Quote:
Originally Posted by Our Time
yeah, well...now that the steroid era is over and the HGH testing is hitting...teams can't buy their success any longer. Look at the Dodgers. Good team, yeah...and sure, they bought their pitching...(or some of it)...but they also spent GOBS of money on guys like Ethier, Crawford, Gonzalez, Hanley, Kemp, etc...and their best hitters are Puig (INSANELY CHEAP CONTRACT FOR A MEGA STAR CALIBER PLAYER) and Dee "scrap heap" Gordon. In fact, they are pretty much an average offense because the money they spent on all of their veteran "stars" has been a total waste.
The way you build winning teams is developing your own players, drafting well, and signing the right international players with high ceilings. Basically, Dayton has done everything right except for ... developing players.
The days of buying stars is over. Players are starting to regress as early as their 30 year old seasons. Youth is what wins in today's baseball. Thus, even small market teams can win because you control your players for 6 years...and a lot of teams are starting to offer team friendly contracts to buy up the first 2 years of a player's free agency.
So really, there is no excuses any longer for "teams buying success." Especially with revenue sharing and the fact TV deals are BLOWING UP. I think the Royals roster is much better than the Yankees roster. Our issue is "the best farm club ever!" developed horrendously (thus far).
|
Dee was not a scrap heap player, he's been in the minors for a little bit and been on the Dodger's off and on for the last 3 years He's 25, but this year got his shit together and he's now a damned good ball player. Always really was, but his hitting struggled a tad. He's been in the farm system being developed, not just some scrub that got bounced around.