O's Considering Trading Tejada
This is just amazing. The Orioles have to be one of the greatest sports franchise collapses of all time. In just 10 years, they have gone from one of the crown jewels of Major League Baseball to an absolute joke. Fans should start a class action lawsuit against Peter Angelos, who has single handedly ruined the franchise. Trading your own and only asset is the sort of thing only the loweliest of franchises will do.
posted by Todd Martin at 11:34 PM
6 Comments:
Tejada is 30, but his skill set tends to lend itself to aging well. He should continue to be a perennial top-of-the ballot MVP candidate for 2-3 more years and be very good for another 3-4. This is the kind of guy you hold onto at all costs and rebuild around. What you don't do is sign a league average third baseman like Melvin Mora to a huge contract (3 for $21M) and view him as some sort of irreplacable piece. The only way the O's, Jays, and Rays can compete in that division is to build a farm system capable of contributing four-to-six everday players, some of them plus regulars, preferrable one a superstar. Add to that two pitchers from the system. Proceed to fill in the blanks with free agents and/or whatever else you already have. Right now, Tampa is the only team on the right track. The Toronto strategy of spending lots of money may bring you more wins but it won't bring you the playoffs.
I would like to interject on the notion of the "Toronto strategy of spending lots of money".
Sure, my boy JP and Papa Rogers openned up the purse strings but its not like we have made this a constant practice like the Sox, Yanks, and Mets. The Jays have always had one of the strongest and deepest farm systems of any team and we still do today. Sure the Jays spent a lot of money but this was for characters you just can't always just dip into the system for.... closer (Ryan), #2 starter (Burnett), power hitter (Glaus), gold glove cather (Molina), and then our 5th acquisition was a character guy with a good bat and glove, Lyle Overbay.
Looking at the Jays line-up today, we are rife with homegrown prospects, moreso then any other contender in the AL. Wells, Rios, Halladay, Chacin, Aaron Hill, Russ Adams, most of the bullpen (save Ryan, Speier, and Schoenweis) and a lot of others are all developed within the Jays system. The Jays are also widely considered the team with the most pitching prospects in the minors in all of baseball.
You think the Rays are on the right track? Please. Sure they have a wealth of OF prospects but they've got absolutely zero pitching. Kazmir is a Mets product and beyond that the Rays cupboard is bare.
The Rays have reasonable pitching depth beyond Kazmir. Orvella was a strong prospect before his disatrous first two months, but a rebound would not surprise. Beyond that there's Sonnanstine, Niemann, Wade Davis, Jason McGee, and whatever comes out of this year's draft. That's a decent crop of arms that can be bolstered by another arm-for-bat swap like the recent J.P. Howell for Joey Gathright exchange. As you said, there is lots of position player depth in the system. Besides, it's much better to have hitters than pitchers as prospects since TNSTAPP.
Your assessment of the Jays' system is, respectfully, way off. It's a poor system with zero high-upside prospects resultant from a overly conservative draft philospohy. Name one prospect worth getting excited about?
"The Jays are also widely considered the team with the most pitching prospects in the minors in all of baseball."
I'd love to see what sources you're reporting from because I don't see it. Baseball America rated their system 25th, while Baseball Prospectus had it 26th. BP also ranks systems looking at all players 24 and under, so as not to penalize clubs with prospects (like a Kazmir) already in the majors. They have Tampa first (Toronto 21st).
Hey, I'll take the Blue Jays management over the Orioles management any day of the week.
Well, I guess that's kind of a moot point anyway given I'm converting to the Nationals.
Phil don't fall too far in love with Baseball Prospectus, its another deadbeat forecasting site, which ultimately means very little.
This is all I need to know about the D-Rays farm system. Sure they have some studs but most of them are headcases, which does not bode well for the franchise. Delmon Young... 50 games for throwing a bat at an ump and Josh Hamilton has had substance abuse and psychological problems since being drafted. I disagree with your notion that it's better to have hitting prospects then pitching prospects. The old cliches... you can never have too much pitching and pitching wins championships.
BP does rank the Jays farm system unfairly low. The Jays do draft fairly conservative and they have also drafted primarily college players (hold 2006) early and often in the draft. However, despite drafting conservative they have a healthy wealth of valuable pitching prospects including two stud lefties in David Purcey and Ricky Romero to go along with Gustavo Chacin (obviously already in the majors) and the 1,2 tandem of Halladay and Burnett. The Jays parlayed some of their pitching into Lyle Overbay this summer by shipping Dave Bush and Zach Jackson out of town. The Jays also have some strong right-handed prospects with Dustin McGowan, Brandon League and Francisco Rosario. Given the youth of the current roster the Jays have plenty of time to draft and develop the next wave of position players they'll need as I admit their only position player who is guaranteed to be an everday guy down the road is OF Adam Lind.
I will give you that the Rays do have Niemann and he by all accounts has shown some promise. Beyond that I haven't seen anything of too much promise. Currently it's Kazmir and a bunch of guys who can't win at the MLB level.
Eastern Division Standings
Through games of 06/28/2006
Team W-L PCT GB
Boston 47-28 .627 -
New York 44-32 .579 3.5
Toronto 43-34 .558 5
Baltimore 37-42 .468 12
Tampa Bay 34-45 .430 15
I'm too lazy to look up the payrolls but I'm at least 90% sure that this directly corresponds to payroll. As long as "The Boss" continues to spend pretty much more money than all other teams combined and Mr. Henry keeps pace as he has been doing the rest of the division doesn't have a chance. I don't mind since it got me the championship I thought I'd never live to see, but I understand how much it sucks to be a fan of the other teams. A good farm system is nice, but the money wins out.
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