I don't know how much they also lean on scouting, but all of those teams have excellent analytics groups that they give a lot of weight to, by all accounts.
Can I ask how many teams you think would be better positioned going forward than Cleveland if Cleveland announced today that they would have a $150M payroll?
It will be interesting to see what Pedro Alvarez goes for. A bit better offensively, but he gives that back by being unplayable at 1B. I think he ends up with more than double what Smoak got.
One year ago he was coming off a 78 wRC+ season. This year he put up a 107 wRC+. I don't care one way or another whether Smoak is on the roster, but he looks better now than a year ago.