Little Slide Rooter

I remain more intrigued by Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols.

Good post. When N&G wakes up, MIB will have hell to pay.

Whoa, when did Logan Watkins wake up? hes at .270/.721, which doesnt sound like much, but considering last I checked up on him, he was struggling to stay above the mendoza line, its pretty impressive.

So basically, hes Juan Pierre.

The way I see it, hes like a gift certificate to K Mart. Granted, you probably wont get anything you really want, but you may as well cash it in anyway or else its a waste. Pretty much any contender in the AL Central and West where it probably wont take more than 85 games to take either can use all the help they can get.

a) probably not with that specific intent, but with extreme indifference, i imagine b) hiring the bum as a writer is indictment enough of your entire paper. editing his [expletive] after the fact is pointless. Is your user name based on the Seattle baseball team or the Decemberists song? Just curious.

Maybe I'm imagining it, but it seems to me that every time Svenghoulie moves Castro to the 3 hole, he hits a mini slump until he's moved back to 1 or 2. come on, Barney doesn't have to hit 2.

Meh, I did awhile back to one of his [expletive] articles, but I figured what is the point to harass him publically. I'm sure he still lurks at NSBB and will surely still see the scorn that his articles bring. Did this guy used to post on NSBB? No, of course not. You don't remember bum? ooooh. they want to free this guy? throw away the key.

Id trade Byrd for those 2 guys, maybe kick them something else, but not Marshall. Davis intrigued me when they wanted Chirinos or Castillo for him, but thats all Id move for him. As for Borbon, Brett Jackson could probably become a similar, maybe better player, and if not, Szczur can.

Sounds about right. Once August 1st rolls around, Pena and Fukudome, and probably Reed Johnson will more than likely be on other teams. Theres really no rush to get rid of anyone else, unless Aramis decides to waive his NTC or Wood agrees to be traded to a contender.

I don't know where the Red Sox would put Pena, unless they DH him or Gonzalez. He wouldn't go to Philly unless Ryan Howard would get some sort of season-ending injury. David Ortiz is like the best hitter in baseball right now. I have no idea why I forgot him. So no, barring injury Pena is not going either of those places. I hear the Red Sox are going to play A Gon in the outfield so Ortiz can play 1st for interleague. Why not play A Gon in the outfield for a bit more if it works and trade for Pena?

Fukudome would be a fit. I dont know about Aramis. Hed be an upgrade over whats his face with the mishapen head, but theyre paying him pretty well. My bet is that the guys the Phils would really want would be Marmol or Marshall. Marmol for Dom Brown anyone?

Scott Eyre maybe? If im remembering correctly, Scott Eyre was dumped fresh off the DL.

The real travesty of John Grabow: looking at his 7.5 mil contract on BBR, it is spread out so he got 2.7 last year and 4.8 this year. Thats right, were paying 4.8 mil for a loogy who cant get lefties, or anyone else for that matter out, and damned if anyone trades us so much as a garbage bag full of used diapers and kitty litter for the guy.

Meh, I did awhile back to one of his [expletive] articles, but I figured what is the point to harass him publically. I'm sure he still lurks at NSBB and will surely still see the scorn that his articles bring. Did this guy used to post on NSBB?

Well, Darwin's back, so it certainly is. I have no beef with Barney. He is what he is, a decent backup MI with an OK bat. I like to think that someone like LeMahieu or Flaherty will be given a look to be the full time 2B next year though.

Per Bruce Miles tweet. Thanks for playing Doug. Let the revolving door of fecal matter keep-a-turning.

Gotcha. Dont know who John Wall is, but judging by google and the intrawebs, looks like hes some kind of thug turned basketball player. ETA sorry, son of a thug.

Wait, what? So the RBI program can prevent marginally talented minor league baseball players from continuing their career overseas rather than either managing a Houlihans or a low A team? What the [expletive] are you talking about? Im just kind of confused by what it says. We need the RBI program to prevent what from happening?

There are teams looking for help, The Red Sox and Phillies to name a few that say they are unable to add payroll. We should be taking advantage of these situations are offering these teams Fukudome and Pena for some prospects and eating the rest of the salaries.

Wait, what? So the RBI program can prevent marginally talented minor league baseball players from continuing their career overseas rather than either managing a Houlihans or a low A team?

I bet everytime the Cubs load the bases and dont hit a grand slam this guy turns to the person, or more likely blow up doll next to him and sighs out "only the Cubs".

Or pay the $5 million and get a better prospect. Or pawn the $5 million off and use it to make sure we sign guys like Maples, Dunston, Vogelbach, etc.

Going by this season alone, Flahertys one of our top 3-5 prospects, and thats not really a good thing. that's why people don't evaluate prospects like that. Yes, I know, which is why Brian LaHair isn't our top prospect. As for Flaherty, is it safe to say his ceiling is Mark DeRosa and his floor is Aaron Miles? Gotta say, I'm not really seeing the floor side of the equation. As for his ceiling, I think his ceiling might be a bit higher than DeRosa's. Not real sold that Flaherty is definitely in our top 5. Despite their injuries/inconsistencies, Brett Jackson and Trey McNutt are definitely ahead, and so is Matt Szczur. You could probably fit Flaherty into the 4/5 slots, but you could also make a case for say, Vitters, and maybe even LeMahieu (depending on how much you buy the power development, and assuming he maintains rookie eligibility by season's end). All that said, is Flaherty in the 4/5 slot that embarrassing? At the start of the year, sure. Right now, though, he looks to have legit corner power to go with a solid approach. This feels like your upper level, close to ready, good, but not great, Sickels B level prospect. This isn't to say the system is in great shape, as, on paper, pre-key draft signees, this looks like a system a notch below where we were post-Garza trade, but I'm not terribly troubled that Flaherty could be in our top 6. If there's concerns, it's that our top 2 prospects entering the year (Jackson and McNutt) both haven't really improved their standing, and that the 2nd tier, Flaherty level talent, thins out far too fast so that we get into the 3rd tier, high upside, far away talent far too early. I guess his overall minor league career has been pretty solid aside from his first stint in AA. He can play pretty much anywhere, and that could prove very valuable next year, where we dont know exactly what holes and how many we'll have to fill. Id love to see him give us some solid production at 2B, as Barneys more the type of guy I could see having an 8-10 year career with 4-6 different teams as a utility MI.

This discussion takes me back to the FJM article from 1-2 years ago basically saying that "gritty" and "maximum effort" players are basically bad players doing what they can to make up for the fact that they're bad.