spinowner

My impression is that Falvine have taken everything under consideration and know exactly who is responsible for what.

This is nowhere near as true for baseball as it is for other sports, especially basketball. There are a ton of very good baseball players who were not taken in the first round, which means every team had a chance to take them. Making good draft picks can lead to consistent success at the major league level without having to be near the top of the first round.

I'll let you know 6 years from now whether I agree.

Sounds exactly like Gophers hockey fans.

The Red Sox are nothing more than the Yankees with beards.

From what I understand this is a lie. I believe Halsey was a gin drinker.

Uh, Aaron Slegers is 12 letters.

Most likely no one is betting so they increase the payoff to try to entice people to play.

Betting odds are not the same thing as the odds of winning the World Series. Betting odds are based strictly on the consequences of the house having to pay off a winning ticket. Odds change more because of which bets have been placed and are expected to be placed than because of changes occurring with a team. If a particular casino knows a whole bunch of Minnesotans will be visiting during a certain week they might change the Twins to 50:1 for that week.

A good GM will make nobody completely untouchable. Of course it depends on the offer.

I do this dance where I jump around waving my two middle fingers in the air in the general direction of the Bronx. It's quite cathartic, really.

Your point is well taken, just disagreed with. As I have said before, if I were a Houston fan I would have been totally on board with their trade for Verlander, and that trade may have been the difference between earning a World Championship and not doing so. As for the 2017 Twins, I think going into buy mode in July and August would have been a disservice to the franchise. When you are running a baseball team you have to know when to take your shot, and this was not the year to do that. IMHO, of course.

I don't want to talk about it.

I think your analysis model is a good one, but the analysis still needs to be performed correctly. Your choice to focus only on the team's performance in 2017 and to disregard the long-term health of the franchise makes your judgement about the logic behind the move (IMHO) illogical.

Strongly disagree. Marginal improvements now can result in significant improvements later. Decreasing our chance of winning the 2017 World Series from 0.02% to 0.01% was worth even a small marginal improvement in the overall state of the franchise.

This is exactly it. Fielding a major league team that can contend for a World Championship every year should be the goal, and I think this is what Falvine are striving for. The key is building a minor league system that graduates several good major league players every year. It takes time, hard work, good hires, good drafting and a bit of luck.

As you said, it's an imaginary scenario, because a veteran DH can make an out almost as easily as Buxton. You could just as well imagine Buxton lining a dinger to left.

I agree with the wait and see perspective but I disagree with your assessment of why. This is not cosmetic. They are working on infrastructure.

When there's a player worth signing. Don't spend money on a mediocre player just because money is available.

Good example in Gordon. In little league ball your worst fielder usually plays right field, but in major league ball it's left field. That's why Delmon Young and Josh Willingham played there.

See my post #51, which was posted while you were writing post #52.

Quoting oneself is bad form but that's just the kind of guy I am. I just wanted to add that what predicated this whole thread was the matter of how to determine the AL MVP. Most. Valuable. Player. WAR attempts to determine value relative to a replacement player, which means a player who plays the same position. So even if WAR were accurate that means comparing a second baseman to a right fielder using WAR is literally analogous to comparing apples to oranges. There certainly can be discussion about how to define value, but it's clear to me that this award is intended to go the the player with the highest absolute value, not the player with the highest relative value.

Because a SS should not receive more credit for batting performance than a 1B just because he plays SS. The position a player plays on the field is completely immaterial when his team is batting. A SS is more valuable than a 1B who has equal batting stats but it's because of fielding.

Here is a synopsis of the rules covering international signing bonuses: https://www.baseballamerica.com/international/new-mlb-international-signing-rules/#tLYefExKWApckSOD.97 The Twins started with a $5,250,000 pool. This means they can acquire pool money via trade until they reach $9,187,500. What I'm not clear about is whether there are rules covering the annual salary that would be separate from the bonus. I'm sure there are but in a very brief internet search I didn't come across that information.

See my reply to your other comment. And I'll say that this is about WAR because it illustrates one reason why I think WAR is a highly flawed measure of a player's value.