Little Slide Rooter

These days, it seems as though if you want a straight answer from him, the question needs to be about Billy Hamilton.

Yeah, the only guys I would rank ahead of him would be Johnson and maybe Blackburn...and I really don't like ranking relievers too high. Ben Wells is still #1 for me, but Cabrera's not to far behind. Other than that, until Maples or one of the 2012 picks do something, then there's just Rosario, McNutt, Struck, Raley, Beliveau, Loosen, Jokisch, Kirk, and a few others all lumped together. Hopefully, our 2013 top pitching prospects come back in trades for Dempster and Garza.

They must know that we have something young and valuable stashed away somewhere, and the only way to win is to exchange it for something old and gritty. Ironically, they likely cheered when Jim Hendry was fired, but weren't quite sure why.

Let me guess, they want to trade Javier Baez for a 34 year old loogy.

Wait, so Meyer could potentially go in a trades for: a) Denard Span, b) Ben Revere or c) Matt Garza. Perhaps we could offer them Garza AND Reed Johnson.

I don't think Theo is ready to spend big this offseason, so that eliminates Hamels. and yet theo knows that he has no passable arms and the only way he's going to get them is if he signs them in free agency. signing hamels and/or greinke in the offseason is the best bet to be ready for contention in a year or two. pass on either of them and you're going to have to deplete the farm to do that. you're acting as if they're looking for one-year deals. Garza, Greinke, and Hamels are all the same age (within 2 months). Theo might as well extend Garza instead of spending an extra $50-$60 million on Hamels. Also, the Cubs are nowhere near contention in a year and probably not in two years unless Jackson, Vitters, and a few others come up and hit like Rizzo. I think the 2013/2014 offseason will be when Theo will be spending and/or making a blockbuster deal to help immediately. I don't think it's about time frame so much as when he see's what he wants at a reasonable price. We know that they had some degree of interest in Pujols and Fielder. We also know that there was no way that either would have signed for anything less than 17 mil/year. The length is likely what chased them away. Knowing this, there likely is money to spend, and there should be a good deal of it. Rather than spread the money around to consolation prizes, my guess is that if they don't see what they want, they'll stick it back in their wallet until they find something they do. Starting pitching is a big need. Between Shark, Wood, and Maholm, that's 3 productive starters at a great price.

I predict that Dempster makes 1 more start for us, to prove that he's healthy and then off to bigger and better things.

Brett Jackson enjoying day 4 of his vacation. At this point, I have to wonder if it's a mental break or an injury.

More importantly, Dempster has a sub 2.00. Must...move...soon.

Benefit of the doubt since it was a different thread, but this joke has run its course. Even I it hadn't, Reed Johnson's hitting .302 with an .804 OPS, so I assure you thy their will be some inquiries on him. He wouldn't bring back more than a Hunter Cervenka, or whatever the name of the 1B we got in the Theo trade was, on his own, but don't be surprised if he's moved with Dempster or Garza.

Oh would you give them Soriano AND Reed Johnson, because that would just blow their [expletive] minds.

Do-able but not likely 1. Hamels 2. Garza 3. Shark 4. Dempster: trade now, resign later 5. Wood Quasi-realistic 1. Hamels 2. Garza 3. Shark 4. Wood 5. Maholm More realistic 1. Shark 2. A. Sanchez 3. Wood 4. Turner 5. Maholm If you're one of those who think we'll never sign or trade anyone 1. Shark 2. Wood 3. Maholm 4. Volstad 5. Raley/Rusin

So is this Brett's 3rd night off in a row now?

Ehh, he had 52 errors last year in 97 games, compared to his 34 in 78 games this year. It does look like his fielding % is down a bit at SS (from .918 last season to .905 this year) if Baseball Reference can be believed. Would he crack our top 25 at this point?

Rizzo 2-4 2B Shark with a quality start Castro 1-4 I'll take it. Nothing like following the big league team in the same manner that I do the minor league affiliates before the All Stat Break.

We should try to get in on this. I'm not too sure about the O's system beyond Bundy and Machado, but if we could manage to get either Britton or Matusz in addition to a low level/high ceiling arm for Dempster, I'd be happy with it.

I don't totally know the more advanced statistical metrics backward and forward but I'm pretty sure they would say that there's virtually no chance any one player would affect a team to that degree. This team is not good and Rizzo for the whole season wouldn't make it good. There's also the question - superfluous though it may be - of whether Rizzo would've been this good all year. Usually, no. But remember, early on Castro and Rizzo were basically a 2 man wrecking crew in the heart of the lineup, with Barney and DeJesus regularly getting on base in front of them. Problem is that nobody past the 4 spot could get do anything. Adding 1 more big bat could have made a big difference, especially with all of those close games we lost due to the failure to drive in runs. Again, like you said there's no way of knowing if Rizzo would have styarted the season as he has done since coming up.

as much as your posts aggravate me sometimes, hard to dislike you after a post like that. we'll win it one day buddy. Similar story, but replace Dad with Grandmother. I always tell them that the end of game 5 of the NLCS was the first time I'd ever seen an adult cry.

Here's to hoping that Shark's put the nasty month of June behind him and picks up where he left off last time out.

867 road ops, now, btw eat your heart out ian lovers (but mostly nuts and gum) I'll admit that Colvin is better than people seem to be willing to admit. I won't admit that it was an awful trade, because nobody could have predicted the results. I've always maintained the stance that Colvin can be a good platoon guy or 4th outfielder, but not what he's done so far this season. And I doubt he sustains it. As for Stewart, he still plays a premium position well, and I really hope that they render him a contract in hopes that when fully healed, he can be a productive player or better.

We'll see how they assess Vitters at the end of the season if he continues this run since a) he'd basically have a nearly full season of playing this well and b) they'll actually confer with multiple scouts about him and won't be operating on old scouting reports (like they *possibly* are currently). That's my hunch too on some of the comments. I think Vitters was somewhat off the radar for them. I'm not the biggest Vitters fan, but he's definitely improved this year. I really think that a lot of the people, including experts who are so down on Vitters seem to forget that despite the fact that he's been a roller coaster for nearly 5 years now, he's one of the younger guys in AAA.

YES I guess Struck could get another crack at AAA and Loosen could take his spot. Then again, Beeler, Rhee, or McNutt could each be candidates for demotion.

Stop making fun of me for stupid [expletive] I said without really thinking it over like a month ago. Surely I've I've given you fresher material since then.

While it's by no means realistic, I still have to wonder if Rizzo had been up all along with LaHair in RF, all of those quality starts early on might not have been wasted, and our season might not have been over by Memorial Day. Oh well, if my dog meowed he'd be my cat.

Package Barney and Garza. Judging by Detroits needs, we could walk away with 3 of their top 10.