Little Slide Rooter

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/10/pirates-designate-jose-tabata-for-assignment.html Sure, I'll bite.

Offensively, is 2014 Chris Coghlan pretty much the high end of what we'd hoped for Brett Jackson to become?

Anybody else find themselves wondering how Billy Beane reacts if after spending the summer becoming everything that he hates and using Moneyball as toilet paper, his team misses the playoffs?

That's our Edwin.

From MLBTR: Red Sox Preparing For Major Free Agent Spending By Jeff Todd [september 11, 2014 at 1:09pm CDT] Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said today in an appearance on WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan (via WEEI.com’s Jerry Spar) that his club is prepared to spend a significant amount of money on the upcoming free agent market. “[W]e are determined to get back to being in first next year,” said Werner. Citing the “extreme flexibility” that the club was able to achieve in the famous 2012 August blockbuster with the Dodgers, Werner said that the organization is prepared to open the pocketbook this winter. “I wouldn’t say that we have limitless money, but we’ve got a lot of money to spend and we’re determined to go into the free agent market and improve the team.” Indeed, after entering this year with about $156MM in MLB payroll, about $20MM off of the team’s 2012 high water mark, Boston has just under $106MM committed for 2015 and does not have any high-dollar arbitration cases to account for. But the team’s true flexibility is all the more evident looking further into the future: it has annual guarantees of no more than about $37MM on the books past next year. So wait, you're saying that we might not be the only team in the mix for pitching?

Haven't seen Travis Wood's name mentioned much as a trade candidate. Probably more attractive to teams than E Jax. The sell high ship has sailed and sunk, but he's still got value at his age and with 2 full seasons under team control. I can't imagine both he and Jackson in the rotation, and it's not like we don't have depth. If we can't find a taker for Jackson, why not shop Wood?

Mike Olt and Junior Lake need a change of scenery So does Edwin Jackson. We'd probably be eating most of his salary, but we would regardless.

Assuming we acquire a front end starter via FA or trade, and have Arrieta and Hendricks slotted in as a 2 and a 4-5, Doubront and Turner are the question marks that could be the difference between a solid rotation and an all out dominant one. There's also Wada, but I've heard that his option is likely declined, though that's not to say that he's not signed to something more incentive based.

You're literally terrified Theo is going to build a completely home grown lineup. As for the clutching pearls comment I assume is directed at me-Im perfectly fine trading prospects. But trading top 5-10 in baseball prospects? [expletive] no. We can trade from Almora on down and do very well there. Depends what you are hoping to get back. We did just trade for a top 5-10 prospect. That deal can essentially be broken down as Samardzija for Russell and McKinney/Straily for Hammel. So we got a top 5-10 prospect for a season and a half of a solid #2 starter making less than market value. The Cubs can try to deal starting with the likes of Almora and Pierce Johnson and Vogelbach, but to get impact players they're going to have to offer up more than that. Depends on what type of impact players we're talking. If it's for pitching, I'd much rather spend the money on Lester, Scherzer, or Hammels, (assuming the Phils would take a package involving more money and lesser prospects,) and then use our tradable assets toward Stanton. I'd start with Baez, Almora, and go from there. If they insisted on Soler or Russell instead of Baez, it's a tough call. If they insist on Soler and Russell, they'd better be ready to throw something along the lines of Eovaldi or Alvarez into their end of the pot. One From Each: Column A Baez Alcantara Schwarber Column B Almora McKinney G. Torres Johnson Column C Zas Vogelbach Black Underwood Torrez Caratini Column D (pick 2) Straily Concepcion Lake Zagunis Dunston Villanueva Candelerio Hanneman Martinez (the kid we got for Barney) Marco Hernandez Amaya Maples Vitters For Stanton and a lottery ticket or two.

The 2014 Brewers are hell bent on becoming the 2004 Cubs.

At this point in the season, the fact that those balls were hit like that is as good as if they'd left the park.

On a random observation note, for a team that hasn't had a farm system in 5 years, the Brewers have produced some pretty good players out of nowhere in Peralta, Gennett, Davis, Fiers, and Lucroy, who seems to have become what we'd hoped Geovany Soto would.

Do we know why? They wouldn't randomly pinch hit for the guy in his last AB of the year.

Neil Ramirez is easily the best PTBNL we've had in the past 30 years.

Urgh. I already saw someone today suggest Baez start at AAA in 2015 so Watkins could get a run as the starting 2b. I wish fans didn't make it impossible to feel good for scrubby players who get little hot streaks. That's because most twitter fans think in terms of all or nothing. But if we were to trade Valbuena, and Lake doesn't stop flailing at everything he sees, he'd certainly be a candidate for a UT spot.

Watkins sure is making the must out of his latest cup of coffee.

It's called bullpen depth, so anywhere between 1 inning to several years.

I could see somebody taking him in the rule 5.

I thought about Rivero, but I don't know of they'd want to deal with a 40 man move.

Iowa up 10-0 in the 3rd. Checked the box score in hopes of Bryant having at least a pair of doubles and a home run. Sadly, it's but a singles parade lead by Kalish and Whiteside.

Just by looking over the 40 man: The most intriguing possibility is Vizcaino. I could see Ramirez and/or Rondon getting September off and putting him toward the back end. As for others of relevance, there's also Lake, Olt, and Vitters, but there's no reason to believe that they'll do anything they didn't when last seen. And there's any combination of Straily, Beeler, Parker, Rusin, Schlitter, and Jokisch to load up the pen.

It's hard to be happy about a fall from ahead loss to the Cards, but the fact that it helped to [expletive] over the Brewers makes it that much easier to swallow.

He's listed as 5'10 now. Could have sworn he was like 5'6 when we had him. Looks a lot slimmer now. If not for the giant mole, I'd wonder if it was the same guy.

Baez and Soler may be off to very different starts, but both need to be taken with the same grain of salt.

If we acquire 2 starters like you mention, we'd have those two, Arrieta, Jackson, Wood, Wada, Hendricks, Turner, Doubront, and Straily for a total of 10 starting pitchers. Hendricks, Straily, and Wada are the only ones that could be sent to AAA. Depth is good, you want depth. Right now we have depth, and if you add more to it(like most people want to), you're going to end up in a position where you create next year's Bonifacio by DFAing the losers in late March if you don't pare down the list a little. Wada makes a good trade candidate because he's not a good relief candidate, he's having MLB success now, and his age is such where you aren't expecting more than a couple more quality seasons from him. Keeping him is perfectly fine, but if you're adding to the rotation, somebody(or several somebodies) need to be outgoing too. But there's no reason to trade him just to trade him. If somebody were to offer a legit prospect, then yes. As for what we have, I see Arrieta as at least a legit 2-3. As for the rest, Wood could be an above average 4 starter, but also a trade candidate, leaving Turner and Doubront, who have the higher ceilings, but also lower floors. Wada and Hendricks I see as best case scenario 3-4 starters, worst case scenario, decent enough 5. As for Straily, I have my doubts that he's any more or less likely to stick in a big league rotation than Beeler, Rusin, or Rhee. With this in mind, Wada shouldn't be so much trying to earn a rotation spot next spring as other guys are working to force him out, making him a candidate to shop at the end of ST rather than winter.