Pickles

A lot of people are going to be disappointed. Wieters should be fresh on people's minds.

The bolded suggests you do see my point clearly: Inflation is irrelevant to the discussion here.

Sure. And inflation doesn't "cut" your salary either. Only your boss can.

Well, doesn't seem to be working.

That's a different issue now isn't it? The fact is inflation is 7.5% right now. Demanding a 10% raise because of inflation isn't going to work for anyone, even ball players.

Blame inflation for that.

I doubt we sign him as I believe he'll be able to get the same money in a "better" situation for him. That said, he was the FA I said made the most sense in the beginning of the offseason, and I advocated for a front loaded contract to take advantage of our non-existent payroll for the next few seasons. Signing middling FAs to middling contracts isn't going to move the needle for this team. Those kind of deals make sense for a team with a solid competitive foundation. Obviously, that is not our situtation.

I think you can make a pretty solid case that he had a better prime.

Certainly violates a free market. Not sure it violates the Constitution.

Not that it goes against what you're saying, but the players don't have taxpayer-funded billion dollar stadiums gifted them by degenerate politicians.

Ha, yeah I guess that isn't exactly a risky proposition. Just kind of speaking to what sports guy and others had mentioned in prior threads, which is that people tend to give rosier projections of O's players. Well, here's a case where I will take the opposite position and take a negative stance.

I'm going out on a limb here and making a negative prediction. I think he plays himself out of ML baseball this year, and OPS under 680.

I don't think we really disagree about the situation. Both parties shoulder blame.

Or they could sign the paper in front of them and just play ball. Now, that's not a fair expectation, but neither is putting all the blame on the owners, regardless of the lockout. As said above, there's plenty of blame to go around.

They're choosing not to negotiate so.....

Sure, but I think the point of contention people would take with that is the idea there "has" to be a work stoppage. Both sides are choosing that. This isn't an act of God.

Where has anyone claimed a mediator is a magician? You seem to be attacking strange strawmen. I simply suggested that imo we have reached the point where outside mediation seems to be the next logical step. And personally, I'm not putting this on the owners anymore than the players. A 15 minute meeting ten days before the deadline suggests to me that neither is operating in good faith.

Thus outside mediation.

Not looking good. If they can't sit in a room together for more than 15 minutes, perhaps some outside mediation might not be the worst idea.

Mateo's variability might be the highest on the team; I split the baby and went with 690-719. That's a median prediction, but I believe it will certainly be wrong, as I feel he will either outperform or underperform such a prediction. This is his last best chance to establish a ML career. He's got the talent and I enjoyed watching him last year.

I went with 690-719. I see I'm the high man too. He's likely to run into a few fastballs, and you could see 30+ hrs in regular playing time. Hopefully, he doesn't get regular playing time and he's kept to under 300 abs.

I went with 730-769. I think he takes a step a back in a full-time role, but he's a good enough hitter to be a 2nd division regular at 2b.

I'm interested in seeing what he can do- in all aspects of the game. We'll have to keep a close eye on the framing and compare our eyes with what the numbers say.

Fair enough. But it's not just Adley. It's the continuing development of guys like Hays and Mountcastle. This is a developing team, offensively and in all other ways. And if it isn't, then your complaints will start to have a lot more sway with me.

If we're narrowly speaking about offense, then no. Ok, then I'd say the arrival of a global top 2 prospects suggests the development starts now.