joseph235 wrote:Yes I agree but people here are saying it's IMPOSSIBLE to compete with Adam Lind, so there's not even a 5%... 1% to compete? You all got to stop being so negative if you all think Adam Lind's going to drag this team down that far.
Yes there is a chance to compete with Lind. It's just stupid hard to compete with a 1B providing negative value. It takes a darn good offense/pitching team to overcome any position providing -1 fWAR (which Lind is on pace for). You just have to make up for it with different positions. Thames is on pace for -2.0 fWAR and Lind is on pace for -1 fWAR which makes it awfully hard to compete in the toughest division in baseball.
Even a replacement level player at those positions (An average AAA call up or as fangraphs says "These guys have fallen into that Four-A category, where they show more ability than your average Triple-A veteran but not enough to hold down a major league job. ") we would gain 3 wins, or 15M in surplus value (replacement level players cost 414k or league minimum which I don't know off the top of my head).
So essentially calling up a replacement level player at 1B (Cooper) who actually was on pace for - 0.6 fWAR in his 2010 stint as a 24 year old where he struggled and I argue played below true talent, and calling up a replacement level player at LF (Snider), we would gain around 14 million dollars in surplus value, not even counting the money we would save if we traded Lind for prospects.
Overall somebody else needs to take over 1B. Cooper moving to 1B is a short term fix but long term, I think we need to sign SOMEBODY or maybe acquire one in a trade. LF seems pretty set, calling Snider a replacement level player is the most misleading thing ever but I assume that he could play much better than replacement level. For example, in Snider's case he would have been worth 1 fWAR (above replacement level) if he played a full season last year (mainly in part to his defense) and he was the definition of struggling. That's another 5M in surplus value making it around 19M in total surplus value.
Anyways back to my main point, we can win with Lind. We could likely win with me or you playing 1B. The main problem is that he is providing negative value and needs to be removed from the lineup. When a replacement level player can do better, you should release him if all trade routes are exhausted and turn up nothing.
We could do better at 1B. We could do better in LF. Both need to be addressed within the month if we want to go for playoffs. The difference between 88 wins and 92 wins may be a playoff spot.
