Little Slide Rooter

I'd easily rather have 1 year of Reed at hopefully <1 mil than Crisp for 3 years.

The one good thing that this could signify is that they plan on Jackson starting in center and they want a spare righty OF with both Jackson and DeJesus as everyday guys and either Byrd or Soriano is going to be delt.

Because he's by far the best thing left on the market and there's no urgency on his end to sign.

He makes near league minumum, but that's still a lot of money so I'm assuming that a lot of it's pretty cool.

While I do believe in God, I've never been a very religious person, but like those who put all of their faith in their respective God, I'm going to do my best to put all of my trust in Theo and assume that while I might not understand what is happening or why it is, everything happens for a reason and he has our greater good in mind no matter how senseless it may seem at the time.

The big surprise here is that there's been 3 pages of Marshall to the Reds talk yet not a single crack about Dusty and his arm falling off.

I'm not too bummed that he didn't do that. It was a good deal for the Padres, but I don't know how much sense Grandal makes for us and he's chip number 2. Grandal opens up the possibility of trading Soto (for decent prospects), while Boxberger/Carpenter/Cashner compete for the closer's role freeing up Marmol as a trade chip (for decent prospects). Obviously Alonso takes over 1B and Wood slides into the back of the rotation. Is Latos that much better than Garza that we hve to give up both he and Marshall for essentially the same package -Volquez /+Wood?

I had no interest in Crisp whatsoever before that rumor, it just made me want him even less. I guess I'm just confused about what's going on. Do we want young players and prospects or do we want Crisp, Varitek, and Wakefield?

It's not an average, that's the point. I guess I don't quite get how all of the advanced stats work. Still, I'll wait to see who the prospects are before passing judgment, although I think that we'd get top value if we packaged him with Soto or Garza. There's 0 urgency to trade Marshall, so I'll trust that we're getting something decent in return or else we'd be shopping him more, especially since we're dealing within the division. Even if he has been shopping him and this was the best offer he might have more value in July, or at least not any less.

Yeah, but Wood's career numbers are the average of only 2 seaosons, one of which was a very strong rookie year, the other was a mediocre at best 2011. Also, I cheated and BBRd it and they say Wood has a career 1.5 WAR. Oh, and per BBR, on his simalirity score through age 24, number 2 is wait for it, Pat Maholm. Then again, number 4 is Ricky Romero, so who knows. Still, how expensive could Maholm have been that they'd rather give up Marshall for a very similar pitcher?

The bolded makes me really not want Crisp. What about the fact that a team desperate for power and general offense and is seemingly about to embark on a full rebuild has no use for Coco Crisp?

Zdurniek or whatever his name is has denied the report, but it's the most Fielder news we've heard in a while other then the fact that the Cubs may or may not be interested in him.

I'd rather spend money on Paul Maholm than give up one of our top 3 trade chips for the cost effective version. I really can't believe that the best we could get for even 1 year of Marshall was a 4 starter. Mike Leake I would have accepted happily. Hell, even Homer Bailey's only 25. I guess we should just wait and see who the minor leaguers are before judging the deal. The thing is, they already gave up 3 of their top 6 prospects in the Latos trade, so I don't know how much more they'll be willing to give up from their farm. Warning: if anyone even mentions Chris Heisey I'll throw a brick through their window. He's basically a younger Ryan Spilborghs.

James Russell, John Gaub, an Scott Maine are lefty pen arms. Sean Marshall is one of the top set up men in the game who happens to throw with his left arm.

If your referring to Davis, it wouldn't be a straight up deal, but TB would be the perfect trading partner for us. They're looking to move Davis or Niemann, I'd much prefer Davis as well as Brignac, who seems like the type Theo would be interested in. They're looking for back end relievers as well as a starting catcher and offense in general. Would Soto and Marshall for Davis and Brignac be reasonable? Anything either side would need to add? I mentioned this before but something like Marshall/Marmol, Soto, and Jackson for Upton and Davis could be the starting point to an interesting blockbuster with some additional pieces changing hands as well. I could see them being interested in working Soriano into it assuming we pick up most if the bill.

FFS can we stop comparing every non front end starter to Randy Wells? I'd have interest in Wood but not for Marshall. Id shop him to TB and see if we could work out a deal for Wade Davis though. However, if Wood is the best we could get for Marshall I'd go for it. Marshall could be in for a much higher payday than we're willing to give him. To bad Hendry couldn't have given him an extension instead of throwing money at John Grabow for no good reason.

No to Pujols, no to Ramirez, maybe to Darvish.

Now if "building the team te right way" leads to 2-3 unwatchable seasons which leads to an exponentially increasing amount of empty seats and lost revenue how long before the Ricketts say [expletive] it we need star power and overpay for a handfull of free agents and next thing you know we're right back where we are now? Building the team the right way should start now, meaning those young players who can help us win now and in the future need to start showing up.

Kuroda, Fielder, and someone like Edwin Jackson leaves you about one unexpected surprise from a playoff spot. I don't think that's the plan, but it could be. 2008 Alfonso Soriano and Geovany Soto could be that unexpected surprise.

Per MLBTR, Kuroda is close to signing with someone. It's not the Mariners, D Backs, Rockies, Rangers, Red Sox, or Yankees.

I've mentioned this scenario a couple of times. Personally, I'd do whatever it took to get Turner and Porcello. If there's a 3rd piece, I don't care whether it's Oliver, Smyly, or Crosby. The Tigers rotation of Verlander, Fister, Scherzer, and Porcello is pretty strong, certainly the top in their division by far. I really don't think that they have any urgency to mortage the future for another front end guy, especially if they might have to prepare for life after Verlander and Cabrera in 3 years. If anything they might be looking for mid-back end options.

I can't paste it from my phone but according to Kevin Goldstein the Yankees are very big on Cespedes. Come on you ass holes you need pitching. Sign Edwin Jackson and trade for Gio, Garza, or Danks and call it a day.

I'll say the same thing as last year. If all the stars align and everything goes our way, we could have a .500ish team on our hands, and in July we could maybe fill some holes. If we could get Soriano, Byrd, Soto, DeJesus, Zambrano, and Dempster to all give us their best and Ian Stewart to finally figure things out, it's possible. Now when I said this last year, we had Pena and Ramirez, who both gave us great years but it wasn't enough to carry the team. In a worlld in which Prince Fielder isn't a possibility, step 1 is to find a 1st baseman. I have no problem with LaHair as a bar off the bench, which would probably be in his best interest as it would take pitchers longer to figure him out. Otherwise, we could go for another Ian Stewart type move and get Daric Barton for hopefully a simial package. If not there's the possibility of Rizzo, but I can't see that happeneing without moving Garza for him which I don't think I'm ready to do. I'm not going to say that Garza will be more vaulable in July, but he certainly won't be any less valuable so maybe we should hang on to him and see where this jalopy goes. I'd also like to see if we could get Wade Davis for Soto and give Castillo the starting catching job. Maybe even expand the deal to get Brignac as well. Rays have said that they want a starting catcher and are willing to move Davis or Niemann for one. I'd even be interested to see what kind of package it would take for a blockbuster in which we acquire Upton, Davis, and Brignac. Perhaps something like Soto, Marmol, Jackson, Soriano(of course we eat 90-100% of the salary) and maybe Junior Lake or something similar and we get some prospects back as well? Again, that's not realistic, just a thought. I do think that we will end up with one of the Cubans, especially if we don't go after Fielder, but it's a big difference between the 2. Cespedes should be ready to step into LF immediately, although who knows what kind of production to expect. The 19 year old Solar would proabably be ready around the same time as Baez, Vogelsbach, Maples, Golden, Wells, et. all. Now if we really want to house clean, we could get a ton of young talent for Garza, Marshall, Soto, and Marmol and a few more smaller pieces for Byrd and Baker. If we are out of it come July, then Dempster and Z should be on the block. However, if we do chose to field a young lineup realistically it could look like: 1B Barton 2B Brignac SS Castro 3B Stewart LF Cespedes CF Jackson RF DeJesus C Castillo SP Garza SP Dempster SP Z SP Davis SP Wells/Shark CL Cashner BP Marshall BP Carpenter BP Beliveau BP Dolis 2 BP spots between Castillo, Weathers, Mateo, Wood, Russell, Gaub, J Jax Bench: Clevenger Bench: 4 of Barney, LaHair, Bianchi, Baker, DeWitt, Campana Not sure what becomes of Soriano and Byrd in this scenerio. If we were tog et Solar instead of Cespedes, there's the possibility of signing Luke Scott for cheap and platooning him with Soriano. Get what we can for Byrd. He'd be useful to a good tem looking for a 6-7 hitter or a right handed 4th/platoon OF.

The rumors last night and today were that the Ham Fighters were expected to accept the highest bid tonight (Tuesday morning in Japan) and that winning team would be announced shortly thereafter. It sounds like the Ham Fighters will announce their acceptance of the winning bid themselves, and then MLB will announce which team made that bid (since the Fighters don't know the identity of the bids). What form that will appear in, I have no idea. Quit calling them the Ham Fighters. They're owned/sponsored by Nippon Ham. That'd be like calling the Cubs the Steaks Cubs if they were called the Chicago Omaha Steaks Cubs. The Wrigley Gum Cubs would have had a nice ring to it.

Opinions and reports are separate. Unless you have an agenda. Even so, I doubt that he'd risk his professional reputation by spreading false rumors and trying to pass them as actual news because he has an agenda. Think about how certain sportswriters in Chicago have "reported" on certain members of the Cubs and post that same thing again. Have they ever tried to pass an opinion off as fact?