imb

Martin was in a no win situation. literally there was nothing he could have done that would have made things better.

Not really applicable when their 2 was hitting .150 after being determined legally blind, and their 5 is thought by many to be a reliever.

Price does not equal worth. I love you man, but no.

I'm sorry, but even the most optimistic person cannot seriously believe that Samardzidja is "worth" the no. 1 pitching prospect in baseball, much less the no. 1 pitching prospect in baseball plus something else.

Well, in the sense that Kevin Towers is a crazy person and might ask for Samardzija and Castro in order to get Bradley, yes. In terms of actual value, Samardzija is more than enough. In fact, if we're trying to come up with packages, something like Skaggs + Holmberg or Bradley + Eaton would be a decent approximation. If they wanted to give away McCarthy's salary as a 3rd piece I'd be agreeable to that too. Skaggs+Bradley+Eaton for just Samardzija? I don't know how to tell you this buddy ...

Yeah, what are you going to do? Is there someone out there that can do what Thibs does as well as perfectly manage minutes? Because I think that person would probably already be coaching somewhere. You just are gonna have to live with that foible, or do what they're doing and tell him how to manage it.

Or if you feel like he's doing a lot else very well, but struggles with dispensing too many minutes, help him with the aspect you think he needs help with?

I cant wait till he shoots 4-15 and everyone throws a fit

What's the ratio of good to bad history? He has two strengths, getting base hits and not looking lost some of the times on defense at a premium position. The problem is that for all the "HE'S GOING TO IMPROVE, HE'S 23" his walk rate has never fluctuated since he debuted and his batting average has never gotten better since he debuted. He basically has "gotten better" at two things since he debuted -- he hit for more power twice, before falling off completely this year, and he's only been a passable defender once. Well that ignored my question entirely I figured it was a rhetorical question since we can all see he had two good/great years, one good year and one atrocious one. Since he's trending down and the atrocious year was more recent, I'm not sure what the point is of the question in the first place.

What's the ratio of good to bad history? He has two strengths, getting base hits and not looking lost some of the times on defense at a premium position. The problem is that for all the "HE'S GOING TO IMPROVE, HE'S 23" his walk rate has never fluctuated since he debuted and his batting average has never gotten better since he debuted. He basically has "gotten better" at two things since he debuted -- he hit for more power twice, before falling off completely this year, and he's only been a passable defender once.

I have this horrible feeling that the Thunder drafted Kevin Durant (no. 2 player in the league) Westbrook (top 3-5 PG in the league) Ibaka (great jumpshooter, best shot blocker in the league) James Harden (Arguably the best SG in the league, definitely top 2) in a three-year span and are only going to get a 3-year championship window out of that group. If they're not going to break into the tax, Durant and Westbrook are almost certain to leave.

OK, now do it for players who got 500 PA at age 20 then posted a .280 wOBA at age 23. If that's too specific, you can goose the parameters a bit. It's almost as if that's an outlier that may have little predictive power! But to cut through this terrible attempt to back into logic and get to the point, Castro is the very rare player who has the talent to produce from an incredibly young age, and therefore nonsense about "lots of players never improve after 22 because they aren't good enough!" doesn't apply, as the chart above indicates. That said, last season still happened, and it's not impossible that Castro is actually terrible or not good or whatever qualifier you want. That doesn't mean that that argument shouldn't face an incredible amount of skepticism since it flies in the face of thousands of MLB plate appearances from Castro, the standard of how players mature with age, and every comp of Castro's that we can find that has shown what he has shown. Believe whatever you want, I'll be the crazy one that thinks that Castro is still likely to improve after age 23. Is he going to improve on his age 23 season or improve on his age 21 season? He's a guy that gets value from making a lot of contact (been worse at this every season) and being able to pass at the league's toughest position (he's been passable at this one year out of four.) Like I said, there's enough good and bad history that either outcome is possible, but going "hey, look at ARod and Ken Griffey Jr at the same age" means about nothing to me. Castro is certainly not any of the guys on that list.

Bryant was just on ESPN 1000, didn't offer up anything too crazy, but he's a really solid interview. * Said he loves playing 3B, it's his most comfortable position. "I have a lot of work to put in over there." Agreed with the host that his height helps him get to some balls you might not expect a 3B to get to, but that a smaller guy can get to stuff "to the right" that he might not get to. "I'm working on that, trying to perfect it." * Said he widened his stance because, as a tall guy, he can't get to low pitches as well. Said it helps keep his head still and keeps him from moving toward the ball. Jesse Rogers said the stance looked like "Dave Kingman or Albert Pujols." * Said the team didn't instruct him to work on anything specific during the AFL, just that they "want me to get comfortable seeing sharp sliders and good pitching, so that carrying into next season I'll be more comfortable at the plate when seeing a pitcher throw four pitches for a strike, at 95 mph" * Said he considers himself a good base runner and that his base running is an overlooked part of his game. * Said he grew up a Red Sox fan because his father was drafted by them, but the entire family had converted to Cubs fans (unfortunate timing) * Said he always believes he's the best player on the field, but doesn't like to show it externally. * He gave scouting reports on Almora and Soler that were basically what we know already. On Almora: "Screams baseball player." Gets incredible reads that he's never seen before. Great hitter. Great eye. Great patience. Has power that people don't give him credit for. "Launches balls in BP" On Soler: "Freak of nature. One of the biggest guys I've played with. I'm scared when he's taking BP and I'm at third base. Cannon for an arm. Covers a lot of ground."

I'm not tying my horse to either scenario, I think it's possible he gets it together and improves beyond what he was this season, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if he actually just sucks. He's striking out more, walking less, hitting for less power, making worse contact, running the bases worse, playing worse defense ... I mean, maybe he figures it out, but given that profile, being like "well of course he'll get better, he's only 23" sounds kind of stupid. Nevermind the fact that he could still "get better" and not be of any use.

get it its like geovany soto (former cubs catcher) :)

Elliot soto

it was very fucked up and also very awesome

Yes, what you likely seen from Castro his 1st 3 years is his likely ceiling. This is [expletive] ridiculous. What is he going to develop 20+ Hrs, Obp above .370. Hes only 22 but he has well over 2000 PAs. He won't be as bad as last year but to expect above what he did before last year is foolish at this point. Hope next year, I expect more. If he repeats 13', his value will be close to zero. It's foolish to consider anyone to be topped out at the age of 22. why do you think this

filmed in tulsa nice

And castro wasn't one of them.

im not saying i necessarily agree, but you might be able to find a team now that would pay for the hope that he's more 2011-12 than 2013. If you keep him and he hits .250 again, all that good will is gone and he won't fetch anything.

this is kind of like having a non-walking Giancarlo at third base.

[expletive] it, move him for something cool, i dont care what. if he bounces back ill just chalk it up to needing a change of scenery or whatever

there is like a 50 percent chance he actually sucks, and unfortunately for us, he has sucked very recently and has a pretty negative narrative going even when he was good (no idea how much that [expletive] plays into what GMs think.) We're not getting a top 5 prospect or a guy they were comparing to pedro martinez for him when they just made the world series with pete [expletive] kozma at ss

that's a pretty brutal redraft