Trading Ohtani

[gurn67]

Arte would not go down in history as the guy who traded Ohtani, if he does. He'll go down in history as a guy that was such an incompetent owner that despite having two of the greatest players in the history of the game on the team at the same time, he could put an organization together capable of fielding even a .500 ballclub let alone a playoff team.

[Slegnaac]

Some of us still remember the day Peter Pocklington traded the NHL GOAT.

Things went down hill from there for him, it seems.

https://www.desertsun.com/story/money/2018/07/16/behind-palm-desert-marijuana-startup-former-nhl-owner-and-felon/777762002/

[tomsred]

1 hour ago, gurn67 said:

Arte would not go down in history as the guy who traded Ohtani, if he does. He'll go down in history as a guy that was such an incompetent owner that despite having two of the greatest players in the history of the game on the team at the same time, he could put an organization together capable of fielding even a .500 ballclub let alone a playoff team.

And that would be a very unfair assessment.  Arte has owned the team for 20 years, and he had some success early in terms of team performance.  Yes things haven't always gone well, but his intentions were good, he's done a lot to try to develop and support the various teams he has had here, support the community, and the fans.  In many ways, Autry also made plenty of mistakes as well along with the good.  So many things have to go exactly right to push an organization to the top and keep it there.  Spending gobs of money, and not interfering with operations doesn't always do it either.  If it did, ownership would be an easier job, basically just get as wealthy as you can and spend it all on your team.  Right now the disappointment of the current season and situation with Ohtani hurts.  But I often think that's the most pessimistic way to look at it, kind of buried in all of that is the good things that have happened and are happening as well.  It's easy to dwell on the bad stuff, harder to cherish the good things that have happened, or are occurring now.  So anyway, I think it's kind of silly to torch Arte for all the bad, and none of the good.  In the weekly podcast Victor Rojas touched on the this subject near the end, and I thought what he had to say was on point about Arte.

 

[Stradling]

Decide what you want for him.  Let the other front offices know your asking price and then when that price is met you move him and don’t look back.