Quote:
Originally Posted by One Red Seat
Ok, so you are dumping people. Who replaces them? If you are going to add salary with some big names, then you pare it down by dropping some lesser names and calling kids up who make the minimum. Of course, you just traded away the best kids to get the big names, so you are bringing up lesser prospects with more flaws and less talent.
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That's where the talent of your scouting and management comes into play. Talent below the top tier stars is what they are paid to evaluate, and it is where they are paid to find the bargains. Top tier star talent is unique. You can't get it cheaply,and it doesn't take a whole lot of scouting or management skill to recognize it for what it is. When you have the opportunity to get it, you go and get it and utilize the talents of the FO to get the best support staff to go with them. Front Offices of teams like Oakland with limited budgets have done great jobs of building competitive teams. After taking on a star like an Oswalt, Andruw Jones or Helton or all of the them for that matter, the Red Sox would still have more of a the budget than the A's. That's where the FO needs to earn its money. You are accepting of an under performing FO that has been overpaying for mediocre talent. That's unimpressive. Good management pays for the unique star talent and it finds bargains and value among the rest of the pool. Star talent doesn't come at a discount, and the big markets can afford more of it than the other teams. The reason that they haven't been more successful isn't because they sign too many stars. It's because they have not spent wisely for the talent below star level.