It's beginning to look a lot like... 1998

[tntoriole]

2 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Right.   But correct me if I am wrong...I don't think ANYONE anticipated that Ohtani would be coming to the US under the auspices of being an international free agent on par iwth a 16 year old Dominican or Venezuelan, only able to sign a minor league contract with the cap set by a team's international signing bonus allotment, and waiting 3 years to be eligible for arbitration, etc.

People either thought:

   -- he would wait until he was 25 and could get real money

or

   -- he would be grandfathered in as an exception to the new CBA and it would be a veteran free market for him

It was only a few weeks ago that the announcement was made that the rules are the way they are.   So on that date, the value of international signing bonus money went WAY up, because now it could be a factor in getting Ohtani.

So you can't judge DD's trades of ISB$ before that was known against what the Twins were able to get.

You can certainly regret those deals now because if we had kept our ISB$ we could have picked up a really good prospect or two.   But I don't think many people predicted it would work out like this.

This is true.  But I think there have been a number of teams that have dealt pool money for different reasons.  Our reason is that the old man won’t agree to Dominican teenage pitching or position prospects, which admittedly is dumb, but if that IS the reason, then I have nothing against Dan trading it away.   Although Levine is pretty sharp in recognizing the uptick in value of the pool dollars for the Ohtani play and leveraging it to get two pretty good prospects.  

[Can_of_corn]

11 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Right.   But correct me if I am wrong...I don't think ANYONE anticipated that Ohtani would be coming to the US under the auspices of being an international free agent on par iwth a 16 year old Dominican or Venezuelan, only able to sign a minor league contract with the cap set by a team's international signing bonus allotment, and waiting 3 years to be eligible for arbitration, etc.

People either thought:

   -- he would wait until he was 25 and could get real money

or

   -- he would be grandfathered in as an exception to the new CBA and it would be a veteran free market for him

It was only a few weeks ago that the announcement was made that the rules are the way they are.   So on that date, the value of international signing bonus money went WAY up, because now it could be a factor in getting Ohtani.

So you can't judge DD's trades of ISB$ before that was known against what the Twins were able to get.

You can certainly regret those deals now because if we had kept our ISB$ we could have picked up a really good prospect or two.   But I don't think many people predicted it would work out like this.

I saw what eventually happened listed as a possibility this summer.  So I wouldn't say it was a total shock.

[SteveA]

39 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I saw what eventually happened listed as a possibility this summer.  So I wouldn't say it was a total shock.

OK, I guess I hadn't heard about it.   The idea that he'd come over for $3 million bonus and minimum salary seemed absurd.

But it's happening.