So what are you doing with Costa and/or Rivers with Bartelot being the DH? Fwiw, I do like Austin. I just probably wouldn't have given up Buschhorn to get him.
Costa plays first with Rivers pinch hitting. Rivers is in the lineup vs lefties with Costa pinch hitting. Rivers is not as good as Bartelot is vs righties at this stage of his career, so Bart will get the DH slot.
I get that you and Mike are emotionally invested in some of the players involved, but damn, most people I've talked to thought it was equitable. There's no question Matte is the best player involved in that trade, hands down. None. Power rules all, even in PETCO (because it's still relative). If you want to argue the value of Yong - sure, that's pretty subjective. I could see where most guys would look past his injury history. I just don't understand how you can label something "rape" if I actually tried to talk him out of it. Can't rape the willing, or so they say.
People saying it's fair are only looking at the stars. Idk why you're bringing up Mike, but I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the Padres roster at the moment...probably better than anyone. Yong and Pagan were both 4.5* players before the switch to OOTP 15 which values power more than in 14. Their ratings haven't changed at all, just the stars, and I know you were interested in both Yong and Pagan for some time now. I'm fine with trade rape though. Trading is one of the few places where you can really have a direct impact on your team with personal skill. There's no need to pretend that it's anything other than you getting the players you've wanted for a while and giving up the type of player you can find pretty easily in the FA pool. Like I did this offseason with Enrique Velez for $1.7 mil(granted much older).
The difference in stars is a reflection of OOTP14's emphasis on speed. Speed is useless, yet it added stars to players like John Dionne in 14. I don't ever recall being interested in Yong (could've been before he was so fragile, but I don't remember), but I don't deny I've wanted Pagan for a long time. I made no bones about it with Gravity - he knew I wanted him badly. If I was so interested in Yong, why was I trying so hard to do the other deal that involved just Pagan? I love Matte. I wanted to keep him and move Johnston to Noles. I guess it reaches a point where it doesn't make sense to argue varying perspectives, but I can say that I really tried to do right by Gravity. To think otherwise is to ignore the facts. (not saying you think that by the way)
Also, this is ridiculous. There are 13 players on ST rosters that have 65 contact potential and 75 power potential, and many of them are worse against lefties or righties. Matte is not only balanced, but he projects to have 80 power vs lefties. Some of these guys, like Joe Quate, are worse defensively than Matte, who will continue to progress at 1B imo.
But Joe Quate may be the best bat in baseball (at least the NL) since he keeps progressing, so he can just stand there and look pretty at 1B for me.
You inquired about him from me when I first took over the Padres(oddly enough). So it was at least 2-3 seasons ago. It's ridiculous to compare him to Quate too. Quate's ratings are better than Matte's potential ratings at every offensive rating. The one thing Matte is better at is defense and Matte's ratings still suck there lol. Matte will never be on par with Quate even if he develops exactly to his potential.
Look at Quate's defensive statistics - he wasn't too much of a liability. That's all I'm comparing. He'll obviously never be Joe Quate, that goes without saying. To think that I'd imply that is even more ridiculous than saying a player like Matte can be had in FA. The only inquiry I made about Yong, now that I look, is when I read a list of specs that caught my attention for Valdes/Chamberlain. Oddly enough, in that PM I talk up Bill Matte. He's had 5 injuries since then, 4 this year alone.
Certainly killed your interest in him. I don't know why you're so caught up with this though. All I'm saying is I think you won your trade! Be happy. If NT and I were that concerned about what happened with the Padres, then we wouldn't have left them.
I'll be honest - I'm trying to get posts/interaction here more than anything I'd like to see more forum activity - we've been too reliant on skype imo. Nothing like some controversy to get it going. Nothing personal Edit: I never once inquired about Yong HAL9100 . Gravity offered him up when he got worried about his injuries. So yeah, it kind of did kill my interest in him to an extent.
Why do you think speed is worthless in this game? A walk and a SB is as good as a double and you typically don't have to pay inflated prices in FA to buy it, when compared to power.
Can't hurt to try. Didn't think we'd be in this position so I'm looking at it more like a last chance for this group. It's a lot of money but it shouldn't be an issue for us with the state of the team and other money coming off the books.
Looks like OMlawdog is losing this one big time right now. Dionne sporting a nifty -.5 WAR this season while the 2 youngsters are only improving in Anaheim.
