I literally have read this with my coffee this morning, and GROOVED on it. Thank you. I made my dutiful comment-per-article (though I'm finding I'm doing more than that as well!) on what preceeded, and even there was much more pleased with was written than I expected when beginning. Fun times afoot at SSI! Even with that nice burn on You Wish You Didn't Know Who.
I don't think I'm excited enough about Segura. Having the Cano-Cruz-Seager cheatcode is hard enough to get used to. (SERIOUSLY - hindsight is 20/20 but I still remember the kerfluffle that went up when we signed him! A few mea culpas came out later but not many... Cruz is a TREAT, even if he craters today and never recovers. Which he won't.) Point being - throw a legit Segura in there to lengthen the valley of the shadow of death in our lineup, and deepen its impact... see what happens if Haniger becomes what some are forecasting with trembling knee and drooling lip... what the heck is happening to this team?! It's been a long time since 1995-2003, you guys...
Athletic outfield... I bet JeDi surpasses this, if only because I don't see him giving up on trying to find the next breakthrough player of the archetype. Imagine a world where we cement in Dyson, Martin, Haniger - because all are too good to let go, et cetera. Is Jerry EVER going to give up on having the next Heredia/Gamel battle for OF4? Is he ever going to stop trading for Boogs to be the next contender after said previous battle wraps up? He'll hit on the next star and clear the table to make room. And clearing the table is going to mean one of the three established speedy OFers gets shipped off for sparkly things JeDi likes. If one of the three isn't so established... well, less sparkly things, but faster process perhaps? I think he's just getting started with the need for speed, and successful as this has been so far, more time to tinker will provide an opportunity to up the MPH at least once more.
Serious question - whatever happened to having your SP6 be the long man? Semi-regular reps, higher quality opposition, more stretched out than average-Joe RP... what gives? Is it the proximity to Tacoma in our case, or the need to develop the guys who would stand in that role, or has the long man concept simply been written out of usefulness by the rest of the current strategy book? I thought a chief benefit was sparing the rest of the wonky-health pen anyways.