davell

Craig Shipley, International Scouting Director for 9 years with Boston, left his job yesterday, No word on why or where he winds up, but I would think there's a relatively decent chance he winds up with us in some capacity. As for the rest of the Boston guys, it looks like they made a rash of promotions today, so Theo bringing anyone else over from there seems very unlikely now.

This is posted in one of these threads, but I agree, it's probably worth it's own thread. I have my doubts any of the beat writers are getting anything out of the braintrust, but this chat certainly had some good news in it. I wouldn't think anything less though, Theo didn't come here to run a small market team. He came here to build a perennial contender and he has all the resources he needs to do it, or else he wouldn't be here.

By the way, I'm not sure this has been asked or answered either, but is the luxury tax imposed on the entire amount you've spent on the draft or just on the amount you've gone over your slot cap? While I'd assume it's the first, if it's the latter, it makes it easier to go over as well........

The more I've thought about, I'm not sure how much this winds up affecting us. The slot bonus for where we pick evidently only pertains to the 1st 10 rounds. Any signings after that 100,000 or less don't count towards the slot cap. If we're truly committed to building through the draft, it can certainly be done. Just by paying a penalty. The strategy could very well change from trying to sign 9 of our top 10 picks to only signing 5 or so. Draft all the big names you possibly can, keep them from other teams basically and sign as many as you can under your slot cap. If you go over and have to pay the penalty, so what? Yeah, you're basically paying double. That's big. But, it's still worth it to do, because I doubt other teams will be doing that. So you lose your 1st and 2nd rounders EVERY single year? Again, there are going to be 1st round talents available in the 3rd round anyway, so take them and incorporate the same strategy as I just outlined. Yeah, the cost just went up, but if we're committed to the draft, it can still be ran in a way that nets us 3 to 5 bigtime prospects every single year. Fill out rounds 11 through 50 with org guys and easy signs. Do it every year, laugh at Bud, and keep getting guys who fall each year. No more Chris Rusin type 40,000 signs. Just big bonus guys to fill out our cap and draft for depth later on.

Nah, the league calendar year has already changed. This guy just got boned bigtime.

Wait, is that true? 2013? Also, I still haven't seen anything on comp picks for this year that would actually pertain to Aramis or Pena? I mean, we may not even offer arb to Pena, but we'll definitely lose out on Aramis. Has that info been released yet?

So, it looks like teams will have between 4.5 and 11.5 mill to spend on the draft, depending on where you're picking. Maybe the Cubs fall somewhere between 8 and 9 mill this year, picking 6th?

Wait, what? I'm not an expert on this stuff and I may have missed some of the news, but why would players who aren't already our property be training at our complex? A lot of times, it's kind of like hiding players from others. Teams with bigtime academies would train players there, develop the relationship and sign them on July 2nd, not really letting them test the market. Now, if the rules were going to be the same, having the big complex would have entices guys to see what we're all about. Instead, the rules are going to change on their end down there as well. Those guys and their agents are going to be scouring every single team milking them for as much as they can now, which is still much less than what they would have receeived previously.

God, Selig is a moron. Another note, to receive a comp pick, the player needs to be tendered an offer that exceeds the average amount of the top 125 paid players, the top 10 picks are safe, so one of those teams loses their 2nd pick. I guess that is the nail in the coffin for supplemental picks as well.

From an IFA standpoint, my guess is we'll have to take a "strength in numbers" approach. If we only have 2.9 mill to spend, spread it around 10 guys or so and hope we hit on one of them.

But it's a strength in numbers approach. There isn't a group of magical scouts out there who are going to "hit" on THAT many more players than any others would. At least not that I know of anyway. Spending heavily and having more chances early on, seems like the best way to make it happen for your system, because while mistakes are made, they're bought out by giving yourself more shots at getting it right.

I wonder when Theo knew this was going to happen? Because if we truly want to rebuild the system quickly, trading Garza seems like one of our only real options at this point.

My guess is Jorge Soler waits until he's 24 before coming over here now, unless he's already screwed, which I guess is possible. If so, what team is going to shoot their entire wad on one guy?

I guess the ONLY hope is your team's budget already has some overslot money directly in it, maybe based on where you're drafting? Maybe the Cubs for instance, will have an allotted 12 mill to spend, based on picking 6th? Maybe teams aren't required to spend all they are given? Unless this IS the case, there is literally zero advantage at all. Plus, the IFA bonuses start out at 2.9 mill immediately, don't they? This is beyond awful. The only thing I can see this doing for us is maybe making our major league payroll go up by an extra 10 or 15 mill, since I was honestly thinking Theo would be planning on spending 25 mill between the draft and IFA. Now it looks like we'll be lucky to have more than 10 mill to spend here.

Selig is an effing moron. Here's what's known about the new CBA. Don't bother reading unless you really want to get pissed off. The 10 smallest markets and the 10 teams with the smallest revenues all enter a lottery for 6 additional 1st and 2nd rounders. No more MLB deals for draftees. Cubans under 23 and less than 3 years of professional playing experience will count towards the new IFA budget. Which is 2.9 million per team. Eventually this number moves to between 1.8 and 5 mill. You will be able to trade money from your spending budget towards IFA money. However, you can only increase your budget 50 percent. If you go overslot on your draft spending limits by 5% you get taxed 75%. If between 5 and 10% its a 75% tax and loss of a 1st rounder. Between 10 and 15% its a 100% tax and a loss of a 1st and 2nd rounder. 15% or more its a 100% tax and loss of 2 1st rounders. This is all I've got for now. But good lord, this sucks worse than I could have imagined.

As soon as they hear Mike St..........click.

He's a FA. 2 years, team option for a 3rd, 14.5 mill, including his buyout.

I think Feliz pitching more innings is probably the better option for them. Gotta wonder though if this means they are becoming very skeptical of being able to keep CJ.

I want both of them. But I hate to say it, if I had to choose, I'd take Soler. Less money, sounds just as promising, and will allow us to do much more at the major league level as well, especially since it's starting to sound like Cespedes won't necessarily come at a bargain price.

I'm really starting to worry more and more about the age thing with Pujols. What if he IS 34 or 35 right now? I'm starting to think the best thing to do is let him resign with the Cards. Yeah, he's a terror right now, but we also are pretty sure even if his age is correct, he won't be THAT good in 4 or 5 years and he'll be a huge drain on their payroll, instead of just being a good player not worth what he's getting paid on ours. It'll hurt them more than us longterm. I think that if we sign Prince, add some frontline pitching, and one more bat, we'll be a better team than the Cards WITH Pujols by the beginning of the 2013 season, which is fine with me. One more year of probably looking up at them just doesn't bother me all that much.

I wonder if the Rangers would entertain Profar as a return? That could conceivably move Castro off SS, but that would be one hell of a nice problem to have to deal with?

Someone has to be signed. Hanie should get a one week audition against the Raiders. Doesn't have to win necessarily, but needs to show enough that he CAN win games this year. If not, we need someone to be able to step in and give us a shot anyway. This season isn't over, by any stretch and we have to find a way to 3 or 4 more wins. Because other than the Packers, I don't think anyone has played as well as we have over the last 5 games. Personally, I don't see a better realistic option than Bulger myself. Favre ain't happening, neither is Kurt and Garrard has a bad back. Who else is out there?

If you have serious doubt as to what Pujols' actual age is, but have absolutely no proof whatsoever, do you make the bigtime offer, or do you make Prince your top target regardless?

The injury wasn't finished swelling most likely. Plus, depending on the type of injury, it's certainly possible that continued use of the thumb could make it worse.

Not sure if this was posted somewhere else, Sveum is keeping Jaramillo, Strode, and Listach. Dernier and DeJesus were informed they're gone and Riggins has talked to Sveum and they will speak again. Wittenmeyer made mention of Chris Bosio as a candidate for pitching coach.