The comment on pitch f/x machines in the minors was the part I liked. That would be using technology to better evaluate the players both on your team and the oposition
Yout 7-9 million figure is way off. The guy at fangraphs said that fair market price was determined by players switching teams. Last year 38 position players signed with new teams. Average cost per WAR was 3.7 million. 18 of these players had a WAR above 1. Their average contract was 3 million per WAR. The WAR numbers were based solely on 2012 WAR. This would hint that if you are going to sign a free agent that you might as well get your money's worth and sign a good one. These number would also say that Doumit is a bargain at any role.
you were the one wanting to quantify with statistics the role of a catcher. I want to know if there is a reasonable way to do it. Any measure I have seen on defense requires subjectivity and is incomplete in the role of a catcher.
7 catchers with a combined WAR of 9.1 (average 1.3) were free agents and signed this still ongoing winter. Average contract was 3.9 mil. per year Doumit is paid about average for a catcher if he would have been a free agent.
What defensive statistics then can you use to determine what catcher is better that does not contain subjectivity or the influence of what another player is doing?
Wilson scheduled for the Angels, Fister is for Detroit. Dempster for Boston, Santana for KC. Diamond vs Floyd. I wouldn't make any bets for the trifecta, but it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility
Yet how many different contracts have the Twins given out to players have people criticized as being excessive and a waste of money? For starters the FA this winter
So it is ok when the players complain in the media about things, but when the manager does it he lacks leadership? But Slowey was not the type of pitcher that should have been in the bullpen. After 2010 he should have been traded to a team that looks at a 13-6 record and drooled.
Hindsight can make one look so smart. The mistake of signing Blackburn to a long term deal was based on the notion he was going to stay healthy and effective. It blew up on them. Had Slowey been able to pitch later into games or stay healthy the Twins might have signed him to a three year deal after his third year.
Baseball is a very public job. What you do as a player and manager is out there for scrutiny. Discussion of the good and the bad in public forums is part of the job. How people see things is how they want to. That determines how big of deal anything is. The anti people again are making mountains out of grains of sand.
I think the evidence that Mastro could play CF is about equal to speculation about lengths of contracts or where people want to play. The evidence would be a minor league career would show that he could play every day. Now why you would want a .250 to .275 BA .700 OPS playing regularly beyond an emergency/relief role is another story. Torres hits about that. Is Morgan even on a major league roster.
So it is not easy to find an obvious target? Still curious as to what AAAA /veteran player that was still out there after the Revere trade you thought they should have picked up. Saying they should have picked up someone as a plan B is easy, stating a reasonable response is not obvious.
You can try to argue a point. You can simply no longer respond when you have no better answer. There is no such thing as "the guy will score from 3 base" guarantee for any team.
Oh really? Then how did the Twins not score when they have the bases loaded and no outs the next day? That run may not have scored despite your assertions