Sam was listening to The Clash on Nov. 1 when the offseason trade window opened.
Staring at his roster, he hummed the tune to Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?
He chose the latter and sent Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodriguez packing so he could bring in Paul Goldschmidt, Dinelson Lamet and Luis Castillo in a pair of deals.
All three provide a decent boost that should keep him in contention in the American League throughout the season, and if they do, he'll feel like a bankrobber. But if this doesn't work, he will have handed off two hot prospects for essentially nothing and feel lost in the supermarket.
I mean, how tough is that decision?
"Tough," Sam said, adding, "but not the end of the world. In my short time in this league, I've traded J-Rod, Witt, Albies, Eloy, Alex Reyes, Trammel, Carlson, Jo Adell. Half of my fun is trying to find the NEXT guy while jimmying my window open longer."
Jimmying. Interesting choice of words with the Jargon Sports Network.
Right now, though, the bigger concern may be the struggles of some of the key players on this roster from a year ago.
Brandon Lowe, Austin Meadows, Tommy Pham, Anthony Rizzo and JD Martinez all struggled in 2020 — of course, they weren't alone by any means, but when you have a collection that large, this is cause for concern.
"I'm most worried about Pham because he is a Breakfast outsider," Sam said. "The Others you can all point to SOMETHING that went wrong. Meadows out for weeks with Covid, JD is one of the biggest video watchers to fix his swing and couldn't use in game playback and Rizzo is as Rizzo does, boring, but he will still post his numbers."
In only 36 games, that's hard to access. We are talking about a player who had 250 hits over his first two seasons, batting .290 with 44 homers and 129 RBIs in 862 at-bats.
Meadows is certainly among the better bounce-back candidates across the majors.
Add that will the fantasy superstar at shortstop, Trea Turner, who quietly on a bad team hit .335 with 12 homers and 41 RBIs last season, and it's no wonder why Sam decided to go for it.
Turner, only 27, easily could have an MVP season in him.
"Trea has the makings of a fantasy MVP with his steals," Sam said of the shortstop who swiped 33, 46, 43 and 35 bases in consecutive seasons leading up to 2020. "Like many in the Breakfast lineup it comes down to health."
He was healthy last year stealing 12 bases in 60 games, so there's no reason why we shouldn't expect another 30-plus this season.
End of the day, the strength here is the pitching staff which has three 200-plus strikeout guys in Luis Castillo, Trevor Bauer and Corbin Burnes.
Man, did Sam have to exhale when Bauer chose the Dodgers over the cursed Mets.
Beyond the top three, there are some really interesting arms here. Zach Eflin, Dane Dunning, Logan Webb, Zach Plesac and Trevor Rogers all have that potential to put up some really good seasons, but it's Dinelson Lamet who really has the potential to step in and be that fourth horse.
"It's all about depth rather than a big 4th," Sam said, reminding me to look down to his IL where — are you kidding me? — Chris Sale is sitting. How did I miss that? He's 32, but imagine if he could come back? "Lamet and Sale will hopefully be my big in season boosts, but I'm all about Eflin. Last year he was great, if he can take that next step go for a full season he could easily be a top-35 arm."
And, if that's the case, well, Sam made the right choice to stay, which means the one-time JLB Champion may be seeing double.
Rockin' the AL,
Rockin' the AL,
The Choo don't like it.
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