davell

I like Porcello personally. But, the more I read on Drew Smyly, the more I want him. Even as a 2nd piece, behind Turner. He was a 2nd rounder. For some reason, people look at him as a 4/5 type. But, he throws 4 pitches, all effectively. FB sits 88-92, touches 95. Throws a cutter that's very effective versus righties, solid change, and a sweeping, slow curve. Yes, he's a flyball pitcher, but gave up 2 home runs last year, playing in hitters parks. He's 22, a lefty, and put up these numbers last year, his first in the minors: High A Ball, 80 innings, 2.58 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 21 BB, 77K. Got moved up to AA and did this: 45 innings, 1.18 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 15 BB, 53K. I know that what I've read from Tiger fans, they LOVE him and think he's certainly a guy that's going to produce much more than 4/5 type numbers, plus, it's likely he'll be ready by midseason.

Has anyone noticed the differences in fWAR and bWAR between Garza and Jurrjens? Why the hell is there THIS much of a discrepancy? Garza's fWAR is 5.0, his bWAR is 2.9. Jurrjens fWAR is 1.5, his bWAR is 3.8. Seriously, this makes no sense to me at all.

Unless LoMo is involved, I want nothing to do with a Marlins offer. And even if LoMo IS part of what they're willing to give up, I'd still prefer a pitching heavy package.

If Porcello and Castellanos are the 2 headliners, I'd still do it IF both Smyly and Crosby are included. To me, that's still a solid package of players. Smyly and Crosby would be our 2 best pitching prospects, or at least right on a par with McNutt. This said, I can't imagine we can't pull something better than THIS out of someone else. Still worth doing though, if it's me. But I really like Smyly.

That MLBInsider guy on Twitter just posted High ranking Cubs official says it's likely we'll accept Detroit offer soon. Probably not anything, but who knows?

Turner will be 21 next year and certainly struggled in 2 of his 3 big league starts. He needs a full year of AAA. I think he's on the table for sure in a deal for Garza. It'd be great if we could somehow find a way to get Porcello as well. Not thinking that can realistically happen though. On a different note though, I saw someone bring it up on PSD and it makes sense: it may be really hard for these sabermetrically inclined GM's to put a deal together. Toronto, Texas, and Boston probably value things the same way we do and it may very well be harder to get them to come up in price. Cashman could very well be included in this as well.

Actually, I forgot about Casey Crosby. Send us Turner/Crosby/Smyly/one of Fields or Vazquez and get this thing over with.

Without Castellanos involved, give me Turner and Smyly, with a couple of upside guys. Benny Paulino and Danry Vazquez look like they have bigtime potential. Daniel Fields maybe?

I thought they didn't want to give up the pair. I thought Turner was firmly in play. If that's the case though, they're wasting teams time basically. Because other than Porcello(lost some luster) they don't have anything close to a guy that's a headliner for a TOR starter.

I'd take Turner and not think twice. Elite 3B are very hard to find, but Castellanos is still a very long way away. Plus, we at least have Vitters, Lake, and Candelario(much further away). Future 1/2 pitchers in our organization? Maybe Maples and Wells? If not, we don't have one most likely, unless it's McNutt.

In Morosi's latest article, saying Detroit has entered the picture, doesn't paint a good picture at all regarding anyone else. Says Toronto has made no movement recently, New York is worried about luxury tax implications, and Boston hasn't talked to them in a while.

Goldstein said neither are bigtime prospects. Wouldn't make him go and redo a top 20 list or anything. Cubs like Martinez, has projection in arm and physique.

I'm kind of hoping this is a way of helping Soler feel comfortable with us. Balagaert and him were teammates at least.

If a deal was close, my honest is that Jed and his wife having a kid put everything on hold for a few days.

The Marlins and Mariners worked out Balagaert. When he defected, there was a lot of hype behind him. There were rumors of him seeking an 18 to 20 million dollar contract and he had been compared to a young Andruw Jones. Then, he worked out and BA gave the description that's been posted here. He IS a prospect though, just not nearly as highly thought of as he may have been. My guess is he still gets a fairly hefty bonus. Couldn't find anything on Martinez whatsoever.

I don't think there's a middle ground for us at 1B. I think our opening day 1B is either Prince or LaHair. If it's LaHair, we'll have Rizzo in Iowa for half a season, better preparing him and trying to let LaHair build some trade value.

Colvin and Simpson both reaked of "I'm smarter than you" type picks by Wilken. They had both moved up the boards, but both were considered risky obviously. Colvin wasn't rushed, in my opinion. The only thing we should have done was play him everyday once we traded Fukudome and Quade failed miserably with that. I think he'll wind up as a solid 4th OFer, but nothing more.

It's tough for me as well between those 2 teams. Turner's the best prospect on either team NOW. But, if you got 2 of Syndergaard/Nicolino/Sanchez/Hutchison plus a Drabek or McGuire or either a Gose or Marisnick, unless Detroit caved and sent Castellanos, I'd take the Jays, based on future upside. Because that group of 4 I just listed all have a possibility of being as well thought of as Turner, by this time next year, with maybe the exception of Hutchison.

Cubs signed 2 Cuban defectors today. OF Yasiel Balaguert and RHP Carlos Martinez. Balaguert turns 19 in January, played on Cuban Junior National Team with Soler. Played CF, moving Soler to RF. Hit leadoff, but struggled and was moved to 9th. Previous year had better results. Occasional average power, good extension, quick bat. Speed is 40/45, probably winds up moving to LF. Average arm. Martinez is 20. Pitched professionally last year, 23 innings, 5.48 ERA 19 K's and 23 BB's. Low 90's FB, averagish breaking stuff, change needs work. He's 6'4, 215, while Balaguert is 6'0, 190. Both represented by Jaine Torres, same agent as Silva and Cabezas. No bonuses available.

Trade Garza for prospects. Trade Byrd for a DeRosa type package. Puts payroll around 90. Sign Prince for 6/150. 1st year at 15. Opt out after year 4. Sign Edwin Jackson 3/27. 1st year at 7. Sign Crisp for 2/8. Sign Soler for 5/25. Spend another 5 mill on IFA. That's a tad under 130 for payroll, counting IFA. Hell, we should still have 10ish mill or so left over. Not perfect obviously, but it replenishes the system very solidly. It adds a lesser pitcher than Garza, but a solid pitcher at least. Gives you the middle of the order bat we're sorely lacking. The longer Fielder and Jackson stay on the market, the lower their price gets, as far as I'm concerned. Hell, in our division, that team could compete in 2012, if Stewart bounces back, get some help from Brett by midseason and a relatively healthy year out of the staff.

I asked Crasnick if Garza being traded within a week is realistic and he said, yeah, if it happens, it should happen soon. Edwin Jackson is waiting for that to happen one way or the other.

Unless that 3rd player is Travis D'Arnaud or Brett Lawrie, count me waaaaay out. McNutt/Ha/Russell is probably enough to get Rizzo. Garza is certainly going to bring back more than Gose and a flyer. Not to mention, I feel pretty confident, if we deal with Toronto, we'll be adding pitching.

What I went into this offseason wanting was an impact bat, an impact arm, and some serious money thrown at IFA. Now, with no impact arma left and only one bat, if we blow it up completely, I'm OK with it. It's not my first choice, but I do have confidence in this group as to what they're doing. I think they know we can't go through a 5 year rebuild as a major market team who's ticket prices are sky high. One year of stockpiling young talent and reassessing everything at that point? Sure, I'm OK with that and I think they're talented enough to turn the roster upside down that quickly. Let some guys sink or swim, cut bait with those who drown, make some trades where we're adding on, instead of selling off, and then start spending again next year with a true intent on making the playoffs in 2013 or 2014 at the latest. They have their work cut out for them, as I said in another thread, at a glance I only found 4 organizations I thought had less assets than what we do. The Twins, White Sox, Astros, and Mets from top to bottom. Let's see how quickly that changes. The Marshall trade was the first true move we made going in this direction and it was very solid. Let's see what else they've got in store........

I meant to say Brewers got Betancourt. Couldn't remember his salary, so I figured it at neutral. If it was a hindrance in the deal, then add a bit more to the Royals(ours) side of the deal. Maybe take Wojciechowski and definitely turn him into Cardona or Sanchez. By they way, couple of notes, someone came on the radio and said the Jays would NOT include Syndergaard for Gio, so my guess is he's probably untouchable for us as well. Also, some dude on Twitter named Scott Swaim, under MLBInsideNews said all offers are in and tomorrow should be trade day for Garza. As for who this guy is? He's been on Twitter since January 2011 and has close to 700 followers. In his profile, it says he's broken a few signings this year, including Pujols. I've never heard of him, but who knows?

I started thinking about a Blue Jays package and what we really should expect from them, because Dierkes' last chat on MLBTR brought up Greinke as a good barometer and I have to agree. Both had/have 2 years of control. Greinke would have cost a tad more in money though. I want to say the Royals also got Betancourt in the deal, but I'm not even sure that's a positive, so I won't count anything with that. The Royals received Alcides Escobar, Jake Odorizzi, Lorenzo Cain, and Jeremy Jeffress for Greinke. Escobar was a former top 50 guy, who had struggled somewhat in the majors. This fits in pretty close with Drabek, even though it's obviously different positions. Cain was a B or B- prospect at best. Had been injured quite a bit. If I'm really looking at the Jays system, I'd have think one of these 3 OFers is the closest value to Cain. Moises Sierra, did this at 22 in AA: 277/342/436 with 18 homers and 16 steals. Michael Crouse, did this at 20 in A: 261/352/475 with 14 homers and 38 steals. Or maybe Marcus Knecht, did this at 21 in A: 273/377/474 with 16 homers. Odorizzi was a high profile, lower level arm, so he compares favorably to Nicolino, Syndergaard, or Hutchison. Finally, the wildcard was Jeremy Jeffress, who had a drug issue, but a bigtime arm. He was probably a solid B prospect last year. To me, Asher Wojciechowski falls into this category for the Jays. Could break out or could wind up as a longterm backend bullpen arm. Maybe Alex Sanchez or Adonys Cardona fall into this category as well. However both are extremely young, have bigtime pedigrees and may be much harder to obtain. At any rate, the more I think about all these names and all I've mentioned in regards to Toronto, a realistic package from them is probably this: Drabek/one of Hutchison, Nicolino, or Syndergaard/one of Knecht/Sierra/Crouse/one of Wojciechowski(probably) or possibly Sanchez or Cardona. A steal of a package out of this would be what Levine mentioned, McGuire/Marisnick/Nicolino. Anything more than that is complete highway robbery. I am so jealous of their damn system though. Those 3 OFers who's stats I posted aren't even top 20 guys for them and any of them would probably be top 10 to 12 for us.