Orioles Sign Heston Kjerstad

[Just Regular]

35 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Of the 13 teams that have signed all their draft picks, per Sportrac, only the Braves ($131,000) and Mariners ($304,400) have left more than $7,300 of their pool unspent. 7 teams exceeded their pool.

Good context.  I might have been tempted to say this is like having $4 for your last $1 player at the end of a roto-auction (because  one of your $10 targets fell to $7), but perhaps it is a little more significant than that.

I like the Servideo/Casey Martin level of player to hypothesize on because I don't think this delta really moves the needle from Kjerstad-land to Lacy/Austin Martin land if we wanted the same basket of down draft players.

Absolutely you hope to exhaust this pool as they are the proverbial dollars that are worth more than a dollar each.

Also probably a tricky chicken and egg to unravel if Servideo's number now skews high.

[DrungoHazewood]

23 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I know you generally have to pay for quality.

I think they did well, but considering that they had the 1-2 pick and the largest pool of money they should have had the best draft.

Do you think they are going to catch up to the rest of the AL East with "very nice"?

I really and truly couldn't care less if they didn't theoretically maximize the draft by spending every available penny.   Could they use more talent?  Sure.  Would some hypothetical other strategy where they picked other players have led to a point where they spent every penny and possibly, theoretically have gotten 2.2% more talent?  Sure, why not. 

I'm with @Moose Milligan.  Don't care at all.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I really and truly couldn't care less if they didn't theoretically maximize the draft by spending every available penny.   Could they use more talent?  Sure.  Would some hypothetical other strategy where they picked other players have led to a point where they spent every penny and possibly, theoretically have gotten 2.2% more talent?  Sure, why not. 

I'm with @Moose Milligan.  Don't care at all.

Some folks might not believe this but I want the team to be successful.

I think they have two avenues to winning.

Be smarter and better than pretty much everyone else.

Get really lucky.

[MurphDogg]

36 minutes ago, wildcard said:

I will go for none of the above.

I think it indicates that the  O's took a risk at going underslot with Kjerstad without having an agreement in place at the time for the draft and wanted some cushion in case there needed to go higher to sign any of their draft choices.   

If every other team is able to do the same thing while needing less of a cushion, it seems like choices 2 and/or 3 must be in play.

[Moose Milligan]

12 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Some folks might not believe this but I want the team to be successful.

I think they have two avenues to winning.

Be smarter and better than pretty much everyone else.

Get really lucky.

Spending every last dollar is silly.  And it's probably pretty hard to understand what these guys will want and to work within your budget to get it done.  I'd be inclined to agree with you if they did something stupid like spent 6 million with a pool of 12 million...but leaving a few hundred thousand dollars on the table isn't the worst thing in the world.  

At the end of the day, do you like our draft picks?  That's what matters.  By and large, I do.  

[Ruzious]

9 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Some folks might not believe this but I want the team to be successful.

I think they have two avenues to winning.

Be smarter and better than pretty much everyone else.

Get really lucky.

Would it have made more sense to pay $300k more on a player they liked less?  Of course not, but it would seem to have eliminated your criticism.  

Btw, I have zero doubt you want the team to be successful.  You're a great fan.  

   

[Can_of_corn]

10 minutes ago, Ruzious said:

Would it have made more sense to pay $300k more on a player they liked less?  Of course not, but it would seem to have eliminated your criticism.  

Btw, I have zero doubt you want the team to be successful.  You're a great fan.  

   

I don't think teams can go into the draft and just pick the top player on their board every round.

[weams]

30 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Some folks might not believe this but I want the team to be successful.

I think they have two avenues to winning.

Be smarter and better than pretty much everyone else.

Get really lucky.

And you would be ok if were the latter? Because I would and Joe Saunders is still a hero. 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, weams said:

And you would be ok if were the latter? Because I would and Joe Saunders is still a hero. 

I'll enjoy it almost as much.

It'd be really close.

Kinda like 2012 or 1989.

[makoman]

The thing is, if they really wanted any of these over slot guys like Ginn or Wilcox or Fulton they could have had them. They knew they were going to have a couple million extra and Mayo and Baumler were surely not written in stone when Westburg or Haskin were taken. They apparently valued trying to get two over slot rather than one, or were risking someone to slip into the 4th (which seems strange). 

This team clearly has some idiosyncratic evaluation ideas and they may well just like who they got. Hard to say, and hard to say how it will go. 

[weams]

53 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I really and truly couldn't care less if they didn't theoretically maximize the draft by spending every available penny.   Could they use more talent?  Sure.  Would some hypothetical other strategy where they picked other players have led to a point where they spent every penny and possibly, theoretically have gotten 2.2% more talent?  Sure, why not. 

I'm with @Moose Milligan.  Don't care at all.

I'd be ok if they just mailed the 300k to Moose. He'd take care of us. 

[weams]

16 minutes ago, makoman said:

The thing is, if they really wanted any of these over slot guys like Ginn or Wilcox or Fulton they could have had them. They knew they were going to have a couple million extra and Mayo and Baumler were surely not written in stone when Westburg or Haskin were taken. They apparently valued trying to get two over slot rather than one, or were risking someone to slip into the 4th (which seems strange). 

This team clearly has some idiosyncratic evaluation ideas and they may well just like who they got. Hard to say, and hard to say how it will go. 

I think there were some specific players that we did secure, that were high on the Orioles list that may not  have been the most expensive when the draft position was on the clock. 

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

Spending every last dollar is silly.  And it's probably pretty hard to understand what these guys will want and to work within your budget to get it done.  I'd be inclined to agree with you if they did something stupid like spent 6 million with a pool of 12 million...but leaving a few hundred thousand dollars on the table isn't the worst thing in the world.  

At the end of the day, do you like our draft picks?  That's what matters.  By and large, I do.  

I think the counter to this is, did they pass on a talent higher on their board because they wanted to save money?

We are still run by the Angelos family and they still are terrible owners, even if the sons are a little better than their old man.

Its obvious Elias wanted someone who he felt would fall, like Blitsko, and it didn’t work out.  And if he got guys he truly wanted, great.  But if he passed on a guy like Wilcox or Jared Kelley so that the Angelos family didn’t have to spend that extra money, I have an issue with that.

We probably will never know but it’s certainly reasonable to assume imo.

[Ruzious]

37 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't think teams can go into the draft and just pick the top player on their board every round.

Obviously they don't, and I didn't say or imply they did.  Look at the O's 1st pick.  

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Ruzious said:

Obviously they don't, and I didn't say or imply they did.  Look at the O's 1st pick.  

I took your comment as meaning that they might have taken the player they liked the most with every pick.