Clem Fandango

Where there's smoke there's fire and it seems Soriano could be on the move so I'd imagine this is the only thing that could prevent a possible deal, and if he does exercise it I'm going to track him down and kick him in the face with a golf shoe.

http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/7299027/source-bobby-valentine-type-not-boston-red-sox-early

Ouch... that switch hitter thing is pretty clumsy

I think if anything people are more excited that Theo & Co. are finally making moves, and that this is just the first move in what will hopefully be a busy and exciting offseason

And so it begins. :D

I'm happy about the extension to Kenney, if only because it will piss a whole lot of people off.

I agree wholeheartedly. I think Stewart is the far superior player and a great trade target

Stewart and Wood have both been in the majors for parts of 5 seasons since they were 22. Stewart has played in 160 more games than wood, so he has roughly one more full seasons's worth of experience at the MLB level. Wood, IIRC, was completely mishandled by the Angels, wasn't he? Wouldn't they move him around the diamond because Figgins was there and then play him 2 or 3 times a week and bench him when he struggled then send him down, and bring him back up and rinse and repeat? I think 2010 was the first year they gave Wood a legitimate chance and it lasted about a month and a half before they took him out. Stewart was given his chances and he faltered. And while his 220 point OPs difference is impressive in comparison to Wood, he still only mustered a .751 OPS hitting in Coors. And that's a slugging heavy OPS, too. He's obviously got power, but he's had an inability to hit for average, which in turn makes his slightly above average ability to draw a walk (looks like he's a 40-60 walks a year type of guy) look paltry. If he can get his average up to .260-.275 he'd be a fine player, but if he's hitting .220, his OBP is gonna be around .320-.330, and his value hinges solely on his ability to hit for power, which he has the ability to do, but has struggled with it while hitting in the friendliest hitters park ever so far in his career. I'd take Stewart over Wood 10 times out of 10, I was just using Wood as a similar player example. Oddly enough, and I didn't know this, the Rockies signed Wood to a minor league contract a couple weeks ago.

I know. Again, not attacking the player in question, just the notion of using his minor league numbers as the argument to be made for acquiring him. Are people still interested in Brandon Wood at this point of his career? Same age, same position, same former top prospect pedigree with lack of MLB success

I'm thinking there's a legit difference between very impressive and destroying the minors. Maybe the widely panned reference was about the Lahair argument. Nah, I figured someone would think I was talking about Lahair. I wasn't. Just in general most people seem to take minor league numbers with a grain of salt for players who have more than enough MLB service time under their belts without living up to their minor league hype. Stewart kind of fits that mold, but people still refer to his minor league service time as a reason to remain optimistic for a turn around when the last time he was regularly playing in the minors was 2008. Again, I don't want people to think I dislike Stewart, I don't. I would very much like the Cubs to target him. I think Stewart was a very good player in the minors, just not the trailblazer people are making him out to be

He's also a guy that destroyed the minors on his way up. "Destroyed" is a bit much, don't you think? He was never bad, but I'd hardly say he destroyed the minor leagues when he only really had one truly outstanding full year in the minors. His only other years when he posted impressive numbers all came in partial seasons, and came at completely random years (2003, 2008, 2011). Supporters of him on here keep saying he crushed the minors, but let's not kid ourselves... he was simply just a pretty good ball player. I would like the Cubs to target Ian Stewart and other players with similar histories (former top prospects, not able to stick at MLB level, still relatively young and possibly salvageable), but I've seen a lot of the reasoning behind going after Stewart to be his minor league numbers and that kind of mentality has been widely panned in the past for players who don't have as much of an attractive name as his, so I'm confused as to why it's now being used as the measuring stick in this case.

Yours has more info. I say lock this one, mods (por favor)

http://twitter.com/#!/TroyRenck/status/141348277885997056

The results are skewered because the two players are hitting in completely different environments. The results are skewered because the term "most valuable" is ambiguous. I really don't think folks realize they're not arguing over who most deserves the award. They're arguing over which definition should be used. (Or more specifically, how the various factors should be weighted.) Pretty much this. I'm sure most voters recognize that Kemp had the better season, but they probably thought "Without Braun the Brewers don't make the playoffs", and thus, they considered him more valuable. Which honestly, I'm more in favor of. It's the reason Sammy Sosa (1.024 OPS) beat Mark McGwire (1.222 OPS) in voting in 1998, same reason here. There's already an award for best offensive player (Hank Aaron Award), and Kemp will did win that

Not a FA, but caught my eye... Tillman was a highly regarded prospect just a couple years ago and hasn't stuck at the MLB level yet, but it seems the O's had their expectations too high. Like it says, he's still just 23, and has performed poorly in the toughest division in baseball. Would Tillman be a possible buy low trade candidate worth looking into? He was supposed to be a future cornerstone of that rotation along with Matusz, Britton, and Arrieta... but all of them have been so-so thus far in the majors, with Tillman having the worst of it. He intrigues me, and is still very young so it's not like his career is done for.

If Marmol ends up being shopped, would a Marmol for Alonso swap be something worth exploring?

Logan Morrison kicks ass

I like some of those names being bandied about on that Angels forum.

Feliz is being wasted in the closers role. I'm also pissed off because I traded a lot of good players to get him in a package for my keeper league back when he was a starter, then they made him a closer, and then I traded him this season because closers are overvalued in the league, and now they're converting him back to starter. How dare these bastards not take into account my fantasy needs.

Holy [expletive]. Halman had a lot of power/speed potential but was never really considered a safe bet to live up to it I don't think. His contact and walk rates were simply too weak for him to be a real threat in the majors.

Nooooooooo

It would be swell if he sign a one-year deal, allow the Cubs to trade him at the deadline for prospects, rinse and repeat.

Wasn't there an analysts (maybe Keith Law) who said that if Cespedes entered the amateur draft he'd likely go in the Top 5, and would be a whole lot of teams #1 overall pick, possibly the #1 overal in the entire draft?

Exactly. That price range only scares me depending on years. I doubt he's out there looking for a 2-3 year deal. He's unproven goods, I'd imagine more years is an important factor. I kind of assume he'd be looking for 5 or 6 years. Even if it's 6/$50, that's not an atrocious price.