Looking ahead to the 2018 draft

Beer seems like the surefire #1.

Beer isn't the sure-fire guy anymore. Not quite as strong a season this year (still good) and a corner profile dings his stock a little bit. Still probably a top 5 guy.

Getting 1.1 wouldn't be the worst thing in the world again. What's frustrating to me is that I feel like the Yankees and Braves re-builds started after us and are way ahead of us.

That's because we waited two years, combination of decreased value of the veterans we traded and a lack of commitment to the farm system.
And some of the decisions, like taking Williams and Alfaro, who were completely lacking in plate discipline and have shown resistence to change, probably wouldn't have been made by Klentak.
The organization finally has come into the 21st century (RA: analytics? we don't need no stinkin' analytics!).

It wouldn't be the worst thing to have one more deep draft before things turn around, the farm system is top heavy, so three deep drafts in a row combined with a relatively aggressive (for them, they spent up to their extra 5% in LA and I'll bet they'll try to trade for allocations this summer) LA campaign (they signed a lot of guys, and I hope they continue that, given their track record of finding hidden gems) could finally build depth throughout the farm system.

It took a decade of neglect to build one of the worst farm systems in baseball, it'll take a couple more years to assure the turnaround wasn't just a one year trade flurry anomaly.

Rockies had six straight losing seasons before this year.

C Wolters (25) (3-10 Cle) acquired off waivers 2-16
1B Reynolds (33) - 1 yr $1.6M
2B LeMahieu (28) - (2-09 Chi) 2011 trade for Weathers and Stewart
SS Story (24) - (1s-11)
3B Arendo (26) - (2-09)
LF Parra (30) - 2016 FA 3yr/$26M, $12M option
CF Blackmon (30) - (2-08) .775 OPS at 27, .797 at 28, .933 at 29 - patience is a virtue, didn't even break into the lineup until he was 26 (2nd half of the season)
RF Gonzalez (31) - 2007 trade
UT Desmond (30) - 2017 FA, 5yr/$70M, bit pricey for a supersub who has had one .800+ OPS season in 2012

SP
Chatwood (27) - (2-08 Cal) 2011 trade
Senzatela (22) - 2011 LA signing, ranked #27, $250K bonus
Freeland (24) - (1-14)
Anderson (27) - (1-11)
Marquez (22) - TB 2011, $225K bonus, 27th ranked prospect when traded in 2016 for Corey DIckerson (28) (8-10), who has become a solid OF
RP
Holland (31) - injured in 2016, $6M FA, $15M vesting option for 2018
Ottavino (31) - selected off waivers in 2012
McGee (30) - Marquez trade
Oberg (26) - (15-12)

So a couple 2nd tier free agents, good drafting, trading a top OF prospect for a top pitching prospect and a RP, some waiver wire pickups
You need to hit on those top draft picks and make some smart trades.
And you need good coaching and patience with your prospects
But no big LA signings, no big FA signings

Huh? Outside of Dickerson, who exactly was an "incredible resource" that they traded?
And they got TB's 27th ranked prospect plus a veteran middle RP for DIckerson.
Stewart was meh. The other trades were ancient history (i.e. before they started building this team).

Most of the Rockies' moves were small potatoes, the real key was drafting well in the first couple rounds (Story, Arendo, Blackmon, Freeland, Anderson) and a smart LA signing (Senzatela).

The lesson to be learned from Colorado, SF, St Louis, KC and so on is you don't have to throw around megabucks, you do have to have good scouts and good development, and make smart acquisitions around the edges.
That is, Phillies need to do better than Randolph, get players like Crawford turned around, be patient with Cozens (who should repeat AAA unless he finishes really strong), and so on.
They need to do better than Morton, Buchholtz, Saunders, et al, some of that was bad luck, some of that bad decisions - on the other hand, 5yr/$70M for Desmond is a gross overpay.

There's no one they can trade for or sign that will do more for them than fixing Herrera and Franco, and no pitcher they sign that will help more than getting their own young pitchers on track.
That's why I was glad to see them hire Stairs, who has a clue.
I'd like to see them land a first rate pitching coach and improve instruction throughout the minor league system.
But they also have to focus on the right players, not just talent, but coachability. No more drafting/signing hitters who just want to mindlessly hack, and power pitchers who think overthrowing is how you pitch.

I thought I quoted squire.

The Yankees had a boatload of valuable pieces to move...

Yankees or Rockies?

We are on par with those teams from a financial perspective. They are comparable but what I was discussing is we didn't have a group of high profile players to trade like the Yankees.

We did. We just waited too long.
Had we traded players after the 2013 (it would have been gutsy doing it after 2012), Utley, Rollins would have garnered a haul, Ruiz would have had value.
Lee and Papelbon could have anchored big trades.
Hamels at age 29 would have landed a king's ransom.

We are in the ballpark financially (but still below) but not as a FA destination, I mean be realistic, if you were looking at $300M, would a few million more make a difference compared to a destination where you could really enjoy that money?

We wouldn't have gotten anywhere near what we saw the Yankees got in exchange for their talent. Selling off in 2012 would have been an extremely hard pill for the fanbase to swallow.

And how much harder a pill have the fans actually had to swallow as a result of several (losing) seasons in which they got to ride the nostalgia express. Apparently, the only spending AF countenances as 'efficient': signing second and third tier FA to fill holes for a year and be flipped for prospects is actually the most financially inefficient method possible. What did we get for Morton and what will we get for Buckholtz. Even if they play half-way decent from here to trade deadline, what sort of prospects can we reasonably expect to acquire for Saunders, Kendrick, Benoit? We've invested tens of $millions in them. Does anyone really belief we'll get even $5 million worth of prospects back. We could have added to our LA signings for less than $5 mill and had better prospects. We could have added more future value than the vets we signed for same or less $ on the over-23 international market. We've followed this flipping vets strategy for several years now. What have we gained from that? Not an anywhere close to a competitive MLB team, not a respectable MLB team. Quality of prospects for anyone we flipped in that time? How is this remotely efficient? It seems like money down the toilet to me. Far better to spend in international market or for FA who can contribute for a number of years or take-on-salary trades to get prospects or guys who can contribute for years. Those who always push for financial efficiency, seem to be pushing the least financially efficient way to run a rebuild. It isn't a rebuild strategy at all. It is an inferior patch and fill strategy -- the sort of hopeless game the Sixers played pre-Hinkie.

Yankees benefited from giving up nothing for a wife beater and getting a top 10 guy for him.

Well, they did well in a baseball sense. We kicked Domonic Brown out of RF to accommodate a guy whose career was already bust and who had just assaulted an elderly Jew in a hotel lobby not long before we signed him, so we don't base all our signings on personal virtue.