Little Slide Rooter

I would think the Cubs would have to pay more than $8 million to get somebody like Delgado back. And they should. Last year, there were talks of eating 90+% of his contract. Yeah, he had a great 2012, but we're not going to trick anyone into forgetting that he's going to be 37 in about a month with bad knees. I'd eat 90% of his salary for Delgado, Minor, Beachy, or Teharen without thinking twice. Again, we're paying a big chunk of Soriano's salary regardless of where he plays, and we're not hurting for money. The goal should be the best player/prospect return possible, and that will likely mean eating a large portion of his salary.

You're really going with this one? In terms of exchanging players who don't figure into the future for those that do, yes. And with no urgency to move him, they'll probably expect teams to overpay.

Just thougt I'd bounce this around: Pitching desperate KC has supposedly been considering shopping Will Myers for pitching. I'll assume that they'd like to keep him. What about Lorenzo Cain though? He's pretty much a right handed version of what we can hope for Brett Jackson to become, minus 5-10 HR. Any chance we could trade Garza and one of our depth guys (Raley/Rusin/Jackson) to KC for Cain and Lamb or Montgomery, with a few more pieces fly back and forth as well.

If we can't get a reasonable valuable return for Soriano and/or DeJesus from someone, to me it suggests that their expectations are a bit high. Unless of course they plan on some type of attempt at going for it in 2013.

I don't know about anyone else, but my perception of Pagan is still colored by his time with the Cubs. I have to keep reminding myself that he turned out to be a good player. I don't think it's a horrible deal, but I wouldn't hand out that contract to him. Even his time with the Cubs was as a part time player, and a pretty decent one at that. In hindsight, I certainly wouldn't have handed him back to the Mets for next to nothing and replaced him with Reed Johnson, who even then was an injury risk and the promise of Felix Pie.

I wouldn't be opposed to acquiring Norris, but with the Astros being in the same boat as us, they're likely looking for the type of players that we are, and the ones that we have we certainly don't want to trade.

The fact that he has an amazing offensive upside combined with the positions he plays. Strikes me as having Roberto Alomar as a ceiling, which would be amazing. He was a total package type of player. Soler offense on it's own just seems to be potentially outworldly. Everything from "monster tools" to Sickels hinting at him being another Sammy Sosa.

As with the #1 prospect poll, I voted Soler for the simple fact that Baez has apparently been dubbed #1 and not an option.

Had to go with Soler. The offensive upside does it for me.

Can't argue with that one.

As long as we're not throwing any big money around this season, why not just sign a bunch of these guys to smaller, incentive based deals? Say Pelfrey and Sweeney 1/2.5+ options&incentives, Jurrjens 2/7+incentives, and Schlereth to a minor league deal. With only about 6MM added to the 2013 payrollEven if we strike silver with 1, bronze with another, and [expletive] with 2, it's a win. With only about 6MM added to the 2012 payroll. so long as we're willing to dedicate the roster spots.

This is very tough at this point when we don't know who will be traded or what they'll be traded for, but a few predictions: Cubs:I can't imagine Sappelt not being on the big league roster. At 25, there's only so much seasoning for him. As of now, we have a lefty heavy OF, and Sappelt should be a 4th/platoon. Iowa: rotation: Vizcaino, Cabrera, Bowden. Rusin and Raley will round it out as depth. I think Struck is Rule 5'd. McNutt will start in the pen. Rhoderick and Batista will be there as well Lake and Vitters will highlight the offense. Perhaps Ha or even Szczur with the other in Tenn. I still think that Jackson is given the chance to earn CF on the big league club. Bour, Rohan, Burgess, and some FA's will round it out. Tenn: Loux, Gutierrez, Whitenack, Beeler start the rotation. Maybe Carreno, who could be in the pen Zach as closer. Could earn a boost to Iowa early on Szczur or Ha will play center. Evan Crawford will be in the OF mix. Villanueva at 3B. Alcantara at SS. Perhaps Torreyes at 2B, but they might opt to have him start at A+. Daytona: Paniaqua and Wells will highlight the rotation Vogelbach or Shoulders at 1B, with the other at Kane County. Soler and Baez will be there. Almora could join them at some point. Kane: Maples if healthy. Otherwise, he waits for Boise. Vogelbach/Shoulders 1B. Almora. Amaya, Candelerio, Hernandez, will make thing interesting here. Perhaps Kevin Encarnacion, the 22 year old DSLer. Boise/ASL: Hard to tell if Blackburn, Johnson, and Underwood start. Maybe Kane. Maybe Boise. A few DSLers I see making their way stateside are Daury Torres, Carlos Rodriguez, Roberto Caro, Ronny Alcala, and Jenner Emeterio. Plenty of other notables unaccounted for to e scattered throughout.

If we're looking at Padres players, one who's often glossed over but has some pretty decent road splits is Will Venable. He's 30, but he plays all OF positions, pretty well I believe and is a career .799 OPS away from PetCo, including .875 in 2012. Wouldn't do Barney straight up for him, but I'd be interested at him at the right price or as part of a larger deal.

In addition to Rizzo, 3/5 of our current rotation, and a possible closer, all while spending minimally and giving up only two players (Cashner, Marshall) that might have figured into our future. I'd say that they're off to a pretty good start in the "acquiring young players to help us win now and in the future" department.

The Braves SP depth chart is as follows: Medlen: solid reliever who was put in the rotation and looked like an ace for half a season. Could be a keeper, could be a sell high candidate. If the latter is true, could be a match. Hudson: had a great career, and still going strong, but he'll be 38 in July, and the engine could drop out any time. As is with most ex-A's pitchers, there's also the injury history: great for now, not in the future plans. Maholm: if he puts together a strong season, he could be looking at a nice 3-4 year deal, and they'll likely let someone else give it to him: likely short term. Then there's Minor, Beachy, Delgado, and Teharen. All young. All high ceiling. This could be their future 1-4, and a good one for years. Then again, they could trade 1-2 for bats and produce more stud SP's, as the Braves always seem to do.

Now there's a nice option for Soriano. Obviously for the LF part, not the lead off. Braves don't seem to give out too many big contracts, certainly not two in one season. Soriano could be a good fit for them in LF if we eat enough salary, and they have plenty to offer. Delgado anyone? Just make sure Soriano's not napping when it goes down.

Absolutely. That said, if we get offered a couple of top 20 prospects from an average system for him, I'd just hold onto him. If we get a young major leaguer with upside or a prospect package at least as good as the Dempster deal, trade him. If not, what good does it do to get rid of him? Soriano is a sunk cost. He's not a sunk cost if you can get some salary relief from his contract. Why is covering all of Soriano's contract to get a decent prospect an acceptable usage of money (as opposed to say getting 5M/year in salry relief) whereas "overspending" on a FA by 5M/year is unacceptable? Because the FA will likely not help you contend in 3 or so years when the FO plans on contending, compared to the prospects who will. Truth be told, this team isn't as brutal as some people think. Plop Josh Hamilton into the 3 spot, and this could be an entirely different team. Give him 5 years. Hope for 2-3 years similar to those he's already put together, and hope that he doesn't fall to far off a cliff after that. Elite players are becoming less and less abundant on the the free agent market as teams are locking their young stats up early. Again, when you're a big market team, 1 wreckless contract isn't going to hurt.

http://www.bleachernation.com/2012/12/02/more-details-and-thoughts-on-kyuji-fujikawas-reported-contract-and-other-bullets/ I can't imagine his future home being SS or 3B, as a starter anyway, but I'm all for him getting all the OF reps possible.

I do. He retreats everything with his name in it, which is pretty cool, but yesterday my Twitter feed was literally 75% birthdays Tweets to him.

Either Josh Fields or Ryan Chaffee seem like they could be nice additions to our pen, but Carlos Perez might be the most enticing, assuming that we're willing to hide a very raw 21 year old at the end of the pen all season. And what does it say about our upper level pitching prospects when our Minor League Pither of the Year is available for nothing more than a roster spot, and he's not mentioned in any of the Rule 5 write ups so far? Still, with most of these guys being either quasi-big league ready relievers or lottery tickets, someone searching for back end starting pitching could very likely take him, although there might be several other un-notable Nick Strucks available for all I know.

I could see it. Like it or not, they could move Castro to 3rd, keep Barney for 2B, and Escobar at SS. Meanwhile, focus Baez solely on SS for the future. and how bad could this team be: 1. DeJesus RF 2. Castro 3B 3. Rizzo 1B 4. Soriano LF (if nobody offers enough in return) 5. Escobar SS 6. Castillo C 7. Jackson/Sappelt CF 8. Barney 2B Garza, Shark, Baker, Wood (maybe trade Wood and replace with Jurrjens or Pelfrey on a contract similar to Feldman/Maholm), Feldman. (Vizcaino/Cabrera/Bowden start the Iowa rotation) BP Marmol, Fujikawa, Russell, Camp, some combo of Beliveau/Dolis/Putnam/Chapman/Gutierrez/Mateo/Hatley/whoever Navarro, Jackson/Sappelt, Valbuena, Campana, Stewart a 90 game winner it would not be, nor would it be a 100 game loser. What it would be is an inexpensive team with a chance to compete, and if June rolls around it it's not happening, then we start trading guys for similar value to what they would have now, depending on the market when the time comes. Of course, if someone wants to bowl us over with an offer for Garza, Soriano, or Marmol, that's different.

You kind of answered your own question. If 3B is such a cesspool, I can't imagine the Rockies, who aren't in much better shape than we are trading a 21 year old top prospect without a top prospect or more in return.

If things go well on the farm and trades in the next few years, no. But if 2015 rolls around, things aren't going as planned, and ticket sales are steadily declining, I could see ownership saying [expletive] it, buy a team that if nothing else will bring back the fans. As for "albatross" contracts, it's OK to pay big to land a star player, especially when it fills an existing hole. Our problems came with multiple albatross contracts. When Hendry wasn't busy outbidding himself with lengthy, NTC bearing contracts for his starters, he was nickel and diming us to death with guys like Miles and Grabow that could have just as easily been replaced through the farm system or bargain bin FA's. When you're a big market team, it's Ok, perhaps necessary to spend big here and there, but you need balance. If you look at teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers that spend like drunken sailers, they also have a lot of contributing players that come from within. Thats what we were missing through most of the Hendry era. It's clear to me that when Theo and Co. do start spending, it will be to supplement what they produce from within. That's really how it should be. Yeah, it sucks that we'll have to wait another 2-5 years, but it is what it is.

Of course not. But at what point does the term "solid return" become relative? We're paying him 18MM for each of the next 2 years. Regardless of how or where he spends the next two seasons, we're paying at least 90% of that. After this offseason, his value can only go down. If there are no plans for contention this season or next, and we're paying the money anyway,are we better off paying for the final two years of an inconsistent career or for someone like Dom Brown or Alex Cobb and a few lottery tickets?

Does this mean that they plan on making some attempt at decency for 2013 or are they buying a scratch off ticket in hopes of redeeming it for a top 25-50 prospect this time next year?