Reality check.

[Ytown Tribe fan]

Our AAA affiliate has the best record in its league.

Our AA affiliate has the best record in its league.

These are very good indicators of future success of a franchise, and if you doubt that I would refer you to the study done by Bill James in the early 90's on just that subject. James studied every big league team for a decade and matched it's minor league records with actual ML W-L records and found a 2-4 year correlation between minor league and major league success.

Bottom line: The Tribe should be competitive in 2-4 years, just as Shapiro wanted.

[Alex]

If that's the case, then why make the Robbie Trade and the why let Juan Go?

In your estimate, what impact have the players acquired for Juan Gone (the two draft picks) for Robbie, and for Marty Cordova, contributed to this success?

[UK Tribe]

I would not have signed Cordova at $3m per. My preference would have been to develop Escobar (who was not injured when Cordova left) and Branyan (who they had to find out about once and for all). I don't believe Escobar / Branyan / Broussard for Cordova has hit / would have hit the playoff chances.

We all know that the Ricky G signing, the Brady signing (he cost over $1m with the buyout) and the Lawton injury are what really hurt the offence.

I don't feel all that bad about the Robbie trade. The two major gains (Escobar and Lawton) have both had debilitating injuries and Robbie hasn't hit a ton for the Mets (I think).

Robbie would not have signed an extention (at reasonable money) and the strike risk would have limited his value if he was being traded now. (which he would be).

In 2003/4/5 we can hope that Lawton, Escobar, Traber will all be adding value to the club. Maybe even the others we got.

I agree with Robbie instead of Ricky G then our chances would be better than they are now - but if Lawton and Escobar were fit then the situation would be much closer. There was just as much chance of Robbie blowing an ACL with the Mets and then what would we be saying ?

[the teacher]

The decision to shed the payroll of Gonzalez and Alomar has thus far been proven 100% correct. Alomar is hitting .260 something. Gonzalez has been injured most of the season, as expected.

the alternative was to let Alomar play out his contract and get NOTHING for him, and sign Juan to a longer term deal. Neither of those alternatives looked good then, and they look worse now.

We can argue about whether Shaprio got value, but I think the decision to move those two players has been proven correct.

[Alex]

Both of you completely avoided my premise.

How much have our minor league teams benefited by the influx of prospects from the Juan, Marty, and Robbie offings?

[the teacher]

QUOTE]If that's the case, then why make the Robbie Trade and the why let Juan Go? [/QUOTE]

Um, I think I answered your question. You avoided my answer.

[the teacher]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> That wasn't my question. </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh. I thought your question was the sentence with that curly symbol at the end. Silly me.

[Alex]

That wasn't my question.

My question was if the farm system is so doing so great, how much of it has to do with offing Cordova, Juan, and Robbie?

No need to get defensive or try and justify the Robbie, Marty, and Juan moves. I just am curious how much those "prospects" have helped our minor league teams reach first place.

[UK Tribe]

Alex - I misunderstood your question.

I accept that the farm teams may have played well anyway.

But I think between us we justified that the Robbie and Juan moves were just about right for the club as a whole.

Not sure about the Colon trade yet though. is that really all you can get for a Cy Young chance pitcher ?