Yes, it's pretty simple. If you keep adding teams the results are going to keep getting more random.
Because baseball is much more subject to randomness than other team sports to begin with.
Just think about all the effort that was put in by Duran and by the Red Sox to get him to this point. He was being virtually written off as a non-major leaguer two years ago.
It's not something that has to be done. There are other ways to get good starting pitchers. And pitchers are the riskiest commodity of them all.
It's a bad idea.
OK, well what you're doing now is highlighting the question of how we measure "success".
Those who believe the playoffs are a crapshoot will argue that the Yankees and Dodgers failure to pile up rings has nothing to do with measuring their success.
I think the evidence is pretty strong that the playoffs have become a crapshoot.
No team has repeated since 2000. We're in our 24th year of teams not defending their title.
The last 3 World Series have featured teams that won less than 90 games.
Teoscar 4.3 bWAR 3.5 fWAR avg. 3.9
O'Neill 2.7 bWAR 2.5 fWAR avg. 2.6
The O'Neill trade was a good one and fit well into a tight budget, but in terms of actual value Teoscar was considerably better.
From FanGraphs:
Duran 2023 362 PA 15.9 Offensive RAR -3.2 Defensive RAR
Duran 2024 735 PA 32.8 Offensive RAR 7.9 Defensive RAR
Duran's jump in WAR from 2023 came from 2 things:
1) Played a full season
2) Vast improvement in defense
His offensive value basically remained the same.
So why stay under in 2021 after they got under in 2020?
I'm suggesting that Henry's new outlook started back in 2019.
In 2022 they went over, but only by $6 million.
Hugh, you're fine, and I agree with you much more often than disagree. I know I tend to sound a little edgy myself when I'm posting in the morning after my coffee. But I'm just throwing stuff out there to keep things interesting. 🙂
The OP is absolutely advocating it if there's another team willing to make it happen.
We argued about this for pages on the 2025 thread.
My main argument against doing it is that we don't have enough offense that we can afford to give up Duran.
Not trying to be snarky when I say this, but it's pretty obvious that with a guy who just had an 8 WAR season after amassing about 2 WAR before that, and who is under control for 4 more years, their trade value is likely at its peak.
OK, but identifying the exact peak doesn't really tell us much about the precise rate of decline.
Can you tell us exactly how much speed Duran will lose over the next 5 years?
Hmmm, well, to some ears "ain't much" sure sounds like a colorful way of saying zero.
Kind of like Clint Eastwood's line "Dyin' ain't much of a livin', boy." 😁
A couple more points:
1) If 2024 was Duran's best season (very possible) it doesn't automatically mean he's going to go back to being a 1-2 WAR player and stay there.
2) Every other team is aware of the same possibility. Every other team has the same data and plenty of guys to analyze it.
No, that's not really the point.
I'm questioning the scientific validity of the "speed goes early" statement.
This is not about talent, it's strictly about the Point A to Point B part...