Could you expand on that for my curiosity? I think the Myers extension is mostly hindsight and wasn't egregious at the time, especially considering what else they had at the time. He was looking like a nice multi-tool player having his breakout. Then the Hosmer signing came, which I really didn't like. Not because they weren't ready to contend, because I'm with Eyedea in that I've come to like the idea (hey! finally got to use "Eyedea" and "idea" in the same sentence here) of signing big-ticket FAs a couple years before the team is ready to blow; but because I didn't buy Hosmer as being as good as he'd shown in his walk year (a lot of people held that sentiment) and because he forced Myers to stay in the OF or be dealt, and Myers is ass in the OF.
But, even the best GMs make horrible moves at times. It comes with trying to stay ahead of the curve and be progressive, and just plain luck. Look at Steve Yzerman. Walked away with a sterling rep and his franchise in amazing shape. But he also drafted Tony DeAngelo (everyone and their mother knew about the attitude issues, so it's not on the scouts) with Schmaltz, Fabbri, Kapanen going right after, and of course Pasta a few picks later. He also traded two 2nd round picks and a 3rd for Anders Lindback.
Those are just two examples. No GM is going to hit 100% of the time, or even 90% of the time. They just need to hit consistently over a long period of time, and limit the big misses or counter them with big hits (like Kyle Quincey for the first that became Vasilevskiy).
Preller seems to be able to hit consistently - he's built up an amazing farm in just a few years. And he seems able to not only counter the big misses (Hosmer deal, who could bounce back this year anyway for all we know) with big hits (running-on-fumes Big Game James for the 2nd-best--sorry, Keith--prospect in the game). He seems like a bright guy and progressive thinker; which, granted, he took too far on the Pomeranz debacle, but I'm sure he learned from that. And I'd rather have someone reign in outside-the-box-thinking than be too much of a traditionalist. He uses all sources available to a club to build his roster: the draft, IFAs, analytics, trades, and even signed the biggest FA in history (until Harper signs) and no one saw it coming.
The jury is still out on the Shapkins era here in Toronto, and I was and am still willing to give them proper slack in seeing what they can build. Their track record in Cleveland is obviously promising and suggests they're capable. But I would be very happy with A.J. Preller if I were a Pads fan - I definitely think he's a dope GM.
