D-train wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:58 am
Petert wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:46 am
AT Funchal-Madeira wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:41 am
This interview was probably the most powerful of the season..... it got to me
It was powerful. I was watching this transfixed.
Really makes you wonder what they will do with the $17M they save by buying him out and if the team will be better for it.
Well, see, that's my point. When you dissolve the game into a set of metrics and let numbers define the "absolute", you are hoisted on your own petard. You benefit from the purely analytical aspect (maybe), but you can suffer from "removing a piece you didn't know was there", know what I mean ? There are aspects of the game that performance numbers don't capture, and which can be vital to a team's well-being and success, from the perspective of morale, guidance, and oversight. I think this is why, years and years ago, they developed the 'player-coach' concept. Give a player a very part-time role, put him in the position of mentoring younger players, and let's see how it pays off.
Seager is relatively young. I think he's got three more years. Would he be willing to take on a part-time role, probably not. Is he worth the option cost for what he'd provide for another season ? If not him, then there are worse options on the market at the position. The better ones are those that we would probably not take up, simply because of the cost. And we are maybe two years away from our own system product.
There's a hidden dimension of the game that remains to be uncovered by metrics - the aspect of what a player provides in terms of hidden value; that of value to team morale, young player guidance, the mature compass, the silent coach, the lodestone. I think Seager falls into this, and with a team that is young and now-seriously competitive, it becomes all the more important. Is it worth $17M to jettison ? I don't think so. Sometimes the team has to place its wallet where its players' faith is, not necessarily the front office's.