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Comparing the 2011 M's to a generic pool of pennant-winners would not isolate them against teams that had overwhelming rotations.
The 2005 Astros won the NL pennant with Oswalt, Clemens, Pettitte, a 121 ERA+ .... and four terrible hitters in an 8-man lineup, with a 90 team OPS+.
Many other examples exist, pennant-winners with 50% AAA lineups, such as the 2006 Cardinals, for example. If you've got a glaring weakness, you need to make up big somewhere else.
..............
If the assertion is, "I personally would not prefer to push all-in in 2011," I'd say that's reasonable.
If the assertion is, "The M's need to acknowledge that they can't win this year," I'd say that is off the mark.
:daps:
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