Kommandozentrale » There are “multiple mystery teams” interested in Bryce

I know http://www.redsfanproshop.com/authentic-cliff-pennington-jersey , but hear me out" Harper, according to a reporter who has spent the last several months finding new ways to say that the Phillies are probably going to sign Bryce Harper. That reporter is Jon Heyman, of course. And the “mystery teams” are probably made up by Harper’s agent as leverage, of course. And even if those mystery teams exist, the Indians aren’t one of them. Of course. But, hear me out: What if. What if Chris Antonetti and the rest of the Indians front office were repeatedly lambasted this offseason for unwillingness to spend money, only to hop out at the last second and nab the biggest free agent? What if that cheeky son of a gun really knew all along that the Indians were negotiating with Bryce Harper while he told the media that the Tribe were done spending? Honestly, it would make a whole lot more sense than just dumping Yan Gomes to free up salary, or trading away the rest of Edwin Encarnacion’s contract, plus Yandy Diaz, for Jake Bauers — a modest upgrade over Yandy Diaz. The Indians took advantage of a similarly caving free agent market two offseasons ago when they brought in Edwin Encarnacion on an extremely reasonable three-year, $60 million deal. It seems like nothing now, but he was easilythe biggest free agent the 2016-2017 offeseason, even before Yoenis Cespedes quickly took a deal to return to the New York Mets. The Indians didn’t balk at his looming 34th birthday and paired him with Carlos Santana to help the Tribe become one of the best teams in 2017. The stakes are much different with Bryce Harper, though. He’s not a 34-year-old first baseman about to hit the downturn of his career. Unlike Encarnacion, Harper is going to either want a lengthy deal, or an overwhelming AAV to convince him not to be the next 10-year contract guy. Regardless of how slow the offseason has been, there is going to be competition for him. Even if that’s just the filthy rich Phillies or Nationals or Giants or whoever else is bidding on his services Jose Peraza Jersey , the Indians wouldn’t go into this alone. It’s going to cost a hell of a lot more than $60 million. First, let’s look at why the Indians could potentially do something like this, despite previous protests from the front office. As of last April, according to Forbes, the Indians are valued at $1.05 billion, with an estimated operating income of $31 million — and that’s before they got rid of the Encarnacion and Gomes contracts. Keep that number in minds, it’s important. The current owners, Paul and Larry Dolan, purchased the Indians for $323 million in 2000, meaning they aren’t one of those owners who recently dumped a truckload of money for their team and are trying to get their head above water. They’ve owned the team for going on two decades now and have rarely operated in the red. option in 2020. That’s 39 percent of the money you owe Harper in the first two years gone already. Who cares what prospect(s) it is — you’re on the verge of signing Bryce Harper, you can deal with losing Nolan Jones. The other difficult aspect of this is selling it to Bryce himself. He may have already accepted that he won’t get the length he wants. He may have already accepted that he won’t get to play where he wants, but he’s probably not going to settle on both. Three years clearly isn’t the desired length, and as much as I love Cleveland and the Indians I don’t think he ever envisioned himself with a Block C and chilling at Melt after the big game. To this point, the Indians haven’t been public suitors, either, meaning they probably haven’t had a big pitch to him to entice him. So allow me to do it for them. Even without Bryce, the Indians are projected by PECOTA to win 97 games as the second-best team in baseball. He’s virtually guaranteed a playoff spot all three years he’d be in Cleveland along with one of the best rotations in baseball, along with two of the best offensive teammates in Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez. He can spend all of the regular season hammering on horrid pitching staffs of the AL Central racking up those sweet ribbies http://www.redsfanproshop.com/authentic-cliff-pennington-jersey , and be a hero in the postseason. Imagine the kind of legacy you build for yourself heading into the 2021-2022 offseason having been the guy that ended the league’s longest World Series drought? On top of that, the current CBA — you know, the one that put him in this position to begin with — expires in 2021. If he truly believes that things will be better on the other side of those negotiations, taking a three-year deal is perfect and makes him the first big-name free agent in the new open market. I’m not saying it’ll make sense, and I’m certainly not saying it’ll happen, but come on... Indians. Bryce. Just do it and be legends. In 2017 and 2018, the Angels are 4 games under .500 with Trout. They are also 4 games under .500 in total. That is not okay."2017 was wildly different from the half-decade preceding it. It was the first time since 2012 that Mike Trout would not play a full season. A painful slide into second base took him out of the game for what was expected to be 6-8 weeks, and that was it for the Halos—every fan thought, anyway. The Angels would play some pretty poor baseball down the stretch, but were in the running for the Wild Card most of the season. This unexpected success left many of us with an expectation for a better season in 2018. “If we did that well without Trout, just imagine how well we’ll do with him!” was the prevailing idea. And so 2018 came along and was more of the same.The Angels had a better Mike Trout the whole season, around a month’s worth more games with him playing, a superior offense to last year’s, and a superior rotation, even after the injuries. And they ended with the exact same record.While the scapegoats may be easy to list off (Worse bullpen, better division, and bad luck), none of these can easily explain away the Angels’ record during Trout’s DL stints. Combining May 29th through July 9th of 2017 and August 6th through August 22nd of 2018 (the extended periods that Trout was out for injury/leave of absence over the past two seasons) puts the Angels at 54 games. In those time frames Matt Harvey Jersey , the team went 27-27. It might seem to be a coincidence, but 2017’s span saw the Angels go 19-20 while 2018 had the Angels at 8-7.What that tells us is that the Angels are roughly as good without Trout as they are with him. Maybe it’s just two months’ worth of weird happenstance or lucky sequencing, but it seems far more likely that it is gross mismanagement of the best player in baseball. There is no reason whatsoever that Eric Young Jr. should provide roughly the same final product as modern day Mickey Mantle.Why? WHY? Why is a team able to substitute a replacement level player with a 10-win crutch and still be the exact same?It’s just unacceptable. It will forever be the greatest stain upon Mike Scioscia’s legacy. For every excited memory of the World Series, I will have an equal and opposite moment of frustration on which to reflect, likely centering around Mike Trout batting 3rd behind two players who absolutely positively cannot get on base.Brad Ausmus has one job as the manager: it is to leverage Mike Trout’s position in the lineup. It doesn’t matter if he’s batting leadoff, 2nd, 3rd, wherever. Utilize your common sense when constructing a lineup and when considering where other hitters should be in relation to said Godfish. Even if protection doesn’t technically exist according to the modern baseball meta, players believe it’s real and that affects the game. Billy Eppler has one job as the GM, and it is not as simple as replacing low value pieces with high value pieces. His job is to supply Trout with complementary pieces, which is an entirely different concept. If that means a Bryce Harper to lead off or bat immediately behind him, then that’s what you do, no matter the cost. If it means a less expensive, but nearly-as-awesome on-base percentage fiend, then do it.This team can be successful if it learns that Mike Trout is a transcendent talent to be propped up, not built around. The more the team fixes potholes instead of building peaks, the larger the Trout Free Agency looms—and that’s more of a franchise sinkhole than a divot.