Rob

The difference between Lake and Starling Marte this year is basically 20 feet of batted ball distance and a contact advantage in Marte's favor. Of course, Lake is two years younger and despite scouts not caring for the swing their reports have been unanimous in his power potential, so the a 20 foot current gap is not an insurmountable number. Don't get me wrong, I don't love Lake as a difference maker (or Marte for that matter). But he's got plenty going for him -- some of the best raw tools in the game, age relative to league, etc... If he can take a step forward with his contact he can be great. Failing at that, if he can just string together a couple lucky BABIP years we can trade him to Kevin Towers for half his farm system. 20 feet is a HUGE number. I can't stress how big of a difference 20 feet is. Prince Fielder's distance dropped from 311 to 291 in the last 4 years and saw his HR total almost drop down by 20. Marte and Lake don't have much in common, other than poor plate discipline. The 9% contact difference is huge too. They aren't marginal differences. Hopefully we catch KT on one of his panic attack days. Holy [expletive], I have no idea how I was able to type up something that legible as drunk as I was. And you righteously eviscerated the argument. Bravo. I like you already. I will say I'm a bit hesitant to put too much stock in Lake's batted ball distance at this point, but it certainly does stabilize a lot faster than I would have anticipated. (Relevant Link) The tools really drew me in when he was about 17, but he's 24 now and I guess it's time to start evaluating him as an OF instead of a potential 3B option. With the offensive bar being set where it is, he's probably not much more than a 2 WAR guy in a good year (albeit one that can really look spectacular when things are going well). Congratulations, I think you finally broke me of my man-crush.

I'd like them to add a CF also. I'm sorta surprised they're looking for a RH partner for Rizzo, honestly. In a lost season, I sorta assumed they'd let him run with the 1B job and try to make adjustments so he doesn't end up a platoon guy.

The difference between Lake and Starling Marte this year is basically 20 feet of batted ball distance and a contact advantage in Marte's favor. Of course, Lake is two years younger and despite scouts not caring for the swing their reports have been unanimous in his power potential, so the a 20 foot current gap is not an insurmountable number. Don't get me wrong, I don't love Lake as a difference maker (or Marte for that matter). But he's got plenty going for him -- some of the best raw tools in the game, age relative to league, etc... If he can take a step forward with his contact he can be great. Failing at that, if he can just string together a couple lucky BABIP years we can trade him to Kevin Towers for half his farm system.

I would have liked to hold onto Mateo (and maybe Morris), but we didn't really lose anything today worth getting upset over. Simply not losing Hatley and Ha is enough to keep me happy.

Honestly, there aren't many players in baseball right now with a wider potential range of outcomes for 2014. If you jumped out of a time machine and told me he was the worst player in the majors I wouldn't be surprised. I also wouldn't be surprised if he was a 5 WAR player. The good news is we are in an ideal position to find out if there's anything there.

This isn't a Jack Morris situation. Glavine threw 1664 more innings with a 3.79 ERA over those innings. Halladay was better at his peak, but Glavine had the longevity. There's no right or wrong answer between the two.

I actually wouldn't mind seeing the Cubs acquire Danks. The White Sox would probably eat a little contract and not require much in return.

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/14276/i-don-t-care-o.gif

I'm not sure id give Young a league minimum, no incentives deal. Hell, I might not even extend him a minor league deal. NR ST invitee, maybe.

I'd love to acquire Franklin, but I honestly have no idea how much it's going to cost.

@tyyoungfelt Thanks TT, I like that deal quite a bit. Hendricks definitely seems like a guy the Twins might value. But I still feel like it's unlikely to see that much talent coming back our way.

What's ABTY's twitter handle?

Well they need a 3B assuming ARod isn't playing and they need pitching. A friend told me he saw someone floating a Gardner and prospects for Samardzija but I'm sure there's no truth to that and as much as I like Gardner, the Yankees' pitching prospects aren't interesting enough that I would do that trade. Villanueva + Valbuena for Gardner + pitching prospect? I really can't fathom why the Cubs would go after Gardner (and this is coming from somebody who really likes Gardner.) Grab him in free agency after this season. Don't give up prospects or valuable pieces like Valbuena for him when we aren't going to compete this year anyways.

Yeah. He's going to get the Sean Marshall treatment.

why would the cubs do that? I would think you'd really like Ackley as a target. College bat with a great BB rate and some pop for a 2B plus a strong MLB season. He's had a couple down years, but that's why he's available and he's 26 next year. Lake would be selling high on his MLB time last year and his tools, plus the Mariners aren't going to trade Ackley without getting something that can help right away given their current situation. how is his outfield defense? He hasn't played much out there, but UZR hates him in CF (-10.3 UZR/150). It likes him at 2B though (7.3 UZR/150). I'd like him a lot better if he had any semblance of power. He had one decent half season for that, but the last two years his ISO has been in Darwin Barney territory.

His swinging strike percentage last year was actually the highest its been since 2010. I wouldn't be shocked at all to see the strikeout rate climb back up a bit. On the negative side of things, his first pitch strike percentage last year was his lowest of his career. So I'm not sure the improved walk rate isn't a mirage.

Proposal or rumor?

Another pretty interesting day. Cano to the Mariners at 10 years and $240 mil. Granderson to the Mets for 4 years and $60 mil. Feldman to the Astros for 3 years and $30 mil. Kuroda to the Yankees for 1 year and $16 mil. Not bad before lunch.

The reason I like getting surplus value on the complementary type players is precisely because it allows us to have the money to overspend on the difference makers. Overspending on them is fine as long as it doesn't get too crazy.

Looks like we'll control Wright through 2015 too. Nice.

Yeah, I'm pretty thrilled with this if that's all it took.

Honestly, with the way this offseason is going I'm surprised not to be hearing more about trading for Stanton. I'd have thought every writer would spend all through January working up trade proposals, and every fan on every board going nuts about the possibility.

I edited my post on the last page. Szymborski got duped by a fake twitter account, and took me along for the ride. Cano is still on the market.

Edit: Dan Szymborski is a jerk retweeting fake accounts. Cano not off the market yet.

Losing out on Ellsbury really, really sucks. And acquiring him instead of Cano probably leaves the Yankees with enough money to get Tanaka too. This offseason is not going well.