Little Slide Rooter

I'd take that bet. Even with Prince Fielder, there would be plenty of teams better than the Nats. Does this mean we'll lose every game to those teams too?

If we turned that down I would be saddened. However, Detroit is trying to replace a DH more so than a catcher so I don't think they'd do it.

This might be the most depressing thing I've heard all off season. Well there is that guy who was on the Cardinals last year. They say he knows how to play the game the right way.

Morse plays outfield as well, which is where he'd be anyway. LaRoche is the one they'd want to move if they sign Fielder, but he only has 1 year left at 8 mil, so even if they can't move him, he's not going to stop them signing him if that's the plan. If anything, LaRoche would just be another fish in the water making it more difficult for Lee and Kotchman to find even a decent 1 year deal. This being said, while I have 0 interest in LaRoche, if it drives Kotchman down to a 1/5-7 mil I'd be interested.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but this topic kind of makes one want to once again bring up leaving Flaherty and Gonzalez unprotected and later letting Bianchi go. It's not like they suddenly decided that maybe Barney wasn't the guy after they were all gone.

Its clear that Theo's all about the one time top prospects. Brignac fits right into that mold, and TB seems to have given up on him. It really can't hurt to see what he'd cost and give him a shot at 2nd for the right price.

One option could be to see what TB wants for Brignac. I know he's a few years removed from his top prospect status, but at the right price that seems to be Theos thing. Otherwise, for 2012 may as well just cycle through Barney, DeWitt and Baker and meanwhile, give Lake 2B in Iowa or Tennessee and see how that works out. Alternately, give Stewart some reps at 2nd and hope that Vitters can take over at 3rd with Stewart at 2nd in the long run, assuming that Stewart recovers offensively.

I think that what it comes down to is that Pujols didn't set the market for anyone but himself, especially with WAR coming more and more into prominence. Despite Pujols age, he was a 5.4 last year, and that was a down year for him. Other than that, he's been between the 7s and 9s for the majority of his career. Fielders has been all over the place throughout his and while it's hard to imagine him not putting up an OPS at least in the .900s with at least 35-40 HR for each of the next 5-6 years, his defense is far more likely to decline than improve.

Looks like the league has spoken, and Prince Fielder is not a 7+ year investment. Didn't Theo and/or Jed say that they'd be interested in him on our terms even after the Rizzo trade? Maybe it's time for them to put their money where there mouth is, assuming they havn't already started. If it does come down to a 5 year deal and the money is right I don't know how Theo/Jed aren't interested. It would be disappointing to see talent like that on another team when we still have a glaring hole at 1B even with our AAA prospects, provided the price is right. Definitely. However, if the asking price does drop to 5 years, all of the sudden some of those teams who'd balked at the 7+ year commitmant will start perking their ears up again, and all of the sidden the dollar amount could start going up. Say we offer 5/115, then someone else is likely to offer 5/125 with an option for a 6th. Regardless, something will happen by ST because Fielder's going to sign somewhere. I'm not saying he doesn't want to get paid as much as possible, but this fiasco seems like it's more Boras than him. If he doesn't sign somehwere soon, he's bound to tell him to get something done or he'll hire someone who will.

Looks like the league has spoken, and Prince Fielder is not a 7+ year investment. Didn't Theo and/or Jed say that they'd be interested in him on our terms even after the Rizzo trade? Maybe it's time for them to put their money where there mouth is, assuming they havn't already started.

using url compressors makes you worse than WSR. Yeah, take that...wait a minute.

Too many Armin Tanzarian references going through my head to pick just one.

Thanks, I guess. I don't know if trading away one of your top prospects for 1 year of Marlon Byrd, especially as a corner outfielder and a questionable reliever with injury history really constitutes as compensation.

Who's Jacobs? If he's a top 10 in their system, sounds like a plan.

I forgot Rizzo.

I don't know about this many. We're not even talking about 1 time prospects here, just run of the mill junk. Then again, aside from Vitters maybe Lake, and of course Jackson if he doesnt start the season on the big league team, I don't know what worthwhile position player prospects we have that are AAA ready, so let them have their fun.

only if all these guys are friends and turner is a jerk and always insists on standing in the middle That was confusing and horrible. And that's coming from me.

The good news is he can play all over the field and he's a switch hitter. The bad news is that he has a career .630 OPS. With him, Rodrigo Lopez, Jaramillo, Amezaga, Joe Mather, and Edger Gonzalez, the Iowa Cubs are shaping up to look like a middle of the pack indie league team.

Sounds like a pretty good starting point for negotiations. A difference of $8m? If plan B is to flat out cut him if he isn't traded or have a rebound season, I say take it and run. Take the offer where we save 900K/year?? Assuming a few prospects come our way, then yes. Obviously, we won't be getting anything remotely resembling Turner, Smyly, or Castellanos, but 900K+a a few high ceiling 20 year olds sure beats prorated league minimum+nothing.

Sounds like a pretty good starting point for negotiations. A difference of $8m? If plan B is to flat out cut him if he isn't traded or have a rebound season, I say take it and run.

Fielder is clearly better than Moreland, and they could use an upgrade at 1st, but it's not a dire need, certainly not enough to pay Boras' asking price. With the Dodgers, they just spent a lot to extend Kemp so might not have the resources to sign Fielder at this time especially with the state of their ownership situation.

Very interested to see what the years and dollars are. A big part of me wanted to see the Rays go against the grain and sign Fielder to a big deal.

i read an article, i think it may have been on BP, suggesting that this might be prince's best course of action, since the big market clubs either don't have a need at 1b or haven't shown much interest. maybe by next offseason, the dodgers have sorted out their financial issues and some other big market clubs are looking for a 1b or dh. he can probably get close to $25m on a one year contract so as long as he doesn't have a bad year, he could still be looking at a nice long-term payday. Another thing is that as of now, the Blue Jays seem like the only team with a real opening at 1st base. However, normally big spending teams teams such as the Cubs(Rizzo), Mets(Ike), Rangers(Moreland), and Mariners(Smoak), all have a young 1st basemen who could lead them into the future, but could also not pan out. The Dodgers(Loney) and Marlins(Sanchez) could be willing to do some more spending by then if they decide that their guy is replaceable. If Prince were to wait a year or 2 for a bigger payday, chances are that between those teams at least 1 of them will decide they need a new 1st baseman and they'd be more inclined to give him a 5-6 year deal. White Sox are another team that could be willing to spend again with some money coming off the books and Konerkos contract up after 2013. Cant see him getting an 8-10, especially as he'll be 29 by then. A 1 year deal might even be in his better interest because next offseason offers a weak free agent class as far as hitters go, but in 2013, he could be competing with Votto, depending on whether he's extended by then and Prince could end up in the same situation he is now.

Only in this case, it only involved one guy frantically swimming for land. Sorry.

Looking over Sickels list for Tampa Bay, which is known to eb one of the strongest systems in baseball, they have Hak Ju Lee at 2, Brandon Guyer at 7, and Chris Archer at 11. Does this mean that assuming Matt Moore, their #1 starts the season in the big leagues, Lee will be their new #1. Just thought I'd bring it up. We have enough SS depth that I'm not too worried about Lee and I can't see Guyer becoming someone we'd ever really miss. I'm thinking his absolute offensive ceiling is Marlon Byrd which is nothing special for a corner outfielder.