Pretty much this...it worked to a point to make a team like Oakland competitive (though you could argue that getting Hudson/Mulder/Zito to come along together on the whole was a bigger part), but no one ever really won a title with it without also spending a ton of money

Oakland managed to find sustained success (8 playoff trips in 15 years) despite bottom half payroll every season and an inability to retain their own players.

More recently, the Rays made the playoffs 4 of 6 years using similar strategies despite the same problems (and a significantly worse payroll situation than even those A's teams).

There's a reason literally every team in baseball has adopted the strategies that made those teams successful.

So the A's were able to make the playoffs out of a weak division and lose in the first round every year, and the Rays were able to parlay years of last place finishes into a bunch of really good young players, which is the entire point of the way they do draft positioning.

Yeah, that's what happened. It had nothing to do with making smart decisions.

Anyone ever heard of this?

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/out-of- ... -baseball/

OK I just bought it.

Im glad you weighed all of our input so heavily.

I've heard it's amazing and well worth the money. I would probably spend way too much time on it, though.

Michael Kopech throws 110 mph during workout. 110 mph. 110.

Was he throwing it at a teammate's head?

It's gonna suck for the White Sox when he needs Tommy John by August.

I don't believe it.

Max effort with a running start. It's impressive, but it doesn't actually mean anything.

Yeah after making that post I saw what actually happened.

Didnt he hit 105 or something like that in a game last year?

105 is the new 100.

They say he did, but it's entirely possible that it was inflated to boost his value.

Mad props to the one guy who voted for Tim Wakefield.

Wife, Dinner party, Thanks.

Someone explain to me how Albert Belle played in 163 games in 1998. He was an AL player and the only tie breaker game that year was in the NL.