From: genetic+@pitt.edu (David M. Tate)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Can a Below Average Player Help a Team?
Date: 27 Jan 93 14:09:48 GMT
Organization: Department of Industrial Engineering

thf2@midway.uchicago.edu said:
>In article <2547@blue.cis.pitt.edu> genetic+@pitt.edu (David M. Tate) writes:
>>On the other hand, Bichette will certainly not make the difference between
>>contending and not contending, nor will he be a major box-office draw.  So,
>>either they'll compete without him, or they'll not compete.  Either way, it
>>makes no sense to sign an aging mediocrity.
>
>This same kind of reasoning kept the Montreal Expos from winning anything
>in the early 80's.  

I deny that.  In fact, I think I'm insulted.  (My "benefit of the doubt" 
stock must be at an all-time low right now...)

>I don't think there's been a team since the big Red
>Machine that had a starting lineup so substantital that they could survive
>without any quality bench players, 

Where did I say otherwise?

>Bichette might not make the difference between contending and not contending.
>But a team wants to do more than contend -- they want to win.  And Bichette,
>in some states of the world, might make that difference.  

Of course.  The Pirates are not in one of those states.  They're in that
state called "rebuilding", which is what you do when your Bonds and Bonilla
go elsewhere, your Van Slyke keeps getting older, your Drabek leaves, your
excellent catchers age a bit, your GM fails to protect Alex Cole in favor
of Jeff King, etc.

>An aging
>mediocrity?  Yes.  But certainly better than who would be getting those
>200 at-bats if he weren't on the team.

Perhaps.  But, even if true, those 200 AB can be more effectively used to
evaluate prospects and get them some major-league experience.  Dante Bichette
can only be a short-term solution, and the Pirates have no short-term needs.
The team they will field this year will be good enough that, combined with 
the fan momentum from three straight division titles, they will continue to
be popular and will play reasonable ball.  The will not compete, and Dante
Bichette won't change that.  Randy Milligan might, though; what's he going
for these days?

>Of course, you can't build your team around a Dante Bichette.  You build
>your team around Bonds, Bonilla, Van Slyke, and Smiley, and then get a
>Bichette to be the spit and glue when you can't sign 25 All-Stars to your
>roster.

Absolutely.  When the Pirates get (back) to that point, I'll the first to
propose this kind of move.  In the meantime, they need to develop those
prospects that Simmons is stockpiling, separate the wheat from the chaff 
at Buffalo, turn Young and Martin into established major league players, 
make plans for acquiring a young catcher, and generally accomplish the
changing of the guard over the next 2 or 3 years.  If, at that time, there's
a good reason to acquire Bichette to fill a hole, he'll still be around.  Or
somebody like him.


-- 
       David Tate        |"Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
 dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu | That sends the screaming liner over it 
 Prof. of Story Problems | And spills the bleacher-dwellers from their seats."
 Member ORSA, TIMS, SABR |  	"Fenway Wall", Robert Frost