Rob

I'd argue that the difference matters, even if we completely ignore the performance at AA. A 5.5% walk rate is bad, but it's still quite possible to have a long and productive career if you do enough other things well. Andre Dawson, Juan Pierre, and Placido Polanco are all in that region. A 3.1% walk rate is absymal. That's Shawon Dunston, Ozzie Guillen, and Yuniesky Betancourt territory. I am every bit as worried about Almora's walk rate as I am Baez's strikeout rate.

Almora's walk rate at Daytona last year was 3.1%, not 5.5%.

Wanna hear something truly frightening? Almora's walk rate last year is closer to Carlos Zambrano's as a hitter than it is to Neifi Perez.

McKinney's limited power projection puts him behind Torres for me Edwards' injury and stamina questions puts him behind Torres for me Almora's disastrous 2014 puts him behind Torres for me Those are going to be my next three guys in some order. I'm randomly picking a quote, so this isn't meant to be directed at Tim ... but I'm a little surprised at the amount of support for Torres this high, and the lack thereof for Almora, and I've never really loved Almora. It's not like Torres has jump of the chart tools/ceiling. I mean, just taking one review, but Kiley had him without really a plus tool. As far away as he is, and with minimal plus tools, I'm a bit surprised we're getting this excited (granted these votes don't really tell the story on excitement, but I'm just a bit curious about the disparity). Yes, Almora was bad ... but he's only 21 this year (to be fair on the Torres, comments, the fact that he did what he did at age 17 is amazing ... ). He's been rushed up a tiny bit, IMO, but the tools are still there. It's not like there's been tools degradation or exposure of some sort - the issue is discipline/approach, and I tend to think he should be given a chance to adjust. One wonders if they pushed him because they thought he needed to get exposure to significant failure. I just don't recall many bad reviews on this kid's head/willingness to learn, and at his age, I'm a bit surprised that the voting has gone the way it has for 5. (fully acknowledge that the gap from 5 to say, 15 might not be huge, and this commenting on vote disparities here can be viewed as somewhat nitpicking). Almora took 14 walks in 529 PA last year. Torres took 29 in 215 PA. Let's put this another way. Per 529 PA for his career, Neifi Perez averaged 22 walks. Almora only managed to get 63% of the way to showing Neifi Perez level plate discipline.

Torres seems likely to pass McKinney at some point, but until he either 1) hits for more extra bases, 2) keeps up his performance for longer than 32 PA in full season, 3) shows himself to be a true plus defensive SS, or some combination of those, I can't put him above what McKinney's accomplished at higher levels. I'm excited about Torres, but he's also someone who could very easily occupy that Lindor evaluative blind spot of athletic middle infield types that we assume multiple problems will sort themselves out simply because of age and athleticism. They sure might, but there's a bit of double counting that goes on there that makes the ceiling a little lower than some would imply. I'm talking more broadly about the archetype now than Torres specifically, but I think you get the idea. Fair enough. I'm still leaning Torres, but I see your argument.

TT, I'd like to hear your argument for McKinney over Torres. I see the same things in Torres I see in McKinney, but at SS.

I'm a bit bummed to have missed the first four spots, but this is where it gets interesting anyways. I like McKinney, but Torres has the better prospect pedigree, is more likely to stick at a premium defensive position, and actually walked more often (as crazy as that is). And while McKinney is super young for his league, Torres could spend all of 2015 in A ball and still remain on the same development path as McKinney. I think McKinney is criminally underrrated, but I just can't place him above Torres. I know Almora ranks higher than both on some lists, but wow was last year abysmal. If he starts walking or showing some power, I wouldn't have a problem jumping Almora over either at mid-season though. The only other guy really in consideration for me here is Edwards. And I'm just a bit too scared of the injury situation right now to rank him above Torres.

Earl Weaver was always convinced that Boog Powell played better when he came into spring training fat.

I'm surprised it's not the Mets.

This is undoubtedly terrible news. However, I can't help but feel that Ernie wouldn't want people sitting around moping. He always brought so much joy into people's lives, that I can't think of any better way to commemorate him than by thinking about all the times he made me smile. If I could live just one day as happily as he lived every day, I think I'd have a whole new outlook on life.

They're available, folks. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2015-zips-projections-chicago-cubs/

I'd rather have Sweeney, Szczur, and maybe teaching Christian Villanueva to play OF over Lake. It's time for Lake to learn how to pitch. I think he could be a great 25th man.

I would trade all the Luis Valbuenas in the world to avoid this man.

Yeah, I didn't think about the QO. Fowler could definitely get one. No chance Valbuena would have.

After letting it sink in a bit, I'm a little more okay with this move. We definitely gave up too much value, but we dealt from a position of strength and filled out our weak OF a bit. I don't want us to start giving up too much value in every trade, but an occasional trade like this to fill out a glaring hole is okay.

Losing Valbuena really puts a damper on this one. I guess that's a big vote of confidence in Bryant as a 3B, though.

Yeah, no joke.

#JeSuisNSBB

somethingsomethingmodernRepublicanssomethingsomething Really take your politics elsewhere. http://i.imgur.com/eDUDBpr.gif

My only quibble is with the bold - unfortunately I don't think it's just writers. I know many a garden variety baseball fan who honestly thinks Bonds should not be in the HOF because "he's a dirty cheater." Mostly older fans though, I think. Crasnick did an informal poll on twitter the other day about whether Bonds and Clemens should be in the Hall. He didn't tally it exactly, but it looked to be north of 80% yes from the fans. Less than 40% of the writers. So while maybe some few fans do care about it, by and large the whole "controversy" only exists in the heads of the writers.

There were interesting cases for Carlos Delgado and Brian Giles (not that I thought either should get in). It's a shame we are wasting our time debating sure fire hall of famers and whether they're connected to a PED "controversy" that only writers give two shits about, instead of actually debating the cases of marginal guys. Guys like Kevin Brown, Kenny Lofton, Bernie Williams, and David Wells have all come under the 5% threshold in their first (or second, in Williams' case) shot on the ballot. I'd much rather be reading articles about their candidacy than whether some schmuck thinks Bagwell juiced, or how they wont vote for Bonds and Clemens just yet, since they haven't suffered enough. Complete crap.

I still like Venable even after last year. Probably more than Maybin at this point.

I actually still like Crawford quite a bit. The first two years in Boston were absolute trash, but he's been pretty solidly above-average in his part time role in LA. He doesn't strike out much, still plays very good defense, can still steal bases pretty efficiently... Given the way our roster is shaking out with the big power, big strikeout guys it's not a bad idea to get a few guys with different skillsets. And with the reports of the Kemp trade maybe falling apart, the Dodgers may be inclined to eat a tiny bit more cash to move him.

Brazis is a reliever prospect, but numerically he looks pretty good. EDIT: The Seattle Times beat writer says that Logan Bawcom is included too, but he looks like Beeler-esque roster fill so not sure it matters: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=bawcom001log Bawcom is just being DFA'd, not traded.

Has anybody heard if we are interested in bringing Manny back to work with the kids?