moonslav59

One aspect of "monetball" is not moneyball.

They never really went the Rays' Way all the way. Everything they do is half-ass.

All levers seems to imply financially, too.

I'm fine with cycles that include rings. I remember thinking that 2021 might have done more harm than good to "the plan." It bought two more years of the sham.

It was not just 2021. After the great Dodger purge (CC, AGon & Beckett,) we did NOT come close to replacing their value, the following ring year- 2013. Opening Day payrolls: $168M '10 $164M '11 $175M '12 $154M '13 Yes, 2004's payroll was larger than pre-2004 and 2005-2006. Yes, 2007 was more than '08 & '09. Yes, 2018 was more than ever, but it was less than 2019, which was DD's worst year by record. 2013 and 2021 were "low points" in budgets, when compared to surrounding seasons. When you look at end of year 40 man roster budgets, one thing is common: after each ring year, the budget dropped: $130>117 "04>'05 $155>147 '07>'08 $176>168 '13>'14 $230>228 '18>'19 (It went up $30M from '21 to '22.)

Probably not, but if we can get some good value from 3-4 of the 5 you listed, plus maybe one more from the castaways, that should help an already decent pen.

It's the same ole- same ole...

The tro of Crawford, Houck and Whitlock have the skills and some history to suggest upside showings in 2024. We have a ton or young or younger arms in the pen that could grow and improve with proper guidance or a key tweak here or there. Slaten Mata Campbell Fitts (SP?) Weissert Kelly Criswell Murphy & Walter Guerrero & German Benitez & Olivares Hagenman, Hoppe & Troye

Yup. While the budget was an issue, especially in 2020, Bloom did spend a lot of money, and most of his top 10 signings were not good ones. That's on him.

Yes, that is very likely and a pretty sure bet.

Fine, but more games at DH by Yoshida should be a good thing. He started 49 games at DH in 2023. Starting 80-100 could be a significant boost to our OF defense, but if it means more games in CF by Duran, that might offset that by some. 2023 Duran GS 62 CF 20 LF Flip that to 90-120 in LF and 20-40 in CF: win-win.

Turner just forces Yoshida to LF and Duran to CF. I'd pass, and I'm a big JT fan. Duvall is not a bad idea, but only if they view him as a better RF'er than O'Neill. Signing him would also push Duran to CF. I'm not a fan of Duran in CF. If we signed either of these guys, then traded Duran or Yoshida (in a package for a SP'er), it would make more sense.

I've answered this, but here is my take, again. 1. Bloom is the scapegoat. 2. Bloom did very poorly with his largest expenditures. (Like Ben with Pablo & HRam) 3. The mandate was build the farm while staying competitive. (We were in just 1 of 3 seasons: 2021.) JH is hoping Brez can do better on bigger ticket items. Bloom's largest 10 expenditures: 1. $300M+ on Devers (unknown results) 2. $140M on Story (2 years in- bad results) 3. $100M+ on Yoshida (1 year in- unknown results, but one poster thinks it's a failure.) 4. $32M Jansen (2 yrs) looks good 5. $24M Barnes (2 yr extension)- horrible 6. $24M Kike (3 yrs)- good 2021- horrible next 2 yrs 7. $17.5M Martin (2 yrs) looks good 8. $11M M Perez (2 yrs) ho-hum 9. $10M Richards (1)- bad 10. $10M Kluber (1)- bad It is not hard to think any FO would expect better than this. To me, this is almost totally the reason Bloom was replaced by Brez. Can anyone say, for sure, that if Bloom was given an extra $10-15M, each winter, he'd have spent it wisely? Sure, a couple what ifs like Eflin and bringing Nate back would have helped, but some other "near misses" were thankful ones.

The penalty season didn't help, either. The fact that most of the prospects DD traded away did not amount to much, doesn't change the fact that we saw very little impactful farm infusion after Devers in the summer of 2017- all the way to Casas/Bello. It is very hard for any team to win with basically, just Houck added in a 5 year stretch.

We don't seem to want to pay any SP'er market value beyond 2-3 years.

What a sad winter it would be, if we addressed our biggest need area by subtracting Sale and Paxton with Gio and Clevinger. It's not even a sure bet those two will outpitch Sale + Paxton in 2024. Adding Monty would be a surer bet on improvement, but he's 31. Unless the FO is fully committed to winning in 2024, I'd look to add a SP'er who will be improving in 2025 and beyond, not trending downwards.

I agree. It would take a perfect storm of so many things going right, that the odds are very long. To me, even adding Monty would not be enough to make us solid contenders. It might make us contenders for a WC slot, but we'd still need a lot to go right, and very little to go wrong. We'd need plus health, too.

It is important to have a solid base of players that are better than bad, or "mediocre" or better at every position and in depth, but you need to go for quality at enough positions to compete. A team that looks to improve at the 4/5 slots of a rotation will get nowhere, fast.

It's also not easy to flip a whole organization's pitching prospect scouting, developing and coaching staff, overnight.

I don't disagree, but I do think the Grissom addition could make a big difference on offense and defense. (Yes, he should be a step up on D from our putrid 2B D, last season.) Losing Turner and Duvall could hurt, a lot, but it will clear room for Duran, Rafaela and Abreu to get more time. That could be good or bad. Yes, lots of "coulds" on this team. To me, we needed to add 2-3 SP'ers and we added none. We just subbed Gio for Sale/Paxton (39 GS/200 IP in '23.)

Wrong. I love him in the pen. I've also said I'd be fine with him as our 4th or 5th starter (over Houck.) I think Pivetta has the best SP profile out of Pivetta, Houck, Crawford and Whitlock. My hope was we'd sign 3 SP'ers, so more of these guys would be in the pen- making the pen a top 5 pen in MLB, IMO. Adding 2 SP'ers would have been fine, but with Sale traded, it's just like adding one.

I agree. We also have some good secondary prospects to add to any package. Now, if teams are looking for pitching prospects, then we fall short. Adding Wikelman, Perales, Mata or Monegro is not going to wow many GMs, if any.

I'm not agreeing with the idea that the plan was to "free up budget space," so we could sign ______. BTW, we did "free up budget space" on three trades: Sale, Dugo and Urias, already.

Your big issue will be injuries, as always. 35 LeMahieu 34 Stanton, Rizzo, Kahnle 33 Cole 31 Judge, Rodon, Trevino Judge: since 2018, Judge has played over 112 games in just 2 of 6 seasons (2020: 28 out of 60.) His 3 worst seasons: 2020: 32/60 games missed 2019: 60/162 missed 2023: 56/162 missed Rodon: After starting 28 games in 2016, he's been a mess. GS/Possible GS 12/32 in '17 20/32 '18 7/32 '19 2/12 '20 24/32 '21 31/32 '22 (a pretty nice 2 year stretch of 55/64) 14/32 '23 Total: 110/204 (7 yrs) Stanton played 2 full seasons in '17 and '18, but only played more than 110 gmes, once since then (139 in '21) 18/162 in '19 23/60 '20 139/162 '21 110/162 '22 101/162 '23 Total: 391/708 (5 yrs) These three guys are pretty big keys to Yankee success.

I'd do it without Puk.