Remember who won the AL in 2014 and 2015?

[black francis]

I mean, it's a blink and you miss. Were those just transition years for the AL? That Royals team completely dropped off the radar after their WS win.

after their WS win.

they were .500 in 2016, so I wouldnt say they dropped off the radar

 

[black francis]

Small market clubs have to rebuild every so often. Just the nature of the beast.

Traded a lot of their top prospects for help with the ring too

Montgomery, Odorizzi, Myers, Finnegan, Reed, Lamb, Manaea

Tough to immediately recover from that as a small revenue team

 

[Chewbaccer]

Traded a lot of their top prospects for help with the ring too

Montgomery, Odorizzi, Myers, Finnegan, Reed, Lamb, Manaea

Tough to immediately recover from that as a small revenue team

If it pays off in a ring, the lost prospects are worth it, even if it leads to some suffering down the line.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Traded a lot of their top prospects for help with the ring too

Montgomery, Odorizzi, Myers, Finnegan, Reed, Lamb, Manaea

Tough to immediately recover from that as a small revenue team

I don't think trading those guys really explains much. They really didn't lose too much in terms of WAR you might expect. Finnegan, Reed, and Lamb are non-factors. Manaea added a pitch in Oakland. Montgomery has been very eh and... is now a Royal again cuz reasons.

They just flat out blew it in terms of drafting since the early 10's. 2016 and 2017 should've been far more competitive than they actually were.

 

[Sportsguy9695]

I mean, it's a blink and you miss. Were those just transition years for the AL? That Royals team completely dropped off the radar after their WS win.

i agree i forgot about the royals WS back then. they don't have a good minor system if you ask me. thats what its all about. you need to have a good or decent minor system to be good year in and year out

 

[SeattleCoug]

That 2014 AL Wild Card game was nuts. I wonder how different things could have been the rest of that playoffs and 2015 if the A's held onto that lead

 

[navamind]

If it pays off in a ring, the lost prospects are worth it, even if it leads to some suffering down the line.

Agreed. Even though they gave up a good amount of value in the Shields/Davis/Myers/Odorizzi trade, I'd say that trade still worked out well as Shields was a damn good SP and Davis had an insane 3-year run in the bullpen (not to mention he was crucial in the postseason). And it's not like any of those players have turned into stars either. Myers hasn't been much more than above average and he's having a pretty lousy year not to mention he's making $20M+ per year. Odorizzi has been average/above average-ish and Montgomery is a #5/#6 starter. Cueto's 2nd half with KC was pretty blah, but he came up pretty big in the ALDS and WS plus Reed/Finnegan haven't amounted to much (Finnegan's thrown under 35 innings since 2017 and he's had serious command issues; Cody Reed's stalled as a starter and was moved to the bullpen).

Manaea's probably the only one they might regret IMO.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

Agreed. Even though they gave up a good amount of value in the Shields/Davis/Myers/Odorizzi trade, I'd say that trade still worked out well as Shields was a damn good SP and Davis had an insane 3-year run in the bullpen (not to mention he was crucial in the postseason). And it's not like any of those players have turned into stars either. Myers hasn't been much more than above average and he's having a pretty lousy year not to mention he's making $20M+ per year. Odorizzi has been average/above average-ish and Montgomery is a #5/#6 starter. Cueto's 2nd half with KC was pretty blah, but he came up pretty big in the ALDS and WS plus Reed/Finnegan haven't amounted to much (Finnegan's thrown under 35 innings since 2017 and he's had serious command issues; Cody Reed's stalled as a starter and was moved to the bullpen).

Manaea's probably the only one they might regret IMO.

Manaea added a pitch back in Oakland as well. It's a pretty valid argument he wouldn't work out in KC (and that's an indictment of the Royals more than anything)

 

[broncosmitty]

Ned Yost managed out his ass.