Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
Well it’s easy to laugh at them now when everything is going totally wrong. But they did what they thought they needed to do to keep him.
I don’t really get the Gretzky comparison since Ohtani was a rental. It’s obviously turned out horribly for them but without improving their ability to draft and develop, acquiring a couple more prospects wasn’t a difference maker IMO.
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A few things
1) Their chances of making the playoffs even with the deadline acquisitions was very low, due to the combination of them not being in a playoff spot at the deadline and having a harder remaining schedule than the teams they were chasing.
2) Their chances of keeping him were probably low even if they had made the playoffs. Why would he want to stay with a team that had repeatedly been a bottom feeder despite two of the best players in the game playing for them for many years?
3) The difference wasn't just "a couple" of prospects. It was the prospects they traded away to buy at the deadline PLUS the prospects they would have got from trading Ohtani. It adds up to quite a bit. And no you can't just hand wave it away saying "it's just prospects". The whole point of drafting/acquiring/developing prospects is that you don't know beforehand who will become a star and who won't, but nevertheless, some ultimately will.
4) What is their ultimate goal anyway? Keep Ohtani at all costs, even if it means laying waste to any and all other considerations? Continue being a clown show baseball team for another decade, that rarely if ever makes the playoffs, yet always consoled in the fact that they have the best player in the world on their roster?
5) I only brought up the Gretzky thing because someone mentioned that the Angels owner doesn't want to go down in history as trading away the best player ever. It's not actually a bad thing to be remebered by
if the trade is good and works out well for your team.