THoughts for a Sunday - post Big Game hangover version

 THE GAME

Well, I can't say I am surprised.  Michigan skunks Ohio State again!  I hate to say this by Jim Harbaugh and staff totally outcoach Ryan Day and staff.   

Here is the thing.  I have been an amateur coach for 35 years.   I know the difference between 11-1 against top competitions in a national qualifier and 11-1 in pool play against weak competition.    Looking at the Ohio State games this season I would say they were outcoached in probably 8 of the games.   In fact, if you did a strength of roster comparison and factored that with the final score, the Buckeyes would be about 7-4 at this point.  Maryland, Northwestern, Penn State all should have had no chance against OSU, especially the former two.  Yet those games, like the Penn State game, were down-to-the-end gut wrenchers.   

I believe Ryan Day is a good college football head coach and will have a good career.  He is NOT Urban Meyer, not that that s a terrible thing in and of itself.  However, Meyer's teams had their hiccups but usually rose to the occasion in a big game.  Day's teams, not so much.  He is so transparent in what he does.  He runs up the score against weaker competition to make his team and his (until Saturday) Heisman hopeful quarterback look better.  Even Saturday I think he kicked that field goal late just to make the score closer.   I mean 31-20 looks worse than a one score game at 31-23, right?  He even plays guys who shouldn't play just because they are the veterans trying to keep from being second-guessed if things go haywire.  The man knows, or thinks he knows, how to keep his job.  Of course, the reality is that you keep your job as the Ohio State football coach.

In a world where yesterday's game doesn't even represent a blip on the radar of the perils facing this plant, it doesn't really matter whether Ryan Day is the coach or whether OSU gets to the playoffs.  However, if you make the salary you need to do your job.  Ohio State's coaching staff is too well paid to screw up like this.  

I would actually be OK with the Buckeyes starting to get lower -rated recruiting classes. Maybe we ought to switch teams with Northwester and see what Ryan Day and co. can do with almost zero 4-star recruits. That's where you learn to coach, is coaching with teams that aren't, on paper, as talented as their opponents.  To me, this season has been a disaster and I am talking about well before TTUN.  

BASEBALL

Not much going on for the Guardians, is not a good thing, I think.  Their yearly strategy of 'letting the market develop' is just code for 'Let's wait for some of the lesser free agents to become desperate so we can sweep in and do our bargain basement shopping.

Teams like the Guardians need to strike early.  Sign Jose Abreu before he becomes the #1 target instead of the #1 backup plan for a number of contenders.  Give Mitch Haniger the years (3) it takes him to sign.   If Sean Murphy has too many suiters, trade for Danny Larson or sign Christian Vadsquez if the price is right on either of those two guys.

Teams in the position the Guardians are need to strike early, unlike teams like Oakland and Washington who are rebuilding and can 'let the market develop'.

NOLAN JONES NOISE

I have read a number of reports, maybe from the same souuce, saying that there is a scout somewhere comparing Nolan Jones to Bradley Zimmer in terms of offense and swing-and-miss.  All I can say to say to that is those writers and that scout are taking a worst-case scenario position here.  I mean Mercado got 426 ABs after his rookie year before they finally dumped him.  Zimmer got 450 after his rookie year.   Ernie Clement 250.  Heck, even Daniel Johnson got 89 ABs over 3 years before they called 4A player on him.  

Nolan Jones got 86 ABs in one year.  

But let's assume that 'they' are right and Jones will morph into Bradley Zimmer, offense-speaking.  Th

The problem is that all this thrashing and justification manufacturing doesn't account for one, simple thing.

Why trade Jones for a guy, Juan Brito, who the Rockies were looking to dump because they likely were not going to roster him ahead of the Rule 5.  Why make that trade and put Brito on the roster when he is likely to run out of minor league options before he even can legitimately reach the majors for good?

All this handwaving and rumor mongering about Jones being a 4A player and that we just didn't know it yet is a great reason to trade him.  No problem with that.

Just not trade him for a guy in Brito.  If Jones was going to have to be DFA'd or was a prospect who was going to have to be left exposed to the Rule 5, I get it.  Make the trade.  But that wasn't what SHOULD have been happening here, not after 86 big league ABs in his first cup of coffee.  

Look, it was a bad trade talent-wise to trade Jones for Brito.  Stop the posturing and call it what it was: The Guardians valued Brito more than Jones.  Just do that and, like Tobias Myers for Junior Caminero, in a year we can call BS on their player evaluation process and their ability to make these small trades.   Pretty sure that is what is going to happen here.  And, if Jones falls on his face, he still is more valuable than a guy who will probably end up getting most of his big league ABs for another team and not bring back much in return when we part ways wth him, assuming he even makes it to the majors.

This is how teams with an excess of young talent get burned.  They start, needlessly, giving away talent for less-than-reasonable returns.  Let's hope the Guardians take stock of what they have done and are more cautious in their future transactions.