It's always interesting to see what MLBTR readers think in our polls, especially with thousands of votes coming in. Looking through four February 2011 polls, how have you done?
- 26% of you thought the Phillies' signing of Cliff Lee was the best move of the offseason, with the Boston's acquisition of Adrian Gonzalez (20%), the Blue Jays' trade of Vernon Wells (18%), and the Brewers' acquisition of Zack Greinke (11%) all ranking highly. Those were all solid picks. About 4% of you chose a move not listed, and we can only wonder who was thinking of the Jose Bautista extension, the trades of Cameron Maybin or J.J. Hardy, the signings of Lance Berkman, Jhonny Peralta, Melky Cabrera, Brandon McCarthy, and Bartolo Colon, and many other standout moves.
- 72% of you would not have offered Bautista a five-year, $64MM extension; that's why Alex Anthopoulos deserves a raise.
- 39% of you thought Chris Carpenter would be traded, 37% thought the Cardinals would pick up his option, and 24% thought he'd stay with the Cards but they would not pick up his option. Carpenter re-signed before his option came up, validating the 24%.
- Mike Axisa listed five potential landing spots for Michael Young, but 25% of you thought he'd be dealt to a team not listed, and that was the top answer. Only 12% of you rightly predicted Young would not be dealt.
Nothing about this data suggests the readers of MLBTR are out of the running for the Cubs’ GM job.
In hind sight the Tigers signing of Victor Martinez in the off season was the number one move.
BINGO!
I’d recheck your calculations, Tim. Clearly everyone here knows everything about baseball and is never wrong about anything.
“72% of you would not have offered Bautista a five-year, $64MM extension; that’s why Alex Anthopoulos deserves a raise.”
I don’t see the connection… does Tony Reagins deserve a raise as well for signing Jered Weaver to a five-year, $85MM extension?
If he did things like that repeatedly, then maybe. But they are not really comparable because Weaver would have been a slam-dunk for most GMs at that price and Bautista certainly was not.
It’s also been 1 year of the contract… its 1/5th of the way through. Won’t know if it was a really good signing until at least 3 years have passed.
troof, but most of the skepticism wasn’t about the term so much as whether it was a fluke season and he’d turn back into a pumpkin this year. he didn’t just not-regress, he got better
bodes well, to say the least. and after this outstanding season for only $8M they are already ahead on the investment by ~$25M or so
Only until he is busted out for taking PED’s.. Which he will. Look at his stats before last season. You don’t just all of the sudden hit twice as many homeruns in a season out of no where.
I was one of the 72% who thought the Bautista raise was a bad one. While I am not ready to say I was wrong after one season, I can say that I didn’t expect Bautista to get even close to repeating the season before. Something just makes no sense there.
Yeah, Jays fans were expecting some regression too but he just keeps getting better.
Bautista and Anthopoulos were expecting it too actually.
when so much success comes out of nowhere, it’s hard not to think about the s word…
Swords?
1000x like
so, so, so very tired of people suggesting Bautista’s emergence may have been aided by steroids. dude changed his swing mechanics in late 2009, and all he’s done since then is be one of the best hitters in all of baseball.
Yes, and I have a bridge for sale.
I like how the Jays getting rid of Wells, rather than the Angels acquisition of Wells, is viewed as a good move. Trading away Napoli, who is now putting up monster numbers for the Angels main rival, while the Halos are stuck with the worst hitting catcher and one of the worst outfielders in the league, has to be the biggest bonehead move of the off season.
Drew Butera has something to say about LA’s “worst hitting catcher.”
Nice one there
Cha Chang!
It keeps getting better. But of course Hank Conger will make it all okay.
One of the biggest bonehead moves of ANY offseason.
of the decade*
Also, Juan Rivera is hitting close to .300 for the Dodgers.
I love going back and reading the comments on the old articles/polls like this.
Cardinals were going to be horrible, Reds were awesome, Bautista was the next Vernon Wells……
And the Red Sox were going to win 100 games….sigh.
3.1% (734 people) voted that the signing of Adam Dunn was the best move.
All are Twins fans looking for any possible reason to enjoy this baseball season.
Well, I got Bautista and Young right at least. LOL @ the people who thought signing Crawford was a good idea. If ever there was a signing that spelled disaster from the start, that was it.
wait, why/how did that spell disaster from the start? On paper, Fenway seemed like a great place for him. It got him off the turf. It gave him the short porch in right for his power swing. It gave him the deep corner alley in center to leg out triples and in-the-parkers, and it gave him the monster for his opposite field sprays. Playing in Boston also put him in a line up in which he no longer needed to be a speed guy, which I thought he said had been wearing his body down. Just because his swing and plate discipline seemed to have imploded, I am not sure how one would have seen that ahead of time.
it’s also been 90% of 1 season…. he’s going to be there a while, i’m sure it’ll work out fine.
Signing cliff lee was a great move but it wasnt that hard to get him to agree when you have a team that is one of the favourites to win the series and Doc on your team. Getting rid of Wells for nothing and getting Mike Napoli as a return is amazing (I know AA traded him away), just looking at that move alone that was the best move of this season.