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Tigertowner68
Church of Baseball member
Sometimes you can become a champion by spending a lot of money.
Most times you can't.
Seems that spending money can work if you are close to already being a champion. And the signings do not indicate wholesale changes of the mix and the team's identity.
It does not work, IMO, when you either are not close to being a champion (Blue Jays) or when you allocate it in the wrong places and the people you spend it on have past their peak (Angels for sure with Pujols and Hamilton, should have focused more on the rotation; Dodgers with Beckett, Crawford and Hanley...none of which can get off the DL).
I truly admire the small market Athletics and Rays. The Twins used to fall into this group. They only started to blow after they began retaining free agents or arbitration-eligibles (see Mauer and Morneau). When they were letting Torii Hunter, Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano just walk, they scarcely missed a beat...

Most times you can't.
Seems that spending money can work if you are close to already being a champion. And the signings do not indicate wholesale changes of the mix and the team's identity.
It does not work, IMO, when you either are not close to being a champion (Blue Jays) or when you allocate it in the wrong places and the people you spend it on have past their peak (Angels for sure with Pujols and Hamilton, should have focused more on the rotation; Dodgers with Beckett, Crawford and Hanley...none of which can get off the DL).
I truly admire the small market Athletics and Rays. The Twins used to fall into this group. They only started to blow after they began retaining free agents or arbitration-eligibles (see Mauer and Morneau). When they were letting Torii Hunter, Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano just walk, they scarcely missed a beat...
