Buy the arms and grow the bats?

[sportsfan8703]

Hitters are safer than pitchers. If you stock your system with hitters you can always use the hitters as currency to buy established arms. 

HOU also missed on Mark Appel and then had the Brady Aiken saga. That had to have influenced them. 

[Ohfan67]

3 hours ago, wildbillhiccup said:

I think they should  focus on getting the best available talent, via trades, draft picks, international signings, etc., regardless of position. They can sort out the rest later. Having an abundance of anything is usually a good problem to have. 

This. Injuries, poor performances, and good performances by surprising players ultimately drowns out a lot of draft strategies that try to do things besides maximize talent per draft. 

[BohKnowsBmore]

1 hour ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Hitters are safer than pitchers. If you stock your system with hitters you can always use the hitters as currency to buy established arms. 

HOU also missed on Mark Appel and then had the Brady Aiken saga. That had to have influenced them. 

Also, when things are going well, it's a bit easier to trade for arms at the deadline (easier in terms of them being available).  There will pretty much always be some quality SP for sale and a spot to be upgraded in your rotation.  There may not always be an upgrade at 2B or C or 3B available in a given year, though.

[sportsfan8703]

Can we say that the theory of grow the bats and buy the arms has worked so far?

We bought Burnes for a deal co-headlined with Joey Ortiz. If we stick to just draft eligible players… we could’ve gotten Cease for Mayo if need be. 

So do we switch to drafting a pitcher with our first pick?  Something Elias hasn’t done. Or even in our top 2 picks?  

Mitch Keller is out there in the future. 

[dystopia]

I think either approach is justifiable, but if you have poor player development skills like the Orioles did back then, that makes things ten times harder.