MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

Fiasco. Catastrophe. Debacle. Blunder. A failure. To even get close to being the worst general manager in team history behind "Radar" Randy Smith is nothing short of craptacular.

He inherited a team of McCann, Cabrera, Kinsler, Iglesias, Candelario, Justin Upton, Maybin and two Martinezes (J.D. and Victor), plus Verlander, Fulmer, Boyd, Norris and somehow gave almost all of them all away for less than nothing. That team won 86 games, and hasn't come close to .500 since.

That actually takes an incredible amount of skill to not only be that terrible at your job but to keep it for seven seasons. Without counting the tail end of the 2015 season when he took over for Dombrowski, Avila's team have lost 573 games (and thankfully only played 58 times in 2020 or it would have been well over 600). He telegraphed every major trade and asked the moon for guys who lost their value shortly after he swung and missed. He got organizational fodder for real major leaguers.

Avila was toast the moment he threw a huge amount of money at Jordan Zimmermann and DIDN'T fire Brad Ausmus before 2016. His abyssmal record at evaluating and developing talent at any level is alarmingly awful. With the exception of Tarik Skubal, the only players to make it to Detroit were obvious No. 1 choices. Other GMs scour the waiver wire and find diamonds. I'm not sure Avila even knew there was such a thing. It's pretty telling when TWO Rule 5 kids (Reyes and Baddoo) turn out to be better than anyone in your own farm system.

Blame the run of injuries this season, but this team couldn't hit its way out of a paper sack since Opening Day, and that's squarely on Avila's decision to go cheap with high-risk Baez, which bit him in the ass yet again.

The Orioles swept the Tigers the last time both teams made the playoffs. The Orioles now have a nucleus of good, young talent. The Tigers are about to lose 100 games again, with no actual window of opportunity in the near future.

 

I hope Ilitch fils gets creative like the old man did when he hired Dombrowski
Maybe Theo Epstein
Maybe Boras, although he’d never do it
He has more power now

 

I think Boras would be a horrible GM (and he knows it). A man who's spent decades successfully inflating the value of major league players is going to have a very tough time shifting to where he has to evaluate them accurately. He wouldn't be such a good agent if to some extent he didn't believe his own bullshit.

 

NYY before acquiring vaccine refusenik Andrew Benintendi, who may or may not have gotten a shot lately: 65-34. Since: 6-7.
There’s probably no real causal relationship here, but I think it’s amusing.

 

If the Yankees can make everybody shave, you’d think they could get all their players to take a shot.

 

And they probably have. I still hope refuseniks don’t get to hoist trophies or wear rings come November.

 

Christ, what an asshole.

 

52 games left and Orioles tied for playoff spot. Good thing they sold off those pieces when they had the chance.

 

Interesting string. I’ll go Angels-Reds

 

Mariners-Marlins.