Castro and Cubs reach a seven year deal

[ChicagoDawg1991]

hopefully this will get his head straight and not commit 20 errors a year

 

[Rice Cube]

Official:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/08/cubs-castro-agree-to-extension.html

 

[Mr. Cub]

Now we can only hope that since he's got his dough, he won't continue to suck.

 

[Rice Cube]

Some words from the presser:

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/13135/cubs-pleased-with-their-diamond-in-the-rough

 

[Jntg4]

Now we can only hope that since he's got his dough, he won't continue to suck.

97 OPS+ in spite of a by far career low BABIP, 97 is below average, but not to the point of truly sucking.

 

[2SeamHeat]

So you wanted Ricketts to spend, spend, spend? How would that have cured an already old, declining team? Ricketts came in in a bad situation and while yes, he has been a master of PR, that's about all he can do. He can't take over and make sudden rash changes. We've seen how that plays out. It doesn't work. He took his time and started with the behind the scenes and getting a complete overhaul there. Which makes sense, does it not? They're the ones who are going to be directly running this team. If you give a crappy GM a good team, he's still a crappy GM. But if you give a crappy team to a good GM, something can be done. One of the things that I really admire in Ricketts is his patience and while in the mean time, he has been running the team like a business, that's a good thing. He has been promoting the team to get people in there. Without the people showing up when we suck, it's going to be harder to get the money that we need to succeed. When a CEO takes over a failing company, he doesn't immediately fire everyone does he? No. He takes his time and learns what he needs to learn so he can make an educated decision on who to fire and who to keep.

Been stupidly busy lately... just now kinda getting back. Have to say, CO... this is an extremely good post. I'll even ignore your previous statements for wanting to spend spend spend, because those were made out of a different situation. Outside of wanting to keep Pena and ARam.. I don't really recall you pining away for anything out of ridiculous bounds. Granted, you were in favor of signing Pujols to a massively long deal... but I can actually understand that sentiment, as he has been the best player in the league over the past several years. Those guys (while still in their prime) don't become available very often. Overall, I think you sum up the situation quite well here. Kudos and well done!

 

[2SeamHeat]

Great post by CO

mind = blown that I agree with him about something

Was thinking the same thing...

 

[2SeamHeat]

Welcome to Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and San Diego. That plan has worked out great for them.

Worked for the Yankees in the early 90s, the RedSox in the late 90s, the Rays, the Twins on several occasions, Cincy, Arizona recently, the Tigers of the early 2000s, the Rangers just a 3-5 years ago. Keep in mind, the Pirates and ROyals have also gone on the cheap when drafting... something the Pirates have gotten away from over the past 3-4 years... and look... they're in the playoff hunt right now.

 

[2SeamHeat]

Let's not forget that the majority of the superstar players were selected in the later rounds.
With all this great scouting we are supposed to have I guess they can't do BOTH, field a quality major league ballclub AND build the farm system to support it AT THE SAME TIME.
I guess that's just too much to ask.

Different draft situations.... different approaches with scouting... different bonus structure...

 

[Rice Cube]

Different draft situations.... different approaches with scouting... different bonus structure...

Y'know, after he made that statement, we actually did some research and compiled it into a blog:

http://worldseriesdreaming.com/2012/08/20/how-draft-position-correlates-to-success/

 

[2SeamHeat]

It's not okay to field a team of garbage to achieve this goal.
I rather watch a blind skunk try to rape a fart than watching this kind of baseball.
What is even more exciting is that they may be even worse next year. Isn't that exciting !!!!!

There are other teams, you know. I'm sure the team on the southside would like another fan that will actually support it. I hear the Yankees are always on the lookout for new fans.

 

[2SeamHeat]

Y'know, after he made that statement, we actually did some research and compiled it into a blog:

http://worldseriesdreaming.com/2012/08/20/how-draft-position-correlates-to-success/

Oh... lemme look it over!

 

[Rice Cube]

Oh... lemme look it over!

Thanks It was actually kind of surprising how many elite players were first-round picks (or at least picked before the fifth round). The dynamics of drafting have changed though especially with the new CBA so I think this will shift all the best available talent towards the early rounds and skew the talent-by-round even more.

 

[2SeamHeat]

Nice article... but you focus mainly on rounds... not position. Something I would suggest is focusing more on the difference between a #1 pick and a #25 pick. Look at how top 10 picks have done compared to the other 20 picks. All you are really showing here is that you can net a top quality player in the top 5 rounds... so it actually goes against the argument of having a better draft pick. Afterall, if you can pick up a HoFer in the 3rd round... then why should you care if you have the #1 or the #28 pick?

 

[2SeamHeat]

The post you have linked here... goes quite well with this one though: http://worldseriesdreaming.com/2012...op-picks-do-over-the-course-of-the-draft-era/

Overall, good job there!

 

[Rice Cube]

Nice article... but you focus mainly on rounds... not position. Something I would suggest is focusing more on the difference between a #1 pick and a #25 pick. Look at how top 10 picks have done compared to the other 20 picks. All you are really showing here is that you can net a top quality player in the top 5 rounds... so it actually goes against the argument of having a better draft pick. Afterall, if you can pick up a HoFer in the 3rd round... then why should you care if you have the #1 or the #28 pick?

Our sample size is a bit small for the HOF for reasons talked about in the article. Also some of is mitigated by overslotting, signability concerns, etc. Speaking of the #25 pick, Mike Trout is doing pretty well.

Anyway, re: positions, that would probably come later as JNTG had to go back to school and I'm swamped with my own crap. B-Ref doesn't have a very good way (that I know of anyway) to search for positioning after the first and sandwich rounds, so that's why everything from the second round onward doesn't actually have a position attached to it. But you might notice that some of the more recent All-Stars like Braun and Longoria were top-five picks, and Barry Bonds was a #6 pick. That's just off the top of my head.

 

[2SeamHeat]

Our sample size is a bit small for the HOF for reasons talked about in the article. Also some of is mitigated by overslotting, signability concerns, etc. Speaking of the #25 pick, Mike Trout is doing pretty well.

Anyway, re: positions, that would probably come later as JNTG had to go back to school and I'm swamped with my own crap. B-Ref doesn't have a very good way (that I know of anyway) to search for positioning after the first and sandwich rounds, so that's why everything from the second round onward doesn't actually have a position attached to it. But you might notice that some of the more recent All-Stars like Braun and Longoria were top-five picks, and Barry Bonds was a #6 pick. That's just off the top of my head.

I did some research on the past 21 top picks and compared them to others taken in the same rounds. Let me see if I can find that, if I even saved it. Maybe I can help you out. The conclusion I came to was that more often than not, the first pick turns out more golden than other picks... and just obaut every draft has 4-5 golden top 10 picks... but not so many golden 11-30 and Comp picks.

 

[Rice Cube]

I did some research on the past 21 top picks and compared them to others taken in the same rounds. Let me see if I can find that, if I even saved it. Maybe I can help you out. The conclusion I came to was that more often than not, the first pick turns out more golden than other picks... and just obaut every draft has 4-5 golden top 10 picks... but not so many golden 11-30 and Comp picks.

That would be wonderful. Just private message me and we can incorporate it into a guest blog.

Naturally it'd be awesome if you could give sources and stuff too Thanks.