Re: If I owned the Devil Rays...

On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 21:40:46 -0700, Ima Pseudonym
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 19:55:02 -0800, Craig Richardson
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 20:04:23 -0600, James Withrow
>><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>>I'd rather see my team groom young position players and try to find pitchers
>>>on the market.  Pitchers are more likely to be pleasant surprises after
>>>they're 30 y-o.
>>
>>Not to mention that, considering that there's no such thing as a
>>pitching prospect, your drafted position players are relatively more
>>likely to give you players and/or bargaining chips.  Admittedly, you
>>don't want to swear off drafting pitchers entirely, but you can save
>>your picks for the ones you think most likely to succeed - while
>>paying competetive rates for pitchers that already have succeeded.
>
>otoh, pitching prospects are valuable in trades.  If you have a AAA
>first baseman you want to trade, the other team may or may not need
>him.  But given the size of pitching staffs, teams always have a need
>for young pitchers.

Agreed, but I'd've traded away all the Mariners' young guns long ago,
even if one of them has become a decent SP in the majors.  It's my
firm opinion that it's worthwhile to draft good arms, but then not be
afraid to move them for major league players and/or decent positional
prospects, who are much less of a crapshoot.  Let the other teams move
ten prospects up the ladder - they will get one Mark Prior, but we get
(at worst) a decent middle infielder, a fourth outfilder, a couple of
bench players, a long reliever, and, at the proper time, the money to
go for a Curt Schilling.

Of course, the calculus changes when you're the Yankees (who realize
this) or the Mariners (who don't).

--Craig


-- 
I start to wish Bob Melvin would walk out to the mound, ask Freddy if he
was injured, and then kick him in the balls so he can call in an 
emergency replacement from the bullpen  --Derek Zumsteg in BP, 5/13/2003