ukyah

management never fails. nobody was offering him anywhere near that much, and the nationals went ahead and gave it to him anyway. i'll never understand how these guys are this bad at negotiating contracts. how'd they ever get rich? perhaps there's something i just don't get, and i'm the one who's missing the boat.

of course you can. many women have both. i was referring to the suggestion that player's wives should be better looking based on their wealth. like i said, a fool and his money are soon parted. if someone marries for hotness, then that person is a fool. it's interesting that you look at a rich guy's wife and judge him based on the attractiveness of his wife. i'm not coming down on you or anything, i too like to look at eye candy hot chicks. i just think it's a questionable perspective when it comes to spouses.

if you marry for hotness, then you marry for divorce. end of story. boils back down to the expression, a fool and his money.

94 is not average. 98 is getting close to average. 100 is average, anything less is below average. clippard is a stud reliever and is also a utility knife. he'll give you shutdown setup innings or shutdown closer innings. he's way above average.

i have to admit. i place little to no value in WAR. i know it's heresy, but i think it's an extremely flawed measure and i'm surprised it hasn't been exposed and is so widely accepted. don't misunderstand me, i place a lot of value on the current metrics, but there are a few that i think are garbage.

we'll see.

only if you're aborting your original plan.

i don't think minority is the right word. i'd liken it to the only man on mars. 3 years of extremely mediocre infielder or one year of excellent setup/closer. the A's can trade him at the deadline for a better player than escobar. clippard will be very desirable by all playoff teams, assuming the A's are out of it.

this is the first great trade the A's have made so far. escobar for clippard is a steal.

admittedly, i thought he was older than 28.

it's 30 million per year. do you really want to pay shields 30 per year, for any length of time?

put me squarely in the "those type of things" camp.

he's not signing for 10-13 million. either per year or on a one year flyer contract. he's getting his multi year deal this year.

i totally agree with this. if his price is dropping below 100 million, then he starts to look like a potentially good investment. people need to understand just because he's not an ace, doesn't mean he's not an above average pitcher. if you paid #2 money for him, then i'd be all for the angels getting him. our 1st round pick is the last pick in the round. so, we're not giving up too much in that sense, either. the reports of cj's demise are greatly exaggerated. he had a bad year. it has happened before. i expect him to come back and be the sometimes really good and sometimes maddeningly bad cj of yesteryear. i agree with your larger point, i've always called that the eric chavez syndrome, but cruz hits around 40 hr a season. rasmus isn't going to do that. he's a decent player. somewhere between a really good bench player and a slightly avg. starter.

we're not going to get either.

someone is going to come out of nowhere and just suddenly give him 175+ million dollars. it's going to happen.

angels mariners whatever x 3

he's hardly your average 3rd string qb. keep in mind, although this is D1 football they are amateurs. pretty tough to bring down a kid that size and who can throw it that far.

it's only perception though. if you go look at their season records they have 4 year downswings just like everybody else. the major difference about the A's is that they're ever any good at all, much like the rays. most of the small market teams are never even a blip on the radar, as far as world series contention.

an obvious fugazi.

troll daddy needs to know that weaked isn't a word. you used it twice. i think that perez will be an upgrade over conger, and i also think he's going to become our starter in 2016.

agreed. i thought their future looked a lot better with several top mlb prospects ready to come up, but they're all gone now. sweet!!! i don't care what you flip zobrist for, it's not going to be for the quality of prospects that they've already lost, not to mention the number of top prospects.

at this point, i think the A's are an afterthought for a few years to come. i think the division contenders are the angels and mariners, with a pinch of talented young astros upstarts.

also, it's not like people weren't excited by the addition, but you just couldn't help but realize that the contract was really bad. most of the people that were pro trade were still saying things like, "if he's great for five years and 2 W.S., then the last five will still be worth it." unfortunately, we didn't get those first five.

i'm betting significantly less. like half or something. contracts aren't about what you do on the field, they're about perception. headley has a few mitigating factors that empowered and drove his market somewhat. freese has mitigating perceptions that will keep his value down.