Nationals sign Rafael Soriano

[SuperKevin]

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2...n-rafael-soriano-to-two-year-28-million-deal/

Don't really get the signing. The Nationals bullpen desperately needs left handers so let's sign an expensive closer candidate to add to a bullpen that already has two capable closer candidates. I understand the Nationals late inning philospohy as of late has been to have several closer worthy pitchers go an inning each but was it really worth 14 million a year to do this? Also, the Nationals had to give up their 1st round pick to get him. Thankfully it's not a high 1st rounder.

 

[NAHSTE]

:troy:

Boras loves raping the Gnats.

 

[SuperKevin]

Let's just name Scott Boras as the GM of the Nationals and get it over with

 

[Glenbino]

Good lord at giving up a comp pick for a one inning reliever in today's game.

I'm beginning to think less and less of Rizzo. He's looking like a guy who just happened to be the GM of franchise that got the #1 overall pick when there were back to back no brainer franchise players to be had.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[SuperKevin]

Good lord at giving up a comp pick for a one inning reliever in today's game.

I'm beginning to think less and less of Rizzo. He's looking like a guy who just happened to be the GM of franchise that got the #1 overall pick when there were back to back no brainer franchise players to be had.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

I mean it's a REALLY late 1st round pick so they aren't really losing much but I agree, you don't sacrifice the future for a guy who throws one inning every third night

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Nats GOING FOR IT.

That bullpen was shaky at the end of the year, so i get it, but there were other options that would have been cheaper and wouldn't have cost them a pick. Madson, Broxton, even roll the dice on Brian Wilson.

But let's be fair. If Soriano has a 1.80 ERA in July, is 12/12 in saves, and the Nats are 8 games up, nobody will care about the 29th overall pick or whatever though. But basically the guy has to be great for this to not look terrible.

 

[Villain]

Makes the Dodgers' resign of Brandon League look reasonable.

 

[NAHSTE]

Nats GOING FOR IT.

That bullpen was shaky at the end of the year, so i get it, but there were other options that would have been cheaper and wouldn't have cost them a pick. Madson, Broxton, even roll the dice on Brian Wilson.

But let's be fair. If Soriano has a 1.80 ERA in July, is 12/12 in saves, and the Nats are 8 games up, nobody will care about the 29th overall pick or whatever though. But basically the guy has to be great for this to not look terrible.

True, whenever you can make a guy who was once traded for Horacio Ramirez the highest paid player at his position, you just gotta.

 

[Villain]

Nats GOING FOR IT.

That bullpen was shaky at the end of the year, so i get it, but there were other options that would have been cheaper and wouldn't have cost them a pick. Madson, Broxton, even roll the dice on Brian Wilson.

But let's be fair. If Soriano has a 1.80 ERA in July, is 12/12 in saves, and the Nats are 8 games up, nobody will care about the 29th overall pick or whatever though. But basically the guy has to be great for this to not look terrible.

It's not just that pick, you also lose the amount of money assigned to it.

 

[Goober]

Literally throwing money out the window. No other way to describe this.

 

[SuperKevin]

Realistically a move like this is done to try to get money out of casual fans who see that we brought in a guy who saved 40+ games for the Yankees last year. Does he make the team better? Yes but not better enough to justify that contract. My facebook has already been flooded with Nationals fans claiming this signing puts us in the World Series this year.

 

[Villain]

Literally throwing money out the window. No other way to describe this.

You could describe it as paying top dollar for the top dollar reliever.

:kanye:

Whether it's a good idea or not remains to be seen. It's not like transitioning from the AL East the NL East makes it harder to pitch.

 

[NAHSTE]

You could describe it as paying top dollar for the top dollar reliever

:walker:

That's the point, spending "top dollar" on any reliever is a poor allocation of funds.

 

[SuperKevin]

I guess this means we're going to continue to see Strasburg and Gio pulled in the 7th

 

[Slateman]

I'm going to assume this is part of a plan to make Storen/Clippard and Morse available in a trade for a good lefty and a prospect.

But last year, the 8th and 9th innings were trouble. Storen was injured and the Clippard lost his mojo. Frankly, I think Clippard is overrated and gets very lucky. It's good to have another guy that can close. It's good to have depth and the ability to make it a six inning game against one of, if not the, best rotations in baseball.

And Rizzo does things out of the blue. There were no rumblings of the Span trade. Nor the Gio trade. He has quickly built and developed a farm system that enabled him to pull off those trades. He's made some good trades (Langerhans for Morse) and some stupid ones (Willingham for Brown and HRod). But the majority of his moves have been solid. Tyler Clippard, Christian Garcia, Danny Espinosa, ect, ect. I'm pretty sure this is not the end of it. There will be another deal. Morse won't be on the team for much longer and the bullpen is now a position of depth, and they still have to figure out what to do with HRod.

 

[Goober]

I'm going to assume this is part of a plan to make Storen/Clippard and Morse available in a trade for a good lefty and a prospect.

But last year, the 8th and 9th innings were trouble. Storen was injured and the Clippard lost his mojo. Frankly, I think Clippard is overrated and gets very lucky. It's good to have another guy that can close. It's good to have depth and the ability to make it a six inning game against one of, if not the, best rotations in baseball.

And Rizzo does things out of the blue. There were no rumblings of the Span trade. Nor the Gio trade. He has quickly built and developed a farm system that enabled him to pull off those trades. He's made some good trades (Langerhans for Morse) and some stupid ones (Willingham for Brown and HRod). But the majority of his moves have been solid. Tyler Clippard, Christian Garcia, Danny Espinosa, ect, ect. I'm pretty sure this is not the end of it. There will be another deal. Morse won't be on the team for much longer and the bullpen is now a position of depth, and they still have to figure out what to do with HRod.

The bullpen is a position of depth after signing one reliever? What happens when Soriano gets hurt? What happens if Soriano isn't effective?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

:walker:

That's the point, spending "top dollar" on any reliever is a poor allocation of funds.

true

If I were the GM of a serious World Series contender, I would send seven league minimum shit bums out to the pen.

Then when the team fails to hold a lead, ever, I could just explain to the fans that while we may have missed the playoffs, we had the best allocation of funds in all of baseball!

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

The Nats gave Werth a gazillion dollars, do you think they give a fuck about careful allocation of funds?

They are trying to win a World Series, and collecting the best players they can. Im not sure it matters to them at this point how much they're paying Soriano, provided he fixes the 9th. Personally I thought there were better options this offseason, but if I were a Nats fan I wouldn't be bridge jumping because of this.

 

[Slateman]

The bullpen is a position of depth after signing one reliever? What happens when Soriano gets hurt? What happens if Soriano isn't effective?

Plus a healthy Storen and Christian Garcia available for a whole season. Bullpen is definitely strong, with three pitchers capable of closing.

I'm predicting now that there will be a package of Morse and either Storen or Clippard for a lefty and a prospect.

 

[Glenbino]

I don't care what the contract is this season.. The loss of the pick and pool money is a much bigger deal IMO. Teams can't overspend in the later rounds to lure kids out of high school with demands over slot anymore like they used to to make up for the talent they missed out on early in the draft because of FA signings.

For the record Mike Trout went with the 25th pick in the draft.. Late first round picks aren't always that useless :trouty: