alvtimes said:
Probably not the right spot for this but here goes…..
What the heck happened with Jon Daniels and actually having a competitive roster? I know he was heavily criticized for crappy rosters but Chris Young comes in and ownership is willing to spend again. I cant believe Daniels had ownership blessing to spend but he just didnt.
IMO, there is a lot of that which I find conflicting. At the end, I think it was just the law of averages against him and he ran out of juice.
Daniels always claimed the team was willing to spend and it was his choice to rein in the spending.
He took a Jimmy Johnson approach to talent. Every player in the system had a value and building up... collecting talent was key.
After the 2 WS losses, he seemed very jaded. He always seemed like spending money was his money, and I appreciated that. He also got too clever and thought he'd find that "Money Ball" angle ahead of others.
He toyed with several different gimmick. Not sure if he was too obsessed with analytics, or what.
He went heavy on pitching in the draft. He tried to delay SP from throwing in order to build their core strength. He felt that would help prevent TJ. That didn't work.
He felt burned by signing free agent SP. He once said he'd rather spend $10M/yr for 3 SP than $30M on 1 SP. He explained that almost every SP would end up having lost seasons. TJ, or some injury. He felt if you signed someone like Darvish to a 4yr/$30M deal and he had to have TJ, you lost $30M in payroll. Even at $10M... you'd get *some* production.
He also liked signing retreads (SP). He figured he could sign 3 $10M retread SPs and only 1 needed to land. Whether it was Colby Lewis in 2010 or Tyson Ross. He became very gun-shy about long-term contracts (Prince Fielder).
He toyed with the idea of a 6-Man rotation and an Opener.