Rob

Basically. Hopefully "badass minor league training staff" is a new market inefficiency.

TT's gonna need a change of pants.

Was the #6 or 7 pick in the draft a couple years back. Failed his physical and was declared a FA when the Diamondbacks decided not to try to rework a deal. Signed with the Rangers for $300k or so. Great talent, questionable health.

I'm shocked Coleman survived this round of cuts.

Bruce Miles says Gutierrez was outrighted, not DFA'd.

Well that's certainly interesting.

Calm down Guy. There's no need for that kind of Poison.

And yes, I realize that I have entirely lost my teeth since Theo and Jed came to town. During the Hendry years I'd have raised holy hell about this kind of stuff. I guess there are more gray areas than I was willing to concede at that time.

The difference is about 1.5 mil if Navarro gets his incentives. I'm not the biggest believer in paying for intangible stuff. But if there's one spot where it can make a real difference, it'd be backup catcher. They have so many opportunities to work with the pitching staff, and Navarro will get to help shape Castillo's defense going forward (an area where he certainly needs refinement). That kind of work can easily be worth 1.5 mil. I'll defer to the front office's judgment on this, since they get to see a lot more of that intangible stuff than we do. TB did keep him around for a while though. There seems to be some degree of forward-thinking smoke around him for whatever reason.

Those were the "other options" only if you insisted on wasting a roster spot on a proven veteran backup catcher. How is it wasting a spot if the internal options are terrible? Precisely. If Navarro and Clevenger somehow find themselves at the major league level with Castillo forced down to AAA, this is an awful move. If it's only blocking Clevenger though, there's probably a couple million in excess value that Navarro provides over Clevenger. Better hitting, possibly better defense, the rapport with Garza, etc... I'm going to throw out one other option. Every time I've heard Castillo talk, he had some degree of difficulty with his English (full disclosure, it's been a few years). Navarro may have been chosen as the veteran mentor in part because he'd have an easier time communicating with Castillo in his native Spanish. Just a thought.

I still like Junior Lake as a prospect. I'm all about the guy with the crazier raw tools.

Personally, I'd probably be willing to do a Castro deal. But the front office never would with the price certainty we've got on him. On a purely theoretical basis, I'd have no problem moving Almora or Soler. But we can't trade Almora and the Marlins probably wouldn't want a prospect with a $30 mil price tag. Same with Shark, who's about to get expensive. The two pieces we have that real deals could realistically be structured around would be Rizzo and Baez. I'd be willing to give up either individually. I wouldn't want to include anything else of particular value though (not that we have much). Something like one of those Rizzo/Baez, Brett Jackson, and a guy in the 15-30 range for Stanton and an interesting low level pitching prospect.

Which is why I keep saying nice things about him. It's not a huge insult to say I see the guy more as perennial All-Star than MVP.

He's a hell of a hitter. I wont deny it. A .300+ ISO in this offensive environment is crazy, and he takes a good number of walks. But there needs to be some concern with his BABIP. A .340 mark in all likelihood isn't sustainable. Flyball hitters tend to have significantly lower BABIPs than the norm. He needs to improve on the K's just to sustain the offensive level he's had to this point. He's young, so maybe he does so. But it's worrisome. And there's still the health. He's had some issues already, and guys his size tend not to stay all that healthy. Yeah, 7.2 fWAR over 162 games projects nicely. But I don't think you can really count on him for 162. And I'm inclined to believe that going forward he wont be worth the 11+ runs his defense/baserunning would be credited with for this year. (using that 162 game projection). The Rizzo argument is a bit convoluted on my end. It requires accepting my estimate of Stanton more in the 5 win range. And it requires projecting Rizzo back out in the 4 win range. Given the service time there, and the easier availability of cheap, decent, FA OF (DeJesus) than 1B (LaRoche?). I can see either side of it. But I sure as hell wouldn't want to be giving up a bunch extra. I do think you're assigning Baez's ceiling a bit too low, but the more I've thought on that topic today the more I've come around on the concept of trading him. Entirely moot argument due to the fact he's not being moved. But an interesting topic nonetheless. It just bugs me when I hear people clamoring to give up "whatever they want." There has to be a limit, and I like having an idea where it is.

Let me preface this by saying I love Giancarlo Stanton. But how much should we really be willing to give up for him? He's got a huge K rate that seems unlikely to drastically improve (the only real comp I can come up with for a really young player who K's like he does is BJ Upton, and his issues haven't really improved much. Dunn's issues didn't do much better either, but he got a later start). He's had some injury issues. And with his size I'm a bit concerned about his ability to stay a plus defender long term. Going forward, I kinda see him as a .260-.270 hitter with 40+ HR and plenty of walks, but I don't see him staying all that healthy or adding all that much value with his legs or glove. More All Star than MVP. We wouldn't give up Castro. We can't give up Almora because he was drafted too recently, and Soler's contract is too much for the current Marlins. So of tradeable assets who could centerpiece a deal, we have Rizzo and Baez (I don't buy that Shark would do it for them). Given the service time, Rizzo for Stanton is more of a lateral move. I don't see it making sense to the Cubs unless they got LoMo on the cheap to plug in at 1B (and erase his huge defensive problems in the OF). Would you be willing to give up Baez for Stanton? I can see it, but I'd have trouble pulling the trigger there. Then again, I'm stupidly high on Baez because of his ridiculous ceiling.

Normally I love what AA is doing. But I'm not thrilled with his side of this one. He could have had Reyes/Buehrle last year if he liked those contract figures. But they're backloaded deals and they're a year older now. Escobar, Hechavarria, Alvarez, Nicolino, DeSclafani, Marsinik, and Mathis for Bonifacio, Johnson, and Buck is less attractive. I realize that with the Blue Jays on the win curve where they are, Reyes and Buehrle might have more value now than they did a year ago, but for this to be a good deal I really think they need to be getting money back. Of course, that doesn't mean the Marlins aren't a freaking joke.

Nifty little move. With as many holes in the rotation as the Cubs have, I don't see how anybody could be upset about this one.

Interesting. Maybe Theo wanted them to throw in cash and when they didn't he called the bluff thinking he can sign him and keep Marmol? What can Harden demand on the open market. 2/16? 3/27? If Harden can get that at this point, Haren should be in the 5/90 range.

Yeah. It's nice to be important, but IT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO BE NICE.

Real world interpretation: The Cubs and Angels were working on a possible Marmol for Haren swap. Before getting too involved in the particulars the Cubs approached Marmol to see if he might be willing to waive his NTC. Later, the deal fell apart at some point during negotiating money and extra pieces, with medical concerns also being a possible hurdle. Internet interpretation: The Cubs and Angels agreed to a Marmol for Haren straight up deal. Marmol waived his NTC and everything. Then the Cubs backed out for no good reason and the Angels hate Theo now. Yeah, the internet interpretation should have more exclamation points, grammar errors, and misspellings - but I just can't bring myself to do it.

It's entirely possible Marmol wasn't the only thing going out on our side. I trust the front office.

I didn't particularly want Haren due to his salary, but including Marmol would offset basically all of my concerns. I'm hoping this one goes through.

I like the churn on the back end of our 40 man. It's minor stuff, but little moves like this are worth making.

I don't know that I really want the Cubs to acquire a Dan Haren or Josh Johnson type. Yeah, we have money to burn... but the best case scenario for something like this ends up with us picking up most of their contracts and getting maaaaybe a B+ level prospect and a couple interesting C+ guys. I have to wonder if there aren't better uses for that sort of investment. I'm sure $10 mil spread around could make a real dent in the cost of buying the sort of tech necessary to say - monitor pitchers mechanics and arm strength over the course of the season. Or spending it on upgrading minor league facilities. Or maybe hire a team of nutritionists to follow Vogelbach around all offseason or something.

Yeah, shame it was his last start of the year though. All in all, he struck out more than a batter an inning and (more importantly) got the walks down to just a bit better than league average. He's looking like a potential #2 for next year. Maybe better, if you discount the poor month he had this year while trying to learn to throw a curve.