"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."
--Woody Hayes
"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."
--Woody Hayes
"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
The question is, how do you get Martin and ?(Holliday)? without gutting the team somewhere else. Clearly, the answer to the problem is a net increase in talent at the major league level. There are three ways to do that:
1. Sign a FA
2. Make a trade in which you get more major league talent than you give up
3. Add from your minor league system
We can muse all day about a dream lineup with 2 new all-stars and pretend like everything else stays the same. But absent a massive binge in FA, that's not going to happen. To improve at the major league level via trades, we're going to have to trade away buckets of minor leaguers or rip somebody off. Because merely shifting the value isn't going to get it done. And there aren't too many teams willing to trade away stars for buckets of prospects. The A's are the exception to that rule.
Dickerson
Martin
Votto
Holliday
EE
Bruce
Phillips
Gonzalez
That's a really solid lineup. But it's an utter pipe dream.
Games are won on run differential -- scoring more than your opponent. Runs are runs, scored or prevented they all count the same. Worry about scoring more and allowing fewer, not which positions contribute to which side of the equation or how "consistent" you are at your current level of performance.
"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
RedsManRick, excellent post.
Well I may have dreamed of Holliday, but that's far from stating that I would target he and Martin, I know better than that. But If you acquire Martin with good prospects and then either sign a solid FA or the more impactful scenario would be to target a team with a big bat that fits the mold who want to dump salary. If we take on big salary by proxy that means we aren't trading more top prospects or at least I wouldn't.
Ordonez
Beltre
Dye
Rivera
Blake
These guys come to mind as examples of solid potentially ava. bats, some obviously more than others. There is probably more out there worth pursuing if we just do due diligence.
"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."
--Woody Hayes
I don't think so, probably Ordonez more than Dye because the Sox would likely prefer to deal Konerko. How is Detroit gonna expect top prospects and for a team to take on 18 million in '09 plus at minimum another 3 Mill in a '10 buyout? Assuming they do indeed wanna cut payroll as has been rumored/reported.
"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."
--Woody Hayes
Regarding Martin specifically, when was the last time a big market team traded away an all-star caliber player for nothing but prospects? Teams like the Twins, Marlins, and A's do it because it's the only way they can accrue enough talent. They also don't have a fanbase which feels entitled. But when you talk about LA, I'd be absoltuely floored if they traded away Martin without getting at least a major leaguer comparable to EE and with prospects on top of that. Big market teams just don't do stars for prospects.
Games are won on run differential -- scoring more than your opponent. Runs are runs, scored or prevented they all count the same. Worry about scoring more and allowing fewer, not which positions contribute to which side of the equation or how "consistent" you are at your current level of performance.
"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."
--Woody Hayes
The only thing I've seen on the trade market so far that might convince the Dodgers to give up Martin might be Peavy. Could be more than 2 teams involved if something like that were the case, though. Obviously, assuming there isn't some really unusual, non-baseball reason the Dodgers would want Martin to go away.
Last edited by blumj; 10-23-2008 at 03:10 AM.
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