Quote:
Originally Posted by fleury
Before anyone goes further, just so we don't bitch about AA in the offseason, for the record does anyone object to either the Tulowitzki or Price deals? I don't, but I think it's somewhat fun to have it on the record now, than for others in the off-season to say, "I told you so" when there wasn't any mention of it before.  |
No, I'll take the risk of the prospects we traded becoming anywhere near the players we traded for. Tulo and Price are elite talents, and most prospects don't get anywhere near that, so it's a good risk to take.
Hoffman and Norris are two guys that I think will be starting pitchers in the Majors. To what level is yet to be determined, but at least middle of the rotation type of guys. Losing Castro hurts as well, but I think he will remain a relief pitcher and those guys are a little easier to replace. Don't forget, they traded for the long term with Tulo. Price is a rental right now, but it's possible they go hard at signing him in the off-season. Even though Price has said he will explore free agency, he hasn't ruled out signing with Toronto and his excitement thus far makes me think they'll be on his short list of teams to sign with. Bringing Price into the organization for a couple of months (where he can see the culture he'd be getting involved with) gives you a shot at him where he wouldn't have really considered it before. If you sign him to a long term deal then giving those prospects up is definitely worth it.
However, there's no record of me saying this at the time, but I hated the Dickey deal when it went down. Now Syndegaard looks like an absolute stud for the Mets, and although D'Arnaud's career has been seriously derailed by injuries, he's looking like a very good starting catcher who can hit. If that deal doesn't go down we wouldn't have needed to sign Martin, and we would have had a very good front of the rotation starter and starting catcher. All for a guy who was nearing 40 who only had a couple of good seasons in a very long career of below average pitching. Knuckleballer's are very difficult to predict in terms of contributions and consistency, so I felt that was too much to give up on such a risky, aging player in Dickey.