davell

My thinking is more like this, and I wanted us to trade Garza more than anyone over the offseason: From Toronto, I'd trade him for one of Sundergaard, Nicolino, or Norris, one of Gose or Marisnick, Drabek, and a very high upside arm, like Sanchez or Cardona. Way too much to ask for? Yep. But with pitching as scarce as it's going to be, it's going to take a package like that, to allow me to move Garza. Just ectend him, he'll be a solid guy to give a 5 or 6 year ectension to.

If Garza were to be dealt(highly unlikely to me, since market is drying up), it would HAVE to be a pitching heavy package in return. Personally, I don't see Detroit as a great fit. Toronto is still the team I'd be trying to find a package with. Maybe Boston, now that Barnes and Owens will be able to be traded soon. But, you have to get 2 top 100 type arms at a minimum for him. Even then, it's risky, due to success ratios.

I would much rather receive a DeRosa type package for Byrd, than taking on Lannan.

Jensen had a nice first start. 5IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, and 2K.

We're past a day here, I don't know how autopick works, but I could see the Rams taking Michael Adams here. If not, they need DT help as well, so maybe Jerel Worthy or Brandon Thompson. If we vote, my vote goes to Adams.

Bears sign Kelvin Hayden to a 1 year deal.

Damnit. Why'd you edit your post Kyle? :D

For us to contend in 2013, we definitely need Brett and Rizzo to turn in solid major league seasons. Castro has to be elite. It's be great if Stewart was a league average offensive 3B. If not, it's another hole to fill, although it's one that's at least possible could be filled in house, with either of Vitters or Lake. Soto or possibly Castillo at C? For contention, you'd think we need Soto. Barney at 2B? He's passable, until we have to start paying him. The corner OF spots will be weak, but certainly money available to upgrade. I have no problem saying we need a middle of the order hitter to come from one of those two spots. One much better than Soriano. Offensively, we need Castro as a legit 3rd hitter, a cleanup hitter to come from either LF or RF, keep Soto most likely, get average production out of 3B and for Brett and Rizzo to be solid/average. Can this be done? Yeah, I don't think we're looking at TOO many things to do here. A little progression from some young guys and one big bat. May have to acquire it through trade, but we don't even have a clue what may wind up being available, so it's impossible to speculate. Pitching is easier. We need Garza to prove he's a legit 1 or 2. And we need Shark, Volstad, or Wood, to prove they're at least a legit 3, with at least one of the other 2 being decent enough to stick in the rotation. Again, we'll need one bigtime addition here as well and possibly a scrap heap 5th guy, if things go wrong. The pen is a crap shoot anyway, so we just need to audition enough of these guys this year to figure out who can stick and I figure that's in the plan anyway. My original thoughts have been 2 bats and 2 arms for us to be a legit contender, but it's possible to add one of each next offseason and be contending in 2013, with the state of our division and we can add more whenever it shows itself from then on.

Theo's plan certainly was altered by the new CBA. That's obvious. His comment was stating facts. It's not going to be easy finding another true advantage over other teams. That said, he's also one of, if not THE, smartest guy in baseball. We've got tons of payroll flexibility, a good allotment of draft picks to go along with an impressive group of talent in the lower levels of our system, and a few young guys we can start to build around. He's not going to make excuses, he's squarely in HIS process. Without knowing exactly what that is, I feel very confident it doesn't include tanking for 3 or 4 years.

I would LOVE Smoral to fall to 43.

Yeah.

The comp picks are worth more to me than the possible small value a couple of older corner guys will bring. But I don't think those 2 would have gotten us over .500 either, without other more substantial moves.

Aramis and Pena combined for 6.2 WAR last year. I doubt it's higher than that in 2012. I'm happy with LaHair, Stewart, and the 2 comp picks. I won't be surprised if we get to within a win or so from what Aramis and Pena do in 2012.

I'm not a fan of Randle. I'd rather take Sanu, Jeffrey, Jenkins, McNutt, Criner, Quick, Toon or even take Dwayne Allen over him.

And that quickly, Antigua becomes a LOOGY.

well then, since Theo has a 5 year deal, I guess we'll suck for the next 4 automatically then, by your thinking. Because he's certainly not getting fired between now and then. It's not going to take this group that length of time to get us from a crawl to a sprint.

I want 6 out of 8 yeats for us to be in the playoffs. Just as Theo said, at one point this offseason. We should be able to do that, with smart moves and our resources. Possible if we had made big moves immediately? Yeah. But more likely if he does it this way. And I don't see that as tanking for 3 or 4 years for it to happen.

We'll have to disagree obviously. I totally understand wanting to take a year to evaluate guys like Shark, Volstad, Dolis, Castro, Barney, Stewart, LaHair, Sappelt, Campana, Brett, Rizzo, Vitters, McNutt, Rhee, etc......Then placing emphasis on what's actually needed. If we spend next offseason, signing guys to short term deals and not trading for anyone either, I'll change my tune. Until then, giving the guy an evaluation process seems perfectly feasible and shouldn't be looked at as anything other than that. Does NOT mean we're going to suck outloud until 2015 or so.

Because it was the complete opposite of reality? No, not at all. Should have added, to get us there in a sustainable way longterm. We can debate all day about whether or not it's possible we could sign a Pujols, Fielder, etc, and get good and stay there, but we don't truly know if we could or not. Letting it sit for a year, finding where our true holes appear to be, is what Theo chose to do. He has a little more experience at this than you or I do, so I'm taking the approach he knows what he's doing and he's doing it as quickly as he can. If you want to think he's procrastinating and trying to field a Margaret Phelps team, be my guest.

I knew I shouldn't have posted that, THAT way. Because we certainly COULD have signed a Fielder or a Pujols and a Darvish or something else and put ourselves into immediate contention. But, we don't know whether it would have kept us there either. He's doing it his way, that WILL keep us there. As much as I wanted us to make a splash or two, I've come around to thinking at least on some level, that maybe he truly wanted to see everything for a year, before we spent bigtime money and I can understand that. I still don't see us tanking for 3-4 years, collecting picks and trying it the Tampa Bay "way" either. I expect some money to start being spent next offseason. By either FA or acquiring gys through trade.

Campana is insurance, if LaHair has to go on the DL. Or if we made a deal between now and tomorrow.

I saw Dickerson mention we're looking at Eric Steinbach. Awesome news, if this was 5 years ago.

It may be the best gig around, but ONLY because Theo took it. He's earned the right to build his way and should(mostly does) have a longer leash than anyone, because of what he's already done. If we had hired ANYONE else, the fans, in general, would at least be hesitant to give the longer leash approach. Maybe Friedman would have been given one, but we'll never know, because we got the only guy we targeted. He deserves the leash, the cash, and I don't think for a second, he's doing anything other than trying to get us there as quickly as possible.

Dolis made it. Lopez will get called up quickly, since our pen is going to probably be beaten to death.

I'm guessing Gibbs got hurt? Didn't see it anywhere, but Noble and Burruel at C for Daytona has to be a very short term thing. Did see AZPhil mention it's possible we put Concepcion on the 60 Day DL to start with. Have him spend a month "rehabbing" in EXST, followed by a 30 Day stint in Daytona and evaluate him from there. It'd lose him an option year, but it'd also give us an extra 40 man spot immediately, to where we have time to clear a few guys out once the season begins. Plus, if he's really advanced anyway, losing an option probably wouldn't matter in the long run here.