davell

Direct quote from McCown on differences between him and Jay, asked just yesterday. "Uh, have you seen him throw?"

That may work out better for your wants honestly. Reddick gives them excellent balance to their lineup, if they don't receive enough for him, Cespedes could be the guy they deal. And it's been mentioned as a possibility.......Guess we need a lefty bat longterm, but I'm like you and have a soft spot for Cespedes.

I like you. I like that a lot. Reddick is having wrist surgery this offseason though, for those that may not know.

Barney(who Beane supposedly likes) and Vogelbach for Anderson? Too much or too little? Hard to gauge Anderson's value obviously. But I wouldn't give up Alcantara straight up for him. If they prefer Candelario to Vogelbach, I guess I'd be OK with it.

Which FA do you keep next year? For me.... Jay-Absolutely Garza- if he's cheap on a one year deal, might as well. Slauson- Certainly try to, but he's in his prime. I'd try very hard though. Melton- If he wants to come back, then sure, he'd be on a "prove it" deal again. Anderson- Yep. Solid inexpensive vet. DJ- Bad luck, circumstances dictate him being gone though. Peanut and Jennings- Tough calls. Would love to keep both, doubt we'll have cap space to do it. If its just one? I'm keeping Timmy, but will hate seeing Peanut play anywhere else. Wright-See ya. We can do better via FA or draft. Even at a 8-10 mill cap hit, I'm prepared to let Julius go too. Again, not happy about it, but it looks like he's done to me. With what we've got under contract for 2014, the only starters I'm willing to pencil in are Paea, Wootton, Briggs, and hopefully Bostic. Tons of work to do is an understatement.

I wanted him last offseason. We've got pitching depth, in case he gets hurt. Lots of upside if you can get a full season out of him.

Alcantara struggled somewhat in A ball as well. Hernandez just needs plate discipline, the rest of his game is pretty solid. He could definitely take a big jump next year, in my mind.

To clarify, I meant no tanking next year. Someone mentioned blowing it up. This year? If Jay is out for the year, we're definitely not playoff bound. Honestly, I think we WILL get a top 10 pick at this point. But outside of Clowney or Barr, I'd trade back into the late teen to mid twenty range.

No way would I want to tank in football. The offense is set up very well for the future. The draft isn't even THAT strong defensively next year up top. Trade back into the late 1st, maybe we can wind up with 3 top 50 picks and/or 5 top 75's. We'll have money to spend in FA too. It's not going to be hard to find an upgrade for Peppers at this stage of what he's giving us. If we were healthy, I thought we'd have finished 10-6, maybe 11-5. If the D improves as much as the O has this year, we're an upper tier playoff team.

With as much progress as the O has made in one year and very few holes to fill- Get a new DC and spend big on D in FA and in the draft. Sucks if we lose Jay for the year, but it may bring him back cheaper longterm, which isn't a bad thing.

Congrats, that post was B2B quality. Neely next on the horizon?

To each his own, but I'll never understand going on other teams message boards to post. The thought of going on a Duke board nauseates me. Same with a Cards, Packers, or anything non-Bulls.

Easy to pull for Red Sox.....Until I remember Dempster's [expletive] ass is on their team. Still the obvious lesser of two evils.

With 2 arb years left, including one where he's projected to make around 5 mill. He pitches good in 2014? Maybe 10 for his last arb year? It 'd leave 3/45 in FA years. That seems exactly like what the Cubs would try to do, except I figure they'd want even more of a discount on his FA years.....

I get the reasoning, but I have to admit I'd trade Almora straight up for Wacha, if it were offered. I get that he may regress or get hurt, but I think the two plus pitches may be enough for him. I'd do it, partly because I'm pretty concerned about Almora's health himself and partly because I really want a dominant SP and Wacha has done nothing since being drafted that tells me he's not one.

With them scrapping Maples change already, part of me thinks we may see him shift to the pen at some point in 2014 as well.

Violent delivery, very solid velo, decent early as hell returns. If he can show relatively decent command after they re-work his mechanics, he could be a real factor obviously. I was happy we found a way to fit him into the draft budget for sure. Tim, I thought about Hannemann but went with Dunston Jr over him and Trey Martin, who will be an interesting follow next year. Be interesting to see which of those 3 secures CF for KC next year.

Nah, I do think he'll bounce back though.

I'm talking about guys that can take BIG leaps forward, maybe even into top 100 territory for one or two of them. Jeimer Candelario- Probably the easiest to predict. I expect the power to start to develop more and the plate discipline to help him shine. He's the easiest non-top 100 type for me to see make that of leap. He handled himself well in KC and I feel comfortable with him in Daytona myself to start the season. Paul Blackburn- The teases he gave at the beginning and end of the year were drool-worthy. Especially if you buy he was hindered in the middle of the season by injury. Hearing Sharma mention Alex Cobb as a comp from industry sources gets me very excited. Should start in KC, definitely think he'll be good and could see him climb to Daytona by years end. Rob Zastryzny- Not our typical soft tossing lefty, with the glut of college arms we just drafted along with some strong HS kids taking up KC, I think we'll see him start off in Daytona. Likely spend all season there. Not to mention, he's our minor league Twitter MVP. Carlos Penalver- Solid plate discipline already, still growing into his body- I suspect we'll begin to see the gap to gap power we've heard about. Figure he'll spend all season in KC. Being the best fielder in our organization helps his cause as well. He's not likely to ever see the majors as a Cub, but I can envision him having solid trade value for us in a year or two. Juan Carlos Paniagua- I'll go down swinging on this one. The stuff is just too good from the reports. I'll give him a pass with last year, due to the late start. This is likely going to be his last(only) shot at sticking as a starter, so I could see him begin in KC, but my hope is Daytona. Admittedly, he's a total wild card and its possible we see him in the pen this year, where you 'd hope for a quick ascent. Others that I can see making jumps- Shawon Dunston Jr, Daury Torrez, Yasiel Balaguert, Willson Contreras, and Tyler Skulina. Who you guys got?

My everything comes up roses Alcantara is a .280/.350/.450 15-20 HR, 30 steal guy. I used him over Olt because of the switch hitting honestly..... Olt is my .260/.350/.500 Ben Zobrist utility guy though.... :D

A 2016 everything came up roses lineup.... CF Almora SS Castro 3B Baez RF Bryant 1B Rizzo LF Soler DH Vogelbach C Castillo 2B Alcantara

I hope the Dodgers win, jump on [expletive] Clydesdales and race them around the warning track.

Definitely possible, but I feel more comfortable with Bryant in 2014. Past that? I'd probably flip a coin.

I think Bryant would put up the best OPS on our major league team if he played all season there.

AGAIN BITCHES!!!!!!