davell

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=4616&position=C That's Russell Martin's Fangraphs page. He'll be 32 next year. Will the Pirates give him the qualifier? If we finish with an unprotected pick, will we pay for a guy that we lose our pick for? Not trying to start a fight here either, I think it's a legitimate question. If we've got 50-55 mill in commitments and have 100 mill to work with, plus the rolled over Tanaka savings, what do you see us investing in? Personally, I think the Tanaka money goes towards spending big on IFA's next year. Penalties eat into that fairly heavily, but I could see us spending 10 mill or so there and add in the penalties-that money is gone. Especially if the Hammel and Bonifacio signings came from that pool. Which we don't know. Bullpen? I wouldn't mind if we didn't sign a single guy to a guaranteed contract. But my guess is we'll add one, but not expensive. Bench? I doubt we add anything here either, since we'll soon have Ruggiano, Coghlan, Sweeney, and Valbuena all as bench parts. The Outfield- Could definitely see us adding something here. Veteran bat on a 2-3 year deal or something like that. Markakis has always been my top option, but no clue if he hits FA or not. The Infield-Don't see anything happening here at all. Catching- It's why I brought up Martin. I doubt we'd spend on a solid OF, C, and SP, but I think it'll be 2 of the 3. I was always a Castillo fan, but at this point, I'd have to label him a stopgap, right? Starting Pitching- Obviously we're doing something here, but with Theo and Jed bringing up the 18-24 month thing, it's certainly possible we don't add a TOR guy this offseason. Although I suspect we'll add 2 of them within 24 months. Of course, we've also got the ability to add two THIS offseason, if we want to. So, how do you guys see the money being distributed this offseason?

He's one of a handful of the prospect guys that threw in legit scouting info into his stuff. I'm perfectly fine with it and in all honesty, BP takes a pretty large hit here. None of their current group has the credibility to do what he did for their site. I wish Kiley had gone there instead of Fangraphs.

As a scout. It is real.

I think this is real.

I'm not caring what kind of results Turner has this year at all. They're not going to change much with him before the offseason anyway.

Brett mentioned it and I agree, but after what he's fine through the last week, it's hard to get too mad about it.

I agree. We don't need to trade anyone. And I see no reason we can't spend 20 mill per on 2 different pitchers. And I can see where it'd take 2 offseasons to accomplish that. But I expect one now.

Did anyone hear Theo on ESPN earlier today? Rogers reiterated they've got 2 offseasons to add an ace, I'm guessing Theo basically said as much. That said, with our monetary situation, I could see us add one EACH offseason.

I prefer to think that none of our youngsters know who Ryan Sweeney is.

If this means we can somehow trade for Aiken, Im all for it.

Wow. Really? [expletive] idiotic.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/08/braves-to-revisit-b-j-upton-trade-talks-could-move-gattis-in-offseason.html If they'll give up Minor to move Upton without paying cash in a trade for Edwin, count me being in 1,000 times.

We're never losing a game again.

@keithlaw: Jorge Soler is indeed coming up to the majors. I for one bow to our new Cub position player overlords.

The BP guys that have seen KC multiple times seem to think his bat isn't quick.

I'd rather have him than Ethier or Crawford. I can't think of anyone else that makes sense in a bad contract swap.

The BP thing bodes well for him. Maybe he'll hit more top 50's than I thought. I might be letting Law affect my thinking a bit much here.

I don't have my 2014 prospect handbook handy, but I think I remember most of the top 6 or 8 picks making most of the BA writers' lists. Schwarber might have been regarded as an overdraft, but top 5 picks who reach high A and OPS over 1.000 are going to be on most top 50 lists, even with some defensive concerns. One, some of the gurus acted like only a select few would make the top 50 and it might have been Law that said no one would have made his top 25. Keep in mind, just because we drafted him 4th, he was considered a top 12-15 guy and these guys aren't going to bump him just because we took him higher. Then add in that Law doesn't appear to give a [expletive] about stats from college guys at lower levels and Parks places a huge emphasis on position and its not looking great for Schwarber right now for their lists, in my mind. Kiley likes him a bunch and my guess is BA will rank him rather highly too. The highest ranking he's likely to get will be from Sickels, since he's damn near an all stats guy.

Most of the gurus have said this is the best group of hitting prospects a team has ever assembled. So yeah, it's downhill from here as far as that goes. But this FO will keep a solid system, I'm very confident in that. And Theo mentioned one time that the fans invested in these guys throughout their journey to the bigs may find more enjoyment when it all comes together and I believe that. This is quickly becoming the fun part of the ride as we're seeing these kids start to come up now.

There are like 5 sports owners that aren't a-holes and that might be optimistic. We'll survive. True. But I get what he's saying.

Seriously. Just holy [expletive]. Unfucking real.

too many questions on defense to go near the top 10. I would guess anywhere from 30-50. I'll be very surprised if he's top 50. He was considered a slot saver and there's plenty of question on what position he winds up playing. My guess is 50-75 on most and 76-100 on a few. If he rakes next year and starts to look like a C longterm, he vaults into the top 10 with ease. But this season, while awesome, isn't going to put him anywhere near there yet.

When we add KB and Soler to Starlin, Rizzo, Javy, and Alcantara, we'll have the most "must see" lineup in baseball.

They know Theo is a bad ass.

The WGN broadcast just agreed with you. I am convinced that either Len or the producers monitor this board. Theo has mentioned they look at stuff from time to time. Used to read SoSH back when he was with Boston and mentioned getting other takes as being valuable. I'd be shocked if they aren't aware of here.