The second part of the interview with Kevin Goldstein from Baseball Prospectus. I'm trying to edit these videos into digestible chunks. If you make it through 3 or 4 minutes and find yourself dying for more, then maybe waiting till they're all published in a playlist is the way to go about it. They kinda take a while to upload and process. Me personally... I like bite sized chunks that won't overwhelm me. TWSS. Gross.
In this particular chunk, Kevin Goldstein discusses how one might go about building a baseball team and what he sees as the problem with the "small market mentality".
If you only take one thing away from this video, take away this quote:
"There's nothing more valuable than a cost controlled star player"
Why?
One, you can budget around the guy. You know that an important piece of your lineup/rotation/bullpen is fixed in terms of costs, which means you can spend money in free agency on guys that you won't get into bidding wars over.
Two, Trade bait. We've seen it a few times over the last several years. Guys waving their no-trade clauses in our faces, keeping good trades off the table or guys who just don't pull as much value because they're only under contract for another year.
This is what we have to hang our hats on as Padres fans right now: Hope that the guys in this system turn into stars and make sure that we keep them cost controlled.
BONUS QUESTIONS: Kevin offers up his opinion on the Padres ownership situation scandal situation.