How the 2021 Playoff Teams Were Built

[Porky]

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I saw this on Reddit and I thought the board might find this interesting - given that the O's are in the middle of their rebuild. The first image indicates the number of players on the roster that were acquired via trade, draft, international, free agent. The second image indicates the combined bWAR per group.

A more detailed breakdown is likely more valuable, but I found a few things surprising from this overview.

[Moose Milligan]

And to think the franchise had spent all this time not working the international markets.  No wonder we've been so terrible for so long.  Terrible at drafting, no international market presence. 

OMG THE ASTROS MODEL!!!!!!1111 

[Aristotelian]

Interesting. Even knowing how much Tampa trades off veterans I am surprised to see how much of their roster comes from other organizations.

Interesting that Houston has the biggest numbers from both draft and international. 

I thought the Giants were geniuses at finding guys on waivers but looks like only 1 player, 1.6 WAR. Looks like we are actually beating them by those metrics. 

[Aglets]

19 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Interesting. Even knowing how much Tampa trades off veterans I am surprised to see how much of their roster comes from other organizations.

Interesting that Houston has the biggest numbers from both draft and international. 

I thought the Giants were geniuses at finding guys on waivers but looks like only 1 player, 1.6 WAR. Looks like we are actually beating them by those metrics. 

Giants are great at finding washed up SP candidates that have bounced from team to team.......signing them in FA and then having them pitch like Cy Young award candidates.

[Aglets]

Also their top player is a 6 WAR SS that they drafted and developed having his best season ever at the age of 34.

His career OPS is .727.    This year it is .895.

Good for them!  Maybe there is something going on there with coaching......who knows.

[Yossarian]

I prefer pie charts

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

For the Orioles you would need to add in a section Rule 5 Draft picks to get an accurate breakdown. 

[SteveA]

Tampa has announced their first 3 starters for the LDS.   They are McClanahan, Baz, and Rasmussen.  

McClanahan made his major league debut in the postseason last year after never pitching in the majors in the regular season (nor in the minors in 2020 because there was no minors).  A first round pick in 2018.   Was #83 and #100 prospect in MLB in 2020 & 2021, respectively, by Baseball America.

Baz was a first round pick in 2017 with the Pirates who was acquired in the infamous Archer deal along with Meadows and Glasnow, which may wind up in the pantheon of great deals in MLB history along with the Frank Robinson, Lou Brock and Jeff Bagwell deals.   He made his major league debut less than two weeks ago.   He too was a lower half of the top 100 MLB prospect list by baseball America.

Rasmussen, at 26, is the oldest of the 3.  A 6th round pick by Milwaukee in 2018, acquired mid season this year by the Rays for Willie Adames.  He has 91 major league innings.  He was never rated a top 100 prospect.

It is amazing, practically unprecedented, that a team could compile the best record in the AL and go into the playoffs with guys like that as their top 3 starters.   They have less than 250 innings total in the majors.  And I imagine Luis Patino could be their 4th or 5th starter, unless they go with Wacha and McHugh, but Patino will certainly get his innings.

A year ago today, McClanahan, Baz, Rasmussen, Wacha, McHugh, and Patino had never put on a Rays uniform, and only McClanahan was in the organization.   And now those guys will likely pitch more than half the innings for Tampa in this postseason.   And no one will be shocked if they make it to the World Series again.

How do they do this?   They gave up solid players (Snell, Adames, Archer) to acquire some of these guys.   But it seems to me they never miss when evaluating talent.   We are sitting here talking about hoping to sign a Matz or maybe if we get real lucky, a DeSclafani, in the offseason, and they put together nearly a complete pitching staff from scratch in the last year, with the exception of McClanahan being in their system already.

If Grayson Rodriguez is our McClanahan, and by all accounts better, how can we add 6 or 7 guys and put together a 97 win pitching staff for next year?   Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Aristotelian]

9 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

For the Orioles you would need to add in a section Rule 5 Draft picks to get an accurate breakdown. 

There is one. Red Sox are the only team with a Rule 5 player.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

There is one. Red Sox are the only team with a Rule 5 player.

Hard to believe that more playoff teams don't take advantage of that great resource.

 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

7 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

There is one. Red Sox are the only team with a Rule 5 player.

And if the Orioles turn it around they will have maybe one Rule 5 player on their next playoff roster. 

[Ruzious]

55 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

For the Orioles you would need to add in a section Rule 5 Draft picks to get an accurate breakdown. 

The O's basically used the Rule 5 draft Instead Of the international market.  That didn't work out real well, but it cost less.    

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Ruzious said:

The O's basically used the Rule 5 draft Instead Of the international market.  That didn't work out real well, but it cost less.    

I don't see how those are comparable.

[Ruzious]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't see how those are comparable.

That's why it didn't work out well.  

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, SteveA said:

Tampa has announced their first 3 starters for the LDS.   They are McClanahan, Baz, and Rasmussen.  

McClanahan made his major league debut in the postseason last year after never pitching in the majors in the regular season (nor in the minors in 2020 because there was no minors).  A first round pick in 2018.   Was #83 and #100 prospect in MLB in 2020 & 2021, respectively, by Baseball America.

Baz was a first round pick in 2017 with the Pirates who was acquired in the infamous Archer deal along with Meadows and Glasnow, which may wind up in the pantheon of great deals in MLB history along with the Frank Robinson, Lou Brock and Jeff Bagwell deals.   He made his major league debut less than two weeks ago.   He too was a lower half of the top 100 MLB prospect list by baseball America.

Rasmussen, at 26, is the oldest of the 3.  A 6th round pick by Milwaukee in 2018, acquired mid season this year by the Rays for Willie Adames.  He has 91 major league innings.  He was never rated a top 100 prospect.

It is amazing, practically unprecedented, that a team could compile the best record in the AL and go into the playoffs with guys like that as their top 3 starters.   They have less than 250 innings total in the majors.  And I imagine Luis Patino could be their 4th or 5th starter, unless they go with Wacha and McHugh, but Patino will certainly get his innings.

A year ago today, McClanahan, Baz, Rasmussen, Wacha, McHugh, and Patino had never put on a Rays uniform, and only McClanahan was in the organization.   And now those guys will likely pitch more than half the innings for Tampa in this postseason.   And no one will be shocked if they make it to the World Series again.

How do they do this?   They gave up solid players (Snell, Adames, Archer) to acquire some of these guys.   But it seems to me they never miss when evaluating talent.   We are sitting here talking about hoping to sign a Matz or maybe if we get real lucky, a DeSclafani, in the offseason, and they put together nearly a complete pitching staff from scratch in the last year, with the exception of McClanahan being in their system already.

If Grayson Rodriguez is our McClanahan, and by all accounts better, how can we add 6 or 7 guys and put together a 97 win pitching staff for next year?   Inquiring minds want to know.

 

It is amazing to me how every Tampa pitching prospect seems to have a seamless transition to the major leagues.   I’m sure there are exceptions, but Tampa is very far ahead of the pack in this regard, and has been for years.  I wish the O’s had 25% of Tampa’s success in that regard.