Little Slide Rooter

More of a Reed Johnson signing than a David DeJesus signing.

If he did acquire an SP, whoever it is would hopefully be either. 3-4 year contract or a trade for someone under team control for 2-4. We could then trade Wood for a RH outfielder. Then, for 2014, the rotation would have Shark, new guy, perhaps 1-3 of Vizcaino, Bowden, Cabrera, and Rondon. If we kept Wood, another solid season establishes him as a strong back end starter. There's also the option of retaining Baker or(probably not and) Feldman. We could also extend Garza, or the 2014 FA class tentatively includes Lincecum if he bounces back (30,) Floyd(31,) JJ (30,) Hammel (31,) Lewis (34) as well as Volquez (30,) and Hughes (28) who could be cheaper options. Haren (33) will depend on how his 2013 self gamble goes. Johan's 34, and the Mets hold a 25MM option/5.5MM buyout. My guess is they trade him before put away my winter clothes. could be looking at a 2 year incentive heavy deal, could sucker someone into a 4-5 year deal. There's also some older fellows who could be options on higher $/less years, assuming we're looking somewhat ready to compete: Halladay (37): 20 MM vesting option, but since he's Roy Halladay, he'll probably meet it. Tim Hudson (38): has been stellar and mostly healthy. 14 year big league career and only twice posted an ERA above 4. Depending on how 2013 goes for JJ, Lincecum, Johan, Haren, Garza, Hammel, and Lewis, 2014 could be an incredibly fruitful but expensive and high risk market for starting pithing.

I can't imagine another OF unless we do away with one. Campana is the obvious. If we find ourselves in dire need of another LH OF, we have Jackson at AAA. If someone claims Scrappy McSparelegs, more power to them. Just block out the fans who have a fit when he hits .290 with a .300 OBP. Clevenger can go. If we ever need an emergency backup catcher, I'm pretty sure they keep Koyie Hill in a box somewhere. As for relievers, unless we trade Marmol, we'll go with what we have. There's already 5 in Marmol, Fukikawa, Russell, Camp, probably Rondon (if not, theresa an open spot.) Beyond that, between Dolis, Beliveau, McNutt, and Castillo, they'll have a high ceiling revolving door. We can always pick someone up at the end of ST. And if Bowden, Vizcaino, and Cabrera are all starters in Iowa, Rusin and Raley are expendable as well. My guess is that if anything, we're more likely to trade guys on the 40 man for those we don't need to roster.

Couldn't it be viewed as somewhat of a slap in the face when Big Legue Teams acquire Japan's top professional players and refer to them as "prospects?" These guys have had successful careers, but to us they may as well have been playing for the Albuquerque Isotopes. Japan's number two, though a distant number two behind us in professional baseball. Kind of like if they were to have Bryan LaHair in their prospect rankings.

Remember, we're not just adding Schierholtz; We're replacing Nothing (CF), DeJesus (RF) with DeJesus (CF) Schierholtz/Sappelt (RF). A few keys are Rizzo and Soriano being able to reproduce their 2012, and Baker and Feldman are both X Factors as well. Whomever slots into the 5 spot would have a tough time being worse than Volstad was.

Valbuena had better peripherals last season, is better defensively, has two good wrists, is cheaper, and is under more team control. But Luis Valbuena's ceiling is Luis Valbuena. Ian Stewart's ceiling is that of a really good baseball player. True that the likelyhood of him hitting is dwindling, but it's there, and as long as we're likely to lose 82-85 games, may as well take the risk.

I'd rather dig up Ron Santo's corpse, put a tape recorder around his neck playing Dave Kaplan shouting racial slurs at Starlin Castro playing on a loop, and plant his good foot in the ground five feet away from 3b, than give Ian Stewart $2 million guaranteed. But assuming that option isn't available, Stewart's a pretty good option at the price. Remember, if he's brutal, we'll have Vitters in AAA and Villanueva at AA.

It's not even a minor league deal? I need to go to the ... other thread. Just out of curiosity, who did you have in mind for 3rd? The way the 3B markets shaping up, this could end up a steal. My only question is how different is this then what he'd have gotten before being non-tendered?

But this is situation evaluation, the situation being that 2013 isn't likely to be the year. My sentiment is that aside from those currently on the roster that are likely to contribute come 2015, we should be filling as many available roster spots with players who have some chance at contributing by then, even if it's nothing more than an audition.

5. Vogelbach: edged over Maples because he's a safer bet due to Maples health issues 6. Maples 7. Paniaqua

Yes, but we already know that Lendy's kind of bad, so why not give his spot to Chafee? Unless we do make a few win now moves, I'd prefer give a spot to the 24 year old unknown commodity than the serviceable 36 year old.

Hamilton ends up staying in Texas and the Mariners sign Bourn... My prediction is that the Brewers go all in on Hamilton and go back to the team that scores 12 runs per game but struggle not to give up 13.

I can think of 29 better places for a guy trying to salvage what remains of his pitching career. And speaking of guys we one kind of cared about @BleacherNation: Former Cub, DeWitt. RT @eddymk #Braves sign lefty-hitting 2B/3B/LF Blake DeWitt & C Matt Pagnozzi to minor league deals.

It costs $12k and there's a 38-player AAA protected list for each team beyond the 40-man. It costs nothing else and the player is freely yours once you take him. The AA portion is the same except it costs $4k and there's another 37-man AA protected list. He can also be assigned to any level of the minors during the regular season with the new team but he must spend 15 days of spring training with the AA or AAA squad. Must have been terrible pickings for a team that's looking to add to the famr system by any means necessary to pass. I am dissapointed that we passed on round 2 with Chaffee on the board. He basically seems like a more big league ready Lendy Castillo who hasn't yet proved that he's bad.

How does the AAA phase work anyway? Does it cost a 40 man spot?

Thankfully it's the Diamondbacks who probably will be in contention and hopefully can't afford to waste a roster spot. As hard of a thrower as he is, they could keep him in the pen regardless as long as he's not too wild.

Bleacher Nation says that we also passed on the AAA Phase, but lost Michael Burgess to the Astros and Matt Cerda to the Cardinals PIXIE DUST FUTURE HALL OF FAMER DEMI GOD RYAN THERIOT :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: Also someone named Alvido Gimenez

The MLBTR Rule 5 tracker has the Astros and then Marlins picking in the 2nd round. Does that mean that we skipped? Too bad, there were some interesting options still on the board such as Chaffee.

I remember seeing something about him one Badler or one of those guys was Tweeting Rule 5 guys: I believe they said that he was a very high ceiling guy, but the injury history is there. I suppose that the injury history will make it easier for him to "develope an injury" if we need him to during the season. And I'm not happy about Peralta, but as Raisin said, he's a classic Rule 5/Hide at the End of the pen type.

Wants someone to go to 3 years. I'm fine with it, if we do. I won't kick a dog if we do, but that does seem like a long time for a guy his age and brief success. he's 36 and has a few useful seasons scattered throughout a ten year career. This being said, judging by the very reasonable price we paid for the somewhat highly touted Fujikawa, I can't imagine we'd overpay for him, so why not. And I had no idea that Grilli was a 4th overall pick many, many years ago.

Thus is the the theme of every year's meetings. Every GM discusses a multitide of players with a multitude of agents to some degree. Meanwhile, the reporters sniff around for scoops, or anything resembling scoops that are going to generate the most interest, thus there's always a ton of rumors involving big market teams like the Cubs, Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox etc. regardelss of how minor. For example, the Rockies/Astros trade that recently happned was fairly big, but largely under the radar. Had one or both of the teams involved been a big market team, it would have been big news.

If James shields is the measuring stick for acquiring Wil Myers then surely we have something that can trounce that Judging by the two teams involved, I'm sure that the fictitious deal would inculde a lot more pieces going both ways than one of the tope 3-5 prospects in baseball in exchange for 1 year and an option of a 31 year old pitcher. Even if it wasn't KC is looking for big league, front end starting pitching. The only thing that MIGHT trounce it would be Shark.

While Shierholtz does have strong minor league numbers across the board, he's never had a chance to play full time. If given such an opportunity, could he be a less versatile and much less handsome Mark DeRosa?

Sounds like someone we can package with Feldman or Baker for someone's broken but high ceiling prospect in July.

What he's doing is putting himself in a win-win situation: Best case scenerio (for him): We win a World Series or 2 during his tenure. He gets to be the guy who beat baseball's two most notorious curses. He either gets an extension or his pick of available FO positions in baseball. Mid-range scenerio: when the contract comes to an end, we're still not yet contending, but we have top 10-15 farm system, solid young core, and plenty of available payroll. In this case, he's likely extended unless he chooses to move on. If he's not, he has no problem finding another GM or better job. Worst case scnerio: most of the prospects bust or toil in mediocrity. he leaves an empty shell of a team, but left minimal money on the books so the next guy can spend, spend, spend. This and the fumes of his success in Boston is enough to get him another GM or front office job. The only way I could see his credibility being hurt is if the team keeps tanking for another 2-3 years, and attendance continues to dwindle, causing ownership to panic and pressure him to build another Frankenstein. Even in this case, he likely lands another job, at least as a special consultant of some sort.