I winced at alot of the moves he made but in the end we had a team that was like 100 runs better than 2nd in run differential and we'll probably never approach that so yes I did like him.
I at least understood the moves he made because he was being super aggressive within our tight window and we didn't have the payroll we had now. He had to trade prospects to get good players with good contracts. I said all along I wish he'd have gone even more all in the year we lost to KC.
I thought he was super creative to add value to the org out of nowhere but yes he would deal it away quickly. So at the end of his tenure I realized he emptied the clip but I was confident he'd restock it like Preller does.
Obviously he's alot better now.
Because we're not analytical! I've been saying this for 3 years. Atkins is an ex player. Everyone here attached themselves to him because they thought they were getting a holier than though I know better than you GM but they didn't get that.
Also hit tool is an antiquated tool category. Scouts basically just use it as a proxy for your ability to put the bat on the ball when you could argue more contact is sometimes bad
Teo couldn't see the ball at Safeco he said. He's basically hit everywhere except Safeco in the last few years.
Mathematically the trade was fine I suppose. He would have hit better here probably.
But it's easier to conjure up a good reliever than a clean up hitter and you'd prefer to not need to make that trade.
But our best homegrown RPs are from the AA days somehow. Romano and Mayza.
The plot actually gets deeper because we promoted the AAA hitting coach Hague to the mlb staff. So you have the guy who helped DS and Clement getting zip tied in the closet by Mattingly Martinez and Hunter Mense.
When you aggregate the war we hit on for a dollar cost basis, I think it's actually pretty good BUT most likely would pale in comparison to the value you get on hitting draft picks and developing 35+s into big leaguers.
That could change when we re-sign Bo and Vlad and hire a 30 year old hitting guru off Twitter and turn them back into gold.
I think Bichette might have the most easily identifiable flaw on the team.
The highest SLG of his career was when he was a 21 year old rookie. He had a 40% pull. Now it's 20% pull and he sucks. It has just been dropping linearly for 5 years.
Even if you say he's lost 10000 mph bat speed because he bulked, he's still young enough to return his body to pull Bichette body. Especially with our super duper high performance team who surely has no responsibility in him losing all his speed and range (sorry not positive). But it's the best most highest performing sports department around just trust me.
But more likely he's infected by some sort of brain virus like the rest of our hitters.
So ya I'd re-sign him.
You can tread water with vetrin fa signings if that's your goal. Preller will give you 10 prospects for anyone breathing then you just sign tommy pham and play .499 ball while millennials fill the new bars and drink
He said he bunted to "break up the monotony". Like the monotony of hits we had against a dog s*** pitcher lol? His reasoning is not even gut feeling. Who knows what it is.
The title is Sinking, not sunk. We're clearly trending down. No matter how many small trades you win, the 8 years of whiffed 1st rounders will catch up.
If you look at our best players with 3 years of control its like Berrios and Schneider?
3 years ago I said the Os would pass us very quickly.
You can tell by the type of transactions a FO makes whether they're good or not. Schreiber for Sandlin means Breslow is smart. One year of Verdugo for Weissert and Fitts is smart. Hiring Bailey and dumping fastball usage is probably ahead of the curve.
And the Red Sox were supposed to be the dumbest in the division. If you look around the table and don't see a mark then you're the mark.