The problem being that if your team is good you can’t get high enough in the draft to get the best players in it and therefore can’t just let your best players go as there is no one to make up for the loss.

If you start off with a really good team eventually you will have just a mediocre team so by relying on the Draft and Minors to fill all your really accomplishing is letting the cycle of how bad you determine how good you will be 5 years from then.

You need to keep at least 2-3 star players on your team that you build around and only when they decline try to replace them with kids or let them leave via FA!

People talk about the Braves building a decade of contention but they bought a lot of it and didn’t let guys like Chipper Jones or John Smoltz go in favor of some kid.

They kept them!

And while having as good MiL system is preferential you can’t rely on that being the case especially if you are playing for as many playoffs as teams like the yankees and Braves were playing for.

The Yankees managed to maintain where the Braves did not because they were not afraid to go out and buy free agents to fill in holes the Minors could not and the Braves did what they could to keep what they had and had to let key pieces of thier team go without anyone to take it’s place.

Because when you pick 28-32 you are simply not going to get at any pitching prospects to replace a Maddox, never going to happen!

But I am concerned about the mindset of the front office. Whatever principles Sandy might have about long term commitments (even though I agree with him) this is the real world and he has to play within the game – the economics of professional sports does not enable one to work outside the box as it appeared in the highly fictionalized “Money Ball” (BTW – according to the small sampling of fans ten years ago, Oakland was picked by most to either finish first or win the AL wild card so it’s obvious that team was not looked upon as going nowhere as the movie also professed).

So if R.A. continues doing well after this streak comes to an end, we will then have a better idea about that mindset – or that the Wilpon’s financial situation is gloomier as many of us suspect it is.

http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/lofiversion/index.php?t733.html

Hi Jersey,

That type of scenario is already being played out in Oakland and I don’t think anyone here wants to have the same results as Billy Beane does.

It isn’t worth it not at the high prices (after those processing fees) and the cost for concessions. And if the Mets start drawing more, expect those prices to go up even further thanks to “dynamic pricing”. For many of us, the fun at the park if offset by the high cost associated with such an excursion. This is Met baseball – not the Met opera.

But I guess there will be 40,000 willing to shell out such money each game but how much of them will actually be interested in the game compared to just being at an event?

2011 dealing with injuries he was 24th in ERA with a 3,28
2010 he was in the top 10 with a 2.84 ERA
2012 he is tied for 1st with a 2.00 ERA

So the only year he had that he had a higher ERA was the year he split a fingernail in his second start and wwith a heel injury that hobbled him most of the year!

The other thing is Dickey is having the run of his career right now..he may pitch great going forward, but he won’t be this unhittable forever. His value won’t be what it is now, following next season…

Everyone else was talking a 3 year deal and that was it!

You only offer 3 your paying 15 Mil Minimum!