SS on JK

[bpj]

To be fair, looks like Jerry made the right move in not offering major contracts to Schwarber, Marte, Semien, Bryant, Story, Baez, Correa, Seager... they've all been really bad and we'd be hating him for spending that money. The only guy he maybe whiffed on not landing is Seiya, but even he has returned to earth after a hot start.

You can make an argument for Jerry going hard after a Freeman or Castellanos to DH, but it's pretty clear their minds were set on joining some very established rosters... the odds of them coming here to DH at this stage in their careers was pretty small.

The gem of the current FA class has been Rizzo and not one person here wanted him.

Good news is they've got a lot of money to spend still and it's not locked up in 8 years of Semien, Story or Bryant.

It's Jerry's job to know who can make our team better and go get them. He came up short and the holes were pretty obvious going into the season- not to mention for the last two seasons when he also chose to wait and not add readily available talent that could help when the team came together.

Dipoto has information available to him and a team of nerds crunching numbers. It's his job to know what the team needs and the players that could help.

It's not our job to be right predicting how players will do here. It's Dipotos job.

Although even a low production 2022 Schwarber, for example, represents a .300 OPS improvement on paper over the guys like Toro and Kelenic that eventually took the at bats he would have had.

And, yes, Schwarber cost too much. Dtrain mentioned Josh Bell who looks like he would have been a big upgrade.

If Dipoto exhausted every avenue, ok then. If he called it good because he didn't think any of them represented an upgrade over the guys he brought up from the minors, it's on him.

I still think we could win well over 90 games, and likely come up just short of the playoffs, again. It's just glaringly obvious that Dipoto didn't do enough to help the team succeed, especially given how the competition improved their teams.

[D-train]

To be fair, looks like Jerry made the right move in not offering major contracts to Schwarber, Marte, Semien, Bryant, Story, Baez, Correa, Seager... they've all been really bad and we'd be hating him for spending that money. The only guy he maybe whiffed on not landing is Seiya, but even he has returned to earth after a hot start.

You can make an argument for Jerry going hard after a Freeman or Castellanos to DH, but it's pretty clear their minds were set on joining some very established rosters... the odds of them coming here to DH at this stage in their careers was pretty small.

The gem of the current FA class has been Rizzo and not one person here wanted him.

Good news is they've got a lot of money to spend still and it's not locked up in 8 years of Semien, Story or Bryant.

It's Jerry's job to know who can make our team better and go get them. He came up short and the holes were pretty obvious going into the season- not to mention for the last two seasons when he also chose to wait and not add readily available talent that could help when the team came together.

Dipoto has information available to him and a team of nerds crunching numbers. It's his job to know what the team needs and the players that could help.

It's not our job to be right predicting how players will do here. It's Dipotos job.

Although even a low production 2022 Schwarber, for example, represents a .300 OPS improvement on paper over the guys like Toro and Kelenic that eventually took the at bats he would have had.

And, yes, Schwarber cost too much. Dtrain mentioned Josh Bell who looks like he would have been a big upgrade.

If Dipoto exhausted every avenue, ok then. If he called it good because he didn't think any of them represented an upgrade over the guys he brought up from the minors, it's on him.

I still think we could win well over 90 games, and likely come up just short of the playoffs, again. It's just glaringly obvious that Dipoto didn't do enough to help the team succeed, especially given how the competition improved their teams.

That post right there is why I love ya brother. Be accountable and get er done. No mother fucking excuses.

[Michael K.]

Like I have said, I think he may now have a stake in the team after his promotion and is financially incentivized to be cost effective.

I suppose anything is possible, but I am curious, what makes you think that is more likely than 1. Free Agents we targeted decided to go elsewhere 2. The GM worked within the budget he was given?

Why come out and say this will be the biggest off season ever, and then renege on that and take all the heat from fans he would take? If his goal was to under spend, why say shit? No one forced him to tell the world he was going to go out and spend.

[D-train]

Like I have said, I think he may now have a stake in the team after his promotion and is financially incentivized to be cost effective.

I suppose anything is possible, but I am curious, what makes you think that is more likely than 1. Free Agents we targeted decided to go elsewhere 2. The GM worked within the budget he was given?

Why come out and say this will be the biggest off season ever, and then renege on that and take all the heat from fans he would take? If his goal was to under spend, why say shit? No one forced him to tell the world he was going to go out and spend.

Yeah it doesn't make sense but there were several B level FAs that he could have blown away with money and not even put a dent in the budget and he chose to go the trade route instead. I am sure there are FAs that he would have over paid to come here but the Rangers had no problem signing guys despite sucking since before Trump was in office so it is mainly about money imo.

[Michael K.]

“They told him that they can’t afford what he’s worth, and he told them that he didn’t care,” said Nieves, via ESPN. “He wanted to stay there, and they made it work. He knows that he left money on the table, but he says ‘$150 million or $200 million, my life is gonna be the same. I’m happier with $150 million in Cleveland than $200 million somewhere else.'”

https://fansided.com/2022/05/06/guardia ... cleveland/

More of what I have been saying. It is a double edged sword, but after years of bumbling and stinking and not even trying, I think they needed to at least make an effort last year. Again, why would someone come here if they want to win, knowing that their own players revolted against ownership at the deadline last year, one game out? Ramirez shrugs off $50 million bucks, because it is not much in the grand scheme of things.

This same forum on the football side asks when a QB is going to take less to win, but believes all it takes in Baseball is to overpay. I realize this is apples and oranges with the salary cap, but I said it before the deadline last year....that shit just cemented it for me. They are going to have to do it with Farm Kids and trades, because I don't see guys like Max Sherzer and Kris Byrant coming here. I just don't.

[GL_Storm]

“They told him that they can’t afford what he’s worth, and he told them that he didn’t care,” said Nieves, via ESPN. “He wanted to stay there, and they made it work. He knows that he left money on the table, but he says ‘$150 million or $200 million, my life is gonna be the same. I’m happier with $150 million in Cleveland than $200 million somewhere else.'”

https://fansided.com/2022/05/06/guardia ... cleveland/

More of what I have been saying. It is a double edged sword, but after years of bumbling and stinking and not even trying, I think they needed to at least make an effort last year. Again, why would someone come here if they want to win, knowing that their own players revolted against ownership at the deadline last year, one game out? Ramirez shrugs off $50 million bucks, because it is not much in the grand scheme of things.

This same forum on the football side asks when a QB is going to take less to win, but believes all it takes in Baseball is to overpay. I realize this is apples and oranges with the salary cap, but I said it before the deadline last year....that shit just cemented it for me. They are going to have to do it with Farm Kids and trades, because I don't see guys like Max Sherzer and Kris Byrant coming here. I just don't.

It does seem like free agents aren't that interested in Seattle. My guess is it's mostly the travel.

[D-train]

We travel 46k miles this season. The A's fly more miles. The Astros, the team that has kicked ass the past 6 seasons, fly the least in our division at 38k miles.

8000 miles less. Jet airplanes fly 600 miles per hour = 13 hours a season or basically two hours a month more than we do. You could offer a guy 10,130,000 salary instead of 10,000,000 and he would be compensated $10k per hour for the extra time on the plane.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/map

[GL_Storm]

We travel 46k miles this season. The A's fly more miles. The Astros, the team that has kicked ass the past 6 seasons, fly the least in our division at 38k miles.

8000 miles less. Jet airplanes fly 600 miles per hour = 13 hours a season or basically two hours a month more than we do. You could offer a guy 10,130,000 salary instead of 10,000,000 and he would be compensated $10k per hour for the extra time on the plane.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/map

I know all that but I still think travel is at least a large negative for these guys.

[D-train]

We travel 46k miles this season. The A's fly more miles. The Astros, the team that has kicked ass the past 6 seasons, fly the least in our division at 38k miles.

8000 miles less. Jet airplanes fly 600 miles per hour = 13 hours a season or basically two hours a month more than we do. You could offer a guy 10,130,000 salary instead of 10,000,000 and he would be compensated $10k per hour for the extra time on the plane.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/map

I know all that but I still think travel is at least a large negative for these guys.

I can see them wanting to be close to home or wanting ST in Florida if they live there but flight time is totally over blown because people just keep repeating it instead of bother to take the 3 minutes to calculate it.

[GL_Storm]

We travel 46k miles this season. The A's fly more miles. The Astros, the team that has kicked ass the past 6 seasons, fly the least in our division at 38k miles.

8000 miles less. Jet airplanes fly 600 miles per hour = 13 hours a season or basically two hours a month more than we do. You could offer a guy 10,130,000 salary instead of 10,000,000 and he would be compensated $10k per hour for the extra time on the plane.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/map

I know all that but I still think travel is at least a large negative for these guys.

I can see them wanting to be close to home or wanting ST in Florida if they live there but flight time is totally over blown because people just keep repeating it instead of bother to take the 3 minutes to calculate it.

There's more travel the further west you go, generally, whereas there are a lot of teams in the east that most road trips are just short little hops. And in the center of the country you have a combination of short and medium length trips. But whatever the reason, Seattle always seems to be the least favored destination and when free agents come here it's typically their last choice, or nearly. For Beltre and Sexson, if I remember right, Seattle was the only real bidder, so they came. And with Cano it was similar in that nobody else was willing to fork out for a superstar contract. I think travel is a consistent consideration, and I think there are probably other factors having to do with the reputation of the organization that we aren't really aware of because local media doesn't report on it.