Buster Olney misses the point

[geschinger]

I think it's overly simplistic to say that it fails more often than it succeeds. On top of that, I don't even know if it's true. Boston, Anaheim, and both NY teams all essentially ride FA signings in their way to the playoffs, year in and year out. Boston gets the most help out of those teams from their farm system, and we will unfortunately be competing against a team with both the resources and the ability to make extremely sound baseball decisions. Nonetheless, it's the hand we are dealt, being in the AL East. Given the resources of other teams in our division, it's fair to assume that, if the O's are to make any good-faith attempt at competing in our division on a consistent basis, our payroll will need to approach 110-120 million, while still maintaining the ability to develop major-league talent in the farm system.

Teams like Anaheim and NY built a strong foundation and then augmented it with Free Agency... What fails more often than it succeeds is taking a losing team and trying to build a winner through extravagent overpriced FA signings.