Riverbrian

You will always be the best Doc! I'm not trying to say it was a bad trade. I understand the current context. But... Yeah I am saying... he was a 5th round pick that was cashed in for a 33 year old lefthander and your last sentence agrees with me. It wasn't the first time something like that happens and it won't be the last. The highways are littered with them. Could Gordon become Mickey Moniak? Is he just another Nick Senzel? That will be up to Nick in Miami but he's done better than Corey Ray. 😉

LOL... I'm not sure how many points I'm arguing because I think we largely agree. The combination of having no options and not being as good as the guy who survives roster cuts places him hanging on the end of that string until he puts together a decent year or two. Which he will have to do in Miami.

IMO... Bust is a strong word to describe him. As a 5th overall pick... there is no question he is a bust. As a baseball player... despite exhausting every last drop of his options because he didn't blow the minor leagues away. He did have a good year in his only full year in the majors. 2022 Gordon played good for 405 AB's at multiple positions. Nothing wrong with his numbers that year. I understand that you have to "get what you can" and I understand that top 5 draft picks have failed and will fail again in the future. Once he leaves your organization you have locked in your return... We drafted him... we worked with him since 2014. In the end... that locked in return was a 33 year old left handed bullpen guy. That's not a win for a 5th overall pick even if getting something for him was a win. .

I'll wait for the off-season to conclude before I decide how I feel. If I were to decide today. It's a good deal and a bad deal at the same time. Good deal: We got something for Gordon. That's a win. Bad Deal: Gordon was a 5th pick overall that leaves the organization in return for a 33 year old left handed guy out of the bullpen. There is no way that is a win.

I'll settle for that. Save the pinch hitting for the 8th and 9th inning if the game is on the line. There is way too much game to be played in the 3rd inning. If they just do that... I won't be as worked up about the platooning in 2024.

Could be... I'm not sure how they will utilize Santana. Saving Santana for the 1 out of 4 left handers just may be what they signed him for much like they did with Solano last year. I'm not trying to be argumentative... However... Miranda tore it up in Spring Training Last Year with 1,225 OPS. He did make the club but I think the front office was planning on Miranda making the club before spring training began. Whatever they decided or thought about Miranda going in... That OPS in spring training didn't carry over to the regular season. 20 to 40 AB's in Fort Myers versus a variety of talent level arms (Majors to Single A arms) shouldn't change minds in my opinion.

I'd bet on Miranda because he has some major league work in and Kirilloff needs a handcuff. But... it's going to be someone. Just like Chief Said. Personally... IMO... It's scary to me to think that a player tearing it up in spring training can leap frog a player over another.

Quite Possible However, unless we add a player. Either FA, Trade or 40 Man Add like Goodrum. As of today... Someone gets one of those 13 spots. The choices off the 40 man are Miranda, Larnach, Martin and Severino for one spot.

Can we wait just a bit first? Please?

With Gordon no longer around to be that unchecked extra left handed hitter to make things lumpy. The roster is all platoon pretty right now. I assume that Miranda will now make the roster out of spring training and be that third short side right handed hitter to handcuff to one of those young lefties. Julien/Farmer Wallner/Castro Kirilloff/Miranda Bring on 162 games.

I've read things here and there. The battle for San Jose, Etc. Etc. but... a lot of the information (if not all) that gets out to us mere mortals should be taken as grains of salts because public relations is crafting those messages for our consumption. Both the city and team will want us on our side as part of the game. The real details are not shared. It Money vs Money.

Your comment will get no substantial argument from me on the surface under the simple consideration of fair is fair. I really wish things wasn't so but... they have indeed been so... to my knowledge for as long as I have been alive. We all know... let me rephrase that... we all should know by now that this type of thing happens all the time and it isn't just sport franchises. If Oakland, Alameda County or the State of California doesn't want to provide incentive to the A's to stay. Some city, county or state without a team will. If you own a team and Oakland isn't willing to entice you to stay and Memphis is willing to give you the sun, the moon and the stars. Why would you stay in Oakland and get nothing? Why would you give up the Sun... The Moon... The Stars? When Amazon wants to build a massive distribution facility in a certain area. Local officials of every population center in the footprint are going to compete against each other to get that facility built in their home town. Cash Grants, Rebates, Tax Credits and whatever sweet thing they can offer on the table or under the table. Those decision makers at Amazon are not stupid. They are going to build in Beloit Wisconsin because they are providing significant financial incentive to build in Beloit meanwhile down the road in Janesville... they are taking your stance and offering nothing... because fair is fair. Beloit gets the facility, 1,000 plus jobs, they grow their tax base, they have nicer schools and roads. while the residents of Janesville move to Beloit, because all the jobs are in Beloit, the schools are better and the pot holes in Janesville are ruining the suspension on cars they already can't afford because they are unemployed since the cheese factory closed down and moved to a brand new facility in Oconomowoc subsidized by local officials who are deciding how to spend that tax money. We can all sit back and applaud the decision makers for taking a hard stance against the MAN. I mean fair is fair after all. However, when it is all said and done. Oakland will be team less, Amazon is going to build in Berkeley. There will be no reason for anyone to visit the garbage strewn streets of Oakland unless they entice Disney to build a massive theme park and the economy just keeps sinking and sinking and sinking and sinking.

The Mayor's comments do suggest that this thing is not a done deal. However... I don't think MLB is that worried about a reduced media deal. The current media deal model is going away. I have no idea because I'm just a guy in North Dakota but I would not put it past MLB or any of the owners of MLB franchises to use Las Vegas as leverage to get what they want in Oakland. Could be just a new version of the Pohlad's contracting the Twins for new ball park leverage. Who knows.

I haven't seen tourism numbers for Vegas by month so I'm not capable of getting in depth. I agree that there is probably a summer downtick. However... 3.5 million visitors every year... they are still coming in the summer. However... I will ask that you go back to the part where I said that "I am stretching". Anyway... they will have a road team fan uptick that other clubs won't have... even in what just might be a summer tourism downtick. How dead will the stadium be after the novelty? Who knows. But if they move... it's for financial reasons that I'm reasonably certain of.

Yeah... She back tracked and reclarified as quickly as possible. She is going to get raked over the coals by other powerful people working toward making this happen. Politicians can't say what they really think publicly... That never plays well and she is going to feel this one.

Las Vegas is a destination city. It has been suggested that Vegas could have more away team fans then home fans. I'm stretching I know but there is a road team attendance bump that other cities don't have. The modern revenue streams of the new stadium are something that I'm unaware of but I'm sure that they are part of the deal. These billionaires are aware of them and Fisher is going to make money off of this otherwise there is no point.

There is a lot that goes into these things and there is no way that I can sit and judge anything from my chair... I always assume that money is driving the bus though and I'm sure this is no different. I've made one trip to Oakland to watch a game. My opinion has very little value because it was one trip. But here it comes my opinion anyway. 😉 I've been to 24 different cities to watch games. That's 24 different stadiums to compare and contrast with. The worst experience was by far Oakland and it isn't particularly close. The worst stadium in the worst city in my comparison with the other stadiums that I have also visited just one time. The blocks surrounding the stadium are garbage strewn, I'm not talking about a couple of McDonalds bags, I'm talking you can't see the sidewalk because of all the garbage piled up. Detroit in my opinion isn't a very impressive city overall but Detroit manages to clean up the area surrounding the stadium at least. Once you get inside the stadium... it serves it's purpose... you can play a baseball game on the field and there are 62,000 seats so you can watch a game just like the other stadiums. However, it was built in 1966 without any charm that exists in the older stadiums like Fenway, Wrigley, Kaufman or even Dodger Stadium. It operates like it was built in 1966... It's a multi level of tight circled concourses and it simply doesn't have the additional revenue opportunities that the new stadiums like Truist Park provides in Atlanta. I generally don't like the idea of franchises leaving cities. When the North Stars left Minnesota... it hurt and it knocked me out of the NHL for awhile but if the city of Oakland won't help improve the situation... another city is going to. The Raiders, the Warriors and the A's have all left or are about to leave Oakland and I'm willing to bet that the city of Oakland wasn't able or was stopping short of doing what is necessary to keep them all in town. Some will say... good for them standing up to those owners shaking them down for taxpayer money. I can understand that but in the end... the city has gone from 3 teams to zero in a fairly quick period of time. Enter Las Vegas... ready to provide what Oakland wouldn't... It just works that way. Anyway... Oakland. My trip there... it was surprisingly sub par. I'm heading to St. Petersburg this year to watch the Rays. Maybe Tropicana can challenge Oakland for the worst baseball experience. I can't wait to find out.

The Brewers: 2022 - .724 Team OPS 2023 - .704 Team OPS The pitching improved though. 😁

Gregg Rolie read the article... dropped his pants and said... "Feature This".

I hope you are right... I really do. These are one of those moments that I'd like to be careful proceeding forward. I don't want to tear Santana down expressing my concern because I hope you are right... I really do. I'll just make three points. 1. Severino, Miranda and Martin are indeed crap shoots... So is Santana. Severino, Miranda and Martin can be sent down if the roll is snake-eyes. Santana Can't. Therefore Santana is the bigger and more expensive crapshoot. 2. Martin doesn't have to play 1B but if Martin is performing he will need a roster spot. 3. Lines up with Farmer to be plugged in v. LH pitching. Farmer and Santana would be 11.3 Million dollars spent on the short side? We move Polanco to free up money... just to spend the equivalent on the short side of the platoon... just to keep the young developing strong side of the platoon in the dark against left handed pitching and therefore hampering their development... I will not go down this aisle of the grocery store.

Yep Without details of special circumstances - All things being equal - A tiebreaker. If you have two golden lab puppies to choose from that look identical. One behaves while the other destroys your socks. Most would take the one without a sock in it's mouth.

I was just responding to the usage of Sgt. Duckett to clubhouse leadership. I always appreciate those style posts because they make the discussion more interesting. I wouldn't have the military experience to dispute anything that you have added but I will say to you and all who served. "Thank You For Service".

I love your story. These type of examples add color to a post and make them enjoyable to read. However... Sgt. Duckett is Rocco Baldelli. Jay Jackson, Carlos Santana, Emilio Pagan... They are Bob From New Jersey, Levon from Georgia and Steve from North Dakota... they are standing right next to you getting motivated by Sgt. Duckett.

Nick Nelson has started the discussion of intangibles on another thread and it's quite possible that Santana was the inspiration. How do you quantify the leadership of Carlos Santana on a spreadsheet. He's a leader so hitting .220 is OK? He's a leader however hitting .200 isn't enough? He's a leader and therefore he must be in the lineup every day in order to lead? He's a leader... so he can lead by sitting next to Rocco and being an extra voice? Will his vet ideas conflict or match up with what Rocco and the coaching staff is saying? Is the front office and coaching staff going to pump him for best practices from other organizations? If Julien's OPS drops 100 points... is it Carlos Santana's lack of intangibles?

It seems more like a reverse get out of jail free card. Belisle has intangibles so we want him despite his 10 plus ERA. Josh Donaldson has been painted over and over again as the guy lacking intangibles. However... it should be pointed out that Josh Donaldson has been to the playoffs 9 times with 6 different teams. The 6 different teams could be considered a failure of having those intangibles because his instability could be taken as let's get the jerk out of the clubhouse. However, at the same time after he gets tossed out of the boat... whatever shore he washes up at... he still finds his way into the playoffs so I question how much damage the guy with the lack of intangibles causes. I don't know the personalities of any major league player so I have no ability to say what is right and what is wrong... but... call me skeptical about anything used to justify a lesser player getting a roster spot. Belisle cost us Nick Anderson. His intangibles will not justify it.