Punting

We've all done it.  I've done it.  You've done it.  And I know you over there have done it.  Yeah, you.  Hell, I'm doing it right now in Double Mendoza.  I had a stud leave via free agency during the offseason.  My pitchers got old.  My offense got stale.  So before the all-star break, I found myself waving the white flag (why's it gotta be a white flag?) and throwing my best player on the trade block.  Now, I'll cut myself a little slack here, because the guy I traded was a FA-to-be, and wasn't going to resign with me.  I got two kids who are right around the level of the draft picks I would have gotten for this guy, so it's a bit of a wash.  Right now my team is hovering around .400, and is looking at a top 5 draft pick next season, and I've barely paid attention to anything going on with this team for a month.  Do I feel like a schmuck for dropping $25 on a season that I barely care about?  Very much so.  Am I the only one in HBD who has done this?  There are probably a half dozen guys in every world, every season, who do this.

(Quick interlude.  I'm watching the NFL draft tonight, like every other red-blooded American (sorry camden), and Joe Montana was on the stage at the beginning of everything.  Doesn't he look like he could still go out and throw the ball around?  And what is he now?  45?  50?  But he looks like he could give me a stiff-arm while throwing the ball 50 yards, all while running flat out.  And don't get me started on Barry Sanders.  OK, back to this retarded post.)

I suppose you see MLB teams doing this in real life.  Some of them trade away big contracts and old dudes when they realize that they aren't making the playoffs.  Trade your old guys, get some prospects, and play for next season, or five seasons from now.  But this isn't MLB, right?  Why trade a stud just because your season is going down the crapper?  Why not let that guy be the one bright point on your depressing season, and see if you can put some more pieces around him next season?

Perfect example, "Well, this season's shot already. Anybody want Rivera and his 20 million dollar salary? I need a good SP or a lights-out RP. Rivera is having another solid year. Could make a good team great."  Why trade your best player?  Can you really improve your ML team this year by trading him?  At best, you'll get a couple of prospects for him, and your team will suck even more this year.  Sure, you're "building for the future."  It's a fine line that a lot of owners dance on.  In the aforementioned Double Mendoza, there's a guy who played sub .500 ball for six seasons in a row, while putting more money into IFA than salary.  This season, he's right around .640 and still has less than $50M in salary.  Do I give him any credit for this?  Nope.  But I'm getting way way off track.  This is another topic for another day.


Quick side note.  Thank god for spell check.  I drink too much.


Sort of on topic, how much does it suck to be completely out of the playoff hunt before we even get to the all-star break?  In the AL, Milwaukee and Vancouver are running away with the top two seeds.  The East and South are dog fights, and there are about a half dozen teams within five games of the wild card.  That ain't bad for 70 games into the season I guess.  And it should be noted that the owner who said he wants to trade his best player is part of that group.  Hmmmmmmm.  The NL is slightly better, with all four divisions being close right now, but the Wild Card isn't quite as tight.  It's a long ways to go, but four or five teams are basically out of it already.  You sort of have to take Louisville out of that equation.  But Durham....Helena.....even New Orleans.....you can all but put a fork in them already.  And we already had our draft, so what do they have to look forward to?  Minor league playoffs maybe?  


This might be the most worthless piece of crap I've ever written.  Do I even have a point?  Or am I just calling out drew for his stupid statement?  Uh-oh....