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Heltonfan · April 27th, 2008, 08:58 AM

What have we seen this month?

- Jayson Nix can't hit.
- Jeff Baker can't hit.
- Manny Corpas is human.
- U-Ball and Morales aren't ready.
- Ramon Ramirez (13/2 K/BB ratio as a Royal) is a hell of a lot better than Micah Bowie.
- Giving $11 million to Torrealba, Wells, Vizcaino, and Redman (combined -0.20 WAR so far) wasn't such a good idea.

What is my point? Simple: that these are not things that should have had to be learned. Some of them are things about which O'Dowd should have known better, some of them are things about which certain over-optimistic sections of the fan base should have known better, some of them are both. And all of them are things that my projection spreadsheets made perfectly clear from the get-go.

This organization has grown horribly complacent. Building from within is all well and good, but it's simply not possible to win consistently without bringing in talent from outside the organization. You can collect assets via the free agent market, waivers, rule 5, trades, whatever... but you have to do it somehow. And we're not doing any of it at all. When was the last time that we gave out a good free agent contract longer than one year? When was the last time that we made a significant trade that demonstrated any creativity whatsoever (the Jennings trade was fantastic, but it was such a stunningly obvious move that I don't know how much credit we can really give O'Dowd for it)? When was the last time that we identified an underappreciated player in another organization and went and got him? I don't know the answers to those questions, but it's been a while, that's for sure.

April 27th, 2008, 08:58 AM	#1 (permalink)
Heltonfan Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Yerevan, Armenia Posts: 929	Complacency What have we seen this month? - Jayson Nix can't hit. - Jeff Baker can't hit. - Manny Corpas is human. - U-Ball and Morales aren't ready. - Ramon Ramirez (13/2 K/BB ratio as a Royal) is a hell of a lot better than Micah Bowie. - Giving $11 million to Torrealba, Wells, Vizcaino, and Redman (combined -0.20 WAR so far) wasn't such a good idea. What is my point? Simple: that these are not things that should have had to be learned. Some of them are things about which O'Dowd should have known better, some of them are things about which certain over-optimistic sections of the fan base should have known better, some of them are both. And all of them are things that my projection spreadsheets made perfectly clear from the get-go. This organization has grown horribly complacent. Building from within is all well and good, but it's simply not possible to win consistently without bringing in talent from outside the organization. You can collect assets via the free agent market, waivers, rule 5, trades, whatever... but you have to do it somehow. And we're not doing any of it at all. When was the last time that we gave out a good free agent contract longer than one year? When was the last time that we made a significant trade that demonstrated any creativity whatsoever (the Jennings trade was fantastic, but it was such a stunningly obvious move that I don't know how much credit we can really give O'Dowd for it)? When was the last time that we identified an underappreciated player in another organization and went and got him? I don't know the answers to those questions, but it's been a while, that's for sure.