Rob

You're speaking from the perspective of a typical lineup. I'm talking purely about lineup optimization. If you want to make arguments about player development being more important than scoring more runs in the short term, have at it. I'm not barking up that tree. At a glance, I'd guess the optimized lineup looks something like this... Fukudome Soto Aramis Pena Soriano Castro Byrd Pitcher Barney If the org is too scared to use an optimized lineup and has to go with a typical one as not to confuse the fans, I don't care if Castro bats #2. He's better than the other crap we'd toss in that spot normally.

Prepare to be one-upped. This name popped up in my brother's game of Baseball Mogul. No kidding, no editing at all. Spoilered for language (seriously) That is the best thing I have ever seen.

Castro should be hitting lower in the order NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. He should. Sorry. Best hitters 1, 2, 4. Lean more towards OBP than SLG from front to back. Then next best at 3 and 5. Then 6 & 7, pitcher 8, worst 9.

Castro should be hitting lower in the order, but times like these I'm just happy it's him batting #2 and not a guy like Barney, or Cesar Izturis, or Neifi Perez, or all the other guys we put there to "handle the bat a bit." blech.

I don't think anybody here will disagree that Baker deserves to be facing all the lefties, so I wont adress that half of the platoon. As far as who is facing righties, I really don't see it as making any difference. DeWitt is probably the best hitter, but is pretty awful on defense. Baker has had awful numbers hitting righties in his career, but nobody has a platoon split that bad. He's probably the 2nd best hitter, as well as about an average defender... maybe a tick above. Barney is the worst hitter of the three, but his skillset probably isn't the type we have to worry about the sort of implosion we might see from Ronny Cedeno. Barney should be pretty much a carbon copy of Ryan Theriot last year (at least on offense) and if the reports are to be believed, he's a plus defender in the field. None of the three options are good. But they aren't far apart, either. Any way you want to cut it, we'll probably need to make a move for a 2B if we want to stay in the race all season.

Yesterday, that wouldn't have been a problem. As of today, Blake DeWitt would have to clear waivers to be sent down.

Meh. They're all pretty similar value. We will look to make a trade later if we are still in it.

It really seems like people are having a hard time letting go of his injury riddled 2009. Yes, he looked awful in the field and at the plate. It was horrifying. He was fine last year. He wont be worth anywhere near what we paid him, but that's a sunk cost. His play on the field isn't one of the glaring issues with this team.

Where did you get 2.9?? It was 1.4 according to baseball-reference. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/soriaal01.shtml Also, he was never quite a superstar. Fangraphs. UZR > TZ

This is like Ryan Harvey redux... if Ryan Harvey hadn't waited so long that he didn't have a realistic shot anymore.

Soriano isn't done. Maybe as a superstar, but 2.9 WAR is nothing to scoff at. Only Soto and Byrd were better amongst position players last year.

Well the problem here is that you feel his ceiling is no higher than a fringe backup catcher. It's more like good backup/bad 2nd division starter. Think of a cross between Chris Snyder and John Buck. Ramirez tore the cover off the ball his entire minor league career until the last 10 games of 2008. Yeah, his offense has taken a step backwards the last couple years but that seems to happen with young catchers from time to time... they hit the upper level of the minors and turn their focus to improving their defense and gamecalling at the expense of their offense. Not exactly shocking for a guy who just transitioned to the position in 05 that he might not have everything figured out in 4 years. Why not see if we've got something with him? He can't be worse than Hill. He could certainly be better. I'm skeptical of a defensive liability, who has to prove he can hit above AA. Its great that he's been compared to Victor Martinez but those days have come and gone. I'm glad he's at AAA. Although since I project Castillo as a backup C with the ceiling of D. Miller, I think hed be best backing up Soto and Ramirez could be at Iowa trying to improve behind the plate and hit at AAA. I don't blame you for being skeptical. But when the situation has repeated itself often enough that it gets a name like "Young Offensive Catcher Stagnation Syndrome" that has search results going back more than 10 years... well, I wait just a bit before declaring a catcher as having washed out at AAA. I wouldn't blame you for jumping to conclusions though. You'd be right more often than not. I don't see Castillo as much different from Miller either, honestly. But that's another one of those good backup/bad 2nd division starter types. Hell, when they're cheap enough they're not even bad for contenders, provided your GM is smart enough to spend the cash saved wisely.

Well the problem here is that you feel his ceiling is no higher than a fringe backup catcher. It's more like good backup/bad 2nd division starter. Think of a cross between Chris Snyder and John Buck. Ramirez tore the cover off the ball his entire minor league career until the last 10 games of 2008. Yeah, his offense has taken a step backwards the last couple years but that seems to happen with young catchers from time to time... they hit the upper level of the minors and turn their focus to improving their defense and gamecalling at the expense of their offense. Not exactly shocking for a guy who just transitioned to the position in 05 that he might not have everything figured out in 4 years. Why not see if we've got something with him? He can't be worse than Hill. He could certainly be better. The fact that the Cubs kept Hill and placed Ramirez at the same level as Castillo would seem to me to suggest that they don't like Ramirez' catching prospects all that much. Of course it could just simply be a numbers crunch, but they certainly don't seem to be too intent on promoting Ramirez' development behind the plate. Maybe he'll get a lot of action at Iowa and prove me wrong, but it doesn't appear things are going that direction. I don't doubt for a moment the Cubs are thinking of him as a Jake Fox type right now. If they weren't, we'd have cut Koyie Hill three weeks ago. That doesn't mean they aren't making a mistake.

I would be stunned if he was a Cub. We have 3 second baseman on the roster already, and all have more upside than whatever Castillo could give us offensively and defensively. The only reason he would become a Cub is if Jim Hendry's fetish for collecting broken down second basemen returned. We have three underwhelming young guys who don't offer anything we might be able to call consistent. Just knowing what you're gonna get is something Hendry seems to place a premium on. Hendry will send DeWitt down to AAA, platoon Castillo and Baker, and let Barney play backup MI. He'll then look to upgrade the position with an Aaron Hill or Kelly Johnson (maybe even a Jose Reyes) around the deadline if we're still in it. proclamation>

Well the problem here is that you feel his ceiling is no higher than a fringe backup catcher. It's more like good backup/bad 2nd division starter. Think of a cross between Chris Snyder and John Buck. Ramirez tore the cover off the ball his entire minor league career until the last 10 games of 2008. Yeah, his offense has taken a step backwards the last couple years but that seems to happen with young catchers from time to time... they hit the upper level of the minors and turn their focus to improving their defense and gamecalling at the expense of their offense. Not exactly shocking for a guy who just transitioned to the position in 05 that he might not have everything figured out in 4 years. Why not see if we've got something with him? He can't be worse than Hill. He could certainly be better.

The Phils just released him too. Kinda surprising. I'd be kinda surprised if he doesn't latch on here.

Well this is certainly interesting.

Group A: Albert Pujols Group B: Prince Fielder, Mark Teixeira Group C: Ryan Braun, Evan Longoria, Mike Stanton Group D: Kevin Youkilis, Buster Posey, Justin Upton, Justin Morneau, Travis Snider Wild Card: In your inbox later tonight.

12 team h2h league, standard 5x5 categories... positions and limits a bit different though. LF-CF-RF instead of 3F OF, only one Util and one C. 4 SP, 1 RP, and 1 P, with a max of 7 starts per week. C - Matt Wieters 1B - Prince Fielder 2B - Neil Walker 3B - Evan Longoria SS - Jimmy Rollins LF - Jose Tabata CF - Alex Rios RF - Jay Bruce Util - BJ Upton BN - Angel Pagan (LF, CF, RF eligible) BN - Manny Ramirez (LF eligible) BN - Alex Gordon (LF, 3B eligible) SP - Felix Hernandez SP - Shaun Marcum SP - Hiroki Kuroda SP - Ricky Nolasco RP - Neftali Feliz P - Jonathan Papelbon BN - John Danks BN - Michael Pineda I like my offense quite a bit, including the bench. Between those guys I should be able to adjust my lineup to get whatever I need a bit more of that week. The way my league set up pitching seems weird. I opted to try to go for a middle of the road pitching staff with some solid but uninspiring guys to balance a couple upside guys. I don't think I'll do much better than split pitching categories most weeks, so I'm relying on my offense to make me a playoff team. Hopefully they come through... this is the first year my friends and I are doing a money league.

Put on waivers according to Sullivan. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0329-cubs-bits--20110328,0,5658997.story Okay, that's a huge difference... not if another team claims him of course, but at least we're trying to keep him in the system rather than cutting ties completely. It's actually not a difference at all, in baseball. The terms are used interchangeably. If a player has been placed on waivers, he has been "waived." You may be confusing the term with a different sport: football. If a player is "waived" in the NFL, he becomes an unrestricted free agent (if he is not claimed by another team). Therefore, the term "waived" has the connotation of being released, in that sport. In baseball, "waived" = placed on waivers. While I am aware that from a technical standpoint no difference exists, for better or worse the terms have evolved such that saying a player was waived is associated with unconditional release waivers. Assignment waivers are generally referred to as being placed on waivers.

Put on waivers according to Sullivan. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0329-cubs-bits--20110328,0,5658997.story Okay, that's a huge difference... not if another team claims him of course, but at least we're trying to keep him in the system rather than cutting ties completely.

Source? And was he put on waivers or waived?

Just for fun... let's close the book on the Bradley and Silva stuff. We signed Bradley for 3/30. It was broken down with a $4 mil signing bonus, $5 mil in 2009, $9 mil in 2010, and $11 mil in 2011. Just for the purposes of this, let's go ahead and slap the signing bonus on year one (where it seems to belong) and call it $9/$9/$12. Silva was traded for with $25 million left on his contract ($11.5 mil in 2010, 2011, and a $2 mil buyout for 2012) and the Mariners sent back $6 mil, as well as picking up Bradley's entire contract (valued at $21 mil). So we paid Bradley $9 mil in 2009, Silva $11.5 mil in 2010 and 2011, and a $2 mil buyout, minus of course the $6 mil the Mariners sent ...or $28 million total. In that timeframe, Bradley gave up a 1.1 WAR season and Silva gave us a 2.1 WAR season, a total of 3.2 WAR... or $8.75 million per WAR over the course of these two contracts. If Alfonso Soriano hurt his knee and never played another game in the next four years, even his albatross of a contract would only come in moderately worse, at $9.65 million per WAR.

I'm still not sure Bradley was the wrong choice considering the other options. Bradley had performed at a higher level than either of the other two in recent years and was significantly younger. He also was capable of playing RF, something that Ibanez (-21 runs in LF the last three years in Seattle) and Abreu (-27 in RF the previous three years) couldn't lay claim to. Yeah, Bobby Abreu ended up signing for crazy cheap after it became apparent nobody else was really looking to pay big money for an OF. If anybody had known the price he'd end up going for, he would have been the right choice. But at the time the Bradley contract was signed, Abreu was looking for more years with a higher average annual salary... as was Ibanez. All in all though, it just goes to show the importance of having a good farm system...