2023 – A new beginning for the Royals. Matt Quatraro era begins. A year to see which of our young players will make up the core going forward. Can Bobby Witt Jr become a superstar SS or will go to the hot corner? Will Brady Singer take the next step forward? Will Salvy be Salvy? Will Big Vin or Pratto take first base? Will they find a position for MJ? Who else emerges from the youth movement? Not to mention the development of the new downtown stadium.
Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Jordan Lyles, RHP
Ryan Yarbrough, LHP
Josh Taylor, LHP
Aroldis Chapman, LHP
Top 10 Prospects from Baseball America
1. Gavin Cross, OF
2. Cayden Wallace, 3B
3. Drew Waters, OF
4. Ben Kudrna, RHP
5. Frank Mozzicato, LHP
6. Maikel Garcia, SS
7. Tyler Gentry, OF
8. Nick Loftin, OF/3B
9. Angel Zerpa, LHP
10. Carter Jensen, C [Reply]
maybe they think the division is winnable but another part could be to make a decent attempt to improve the team to be able to sign Bobby long term [Reply]
Originally Posted by The Franchise:
Because we spend money and have a good farm system?
You're one of my favorite posters on CP, so please don't take this question as me being my normally snarky, asshole self, but if the Dodgers have such a great farm system why do they need to go out and spend a billion dollars on free agents?
When fans of small market teams make statements like "the Dodgers exemplify everything that is wrong with baseball," they mean that for a small market team every decision has to be perfect for that team to succeed. Every free agent acquisition has to work both on the field and financially, every high draft pick has to pan out, and all contract decisions have to be both viable on the field and on the ledger. Teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, etc...can literally fuck it up and then buy their way out of their bad decisions. I'm not saying the Dodgers aren't a well run organization or that they have recently made a bunch of bad decisions, I'm just saying their margin for error is huge.
Baseball will never surpass or even come close to football in popularity again. The fact that 80% of the league knows going into the season they have zero shot at making the playoffs and that whenever a big time free agent hits the market only about 5-6 teams have a legitimate shot at signing said player is a major contributing factor to fan interest. [Reply]
Braves have spent really the last 5 years or so being the best run organization in baseball. The Rays aren't far behind.
And in about 2 weeks the Dodgers just pulled out a checkbook and undid a half decade of being out-maneuvered.
I mean as a Cardinals fan I don't even care - we weren't winning anything anyway. And the fact that LA is probably going to embarrass us just makes me smile.
But if I were a Braves fan this would be REALLY disheartening. Over a long stretch of really smart decisions they managed to bow out in the 1st round of the playoffs 4 years out of 6 and now the Dodgers have decided they're going to throw money around like they're printing it (and lets be fair, they pretty much are).
Originally Posted by LoneWolf:
You're one of my favorite posters on CP, so please don't take this question as me being my normally snarky, asshole self, but if the Dodgers have such a great farm system why do they need to go out and spend a billion dollars on free agents?
When fans of small market teams make statements like "the Dodgers exemplify everything that is wrong with baseball," they mean that for a small market team every decision has to be perfect for that team to succeed. Every free agent acquisition has to work both on the field and financially, every high draft pick has to pan out, and all contract decisions have to be both viable on the field and on the ledger. Teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, etc...can literally fuck it up and then buy their way out of their bad decisions. I'm not saying the Dodgers aren't a well run organization or that they have recently made a bunch of bad decisions, I'm just saying their margin for error is huge.
Baseball will never surpass or even come close to football in popularity again. The fact that 80% of the league knows going into the season they have zero shot at making the playoffs and that whenever a big time free agent hits the market only about 5-6 teams have a legitimate shot at signing said player is a major contributing factor to fan interest.
And I get it. I'm sure if I was a fan of one of those small market teams, I would be just as pissed off at a system that doesn't give everyone equal footing.
In my mind, I've seen one championship that I can remember and that one will always have an asterix next to it. It will always be called out as a fraud.
I'm just not seeing the disdain for these moves like other people are. Ohtani and Yamamoto both wanted to be Dodgers and Ohtani deferred money so that he wasn't stuck in another Angels situation. What have we done the past years? Betts and Freeman? We didn't pay an absurd amount to Trea Turner to stay. We didn't pay that to Seager...even though we should have. We didn't do it to Scherzer. [Reply]
