I like the trade OSS, adding a couple Captain personalities can only help. As you opined last off-season, a return to the mean in team batting has made winning close games just out of reach or so it seems. Still, it should be interesting to see how the team does in the closing months. I suppose I would lean toward keeping Ortega down and working on his game, particularly as the team is flailing around so much this year it won't help his development. Hang in there bud, it has been a tough year!
Thank you, I thought we would regress a bit after what we did last season and the players we lost in the offseason, but this has been worse than anticipated! Really was hoping to have a winning record again this year, but we need to go 37-22 the rest of the way for that to happen, so I'm not expecting that we'll make it. Hopefully the title last season will enable me to keep my job!
Thank you. I'm still going back and forth on whether I should have included Miller instead of Chandler, but I'm blaming Chandler's deteriorating attitude for the team's setbacks this year and throwing him under the bus! I'm excited for Ortega too, will be nice to have a homegrown guy with a legit bat on this team!
Yeah, that could be huge for us. I like Lara a lot more as a fourth OF/platoon player with an excellent glove than as an everyday CF, and Ortega may allow us to move Lara into that kind of role...
Not sure I like the Aiken trade. IMO when you made it it was already a lost season. Admittedly, most of what you gave up is totally acceptable, but I would have said there’s a 20% chance Noah Franco made a useful impact as a backup at some point. Again, not losing much, but IMO a reliever won’t save this team so you’re really gaining nothing at all. I could be proven wrong though. Definitely like the Yankees trade. While I said I wouldn’t trade Chandler, I really meant “make sure you get full value and check other options”. If the Yankees would also have taken miller or another pitcher I’d do that instead (admittedly being a selfish influence does make the decision much more even), but I think the trade you worked out is a big win for the team. Makes your team worse this year, but the same or better and MUCH cheaper in future years! Everything I hope for when selling at the deadline.
Ha, I hope the Akin trade proves you wrong, but I am not expecting it! It was very close to me between whether to include Chandler and Miller. Including Miller in the trade would have saved more money, and moved on from player who was older and more injury-prone. Including Chandler got a borderline problem personality off the team, who doesn't throw quite as hard. Although Chandler has the Cy Young Award, he has a 109 ERA+ and 103 FIP- while in Oakland, versus a 114 ERA+ and 94 FIP- for Miller, so Miller has been a bit more effective over the course of his career. Miller is also Very Popular locally, while Chandler's popularity is Insignificant, so given it's been such a struggle for me to generate Fan Interest, not trading away the more popular player also factored into the decision. But when it all came down to it, it was pretty much a coin flip for me!
It really seems like you used up all of your luck with that World Series win - hopefully you get a bit more luck swinging back around your way next season, especially in those 1 run games!
Definitely do not bring up Ortega in September even if you have a remote chance at the playoffs. He is not ready yet. It is a must for you to pinch pennies and manipulate service time to the max with the A's. That will be worth more to you in the long run for a few extra wins in September for a .500 team (at best).
Quite like the trade for Decaro and Lebron. Chandlers drop in personality and performance makes him less favourable and Decaro looks like he will be a solid replacement. Only one poor year and an age where he’s likely to be getting better and a good Arsenal. Lebron looks at least as good as Adamas with a decent bat but great defence and base running ability. The extra money is nice too 👍🏼
@@patrickdebonis6493 Nope! Looks like he went 3-0 with a 1.25 ERA working out of the pen in Vegas... and then retired at the age of 36, so I won't have him to kick around anymore...
Ha, that trade. Of course you go back to the well. But I like it. Chandler is lethal cancer in a losing team. Question still how he got Cy Young award but it has gotten to his head. Far behind as I am I'm not sure how it works out, but it looks good. It's also a financial good trade.
Ha, hopefully DeCaro can be just as good as Chandler... it's not impossible! Hope you are enjoying the Euros! The US team did what it always does over here...
@@oldschoolsports What can I say. US still have a long way to go in facing the South Americans, but the poor game vs Panama was shocking. Some really good games in Euro and now it's Quarterfinals with some very strong teams. Don't dare say who looks as a winner, but Spain might be the one. Germany showed cracks vs Denmark and was very lucky winning that game. I was a pro VAR guy previous, but after this Championship I'm not really as certain. The VAR isn't handled as it is in NFL and MLB, even NHL works better. UEFA and FIFA needs to look over VAR since fans almost lost faith in it.
I can't understand why you would make that deal for Akin. You aren't going to make the playoffs so giving up anything even if it isn't much for a rental doesn't make any sense to me.
I hear you... I really want to try to string together several .500+ seasons with this team to hopefully make some progress with fan interest/loyalty over time, so that was a more realistic aspiration to me than the playoffs. But admittedly even that is unlikely, so I get your point. Franco's the best prospect I give up and I really don't think he's going to be more than a borderline roster guy for a MLB team, so hopefully it won't come back to haunt me...
@@oldschoolsports I agree that Franco will probably not be much in the future, but Akin helped get you to 71-91, and maybe saved one point of fan interest. Probably would rather have Franco than that in hindsight. I get where you were coming from though.
