Waste of International Bounty. New GM. Discuss.

[weams]

Orioles have six million more international slots than anyone that expire in June. What would you like to see them spent on.  Assuming the slots can be funded. 

[El Gordo]

[Malike]

There was nothing to spend the money on. I feel like you are shouting to be heard for some reason. This is the biggest non move of the entire off-season and you are implying that Elias does not have control because of your weird agenda that gets forced down our throats. a lot.

[Camden_yardbird]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Color me shocked that Mike "Total Control" Elias is now trading International slot money.

We all know the best way to build up a strong farm system and International presence is to not spend money on International players.

Does anyone think that Elias had permission to spend this money on International players but decided instead to do this?

 

One more question, if the O's return him do the Phillies or the O's get the 50K?  Because if it's the O's this deal makes more sense.  50K is a lot of money.

This is such a huge overreaction to a non-story.

It was clear that money was amassed by DD for VVM or bust.  THEY busted.  Now Elias is using the asset he inherited that has little value due to the lateness of the hour in re international signings to get something that could be of value.

[Can_of_corn]

9 minutes ago, Malike said:

There was nothing to spend the money on. I feel like you are shouting to be heard for some reason. This is the biggest non move of the entire off-season and you are implying that Elias does not have control because of your weird agenda that gets forced down our throats. a lot.

As someone else asked, than why did the Phillies trade for it?  The slots are good for another six months.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Camden_yardbird said:

This is such a huge overreaction to a non-story.

It was clear that money was amassed by DD for VVM or bust.  THEY busted.  Now Elias is using the asset he inherited that has little value due to the lateness of the hour in re international signings to get something that could be of value.

Than why did Roch report that the O's offer wasn't competitive with the Marlins' offer?

If it's clear and all, because I'm still kinda fuzzy on how it can be VVM or bust and then you give the player an offer you know is less than a competitor can offer.

[Number5]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

As someone else asked, than why did the Phillies trade for it?  The slots are good for another six months.

Zero risk to the Phillies.  If they stumble on an international free agent that's been overlooked that they can convince to sign before July 1, great.  If no, no biggie.  This really is a non-issue, Corn.

[TonySoprano]

How much money was "wasted" on this transaction?   I can't imagine it was enough to warrant this latest outburst.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Number5 said:

Zero risk to the Phillies.  If they stumble on an international free agent that's been overlooked that they can convince to sign before July 1, great.  If no, no biggie.  This really is a non-issue, Corn.

Believe it or not, I'm not frothing at the mouth about it.

I just think it's an indicator that Elias doesn't have the freedom we hope he does.

[Number5]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Believe it or not, I'm not frothing at the mouth about it.

I just think it's an indicator that Elias doesn't have the freedom we hope he does.

Hey, who knows?  You may eventually be proven right and the Angelos brothers end up not being able to control themselves and start meddling in baseball operations down the road.  This trade, however, in no way indicates that that has already happened.

[Frobby]

7 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Believe it or not, I'm not frothing at the mouth about it.

I just think it's an indicator that Elias doesn't have the freedom we hope he does.

Yeah, I don’t know what evidence supports that interpretation.   

[wildbillhiccup]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Color me shocked that Mike "Total Control" Elias is now trading International slot money.

We all know the best way to build up a strong farm system and International presence is to not spend money on International players.

Does anyone think that Elias had permission to spend this money on International players but decided instead to do this?

 

One more question, if the O's return him do the Phillies or the O's get the 50K?  Because if it's the O's this deal makes more sense.  50K is a lot of money.

I mean didn't Duquette and Brady kind of put him in this position when they put all their eggs in the international slot money basket and then proceed to whiff on the Mesa brothers and any other high profile international targets? It's the reason why neither one of them should have been allowed to trade anyone other than the players that had to be traded (Machado and Britton). Especially Duquette since he was basically a dead man walking. 

[NCRaven]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Just because move A is smart doesn't mean move B wouldn't have been even better.

In this case it is smart to trade slot money that ownership won't let you spend.  It is smarter yet to do like the other 29 teams and actually spend the slot money.

 

 

No, it's slot money that the owner wouldn't let Dan Duquette spend on players that are no longer available.  At this point we have more slot value available than we'll be able to spend, so it makes total senses to trade a portion of it away while saving some in case a player pops or the Mexican amateurs become available.  You can keep pumping bullets into it, but that horse has been deceased for some time now.

[LookitsPuck]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Phillies sure think they can spend some.

Sorry, until I see proof to the contrary I'm going to believe that ownership has capped International spending.  It explains Zoellner, it explains the low ball VVM offer and it explains Elias trading away slot money.  We had three different folks in charge and the constant was ownership.

Is there any evidence of a low ball offer to VVM? Do we know any real numbers? Maybe, just maybe, the Cuban connection (as I said before) was the big selling point for VVM and Miami.

[bpilktree]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Phillies sure think they can spend some.

Sorry, until I see proof to the contrary I'm going to believe that ownership has capped International spending.  It explains Zoellner, it explains the low ball VVM offer and it explains Elias trading away slot money.  We had three different folks in charge and the constant was ownership.

If they did't want to spend it they could have just not spent it and it would not have cost them a penny.  Instead they used it to pay 50k to a guy they wanted in the rule 5 draft.  So they really spent money if they keep him compared to doing nothing and just letting the choice to spend the money expire.