NP: Going back and forth with Bang Camaro and Barbarian Overlords. Seriously, listen to both of them, the best rock of the East Coast with the best rock of the West Coast. Here, I'll make it easy: Barbarian Overlords - The Harvester & Bang Camaro - Revolution
The 2017 MLB Season is coming to a close and like predicted, the Chicago White Sox did not have a great season... and that's a good thing. Wait, what? How, why, where?!??!
Let's take a quick trip backwards. The White Sox won the World Series in 2005, 12 years ago, and made the playoffs in 2008, 9 years ago. Since 2008 the Sox haven't even sniffed a Wild Card spot. This is mostly due to the front office, lead by then GM, Kenny Williams. KW's approach ran like your traditional/stereotypical GM of the late 90's/Early 00's... where the farm system wasn't important and the middling players you can sign for cheap were "going to pay off." It worked in 2005 as a bunch of mid-level players peaked at the same time, but it becomes apparent how hard it is to continue to catch lightning in a bottle like that on a consistent basis. So KW would make weird trades to get old baseball players... REALLY decimating the farm, and generally not improving the team. KW had the old school approach, so as the "Moneyball*" approach became popular, KW ignored the benefits.
A switch was necessary and vital for the future of the Sox, so in walks Rick Hahn and after a stint as ASS GM (LOL) he gets the nod to take KW's spot in 2012 (Between 2012 season and 2013 season). His impact was not immediate, but there was a sense of a change in direction. Hahn spent a lot of time trying to uproot the scouting and developmental system, which KW gleefully ignored. Building the team within is what he was focusing on... getting smart about drafting and putting together a good system peaked this past off-season (up to the 2017 Non-Waiver draft deadline) as Hahn put together some trades that knocked the sox off (LOL) everyone! First was top tier pitcher Chris Sale being Shipped to Boston (Woah-oh-oh) for a boat load of young prospects/talent. Led by Yoan Moncada, the #1 prospect in all of baseball, and supplemented with top level pitching prospect Michael Kopech and lottery tickets Luis Alexander Basbae & Victor Diaz. This is the trade most GM's would have stopped at, but Hahn wasn't done yet.
Only a few days later, Hahn sent OF Adam Eaton to the Nationals for Top 10 prospect Lucas Giolito, and top prospects Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning. For 2 current baseball players, Hahn received 7 minor league players that were considered some of the best. As the season went along, Hahn also traded for elite prospects Eloy Jimenez and Blake Rutherford (and others). Basically taking the farm system, and shoving a bunch of crop enhancers in it, to make sure everyone succeeds. You can take most of the Sox prospects that are in the back end of their top 10, and they would be in the top 5 of probably 70% of other team's systems... that's how solid it is. Meanwhile, continuing to draft baseball players, rather than athletes that KW was drawn towards. With his more business oriented background, Hahn was able to see the benefit in investing for the future.
So this ended up being a lot longer than I thought, so this is going to be Part 1. I'll have a part 2 for sure, with the actually Season in review.
*The Moneyball approach isn't exactly ADVANCED STATISTICS like a lot of people like to believe. I can write a whole post about it. But simply, It's idea is that you find something that no one else is focusing on, and investing in it, to take advantage. Example, in the early 2000's, it was all about power, and dingers and all that... not much to be invested in players that took walks. Beane was able to sign players that had high OBP for the cheap because they weren't sought after. Biggity Bam, A's win 20 games in a row, en route to a 100+ win season (this doesn't seem as impressive with what the Indians did :) )
No comments:
Post a Comment