Sunk Costs
Finally we have found the correct incentive for Panda (and Jonez)

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Disrespecting Mariners!  Perhaps that has been my fault!

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AND HE DRAWS KUNG FU PANDA OUT!  :: crowd goes wild ::

Russ (Silentpadna, from D-O-V circa 1995) can tolerate Dr. D's pessimism no longer, and at long last is moved to throw a knifehand at his tormentor.  He sez

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[You're not really married to Gallardo.]  You're spending the $12M for something.  A healthy org would consider it a sunk cost if he tanks, but can also justify the investment if it indeed does have the effect of galvanizing the back end of the staff for competition.

If they hit Keno on Gallardo (lottery would be young Gallardo), great.  If you don't and you are willing to jettison him, the message to the waves on the way is that your performance matters.  Entitlement can still be a factor (which it should - you don't jettison Cano because of a bad April/May), but it doesn't preclude you from always looking to put your best 25 out there.  If a $12M investment gives the competitive atmosphere you want, do you do it? 

From the outside, it's easy for us to want to control the M's money based on what we think they should do.  In a vaccuum, the Gallardo contract makes no sense.  In context, it still may not make sense, but if it has other desireable consequences for the team, it just might.

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If you just joined us, via SportSpyder we presume 'cause we sure fired ain't talking to any Denizen ... a sunk cost is when you've spent $5,000 educating a blogger like Dr. D but then you can fire him and get Bill James for $1.  A World Series of Poker player who has invested $5,000 in a pot couldn't care LESS about how the last $5,000 affects his "fold" decision on the next card.  Couldn't care LESS, and that is proof of the concept in the formal sense.

The Rain Man mathematician freaks at the World Series of Poker are ONLY interested in 

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-- UM, PROSPECTIVE COSTS --

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Such as the cost of putting up with Dr. D's shtick for even one more season (yeah, probly) ...  or the cost of putting another $1,000 into a hand you're sure to lose  ... or the cost of letting Yovanni Gallardo run a 5.63 ERA in June when Andrew Moore could run a 4.13 ERA and develop for 2018 also.

It's a life lesson, man.  Do not chase bad money with good money.

Also, don't get fired for making your boss look bad, though.  

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Now, granted, Jerry Dipoto his ownself will be chipping his teeth at Dr. D's suggestion that Yovanni Gallardo is a "sunk cost" before throwing pitch one.  Dipoto would not bring in said pitcher if Dipoto expected said 5.63 ERA.

We shall SEE who is in possession of more baseball wisdom:  Jerry Dipoto or Dr. Detecto.         :: steeples fingers ::

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The question remains.  Does this group of suits* seem to YOU Denizens like --- > guys who would grin manfully and sink a huge cost sooner rather than later?

Servais' "tell" was his quote that the Mariners are "committed" to Mark Rzepczynski.  Different subject?

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VOGELBACH GOES YARD IN THE REAL MAJORS?

The Bach Has Landed, murmurs the peanut gallery.  No video evidence whatsoever exists to confirm this rumor.  Box score evidence, yes, but visual confirmation, absolutely not.

We dis' a scrubeenie first baseman, or scoff at the concept of Gallardo losing less than 14 games, and you all go nuts.  We jubilantly play a brilliancy on Andrew Moore and we get crickets.  Okay.  Careful what you wish for.

24-3 Brew you feebs,

Dr. D

*this was ironic.  For those who have informed us that they are "autistic" about teasing.

** that was friendly too.

*** that was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek also.  You coulda knew the last line.  Maybe.

Comments

4
The Other Billy Zoom's picture

...only the eldest remember the "peanut galley" as a reference to spectators of kid shows on TV.

In those days, peanuts were small meaningless snacks, but turned out to be a good source of protein.

But peanuts were always a staple of the baseball diet.

The bag called the Peanut Gallardo, someone should recall, was a snack mainly to dump an un-athletic S. Smith, as a set up man for the acquisition of another deal which was consumated the next day.

To make "that next move", S. Smith had to be gone for SOMEONE who might enhance the 2017 season.

No other team stepped up to offer Depoet such a fulfilling replacement snack, for the entree that he saw on the menu, but the meal required an  appetizer.

The M's did not need a highly rated AAA prospect, they needed someone who had a least proven something in the bigs at some point, and they needed a guy deep in the rotation.

Gallardo was the best option DePoet could crunch for S. Smith.

And Peanut Gallardo should not be dismissed simply because he had a bad year.

There still might be juice in old kid's shows that ain't used up in grainy reruns.

He still has a chance to swim successfully across The River.

zoom 

5

The decision to Shed Smith is sensible and even the key to Seattle's Grand Outfield Experiment.  My only surprise is that it cost quite so much to pay his airfare.  You'd have thought Smith was worth half his salary, $3-4M, under any circumstances, but at Gallardo's salary the M's paid $9M to get out of Smith's contract.  Of course the M's are privy to what the "best deal available is."

As I'm sure you know, most of the Gallardo 'angst' is tongue in cheek.  No doubt you gotta swap bad contracts for bad contracts.  No doubt any GM has the right to make a call on who is going to have a good season.  Yovanni is about to become a 'whipping boy' or else Dr. D is but it's just a little joke.

Merely wondering about the potential willingness to swap him out should things go sideways early ... politics and appearances are part of any Big Bidness org.

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