Little Slide Rooter

MLB.com has started it's top 10 prospects by positon thing they do with a new position each day. Javier Baez ranked 8th for shortstops. Hak Ju Lee was 5th. So far, they've only goten through SS, RHP and LHP. Unsurprisingly, we didn't have anyone in either pitching department. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120117&content_id=26374282&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=chc

You can never have too much pitching depth, but if it's a "lost season", why not just give guys like Jackson, Struck, Rusin, or Cabrera a look if the need arrises? WSR style version.

Unhappy with the fact that he who will remain nameless will likely be our starting 1st baseman=rational. Seething hatred for his very existence, especially coming from someone known to be one of the few voices of reason in this disfunctional little online community=not so much.

Are you sure you meant to say Blake DeWitt?

In related news, a 22 year old star 2nd Baseman Mickey "Babe" Gehrig-Cobb of the Nippon Ham Fighters has been using an assumed name. It was revealed that the star import was actually 37 year old Bobby Scales. They are currently in the process of gathering further information.

that dingus is doing the m wrong Yeah, what on earth is the YVCA? I think we are seeing a still of a performance of "half a person". They all look like they've had an encounter with Chris Hansen and Perverted Justice at some point in the past few years.

Cubs news or not, I figured 36 year old junkballers on minor league deals arent exactly worthy of their own threads.

He's actually Steven Rosenberg of Newark.

My guess is that more than the 10.225 asking price, their concern is that if he's asking for that much now, how much it cost to extend him, which a team giving up multiple top prospects would certainly plan to do.

True, poor Albert was barely getting by. I love when people who couldn't dream of being in a comparable situation act like differences of millions of dollars are trivial to millionaires just because they already can "get by." Oh look, this debate again.

Eddie Vedders All The Way will be played after every home win. And loss.

They probably are another year away at least from catching the Tigers. But, I think they'll finish second in the AL Central. That offense could be a force to be reckoned with for years to come. As for pitching, they'll need more than 1 front end starter unless Luke Hochever suddenly becomes an ace. Are you assuming no improvement from Danny Duffy? Michael Montgomery? Not to the point that they can anchor a pitching staff by 2012.

They probably are another year away at least from catching the Tigers. But, I think they'll finish second in the AL Central. That offense could be a force to be reckoned with for years to come. As for pitching, they'll need more than 1 front end starter unless Luke Hochever suddenly becomes an ace.

It's fine to have these things bouncing around your head. If they come together and can be expressed as a coherent thought or question, go ahead and post that. But just posting pure stream of consciousness isn't particularly helpful. -Scenerio in which the deal could work with the best interests of the team acquiring the prospect. -why it might be considered "cheating" the system. -Directly related to the discussion. It would make PTBNL deals a lot easier. Legit question.

Just stop. I just don't think that the Tigers(or whoever in a hypothetical scenerio) would intentionally or unintentionally poorly handle the player because he's there on borrowed time.

If it was clear to Jed and Theo that we're simply not going to get the type of return for Garza that they want, wouln't it make sense to pull him back and start aggressively shopping Dempster? Obviously he won't bring back anything near what Garza could, but we could still get something from a team looking for a veteran starter and doesn't want to pay Jacksons asking price or the prospects that Garza, Floyd, or Jurrjens would cost. I'd guess that Dempster could bring in something from the back end of another teams top 10 or one of those 25-27 year old former top prospects that Theo loves as well as an additonal young, high ceiling guy.

This is mentioned all the time, but does this ever happen? Isn't that what the Indians did with Pomerantz in the Ubaldo trade? Now there's a trade that could look very, very bad for the Indians in a few years time. Wasn't that only like a month or so? I don't ever recall a guy being shelved for six months to be a PTBNL. i know bonderman was the ptbnl in a 3-way deal (involving the a's and tigers, plus some other team) in 2002, but the deal went down in early july and he had signed in mid to late august the previous year. looking at his minor league stats, i can only assume that he continued to pitch with the a's organization and then changed hands when he officially became part of the deal, because he threw 144 innings with the a's a-ball affiliate and then made just 2 starts with the tigers' affiliate. i have a hard time believing that the cubs would want a guy from the 2011 draft in february, considering that he'd have to sit out most of the season or hope that the other organization is willing to handle him properly for a few months. Couldn't it be part of the deal that there could be somebody from our side monitoring the investment from a distance? If they seeemed to be clearly mishandling him it would get back to our side and the players association or even the commisioner would probably step in. Then again, that would take away the wink wink nature of the PTBNL. I guess I just don't see why baseball is the only sport in which you can't trade draft picks or make draft day trades. Washington could have really made a killing had they been able to trade their '09 & '10 picks. Sure, it could make it look too easy for the rich teams to keep getting top prospects, but it would also be a great chance for the smaller market, perenial celler dwellers to really build their teams or farm systems.

And if Soto is traded and Castillo ends up the starter it's good to have a big league ready replacement in case of injury. Then again, that's how the Koyie Hill era began. Signed innocently enough to a minor league deal.

I've been on board with signing both for a while now. Neither players is going to sign a contract that would be crippling (or even significantly damaging) if they flop and both could be terrific bargains if they pan out. There's no guarantee there will be impact FAs on the market in the next few years (the 2013 pitching market is already thinning), but we know Cespedes and Soler are available and have impact potential. I'd much rather invest 4/20 into Soler and 6/40-60 into Cespedes than feel I have to invest 6/150 into one of Hamels (29) or Greinke (29). I don't see why we couldn't sign both and Hamels or Cain and still have money left over for either one more fairly big free agent or multiple smaller needs. Cespedes and Solar would be costing a combined 15 mil/season at most and we have something like 40 mil coming off the books after 2012 on top of whatever's left of the 35 or so mil that came off after last season which I highly doubt that we'll have spent when all is said and done even with Cespedes and Solar. How much have we spent so far anyway? DeJesus was the most expensive at 4.25 mil and I don't think we spent much more than a combined 5 mil on the rest not counting those given raises.

Yup. Two guys with that much upside are more than a sufficent return for Garza. I'd even be willing to throw in Byrd for an additional prospect from their top 15-20. I know there's no urgency to trade Garza, but Detroit doesnt exactly have any urgency to acquire him, though he would be a great addition to their rotation. I'd think that Toronto would be pushing the hardest for Garza. If they could get him and sign Fielder they'd finally be a legit threat in the division.

Someone's going to need to backup Castillo in Iowa.

I'm not that concerned about the Brewers. Years ago they launched their homegrown core of Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, Hart, Braun, Sheets etc., and we worried. Now that group is breaking up and/or getting expensive, and the pipeline to replace it doesn't look too great. Soon, the Cubs will both have more money to spend, and a better group of young/cheap guys. I'm definitely with PWC. I dont know any Cards fans personally, but plenty of Brewer fans. They simply can't win one before we do. With Fielder added to what they have, that could become a reality. And Dave, back when that core first came up, they could never get any good pitching aside from Sheets and the occasional closer who would come out of nowhere with an all star season and never repeat it. By the time Yovanni came up, Sheets was already falling apart. Who knows how far they could have taken that wild card in 2008 if they could have managed to have CC, Sheets, and Gallardo healthy and in the rotation.

If he is willing to sign for 3/60, the Cubs and other teams would be all over that and give him even more. That doesn't seem possible. If nobody steps in with 6/135, he'll go somewhere for less years and a lower AAV. I don't understand what's so crazy about that. Not just any team, just for the Brewers. I could see him taking a gamble on himself to accept less money and years from the Brewers for a shot at winning it all with them. 2/45 might make more sense so he's 29 when the deals up and still has a shot at a 5 year deal. You never know who could need a 1st baseman by then. Weeks, Braun, Fielder, Ramirez, and Hart In in the middle of the lineup with a very strong rotation and back end of the bullpen? That could be an NL fav for a few years.

So now he "wants" to join the Rangers. Funny how he suddenly "wants" to join the only team that's still rumored to have legit interest in him, at anything near his asking price anyway.

:nutkick: At least we now know Lou Piniellas ESPN.com screen name.