Thing 1 – ChiSox acquire James Shields. Padres eat about half of his salary in exchange for 17 year old Fernando Tatis Jr. I’m old enough to remember his Dad playing. Solid player (his Dad). I like this deal from the Padres perspective. Half of Shield’s salary equated to 20 something million. They probably could have traded him for a bucket of balls and “only” picked up 10M of his salary. But I like the concept of kicking in money to get a Prospect with upside.
Thing 2 – Dodgers DFA Carl Crawford. Here’s an example (perhaps a bad example because they’re so stinkin’ rich) of a team coming to grips with a sunk cost. I saw Crawford in Spring Training. He looked awful. I continue to maintain that speed based players (the Carl Crawford and Jose Reyes types) see the quickest declines.
Thing 3 – I think virtually all RWOers – even those with the thick purple tinted glasses – are coming to grips with reality after a somewhat extended solid start. That being said – Jon Gray is becoming a real bright spot. I watched quite a bit of last night’s game. In addition to the FB and slider, he definitely threw a few curveballs and at least a couple of changeups. As I’ve previously noted, this really changes the equation for him. He also has a real swagger on the mound…..not a bad thing.
Thing 4 – This Dodgers/Rox series will highlight two of the games really, really good SSs in Story and Seager.
Thing 5 – see Thing 1. The Shields trade sort of sets the 2016 market. The Rox need to focus on moving Cargo. Heaven forbid – it may mean eating some salary to get the desired return. Also – even though many RWOers will see this differently, I believe Chatwood should also be moved.
This brings us to Thing 6. The Rox, while improving, still need to come grips with the following:
A. Sunk costs.
B. The corresponding Opportunity Cost (i.e. – Story for Tulo).
B. Sell high.
Thing 7 – As noted in previous posts, important time for Bridich. He’s got the Draft, he needs to dump Reyes, and he needs to be reaching out to potential future Managers.
