White Sox (non) Opportunity Costs

The White Sox are embarking on a season in which they’ll be churning the roster quite a bit trying to find diamonds in the rough, trying to find an identity lost after a massive failed rebuild. They made headlines by having a whopping 70 players in camp for Spring Training. That wasn’t even the most in MLB, but it’s still an enormous number with which to sift through for a handful of potential 26 man strongholds. One tweet that caught my eye and is usually something I am 1,000% in agreement with is the one below by Pnoles.

When you are strolling into 162 with a roster holding few givens, your most valuable commodity is the roughly 6,000 Plate Appearances and over 1,400 Innings to pitch with which to observe talent and make decisions. Namely, you maximize your utility function (as the nerds say) by giving playing time to your controllable players who might become something…

Playing someone like Mike Moustakas in the place of Gavin Sheets also has a substantial opportunity cost, meaning, you can give that guy the playing time, but what you are sacrificing is seeing if the other guy who might have more value to you can do it. That’s basically what Pnoles tweet is getting at above and is generally a guiding principle and to be followed at most cost.

But what if the difference here is small enough that another factor might come into play and be more valuable to a young GM trying to overhaul an organization, like say Chris Getz? What if there are some circumstances with which punting some opportunity cost can make sense? Let’s examine how this could be plausible.

Moustakas vs Sheets

What if you had an organization that was so sick that the normal rules didn’t apply? What if it was very important to your younger players to see that skill development and performance growth was necessary in order to earn a job, not just being given one due to prospect pedigree? What if you were trying to provide the best, most professional environment to your up and coming blue chip prospects that will be joining the major league club in short order? What if you wanted to have underperforming former prospects moved off the roster not just on a whim but with an older player kicking their ass in a competition? Are these reasons enough to punt a some opportunity costs? Is this what they are talking about when they say the loaded word “culture”?

I tweeted that two weeks ago. My intention wasn’t to stump for Moose to make the White Sox roster, but it was to point out that former prospect Gavin Sheets wasn’t even doing the rudimentary task that a lefty bench swinger must do. Hit Right Handed Pitching with some level of competence.

If an age compromised Mike Moustakas beats out Gavin Sheets fair and square, I hope he’s given the job, not just because it’s deserved, but because there shouldn’t be anymore saving seats on the plane for those that didn’t want to make the sacrifices to get that A boarding pass.

-BeefLoaf

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