…positional versatility. Baez has occasionally played 2B and 3B, while also rarely playing 1B and OF. Trea Turner has played 2B and CF before, albeit not since 2016, so it will be interesting to see how that works for the Dodgers (especially since he is better defensively at SS than Seager, but Seager has only played SS). While Story hasn’t played any position other than SS in his career. I would imagine that was another large factor in why teams didn’t want to pay the asking price, as he could potentially lessen the versatility of many rosters, which is the trendiest thing for MLB organizations right now — thanks to Tampa Bay for being the pioneers and the Dodgers bringing it to the forefront.
Now sometimes it might go too far, as Betts is active today and starting at 2B, which I feel is a bit of stretch, lol.