When did the Dodgers shift the focus from the Farm System to Free Agency?

The focus has been pretty solidly slanted toward building a strong farm system since Logan White was hired.

There’s never going to be a time when a team simply only drafts or only signs free agents. You always need to draft well, or you won’t have any sustainable success.

This is the inherent mindset of a big market team in a big market city; while I may not agree with it, big market teams want the big names of now than prepping the stars of tomorrow.

that has the equivalents of homegrown kershaw, kemp, bills, broxton, kuo, martin, loney, troncoso contributing so much on the big league club? Boston maybe, who else?

My perception is that the FOX years were hard on the farm system, but it’s come back nicely since then but still has a way to go to get to back where it was.

I choose winning now AND winning later any day over quick fixes. With all the new stats that have become available (and were invented) over the past 15 years, I’d like to see just one that rates how much a championship team “bought” one versus developed it. Like Eric says, it’s kind of a gray area, because there’s always a mix.

And the fact that people believe that the Yankees always buy theirs (at least, when they HAD them) is somewhat of a myth. In the 80’s that’s ALL Steinbrenner tried to do, and you see where it got him. It wasn’t until Jeter, Posada, Pettitte and Rivera formed the backbone that things really got going. This year’s type A free agency raid worked out well for them so far- which should never be allowed to happen again, by the way- but let’s see how those multi-multi year contracts look in 2 or 3 years- Burnett, CC and A-Rod come to mind immediately. And you thought the Dodgers overpaid for Pierre!

For all those that figure we can’t sign all the kids in a year or two when they’re supposed to make the big bucks, I say shenanigans! Just keep away from that “All we need is a #### and we’ll be perfect- hey, how ’bout him?” off-season itch, and we’ll be fine. At varying points in the next couple of years, Schmidt, Jones, Manny, Kuroda, Furcal, Blake and Pierre will be off the payroll (one way or another), and for several reasons (mostly age) there won’t be much point in asking any of them to return. Take that money, sign the homegrown talent (including Ethier), bring up more young players to fill the voids, and all will be well!

Oh, if only it were that simple…