Cleveland

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The 2010-14 Giants: the #38 Dynasty

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John Clayton says that an NFL franchise gets to hang a DYNASTY!! pennant when --- > it has 3 Super Bowls in 6 years.  Dr. D will buy that.

Bill James takes this question to a more fine-grain level.  To absolutely everybody's surprise and amazment, he came up with a "points system" to grade Dynasties.  You know what his main reason was, this time?  To get himself an objective grade for the Red Sox he'd been a part of.  :- )  Hey, how about a M's blog Tomorrow's News Today points system.  Fire me up, Matty.

Mojo sez,

Great Bullpens and "Chemistry"

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With the Mariners desperately trying to hold onto a 9-run lead Tuesday, like a cat hanging onto a screen door by its claws, they turned to Brandon Maurer.  Maurer struck out 3 Rangers in the inning, and ... there should be a different term for it, when a pitcher sprays flaming napalm like that.  Sending three batters staggering back to the dugout as burning zombies.

Wow, said Mike Blowers.  In a 10-1 game, you sure don't expect to see a guy like THIS come into the game.

You get it?  It's like the old NCAA football overmatches, when the Crimson Tide would send on their second string and then that squad would bury the Huskies' starters.  How do you describe the sinking feeling?  Realizing that you, as a starter, couldn't make the other team's bench?  The moment comes when a man realizes his limitations...

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But We Thought the Wil Myers Trade was 20th-Century Thinking?

Two weeks ago, Dave Fleming, at Bill James Online, wrote an article "Are the Royals Smarter than Everyone Else?"  He can't fathom the idea that the Royals are truly competing with the Tigers -- that's not a swipe at Fleming -- so he breaks it down.  

DJ for Zobrist, redux

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Prospects for veterans, those trades are understandable to 30 GM's, if not to $/WAR paradigmists.  When you trade good prospects you are acknowledging that they might very well become club-controlled stars; you're not trying to treat fellow GM's like a used-car salesman would.

When an Adam Jones, much less a Wil Myers or Addison Russell, turns out to hit #3 for the other team, in real life a GM is (ostensibly) GLAD that the other team is satisfied with its trade return.  GM's are classy people, generally speaking, who deal in Win-Win scenarios.  They want a rep for delivering the goods when they trade.

Real baseball does not deal in "let's rip off the other side" paradigms.  

You get your ace for 1.5 years - Jeff Samardzija - and you assure the other GM "you're getting quite a player there in Addison Russell."  Oakland fans are not going to spend 10 years wringing their hands that Russell plays well for the Cubs, which he will.  They want their TOR starter, because this year's pennant is worth something, too.

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Zobrist at his age is a complementary piece, not a feature piece, so the argument morphs.  Back on topic:

In an unrelated point, Gordon, for some reason, didn't put this gem on the front page...

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You don't trade D.J. for Zobrist because D.J. is your #1 prospect.  (This rightly presumes Zobrist is far less desirable than Samardzija or Bedard - Dr. D)

... now that Paxton and Walker are presumed to be big-league rotation parts, let's say.  Maybe he's #2 behind Jackson, but little AJ is currently 6 levels away from the bigs, and DJ is in AA, starred in the Futures Game, and should be ready by Spring 2016 if we wanna take it slow.

You don't spend your best trade chip and top-50 minor league prospect on a pretty decent player. It devalues the rest of your system. ;-)

Our system/young player list breaks down like this:

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