March 4, 20197 yr 1 hour ago, greg775 said: Glad you are so high on Madrigal, bleeping me. I want him to be good. I just didn't like his physical makeup, his height. Altuve, I know ... I am hopeful and am glad you think he's can't miss. Cool. It's not just Altuve you can throw out there. 2 of the 3 best hitters in the league last year were just 5'9" Mookie Betts and Jose Ramirez. I really think height, or lack thereof, could be an advantage....Especially if you got a good grasp of your stike zone. ... Like someone said earlier, 4 months ago i didn't even think the sox would be in the duscussion for the big fish and i was still excited for the direction of this team.....them trying and failing changed nothing for me.. There will be names out there to fill voids when they need to.
March 4, 20197 yr 9 hours ago, 2nd_city_saint787 said: ... Like someone said earlier, 4 months ago i didn't even think the sox would be in the duscussion for the big fish and i was still excited for the direction of this team.....them trying and failing changed nothing for me.. There will be names out there to fill voids when they need to. This is one of those statements I wish I would never hear again, it misses why these 2 free agents were so important. Yes there will be names to fill those voids. Here are some of the names people signed to big deals last year to fill voids, and their 2018 salary: Jake Arrieta ($30 million) Yu Darvish ($25 million) JD Martinez ($23.75 million) Eric Hosmer ($21 million) Carlos Santana ($18.3 million) Wade Davis ($16 million) Alex Cobb ($14 million) Lorenzo Cain ($13 million) Zack Cozart ($12.67 million) Tyler Chatwood ($12.5 million) Lance Lynn ($12 million) Jay Bruce ($10 million) CC Sabathia ($10 million) Out of the top contracts given out on the market last year, only 3 - the bolded - are guys who actually lived up to their salaries. Everyone else on that list underperformed what they were paid in 2018, a 3/13 ratio, and that's totally normal for previous years! Now that baseball mostly has the steroids out, players who aren't HOF caliber move along the aging curve so quickly that by the time they get to free agency, team sign them thinking they're filling a hole, and then that guy winds up being a disaster and a waste of money. It's going to happen to guys this year, it's going to happen to guys next year. Next offseason I'll be able to make a comparable list with the signings this year. The Astros have done better getting these level of Free Agents than any other team the last 2 years - Morton was a huge addition for them - but even for them, they signed Beltran to DH and he disappointed, and Josh Reddick was good in year 1 and weak in year 2 of his deal. The reason why the FA market has been so frozen the last 2 years isn't just that teams are trying to save money by rebuilding, it's because of lists like that. It's because playing the free agent market for guys in their early 30s sets the team up to waste their money. It's flat out dumb. When your team has a void, you're going to fill it with the next Yu Darvish. Why were these 2 free agents so important? Because the deck is stacked in favor of the teams for once. The player is hitting free agency at such a young age, 26, and while they are putting up such elite performance that even if they age normally, the team should get their money's worth. This was our chance to sneak around these odds and to avoid the mistake that so many teams made with those signings. But we blew it, because even management hasn't yet been able to figure out that this is a problem.
March 4, 20197 yr 13 hours ago, 2nd_city_saint787 said: It's not just Altuve you can throw out there. 2 of the 3 best hitters in the league last year were just 5'9" Mookie Betts and Jose Ramirez. I really think height, or lack thereof, could be an advantage....Especially if you got a good grasp of your stike zone. ... Like someone said earlier, 4 months ago i didn't even think the sox would be in the duscussion for the big fish and i was still excited for the direction of this team.....them trying and failing changed nothing for me.. There will be names out there to fill voids when they need to. Or in Ramirez's case, if you start taking PED's.
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