Re: If I owned the Devil Rays...

Ima Pseudonym <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 18:36:06 +0000 (UTC), <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
: wrote:

:>Note that this has been one of Brian Sabean's key strategies: he basically 
:>uses all his high draft picks on arms, and then packages them to get 
:>useful stuff.  
:>
:>It's such a good strategy that Sabean's made it work despite having pretty 
:>miserable talent judgement.  

: Well, at least it works when what you're building around is one of the
: best players in history at his peak.  I'll be curious to see how it
: works after Bonds is gone.

I don't think that's fair to Sabean; the obvious retort is to check out 
how the Texas Rangers are doing.  

: Of course, he may change his strategy somewhat then, and show a
: greater concern with developing and actually keeping prospects.

I wouldn't change if I were him.  Bonds is obviously a huge part of the 
Giants' success, but they've averaged >92 wins during the Sabean era, and 
>95 over the last four years, so it's still a bit better than a .500 team 
if you replace Bonds with a league-average guy -- and that's pretty good.  

Again, I think that Sabean's talent evaluation pretty much stinks, but 
that his strategy for how to go about getting talent is excellent.  It's 
not just his kid pitchers for talent trades; he's also great at trading 
for or signing guys who have had an off year (Burks, Kent, Alfonzo, etc.), 
and he has several other tricks that work well.  His downside is that he's 
just as likely to snarf up a Neifi Perez or Russ Davis, so a good chunk of 
his talent coups don't involve any actual talent.  

JHB