Don't really have time for a mega-post tonight, but really, just a thought: If you're Andy MacPhail and you hear the Seattle Mariners are about to turn an injury-prone reliever and a light-hitting middle infielder who was only mediocre in A Ball into a Cy Young award winner and consensus Top 10 pitcher, why the hell are you not already on the phone with Rube Amaro trying to steal the man's pants off his ass?
I don't mean that the Orioles should acquire Lee. He fits them absolutely not at all. But this is about the principle of the matter. At least drive the price up.
And now, gin.
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Re: your sharp retort to my comment, i thought it over. What bothers me about Millwood is that it old-style judgement ala former player gms vs. the fact-basis of new wave, ivy mba-lawyer gms. Who says young starters need a veteran stabilizer? Was a solid vet the key to ripening great young staffs? Smoltz/glavine/avery or zito/mulder/hudson? More recent breakouts like Clev, Det, Tampa, twins, Florida? I don't see it - sometimes yes, some no. A high performing vet might help but it seems as likely that the O's run the opposite risk: a frustrated vet on his way out whose deterioration gets in the way of the kids.
ReplyDeleteOh no, the Millwood deal is dumb. It just didn't cost us anything important -- even if Chris Ray turns his career around, he's a reliever, and any time you can get anything that's not a reliever for a reliever, it's generally worth it. The thing that bothers me about the Millwood trade is like some kind of half-baked attempt to take advantage of market inefficiencies -- like MacPhail recognized that Millwood was only as good as he was in 2009 because of the defense behind him, and that he could be flipped at the deadline for useful pieces, but then failed to recognize that the Orioles didn't have the proper environmental conditions to keep Millwood an overvalued piece; i.e., a defense in the top third of the league in defensive statistics.
ReplyDeleteI think Guthrie said it best about Millwood; that getting a guy like that's nice and all, but it's not going to lower his stress level on game day.
And that wasn't a sharp reply! Did I compare you to a mass murderer? No? Dan Uggla wasn't so lucky.