davell

Just as good or better of a chance he prices himself into someone giving him a 6-7 year deal on FA market at max prices as him regressing.

Holy [expletive], hard to believe that was just our 4th 3B of the year.

I asked Kiley for 2 names outside the 1st we've been connected to and he said Nick Eichholtz, a HS RHP, with some late helium, and RHP Jeff Thompson, of Louisville.

You have to weigh things out with Garza. If he wants a 5/80 extension and is pitching well in 2 months, and is willing to sign it......Do you prefer that or a package of Matt Barnes and Anthony Ranaudo(just an example), for instance? With the money to invest in someone over the offseason. I'm honestly unsure what I'd ultimately do, as Garza's health does kind of scare me, but I think I'd extend him.

Rock will need to move over, there's a top 10 round C in the draft with the name Sicnarf Loopstok. Unbeatable.

Good to see him tweet its not serious. At least Vogelbach hit a HR.

At this point, I suspect DeJesus will be dealt, but Borbon will get the bulk of the PA afterwards. My guess is unless Brett comes on strong, he'll get a September showcase to prove himself.

You can almost pin it down to who we may actually be able to swing a trade with and who would be involved on our end. The teams with picks 34-39 are the Royals, Marlins, Diamondbacks, Orioles, Reds, and Tigers. The teams with picks 69-74 are the Padres, Indians,Rockies, A's, Brewers, and Marlins. Feldman can't even be dealt before the draft, Garza hasn't built up enough value to even consider dealing him right now, Soriano hasn't played all that well as of yet, so it leaves DeJesus basically. Then, you can eliminate the Marlins, Padres, and Brewers since they aren't contending. You may even be able to throw the Royals in that group, but they have a shot at bouncing back in. Then eliminate the Diamondbacks,Tigers, Reds, Rockies, and A's because they aren't in need of OF help. That leaves the Orioles, Indians, and maybe the Royals as the only landing spots for DeJesus within the next 10 days. I can't see the Indians going that direction, since they more or less just need a DH. The Royals could panic and they liked him a bunch while he was there, so I guess thats possible. But not likely since they're really floundering currently. Leaves the O's, with an OF of Reimold, Jones, Markakis, and McLouth......Just not a great match there either. Basically, I've given up on getting a comp pick.

I'm not watching, but 90 pitches thru 4, with 4 walks and a HBP? I see the K's, but damn, did he just fall apart in the 4th?

If we go into next year like this, is it so bad? C Castillo .5 1B Rizzo 1.25 2B Barney 2.75(arb guess) ss Castro 5 3B Valbuena 2 (arb guess) LF Soriano 18 CF RF Schierholtz 3.5(arb guess) Bench Hairston 2.5, Watkins .5, Clevenger .5, Borbon .5 Total of 37M, plus Soler and Concepcion contracts(around 4.5) equals 41.5 SP Samardzija 6.5(arb guess) Garza 15 E-Jax 11 Wood 2 (arb guess) BP Fujikawa 4.5 Villanueva 5 Vizcaino .5 Russell 1.75 Total of 46.25 Combined total 87.75M Less obviously, if Garza is gone and/or Soriano is dealt. But, with that squad, add an Ellsbury or Choo to it offensively and a few solid bullpen arms, its an above average team. Not accounting for trades or help from within the system during 2014.

While I agree with the overall idea, I don't think it'll be hard for us to replace DeJesus' 2014 production. I certainly don't expect a continuance of what he's currently doing obviously. Between Ellsbury, Granderson, Chris Young, trade targets, Brett Jackson- I think we'll be fine moving DeJesus.

I'm not a fan of Cabrera personally, but him, Vitters, and Watkins-I should have made clear I'd want a solid to very solid number of IFA money for. Vitters, I'd probably want some sort of guy that'd slot into our top 30 as well. Example being him for Marlins top slot amount(1.763 mill) and a middling prospect. As far as the proposed trade values, in MOST cases, I think I'm asking too much, because I would be perfectly fine in keeping the guys around, if I didn't get it. Just curious, who did you think I was asking way too much for?

He pitched a clean 10th, K'ing one. Was still hitting 93. Done now.

At our current rate, I guess a selloff is inevitable. How far will they go with it this year? Again, it's looking like there will be more buyers than sellers, so the returns could/should be decent, especially if we sold on a few guys we don't suspect are available. So, who IS available? The extremely unlikely to trade list: Rizzo, Castro, Shark, Castillo, E-Jax, Fujikawa I think Rizzo is 100% safe. I would have said the same about Castro heading into the season, but he's not exactly taking a step forward, so I guess I could see a few rumors pop up concerning him. That said, I think it'd take 2 top 25 type prospects, another top 50 type, and another very solid piece or two to move him. Basically, no one's giving us that anyway, so he's safe. Castillo won't be going anywhere because we have no one to replace him with. Shark? I think we'd much rather extend him, but if a team offered us a top 25 guy, a couple of top 100 guys, and another interesting piece or two, I guess it'd have to be considered anyway. In each of these cases though, those prospects would have to basically be ready to go and be able to be penciled in for 2014. So again, these guys aren't going anywhere. E-Jax is self explanatory, he's not pitched well enough to move and even if he had, I doubt they'd trade a guy in the first year of his deal. Fujikawa hasn't pitched enough and he's likely our closer next year, so again, extremely unlikely to be dealt. The unlikely to be moved group: Wood, Schierholtz, Valbuena, Villanueva, Barney, Rondon Wood has been excellent, so selling high is at least a possibility, but what would it take? By no means is he worth a top 50 prospect and a top 100 guy as well, but I wouldn't trade him for less than that. We need a lefty and we also need guys for our rotation next year. He's a perfect 4th or 5th guy. Schierholtz isn't special, but he's cheap and under control next year, so I wouldn't deal him either, unless somehow a team gave us a top 100ish type for him, which I can't see happening. Valbuena falls into the same group as Schierholtz, in my mind. And again, I can't see a team giving us a top 100 type for him, so he holds more value to us, in my mind, just to keep him. I'd be OK with dealing Villanueva, but again, I'd want a top 100 type for him or else he's excellent SP depth for us in 2014 or a very solid bullpen piece, of which we need many. Barney? He'd be on the block if its me. But I doubt he will be. Nor, do I see a team giving us a top 50 type and a top 10 guy from a decent system as well for him. But that would be my asking price. The glove is extremely valuable and I think he's a league average 2B offensively once all is said and done. I may be willing to take a bit less for him, but only if we think Valbuena or Watkins is a true starting option in 2014. Still, with that sort of asking price, I doubt anyone would bite. Rondon has shown flashes and I don't think we can trade him anyway. My guess is he'll be in our bullpen mix heading into 2014. So, we're very likely heading into 2014 with Castillo, Rizzo,Barney, Castro, Valbuena and Schierholtz on offense and Shark, E-Jax, Wood, Villanueva, and Fujikawa on the pitching side of things. Trade this group if it makes sense: Garza, Soriano, Russell, Hairston Trade Garza or extend? If he'd sign a 4/52 type deal to stay versus getting a return of a top 50 prospect and a guy that fits inside our top 10, what do you do? I'm honestly thinking I'd extend him. But his health is a true concern for me going forward. That said, I think its kind of unrealistic to get him to sign that type of extension if he's pitching well enough to get a team to offer us that type of return. So, I could see him agreeing to give us a 5/80 type extension versus and a team willing to give us a top 50 prospect OR a top 100 type AND a guy that fits in our top 10. If this winds up being the case, I'd trade him. If he doesn't pitch well enough to get us at least a top 100 guy in return, but stays healthy? Keep him, offer him the qualifier, see if he'll extend at closer to the 4/52 range over the offseason or take the comp pick, if he won't. Soriano needs to get hot. If he does and we're willing to pay 75% of his remaining contract, I'd expect a top 100 guy in return or a package that includes 2 guys that fit into our top 10. There won't be power bats available at the deadline. If he's not going to get hot, just keep him and hope he produces decently next year. Russell is interesting to me, because he's excellent as a setup guy, although Sveum misuses him somewhat at times. That said, I'd trade him if I could get close to the same type of return we got on Marshall. No, he's not as good, but he's got more control, so it'd take that for me to move him. Hairston has sucked, but I doubt it'll continue. I'd like to see him back next year, unless a team gives us a couple of guys that fit into our top 20 for him and I doubt that happens. So bring him back as a 4th OFer, I guess. Trade no matter what guys: Feldman, DeJesus, Gregg Hopefully a team bites on Feldman early. He can be dealt after June 16th. I hope he continues to pitch well, but I'm not confident of it, so I'd deal him as early as possible. To me, I think we can get a borderline top 100 type if he's still pitching well at the time he's dealt and its early. If he comes back down to earth, I think a guy that fits in our top 10 is realistic. I put DeJesus in this group, even if he's got another year of control, because I think we'll upgrade his spot over the offseason anyway. That said, I expect about the same type of return for him as I would on Feldman. Maybe slightly higher, only because I think he may have a slightly better shot at continuing his early season run. If Gregg stays remotely on course, he's tradeable, likely for a guy or two that are borderline top 30 types in our system. The trade if anyone takes them group: Marmol, Navarro, Sweeney Pretty self explanatory here. Eat the cash left on Marmol and see what he brings back. My guess is if he shows flashes, we'll get a top 20ish type guy in return. Navarro and Sweeney maybe bring back a Jeff Baker type return. The group I could see dealt for IFA money: Clevenger, Raley, Rusin, Vitters, Dolis, Watkins, Borbon, Alberto Cabrera There aren't that many teams likely looking to add IFA money, in my opinion. Plus, there ARE teams that won't come close to spending their allotment and I think it'll create a buyers market here. We're rumored to be wanting more money here and I think the teams looking to trade out of theirs won't be able to ask for much in return. Plus, I can see where a team would actually consider taking a fringe major leaguer in return for a 3rd or 4th round IFA allotment. They could see that as a better investment than a 16 year old they just gave a 200K bonus. We'll see though, its new territory obviously. So flame away, are the returns off? Anyone you'd move to different groupings? I hope its a busy deadline, at any rate.....

Rock HR number 2

Rock HR

Pretty sure I've read Soler takes very good routes to the ball as well. No deficiencies defensively, as far as I know. On the other hand, I'm completely positive Alcantara just hit his 7th HR. For those that aren't getting pretty excited, I think it's time to jump on board.

didn't everyone say that vitters' greatest strength is being able to make contact? granted almora should have a big leg up on vitters due to his defense and baserunning, but being able to put pitchers' pitches into play isn't necessarily a positive. To me, the differences are Vitters was considered a guy that'd hit anything. I don't think Almora has a rep of chasing pitches. Secondly, I think Almora's makeup is off the charts and think he'll be much more willing to change any potential bad habits than Vitters would. Vitters is/was very laid back and has had the rep of floating by on talent, unless I'm mistaken.

no

Wow, what a start to his season! :D Personally, he's still going to be 3rd for me, based on likely upside. That said, I'm not going to be the least bit concerned with his walk rate, due to his ability to make contact. Plus, there's not been a single report of him swinging at everything. He seems very, very coachable and I do think he'll be much easier to control than Javy ever will be. But the upside of Javy will keep him higher on my personal list for a while. Not a knock on Almora either, as I can see him being a gold glove, .850ish OPS type. Better chance of him becoming that than Javy becoming a .900+ OPS SS or 3B(or 2B), but the fact that it IS a possibility will have me going down swinging(just like Javy) until its apparent he won't become that, which is still 2 years or so from now of him continuing to hack away. So Javy needs to keep up what he's done these last 10 games or so. At any rate, the minor league season is finally becoming fun, thanks largely to Almora's start.

All you can do is laugh at the absurdity of that. Wow. I wish the common meatball could appreciate that Theo put out a pretty solid squad for his restrictions this year. It's OK though, because seeing numbers like that just make me wonder what kind of team he can put together with no handicapping. The variance thing will turn around at some point.

Some real uncertainty when it comes to Manaea. As a Cubs fan, knowing we have a tad over 11 mill to use, after the 5% money, would you give our 2nd pick slot(6.7) and Manaea 4 mill(Boras guy) and just sign senior college guys to fill out the rest, if that option were available to us?

Yeah, right now Contreras and Hendricks would be the biggest movers on my list.

Alcantata HR. We know we've got Javy, Soler, and Almora as top 100 guys heading into next year. Guess there's a chance for Vizcaino as well, if he doesn't get big league time later on in the year, but pitches well in Iowa. That said, we've got Alcantara, Vogelbach, Johnson, and Candelario all having a decent shot at moving into these type lists. I think I'd expect 2 of them to get in, up in the air still, as to which 2. Then, we'll have the 2nd pick and possibly a player or two we acquire in deadline deals as well. Think we'll be a top 5 system heading into next year rather easily.

You gotta think his comment on Twitter may have reflected this. Keeping it in house is the right thing to do, but still......Would be nice to know if there may have been some sort of incident. I can certainly imagine him telling a coach to [expletive] off.