WenZink said:
I don't want David Price at $200 mil/7 -- not that there's any real chance of that happening.
But, theortically, Betts becomes the key piece in a trade for Sonny Gray, if the A's want a CFer, or for Carlos Carrasco. And if a trade is made, you're not spending a fortune on a 30+ year old pitcher. (And, yes, this could only be done after being assured that JBJ and Castillo are for real.)
Or, once Vazquez has proven his arm to be fully recovered, instead of being a backup, you use his value as a starting catcher as a part of a trade for a young, cost-controlled pitcher. (Or if the Sox prefer Vazquez, then Swihart becomes the moving part.)
You are left with a hole in LF, but there are more LF candidates than there are CF's.
In the long term, a team has to maximize both it's dollars spent as well as it's talent pool.
Will you just stop with this, already? It's wrong.
WenZink said:
In the long run maximizing value should yield the most world championships.
Last year, the Sox bypassed on giving matching the Cub's offer to Lester. For about what it would have taken to lock up Lester, the spent $72 million to lock up Castillo, and another $72 million (including penalties) to land Moncada, Espinoza and other IFA prospects like Acosta and Raudes. Maybe in the short run, these two categories are mutually exclusive, but in the long-run, they all come out of the same pool of money. We may not know what the Sox budget is, over the long run, but to pretend that there are no limits is simply foolish.
As is this.
Of course there's a limit. Of course we don't know what it is. And of course we don't know that it's fixed--and we'd be better off assuming it's not.
That doesn't mean prioritizing optimizing value ahead of getting the most talent is going to result in the most championships. It just doesn't even remotely come close. Optimizing the talent on the team when you're in a position to contend is going to result in the most championships.
This team is in a much better position talent-wise to make a big investment than it was last year. Last year we had a ton of questions that have largely been answered positively this year. Is Betts for real? Yes he is. Are Castillo and Bradley competent major league outfielders? Sure as hell looks like they're a lot better than competent. What about Bogaerts? Is he ever going to hit up to his potential and will he be able to stay at short? Oh hell fucking yes.
The only question we had going into last off season that we haven't had a positive answer to is Christian Vazquez' offense and oh, hey, Blake Motherfucking Swihart.
What we have, in house, is an outstanding lineup. It's top three now after a horrendous start to the season. If we get anything resembling decent health, we'll be in the top two next season.
With excellent defense in the outfield. Good or better defense at least at short, second, and catcher, and probably at third too.
We've got great depth of pitching in the rotation. Last year we were hoping Eduardo Rodirguez was real. I feel pretty confident now saying he is. We've seen five starts from Henry Owens at the major league level and in the one game where he allowed more than three runs, he was victimized by horrific defense by a guy who isn't going to be in the outfield anymore.
We're missing the guy at the top of the rotation at a time when there's more quality FA starting pitching than pretty much ever.
We have an astonishing amount of under 25 talent on the big club AND the best minor league system in the game. Now is not a time to be maximizing value. Now is the time to be maximizing talent.
Signing a big FA starter might well be a mess four years from now. That's fine. Four years from now, this rotation might be anchored by Eduardo Rodriguez with big contributions by Henry Owens and Michael Kopech.
We've been talking about the great system for so long and it's here now, and for the most part, it's acclimated to the majors. Now is not the time to piss and moan about value. Now is the time to put the best team on the field that you can. Now is the time to stretch the budget. Now is the time to put the goddamn pedal to the goddamn metal and win some fucking championships.