davell

I wasn't watching earlier, what did Castro do, to get Kaplan doing his best Aramis doesn't hustle routine?

If there was ever a person born to lead off, it was Koyie Hill.

Ha. Yep, that was me. I would have preferred an answer to my questions on Torreyes, Candelario, Maples, or Soler. But I'm very glad Ben thinks 2014 is the target date. I wonder how many rounds of an IFA draft there would be? Along with how many picks there would be that involved a slot pick? Yhe money would be much different obviously and it would be interesting to see a proposed set up. Still think we're much better off without one though.

Castro's hitting 2nd tonight.

I'm quite sure we DO not want this at all. Building the new facility, in part, is to make us more attractive to players and allow them to choose us, over other teams. In the new CBA, the thing I go back and forth on, is whether it's this year(pool of 2.9 mill) or next year(when ours will be much higher) is the time to go all in, absorb the penalties, and just take the players you want, no matter what. With the penalties though, if we do it this year, then our high bonus pool next year would be lost basically, since we couldn't sign anyone over 250,000 at that point. I'm unclear as to whether or not it's possible to trade money around, if we're in the middle of being penalized. If so, we could possibly recoup value that way as well, but my guess is we wouldn't be able to do that. The problem though, is if we don't do it this year, it appears as if there's a good chance there's a draft in place for next year. And there would almost definitely be spending limits, so it's not like we could just throw money around, as we planned to do, in this draft, before the new crap. Some teams, again a guess, will continue to skimp out, and not spend money down there, whether it's a capped number or through a draft either way. Bottom line, is I do NOT want a IFA draft until we're back to being pretty good. Until then, we've got opportunities to skirt the system somewhat, and make things a bit better than what they'd be, if there were slotting systems in place and a certain number of rounds, and all that crap. I don't think for a second that Japanese players or older Cuban players would have to be a part of this at all. My guess is the age limit is probably 22, as it currently is. In the end, while I think NEXT year is the year for us to overspend wildly on IFA, if it appears there's a better than 50/50 chance of having a draft in 2013, then you've got to do it now. Plus, you have other ways to keep costs down, as Badler's article from a couple of weeks ago implied. Paying agents under the table and other things like that, that could find more cash filtering back towards the players, who are ultimately going to be screwed moreso than teams like us, in my opinion.

On their winning streak last year, it seemed all the talking heads had come around on him and considered him a franchise guy that could win. I think when he went down and we struggled, it proved it even more, as they all pointed to losing Cutler as a gigantic loss we wouldn't come back from. But, they definitely don't LIKE him, so my guess is the first chance they get to rag on him, even if it's something stupid, they'll do it as quickly as they can. And I doubt that ever changes.

Patrick Ewing has been a thorn in my side for years. I have a basketball signed by MJ, Pippen, Stockton, Malone, Barkley, Bird, Magic, Robinson, Drexler, Mullin, and even Laettner. All of which I got outside of the Charlotte Coliseum years ago, at different games and with different results as to how many times I got turned down, before they signed. I've seen Ewing 6 times. First time, he ignored me and everyone else completely. Second time, he said he wouldn't sign it because I was going to sell it. Third time, he said he didn't sign basketballs at all. Fourth time, he remembered me and said I didn't give up, but he wasn't signing it. Fifth time, he told me to mail it to him and he'd think about it. That was the 1st time I saw him outside of Charlotte, in New York. Last time, was in Miami, randomly at a beach and I obviously didn't have the ball with me. But I heard him tell a teenager, with dad in clear earshot to [expletive] off, he wasn't signing anything. I don't even display it, because it's incomplete, with no hope at all of ever getting that fuckstick.

I could see the Marlins being interested in Reed or Campana. Someone who can start in a pinch, then go back to being a reserve with no issue in a month or so. That said, I really like Campana and don't want to trade him for scraps, rightly or probably wrongly. He's not a guy I want to see as a starter obviously, but I do see lots of late inning value in him.

I started to laugh.......Then just shook my head, because you probably nailed it.

Buxton's going to fall. Don't bust my bubble! I've seen a few people say Buxton has the least amount of projectable power out of those 3. It's why at this point, I don't really care which of the 3 we take, if we go that route.

So are they doing their best to drive down revenue this year? I don't think it's possible to get it down to THAT area is it? The other key to sucking this season, along with the high draft pick, is the higher IFA budget next year. Teams will be given between 1.7 and 4.8 mill next year, so having that much of an advantage over teams like Texas, Toronto, and a few other good teams that spend heavily down there will be a bigtime deal. Plus, you can start trading the money around for IFA next year as well, to the point where you can add up to half of your current budget. So, my guess is we'll see a few deals that add to whatever our total winds up being.

Including playoffs? Didn't think about that. Good call. We could easily have a Strasburg/Nats issue brewing......

I think I might let him go 160-175. He's a bit older, although his arm isn't. I think he's going to do his damndest to talk them into a full season, so he can hit 200. I'd put a halt to that, but a question I have is this: Is it innings to worry about mostly or is it total amount of pitches? Without looking, he seems to have been pretty economical for the most part with his amount, so maybe you could get him some extra work, if that IS the case?

I still think they'll bring back Tommie.

It's awesome just to see all the prospects names, but they're just to show a general vicinity of where guys should be picked. He hasn't done one yet. That is based on what he's hearing from scouts yet.

For me, our best case scenario this season was for 2 of Shark, Volstad, and Wood to turn into serviceable mid to back end of the rotation guys. Even after the hype in ST, I didn't see Shark looking THIS good. It's cool all the analysts are saying great things too. And Wood, while it's only been 2 starts, has definitely looked damn solid. In his own right.

According to bbprospectreport, Giolito's flat ground session went well. Showed nice zip and mechanics and was pain free. Some scouts were there, but he didn't name what teams.

Dave Cameron on Fangraphs was asked in his chat today who says no to a LaHair/Dempster for Belt/Panil deal and he said the Cubs can do better than that. Panil has struggled somewhat in A+ ball, but I still really like Belt going forward, sssuming he can be passable in LF. At any rate, it's encouraging the Cubs could possibly do better than that.

Torreyes is 3-3, including a double, and has a walk.

Joeby? Who knows? Personally I'm skeptical. 4th on the big board came from Abty. Definitely talks to scouts, but who knows if what he's hearing is correct info? If I'm not mistaken, his best sources are Royals guys. Marlin though, the real deal, just brought up Almora and he was right on Baez and Simpson, among many others. So, we better all be readying ourselves for Almora. I'm kind of excited personally.

I wonder if it's possibly about to become a situation where Baez, Marco, and Darvill all 3 have shots at SS, but also play some 2nd and 3rd as well. Doesn't seem ideal to me, but it doesn't make sense to me to send Marco down, once he's gotten back to hitting.

Raisin, it's from a guy named joeby from BCB. He said Soler is immenent and we're targeting Almora in the draft. Joeby got a few draft signings right last year, but it could easily have been educated guesses. He's also been saying for months that Soler is coming. Marlin, the real insider, quoted the original post, yhat said joeby's name. He did say this guy is locked in, but then only said Almora was getting harder to hide. He mentioned nothing about Soler at all. So my take on it, is if we did find anything out, it's that we're after Almora. Sorry for no link, posting from my cell.

Damn, I'm as pessimistic a fan as there is, but even I'd take the over there.

Both are too far away for me to take just them for Castro. Throw in Weiters/Jones + Matusz for the hell of it and I'd think about it. I don't WANT to deal Castro, but Machado is 19 and OPSing over .800 in AA and we all know what bundy's doing. My guess is both hit the majors next year.

What if it was more Trib like its consistently reported? I think some of you guys underrate the role of ownership...Just like Ricketts is a major part of the overhaul taking place right now, I think the Trib had a big hand in the draft (and FA -specifically Soriano's contract) as they were on the way out. Personally, I like Wilken. Without knowing the ins and outs of how the budget was constructed, I feel confident that eventually it was all added together. So, the 2.5 mill Neifi was given om a 2 year deal, the Grabow contract, the Eyre contract, the Howry deal, and I'm sure I'm fogetting quite a few, but that money, on a yearly basis, could have been used towards the draft/IFA. An extra 2, 3, 4 mill a year in this area obviously makes a huge difference longterm, much moreso than backup middle infielders and relievers that, while needed, could have been spent on MUCH more wisely and still accomplished this as well. So, I'm not blaming the Trib for that end of things, more how the budget was prioritized. And personally, if Wilken was truly great at his job, I would like to think at some point he could have been more persuasive towards getting a larger budget from Hendry.