The Crane Pool Forum

Let's keep a compact focus on our closest rivals rather than lose it in the non-NYM thread.

So they got d'Arnaud a batterymate in... Cole Hamels. 1 year $18M deal.

They're spending. But to be fair, I'd be pretty pissed if the Mets spent $18 million on 36 year old Cole Hamels. ERA was still good, but his WHIP of 1.391 suggests he might be losing a bit.

Hamels has been floated as a Wheeler replacement, so I'm pretty happy he's off the board.

After first embracing, and later rejecting (even to the point of firing the architect responsible) the idea of signing almost everyone to long-term deals [Kimbrel, Simmons, Upton, Uggla, others] the Braves quickly
reversed course and these days seem to be opting for the strategy of longer deals for arb-eligible or even pre-arb players [Albies, Acuna, Freddie] but shorter-term/big-bucks ['Let's see what ya still got'] kind of
deals for older ones [Donaldson, Markakis, and now Hamels]
As always you've got to pick the right guys to slot in each category -- the downside is putting yourself in the situation where you (and the fans) are saying: 'We paid $20 million for this lame piece of shit?!?' -- but
if you do it's probably the right way to go.