Secondly, the fact that the Rays didn’t feel like Aki’s salary was worth it for them, doesn’t mean he had no value for anyone. The Rays had Ben Zobrist emerge in Aki’s absence and he piled up an 8.5 WAR with a 21 UZR/150. Don’t you think they just might have a better cheaper option than the already good option they had in Aki?

As for the draft, Huntington drafted numerous high school pitchers in this draft who might have been first round picks except for their bonus demands. That’s what this draft was all about for the Pirates – taking high upside high school pitchers after round 1. Considering “reach” Tony Sanchez hit over .300 with 7HR in 48 games after signing, it’s looking like they might have made a pretty good decision on him. The future will tell.

The simple fact is that they passed on at least three high upside HS arms at #4 and reached on a player who signed day of for slot. If they do that again this year they will deserve to get savagely ripped, especially since they could have allotted Aki’s salary to the draft budget (remember, if they don’t spend it on Aki, they have it to spend somewhere else).

In a market where a league average player either is not better than the guy half the teams already have, or the guy the already have is the same guy as Aki but cheaper, how exactly does he get anywhere near $5m? Pittsburgh magic beans apparently.

The pirates don’t have a whole lot of middle infield options, though. IF LaRoche makes the switch to 2b, then they’ve still only solved half of that problem.

1. The Pirates draft budget has been one of the highest the past few years.

2. The Pirates major league payroll is nowhere near their self imposed upper limit, so adding 5 million doesn’t effect any other budgets.

3. The Pirates did spent over slot on quite a few high school pitchers last year. Just because they didn’t take Tyler Matzek or whomever in the first round doesn’t mean they are being cheap in the draft.

Your posts on this thread are full of rather ridiculous assumptions about reality which do not comport with basic economics.

The savvy move would have been claiming Hoffpauir from the Cardinals and let him and Young man it for a year or so. OR wait until TB releases Aki and sign him for 20% of what they will pay him this season. If the Rays were willing to give him away, isn’t that a pretty good indication that he doesn’t have much value? Unless the Rays are idiots, and apparently some here believe they are, forgetting that they picked up J.P. Howell for Gathright.

By the way, regarding your 2B defense point, if we are not capable of evaluating pitchers unless they have stellar defense behind them then why do we bother with xFIP?

They could be using that extra $4m plus to sign the top player on their board in next year’s draft, instead of a slot player. Are you seriously claiming that Sanchez was the top player on their board at #4? If he was, then that is another strike against them. How long has it been since they even tried to develop a high caliber HS pitcher? Burnett? Wait, he was another bargain pick.

Huntington may be a great GM, but this move was not his finest hour. Giving the guy a pass because he uses advanced metrics is not analysis. This move was completely unnecessary and he just threw $5m down a rathole.

They lucked out when Grant Balfour suddenly had the fluke season of all time in 2008, but other than that, they’ve really struggled with putting a competent group together.

Iwamura cannot be offered arbitration by the terms of his contract. If that was not the case and he could be offered arbitration, he would be obliged to accept it because he has less than six years’ service time.

He cannot under any circumstances produce a compensatory pick (unless the contract has somehow been misreported).

Steve, the Yankees spending affects all the teams. Saying it doesn’t is not logical. What one team spends impacts all the other teams in terms of competing for free agents, as salary markers for their own free agents/arb cases, and for good ole fashion on the field competition. The yankees spending is on display now in the world series. Isn’t it logical to conclude that the additions of Tex, Burnett, CC were driven by losing and not making the playoffs due to the up start small market Rays? If any team has a goal to win a world series then aren’t they impacted by the other teams the may have to play? Aren’t trades of established MLB’s like a certain hot topic guy like Jason Bay direct results of the escalating salaries driven by teams like the Yankees?

Joe R, when their players hit their mid 30’s, and do what players in their mid 30’s often do and decline the Yankees will due what they do and reload with free agents…
And you are assuming that in 2010 a big team team won’t add one new piece to improve? Can you honestly look at the Yankees payroll and players and say with even 50% certainty that they won’t add another starting pitcher (or two)? Do you realize that their payroll is slightly down from last year and projected to go down 40mm+ next year with Damon, Matsui, Petite, Nady all coming off the books?

Pick a small market team all you want, but Ian was on to something…the deck is stacked against them.