Little Slide Rooter

and who is that "actual ace" that you're going to get/sign? David Price. Judging by what they got for a year and an option of 30 year old James Shields, I can't even begin to think about the, er, price.

Underwood Candelerio Loux We sure have a lot of intriguing prospects. I'm still waiting for Golden's inclusion, at least for the top 20.

Looking for a short term LF option who can lead off, probably cheap. I think we can help them out. Surely DeJesus can play LF.

If the Angels get anything of value for Wells, and we can't move Soriano that will suck. per ABTY, the Angels are willing to eat a lot more of Wells' contract and they're also willing to take back a bad contract for a nice return. Unless the bad contract they're taking in return is worse than Wells, there's no reason they should expect anything else in return. While the Phillies are loaded with bad contracts, they're all attached to players they need, and pretty much all of them are better than Wells. Whatever they're willing to take on of Wells contract, we should be willing to pick up of Soriano for a useful return.

True, but my fear is that he could be signed as our default ace. With the money we offered Sanchez, it could have been a starting point for a Garza extension. However, it could be that they've accepted that they wont be able to resign Garza, and as soon as we sign Jackson, Marcum, or whomever, we'll work on trading Garza. Instead of the impressive Garza/Shark/Jackson/Baker/Feldman rotation, we'll be looking at the less impressive Shark/Jackson/Baker/Feldman/Wood. As for The Rangers, as I said, with the money they have, if they want Jackson, he's theirs. However, if the price gets higher than they want to pay, they could prefer to trade for a better option, and they certainly have the chips to do it. Perhaps that option could be Garza. Seeing as they're looking for a bat and a SP, I wonder what they'd give us for Garza and Soriano.

If the Angels get anything of value for Wells, and we can't move Soriano that will suck.

What worries me about the Rangers is that they just missed out on Hamilton, leaving them with a boat load of money that they can use toward Jackson and Bourn if they like. My guess is that if the Rangers really want him, he's theirs. Damn those GMs that think that winning now is better than winning in 2015.

I know the discussions started in the 2012 Offseason Thread, but may as well save it from becoming a bi-polar mess.

It seems to be. He has to have as good a chance as Stewart did/does to rebound and we signed him twice. Can't really compare the two. Stewart was a former top prospect who had a few solid big league years, but never came close to his potential. Sizemore had 4 seasons of 5.3-6.5 by the time he was 25 and on the way to becoming one of baseball's elite before he got injured. And to answer the question, I'd most definitely sign Sizemore at the right price.

It's rather boring, maybe a bit frustrating, but of the remaining big name free agents, such as Marcum, Jackson, Bourn, and Swisher, there hasn't been a lot of word on them. There's been some Jackson/Padres and Swisher/Indians chatter, but nothing close to concrete. This suggests that there are a lot of interested teams, and we may very well be one of them, especially in regards to Jackson and Bourn, with whom we've been linked earlier in the offseason.

Want. MLBTraderumors was reporting yesterday that the Cubs had called the Tigers but the teams didn't have a "fit" for such a trade. Or maybe they're just pissed that we jacked Sanchez' price tag from $48MM to $80MM.

Not sure what's going on in the corner OF market. CFs are selling like hot cakes, but corners seem to be untouched. While there must be some interest in Soriano, the FA market features Swisher, Ross, and Young. Depending on how much money these guys are asking for, they're all younger than Soriano, and will only cost money. Swisher's the only one I could see lending a big time contract. Ross and Young may not match Soriano's production, but if they're going to cost, say 2/15-3/25, that's likely more attractive than 2/10+prospects for Soriano, and it's hard to blame them.

I don't think a GM is going to catch any grief when he gets in one of those hot streaks and starts hitting 3-4 HRs in a week, especially if he's cheap and probably playing DH. Nobody should catch any grief whatsoever assuming that they're only taking on around $10MM or less over a 2 year period and giving up something along the lines of what we got for DeRosa.

With Sanchez in the rear-view mirror, it's time get back to what we do best: stocking up on reclamation project middle relievers.

Underwood Candelerio Loux

I feel we've been saying this for a very long time.

True. The division is probably the weakest it's been in over a decade. Mine as well go for it now. I would't be surprised if the Yankees and Red Sox found themselves at the bottom of that division for the first time in God knows how long. Not sure it's even happened since they expanded to 3 6 divisions. This being said, knowing the Yankees and Red Sox, it likely won't take them long to buy their ways back to the top. This makes it an ideal time for the rest of the division to take advantage.

I don't think I'd be opposed to giving him a 4 yr deal if needed. -< 30 -former mega prospect -strikes out a lot of guys -doesn't walk too many guys I'm kind of shocked that Theo is pounding his door down. If we had 5/77 on the table for Sanchez, we should be willing to go at least 4/55 for him.

Vitters. It's easy to forget that he's only 23, and did very well in AAA. Still, I'm willing to let him feast on AAA and AAAA pitching for another year and then 2014 will be piss or get off the pot time. If by then he's not at least showing signs of being a serviceable big leaguer, time to move on.

Here's why we were bad: CF: Byrd: Even in 2011, Byrd was good for a .275/.719 line. Granted, he'd been on a steady decline over the prior 3 years, but we didn't expect the bottom to drop out. Then again, we didn't expect him to be on PEDs. Once he was gone, I don't even remember what the center field situation was up until the Jackson experiment. C: Soto: We were hoping that Soto's even year trend would continue. Didn't happen. Even in his previous odd years, he'd been good for a low .700s OPS. Didn't happen either. He teamed up with Hill and Clevenger to form a 3 headed monster until Castillo came and offered some semblance of production. 3B: Stewart: we hoped for league average offense. Instead, we got a daily debate anout luck until he hit the DL. Later ended up with Valbuena and eventually Vitters giving us nothing. Bullpen: Wood/Marmol could have been a very dominant back end of the pen, with Camp and Russell offering stability in the middle. Wood mercifully retired and Marmol was injured, leaving us with a "closer by comitee mess." the result was that our once quality middle relief became the back end and we were stuck with a revolving door of awful comprising the rest of the pen. Back of the Rotation: Garza/Demp/Shark was as good as any 1-3 in baseball. Sadly, most of their efforts were wasted between the lack of runs by our offense and abundance of runs by our bullpen. The back was a different story. Maholm was awful at first before settling into the guy that landed us our top pitching prospect. The 5 spot was different. Whether it was Volstad's "inning of doom" or the junk that replaced him, we were pretty much screwed every 5th day; even more so than every 1st through 4th day. By the time we settled on Wood, guys started getting hurt, thrusting Wood, a decent enough 4-5 most of the time into a 3-4, depending on who was injured at the time. Here's why we lost 100 games; After Dempster and Maholm were traded, and Garza shut down, we had two big league starters. Shark a quality front end, and Wood back end. Once Shark was shut down, Wood, the once solid enough 4-5 was our default #1. The rest is history. Post July Offense: We had Castro, Rizzo, Soriano, DeJesus, Barney, and Castillo. The rest of the roster resembed one which you would expect to see in early April, not that the Pre-August roster looked much better. Here's why we didn't end up with the top pick in the 2013 Draft: Alfonso Soriano LaHair in April Rizzo in July/August Dempster, Garza, Shark, and later Maholm not having their efforts squandered. The Astros exist

I can't imagine Lilibridge being any better than Logan Watkins, who already has a spot in our ever crowded 40 man roster. To answer the question, I don't know about freak out, but if an object of little value is within reach if it were to happen, there's a good chance that I'd throw it at the wall.

There's no doubt we have chances to trade him. The question is what will we get back.

I'm wondering at this point if nobody really wants Soriano or if our asking price as far as player return goes is too high. It has to be the we're asking too much. Also, the latest rumors speculate on the Cubs picking up a lot less money than earlier rumors of 90%+ of his contract. If the earlier rumors were true, I thought GMs had to be crazy not to take Soriano at $2million per year. It could also be that nobody was willing to give up the caliber or players that we were asking regardless of the money, and plan B is to ask for more salary relief and lesser players. If that's the case, if much rather keep Soriano until a time when someone's desperate enough to give up what we want in terms of players or the engine falls out. Whichever comes first. We're not exactly hurting for money. At worst, he's good for 20 home runs and a mid .700s OPS, and that's not the type of production we're going to pull off the AAAA scrap heap, especially if his new found defensive improvement was for real.

If we do manage to move Soriano or DeJesus, any interest in Delmon Young? Havn't heard a peep about him all offseason. He's only 27, which could make him appealing at the right price, assuming they're OK with the whole sociopath thing.

I'm wondering at this point if nobody really wants Soriano or if our asking price as far as player return goes is too high.