Billy Beane is clearly pushing all his chips to the center of the table, he wants / needs to win now given the A's past playoff failures and he just took a big step towards that end. Theo Epstein continued to build for the Cubs future by acquiring two elite prospects who are a couple of years away at least.
One borrowed from the future to invest in the present, the other borrowed from the present to invest in the future.
In a sense both are taking a bit of a gamble here. Beane has to really hope that this is the A's year. It looks like he sense that at least the AL half is his teams for the taking and he wants to add some insurance.
Epstein really has to hope that the vaunted patience of Cubs fans lasts a couple of more years longer for him. He was brought in so that Cubs fans could begin to see light at the end of the tunnel. Withe deals like this, it seems like the light keeps getting pushed further and further into the future. This team waited a long time for Samrdzija to develop into the kind of pitcher he is today. I'm not sure they really got enough value in trade for their patience and development. Now you're asking fans to go through the same process with Russell and McKinney.
I do like the number of quality young bats the Cubs have in their system and perhaps this sets up a Castro deal down the road to bring in some young arms.
from ESPN Chicago:
Greenberg: Future-focused deal good for Chicago Cubs, Jeff Samardzija - ESPN Chicago:
In a deal with their long-term vision in mind, the Cubs are getting an elite prospect in shortstop Addison Russell, this past year's 24th overall draft pick in outfielder Billy McKinney and pitcher Dan Straily. The deal wasn't official as of late Friday night, but there's a player to be named later involved. I'm sure Mr. PTBNL will be awesome as well.'via Blog this'
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