davell

McNutt needs to be more economical. Throwing 80 pitches in 4 innings has to improve. I think he's thrown lots of pitches per inning in all 3 of his starts.

I thought Zapata was the guy with decent pop, just a Kirby Puckett type body. I didn't think speed was a big part of his game.

Damn, Zapata hit his 2nd homer.

I wonder if Torreyes is hurt or just being given a couple of days off? Jensen was already interesting, but he's quickly becoming even moreso

Yep. I have no doubt whatsoever that Theo planned to come in here, spend 20 mill or so on the draft and probably another 10 on IFA. Or at least close to those figures. I honestly wonder if he would have came here, if he had known these were going to be the new rules.

The wild cards are Shark and Volstad. if either, or both, prove to be solid mid rotation guys, I think we'll make big moves this upcoming offseason. If they don't and we trade Garza, I guess all bets are off.

Doubt Vogelbach sniffs Peoria this season, let alone has a VERY good chance of it. Really? I think he'll probably show up with Baez. Maybe give them both 15-20 games in Boise and move them up. He's got a good approach and big bodied guys need to be moved quicker anyway, due to their primes usually coming earlier.

He can be. But, he's an IFA under the age of 23. The new CBA kicks in on that date and it puts all of those guys in under the rest of the IFA for that signing period. the max spending limit is 2.9 mill total. Of course, you CAN go over that amount, but if you exceed it by more than 5 and less than 10 percent, it means you pay a 75 percent luxury tax on the amount you go over it by. If you spend between 10 and 15 percent over, you pay a 100 percent luxury tax, plus aren'T allowed to give anyone the following year a 500,000 bonus or higher. if you go 15 percent or more over, it costs you a 100 percent luxury tax and can't spend 250,000 or more on a player the following year. What this does, is it takes teams that were "out" on Soler, because we were looking at giving him 27 mill or so, and puts them right back in, because lets say you were willing to pay him 10 mill, you could basically give him 6.5 or so, pay the overage tax and be there. You just probably would spend your entire IFA budget on him and no one else. This doesn't seem likely for us to do, because we need strength in numbers. If he still wants his same amount, it's cost us over 50 mill, to give him the 27. He could then roll the dice, stick in the Dominican and wait until he's 23, when he's no longer under this rule. Which is why I want this to be done with in time to where that doesn't become an option for him.

Cherington is sitting there, trying to bite his lip through this stuff. Thank you Larry.

To me, Kemp is still very young, Harper is on the way, and I think while Castro is going to be the best SS in the game(offensively), I can't see him putting up more than a .325/.370/.500ish type line. I think Kemp, Harper, possibly Heyward, possibly Stanton, and who knows who else are going to be putting up monster 1.000+ OPS' for quite a while. Yeah, SS is a premium, but I still think it's likely to see him move off SS before he hits his prime, decreasing his value a tad as well. That said, I guess it's conceivable that he throws up a season where he flirts with a .350ish BA, I guess that'd get him in the discussion for a year anyway.

I would think there is a VERY good chance both he and Vogelbach are there at that point in the season.

I love Castro, but I'd set that squarely at 0.

I'll take Charlie Campbell's latest mock and be done with it. Has us getting Perry, Randle, Dennard, Keenan Robinson, and Matt Reynolds. That would be flat out great.

Do I have the DFA process confused? If we're the highest team to claim him, is he ours?

OF Hersin Martinez, the last bigtime hitter in last year's class, signed with the Mariners for 1.1 mill. Of course, this was originally reported back last July 2nd, but things supposedly fell through back then. All that's left is P Manny Gonzalez, of the big bonus guys.

I kind of hope we wait for Byrd to get going a bit, if he's what it'd take for us to get him.

Of course it does. Remember, it took Cespedes about a month after he gained residency, before he was able to sign too. This is getting precariously close at this point to becoming a HUGE issue. Because if he's not signed before July 2nd, he falls in directly with the others. Meaning we have 2.9 million to spend on an entire class, unless we're going to pay double, because of penalties and lose the ability yo sign anyone to a large bonus, on top of that.

LaHair is in RF and Clevenger is playing 1B?

I guess Lopez is in now and it was a glitch in the boxscore earlier. Good lord, we suck.

Why did Lopez come in to face one batter in a blow out?

Nothing new that I'm aware of. Last I thought I read was that it didn't look like there would be any charges filed. I could have been HOPING I read that though.

I don't care about Maholm or Wells at all, but I want to see Wood in the rotation very soon.

Cruz is another guy to dream on. Very projectable, has room to add velo, needs much better command. Like Liria and Peralta, except he's a lefty. Jeffry Baez IS in EXST, my guess is he'll start off in Mesa.

Growing pains? Sure. But I'm very encouraged by what I've seen out of Shark and Volstad. I think we've found two longterm answers for our rotation. Probably a 3 and a 4. Maybe a 2 and a 3 even.

The way seedings work for the playoffs, the only way Boston was dropping to 6 is if Philly or the Knicks won the division. I was hoping Boston would wind up 3rd. Hopefully Atlanta or Orlando gives them fits and tires them out somewhat.