Little Slide Rooter

"KLAW, out of curiosity would you rather have Randall Delgado than Vizcaino?" "K_Law Vizcaino, by a mile." Without the injury, there's no question. My only reservation is that while we may have all the medical records in the world, The Braves are more familiar with his recovery situation. It just seems that if his recovery was coming along perfectly, they wouldn't have traded a guy with ace potential for a mid rotation at best starter (yes, even if we did include Reed Johnson) no matter how much money we picked up. If so, teams would be lining up with better pitchers than Maholm for him. Nobody finds it weird that despite tw difference in their current seasons, the Twins got a pile of junk for Liriano and we got a top 50 prospect for Maholm?

Sounds like he could miss a week or two, but nothing too serious.

fantastic He was traded to Texas for Ryan Dempster.

Casey Coleman was a regular starter for them up until tonight, so yeah. Maybe the fact that they had the PCL's best hitter until earlier this month has something to do with it too.

3/4 of daytona's infield will be really fun to watch, assuming alcantara is still alive When all's said and done, I wouldn't be surprised if Alcantara ends up in Tenessee when he returns leaving Saunders at SS and Lake or Watkins to Iowa.

Oh, hey. Were getting no-hit. Well good for A.J.

I was hoping the GvilleCub reaction to the trade would be better than this. Sad. I wouldn't' be surprised if he's had it saved up for years.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone like the Mets grabbed him. If not, he wouldn't make it pat the NL fringe contenders like St. Louis and Arizona. Not that that would be the worst thing in the world.

Liar. oh, you.

I thought that before, but at this point I can't see him magically figuring it out. However, it could be worthwhile to give him a crack at the pen rather than sticking a fork in him all together. I won't bother re-stating the obvious choice.

Any ideas on who will be filling the holes left in Iowa? And then in Tennessee? And then those in Daytona? Where the new guys will report?

In other news, while Ryan Dempster eventually agreed to a trade to the Rangers, Casey Coleman has yet to agree to stop being Casey Colemn.

I remember a few weeks ago when it was said that we'd probably get one of somebody's Top 10 plus 1-2 other pieces. Then came the talk of Zach Lee and the Delgado deal, and with it delusions of grandeur. Well, we got someone's Top 10 and another piece.

My guess is that this was made when they thought they had a chance to move Soriano (3 hours ago) @SappySappelt6 Time to await this 4 am bus to the airport #greatnews" #Cubs And then this when it fell through (2 hours ago) @sappysappelt6: On my way to Dez Money Iowa lol the greatest place on earth

Both Patterson brothers continue to float from system to system.

We just got over excited from a bunch of last minute talk. Before all of last nights dugout man love, many were beginning to accept that we'd probably send Dempster to the Dodgers at their price and maybe a few PTBNL for guys like Johnson and Camp. We got 2 top 100 prospects and have up 2 guys we pulled off the scrap heap, 1 non tender candidate, and 2 months of Dempster.

you can't just look at the numbers in a vacuum for these guys. Pitcher with a solid K rate and doesn't walk many guys, and a top 100 3B prospect. Maybe we didnt get what we wanted, but it looks like Theo did.

me too. Just out of curiosity, if we had traded Dempster for Delgado, what would you have expected in return for Maholm and Johnson? Probably about what we end up getting for Dempster, so it all evens out. Yeah, we all have a bad case of trade deadline blue balls, but this is more the fault of Epstein and Coletti playing a 2 week long game of chicken that nobody won than Dempsters. I have no I'll will toward Dempster at this point, but I do hope that The Dodgers crash and burn hard.

I am too. But Gould is fine. He'd easily be our 2nd best pitching prospect, behind Vizcaino. I guess it all depends on what we could have got from the Yankees or Rangers, which we'll likely never know. There's still Garza, but I'm hoping for some type of surprise insanity trade with the D Backs for him.

In the Winter, peaple legitimately thought we could get Turner, Castalannos, and one of Smyly/Crosby for Garza alone. Now we can't get a blocked prospect for Garza and our top prospect going into this season? Adrian Beltre is locked up through 2015. Olt is about to be 24. They could try to convert him to OF, or they could cash him him in for a package which would fill two of their needs.

Going by what they gave the A's for Cahill, and the pitching prospects they have, this would be THE perfect partner.

Dempster+Jackson for Olt and 1-2 additional prospects? With Hamilton no guarantee to return, and Cruz looking more like a DH than anything, it could be perfect for them. We also have Camp and Baker as clearence items if they're in need of middle relief or UT.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/law_keith/id/8216730/analyzing-trade-braves-cubs-featured-paul-maholm-reed-johnson-arodys-vizcaino Getting Vizcaino for a 35 year old 4th OF'er and back-end starter reminds me of the Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell trade back in the day. Friggin' steal. This is like when Wesley put iocane powder in both goblets, leading to Vizzin's demise....or something like that. Reminds me of something more recent and close to home: the Ian Stewart trade. We send them a guy who's a safe bet to be a productive but not steller player in exchange for a higher risk guy with a much higher ceiling. Obviously, Vizcaino's younger, and has a much better chance at reaching his ceiling, but the principle remains. Make no mistake, we didn't get one over on the Braves here. I can't think of too many times that anyone's put one over on the Braves. We gave them what they've been looking for. A veteran starter. Greinke's off the table. Dempster rejected them. The Phillies and Marlins want money and prospects for Lee and JJ, and the Braves have stated that they don't have much money to give. They must have known that to get what they want, they'd have to give up one of their high ceiling arms and then some. Enter Theo with a solution: Maholm might not be Greinke, Dempster, JJ, or Lee but he's having a steller season aside from his 1st 2 starts. He also has a good history at the Braves park, and he's very affordable next season. We just asked for their guy who's coming off TJS and one more fringe prospect. I sincerely hope that we can swing something similar for DeJesus.

But even then, they're there to 1st be spare parts if the big league club has a need, 2nd help mentor the young players, and 3rd to help their team win. The players and managers want to win, but that's more due to their competitive nature than it being in the interest of the team. The Tolberts, Amezagas, and DeWitts are out their busting their asses for one more crack at the big leagues before they have to start thinking Indy league or Japan, with organizationals like Adducci, Wright, and Lalli looking for that one cup of coffee in hopes of catching someone's eye. Sprinkle in the actual prospects, and the result is a very competitive bunch of guys who want to win. the same goes for every minor league team, so they can't all lose 110 games.

I found the timing of the random signing of that career minors leaguer to Iowa. I had a feeling that one of their OFs was going to be called up soon.