scarey

Before this season, I would have taken some more consideration on this. I definitely wanted to see him get more time at SS, but was worried he was going to wind up at 2nd or 3rd. As it stands, I'm gaining more and more confidence that he was be an asset in the field at SS rather than just average or below average. The only shortstop in all of baseball that is on the same level in terms of value as Castro is Tulowitzki (I can see an argument to be made for Andrus). I do believe Trout will be a great player and a better hitter than Castro. There's a good chance he'll have more defensive value as a CF than Castro at SS. However, a guy like Brett Jackson (assuming he develops into what he's been projected to develop into) is not as hard of a fall-off at CF as the next guy in line behind Castro (Alcantara? Hernandez?). I pick Castro.

which again, if true, proves my point. but it's also weird logic to say that guys who put up better numbers are not as good as a guy who puts up worse numbers. take away the numbers and all you have is opinion. but let's just assume you're right and forte is better in a vacuum, but his dyar and dvoa numbers aren't near sproles or thomas and slightly trail ingram. what does that say about the importance and expendability of running backs? I don't want to add anything other to this conversation outside of this: trying to determine the value of runningbacks by comparing DYAR and DVOA of those runningbacks on different teams in different systems is flawed analysis. but forte is like 32nd in the league in both areas, so his value doesn't really compare to anyone's in any system. I'm not going to sit here and explain it to you. I think you know why it's flawed and you're just using it for the benefit for your argument. Even if you didn't understand and I did enlighten you, you wouldn't acknowledge it. So, I'm not going to waste my time. If you want to continue acting ignorant, I won't make any more attempts to stop you.

which again, if true, proves my point. but it's also weird logic to say that guys who put up better numbers are not as good as a guy who puts up worse numbers. take away the numbers and all you have is opinion. but let's just assume you're right and forte is better in a vacuum, but his dyar and dvoa numbers aren't near sproles or thomas and slightly trail ingram. what does that say about the importance and expendability of running backs? I don't want to add anything other to this conversation outside of this: trying to determine the value of runningbacks by comparing DYAR and DVOA of those runningbacks on different teams in different systems is flawed analysis.

I find it unusual that the Sickels projection, outside of 2015 and 2017, has Castro no where close to 200 hits... after he had 207 hits last year.

I guess my point is that Wilken missed on Colvin just like a lot of baseball decision makers miss in the draft. People want to define it as a miss on a reach, but to me people only call it a reach based on where a handful of media members that specialize in the MLB draft projected him to go, which I personally think is silly. If people generally thought Colvin should have been drafted at around 20 instead of around 30, I don't think we'd be hearing much about it. There really isn't that much of a difference between a player picked at 20 and 30 in most drafts in terms of success.

His OPS in the PCL hasn't been too impressive outside of his 59 ABs this year. Also, while it's a small sample size, his first 230 plate appearances at the MLB level have not shown much promise either at a .629 OPS. It's true that his fate is not set in stone though as he's still young. I guess I was projecting my own opinion about him as a universal opinion on him.

There's a whole bunch of ridiculousness here. First off, who cares if Colvin may have been gone 30 picks later, that is not reason to justify a reach of a pick like that. He had no business being picked by the Cubs where he was picked. It's not justy hindsight that views Wilken's horrible track record, it was at the moment "my god what are the Cubs doing" opinions by many. He didn't get the job done. There's no reason to make a bunch of excuses, he had a long time to do and didn't do nearly enough, much like his boss. The thing is... what player that was drafted in the first round after Colvin would you have rather Wilken drafted? Drabek looks like he may have things figured out and Kennedy had a good year last year but is off to a rough start this year. There is absolutely no success outside of those two. There were a whole lot of misses in the first round of the '06 draft. There often is, but the '06 draft was especially dreadful. Also, after last year's draft, it sounds like Wilken and RIcketts were insinuating that there were major financial restrictions put on the draft pre-Ricketts ownership. It's a shame that over slots won't be a major component in drafting going forward, because it seems like Wilken is quite productive with some money to spend. That's not really a good argument either. The fact that Wilken wasn't the only guy that missed in that draft isn't a good argument? Everyone wants to complain that he reached for Colvin, but the guys that he should have picked like Travis Snider, Matt Antonelli, and Hank Conger were also misses too. Everybody makes a big deal about where draft gurus say a certain player should go and take it as gospel. The fact is, this isn't the NFL draft where the talking heads are able to at least see hours of game footage on these players to make their judgements. Making a big deal about who is and isn't a reach just seems like you're placing a whole lot of faith in guys that, don't have a whole heck of a lot to go on despite the fact that they may know more than you and me.

There's a whole bunch of ridiculousness here. First off, who cares if Colvin may have been gone 30 picks later, that is not reason to justify a reach of a pick like that. He had no business being picked by the Cubs where he was picked. It's not justy hindsight that views Wilken's horrible track record, it was at the moment "my god what are the Cubs doing" opinions by many. He didn't get the job done. There's no reason to make a bunch of excuses, he had a long time to do and didn't do nearly enough, much like his boss. The thing is... what player that was drafted in the first round after Colvin would you have rather Wilken drafted? Drabek looks like he may have things figured out and Kennedy had a good year last year but is off to a rough start this year. There is absolutely no success outside of those two. There were a whole lot of misses in the first round of the '06 draft. There often is, but the '06 draft was especially dreadful. Also, after last year's draft, it sounds like Wilken and RIcketts were insinuating that there were major financial restrictions put on the draft pre-Ricketts ownership. It's a shame that over slots won't be a major component in drafting going forward, because it seems like Wilken is quite productive with some money to spend.

No they wouldn't. Which is why it really is a stupid proposition. You'll never find a team that will agree to give up what Castro would cost them in a trade. EDIT: Mariner's just nailed it.

Walker has 39 innings above A ball and Hernandez is signed through 2014 at an average of 19.75M/year. The only reason I would see for trading Castro is to get a young, top 10 starting pitcher. Obtaining such a pitcher seems to be increasingly difficult, so to grab Felix would be an opportunity I would find hard to pass up. However, the cost control of Castro is gonna have to cost the Mariners in that deal. Walker profiles as an ace and would probably sweeten the pot enough for me personally despite the fact that he's not sure thing.

Felix Hernandez and Taijuan Walker. That's the type of return I would expect. If that's too unreasonable than I guess I want something unreasonable in return for the 22 year old all star short stop.

Exactly. Machado certainly looks like a sure thing, but so did guys like Reid Brignac, Domonic Brown, Andy LaRoche, and Brandon Wood at similar ages. Bundy looks extremely promising, but has only pitched in A ball. Even if these guys do pan out, there's no guarantee they'll be able to get as many productive and prime years out of them as the Cubs will likely get from Castro. As has been said in this thread already, he is only 22 and is already producing as one of the best shortstops in the game.

Same here. I think we all debated it earlier in the year, why he was the number 1 lefty, and most reasonable response seemed to be that Antigua as a starter wasn't significantly better than the others, and he might be a better lefty pen arm. Not the best argument to me, but it was the most logical one, it seemed. I mean ... we've got the poor man's Antigua (I think AzPhil phrased it that way once, or something similar) starting in Daytona (Del Valle), and 4 soft-tossing lefties from A+-AAA that don't have Antigua's velo. You'd figure with a solid 3 pitch mix, he'd get a longer look. (that said, my bet is that MiLB made a mistake. I have a hard time buying that Raley would get benched now ... unless he was getting sent to Iowa?) I had him pegged as the minor league pitcher of the year last year if not for Beliveau. I really liked the peripherals he put up as a 21 year old in A+. I'm wondering if they wanted to limit the amount of innings he threw this year. If he gets about 18 starts through the end of the year, he would finish up approaching 130 IP which is a pretty good escalation from last year's 97 IP.

I'd rather there not be unnecessary injuries caused by stupid childish decisions. I'd also rather that this behavior be curbed by punishing the purpetrator. But, it was just Daren Collison, so who cares right?

I think it's best to patch the team together for next year. It's going to be asking an awful lot to have Rose play at 100% by next year's playoffs, so I don't think it's an "all-in" type season. Have Deng get his surgery, give Butler a ton of minutes and see if he can develop into something. Grab either a young vet point guard or a draftee with development potential and try to groom a cheap, long term back up for Rose. When the playoffs come around, do the best you can and maybe surprise some folks. That's all I'm looking for out of next season. 2013-2014 you add Mirotic and hopefully he becomes an elite player. After that, you start thinking of cashing in on the Bobcats pick as it will only be top 10 protected in 2014 draft. Top 8 protected in 2015, and unprotected by 2016. I think this team is set up for a wide window where the team can stay amongst the elite by reloading rather than rebuilding. But we may have to be a little patient and keep expectations low going into next season (sound familiar?).

Does anyone know if the a team can trade for a player and then amnesty him? I thinkt he Bulls could get some wiggle room if they were to trade Boozer for an expiring contract and a lesser albatross type contract to amnesty. I preface this by saying there's no way the Bulls will amnesty Boozer, nor should they. If they amnesty him, the Bulls might get under the soft cap, but it won't be by much. Also, I don't think Reinsdorf is going to be keen on paying Boozer $50M to do nothing. If they were to maybe trade with Golden State, take on Biedrins/Dorrell Wright and amnesty Biedrins, I think they could have a nice piece in Wright while taking a bit off of the salary obligations going forward. Taj could move into the starting line up at that point. Only problem here is Boozer isn't a good fit for Golden State with Lee and Bogut in the mix. Same could concievably be done with Sacremento and Chuck Hayes/Francisco Garcia. I'm not quite as big a fan of Garcia though as I am Wright obviously. I would be fine with holding on to Boozer personally. It sucks that pretty much every defensive breakdown involves him, but the guy is under appreciated for the easy scoring he can provide. I'm just looking to be creative with this roster because... there's not much else to think about sports wise right now.

I really hope they do. If they do, they'll realize Dempster's "down" year last year is ridiculously over stated.

On the one hand, this guy's talking about differences of 100ths of seconds. Those times could be altered by 100ths of seconds just by putting pads on (which could reflect well or poorly on Jeffery depending on how well he runs in pads relative to his peers). So I'm not sure how much stock I put in those numbers with such a small deviation. On the other hand, it's good to know if Jeffery's in a foot race for the end zone, he could be comparable in terms of speed to the likes of DeSean Jackson.

I'm actually hoping that Simpson has been trolling Cubs fans this whole time. Keeping my fingers crossed.

If you read the article, you'd realize that he went out of his way to indicate that he's not invalidating anything.

He's doing notably worse against lefties this year, but his historical splits show he's not nearly as bad off as this year would indicate. http://mlsplits.drivelinebaseball.com/mlsplits/playerinfo/519203

I don't remember it being after the whistle. I do remember it being on an interception return where Miller was hardly pursuing the play and was in no way a threat. I also remember Douglas picking him up and driving him to the ground. I've always hated him, before and since.

35.7% strikeout rate .600 BABIP 35.7% HR/FB ratio He can't hit at the major league level, but a perfect storm of luck is making his actual production awesome. It's perfectly possible to enjoy that luck and still know that going forward it's not going to continue. 25.7% line drive rate. Of course his production is unsustainable, but to chalk it up to mostly luck isn't fair. The guy is squaring the ball up pretty well.

That's disgusting. I can't believe you would actually joke about this. There's no way Rose would wear a suit that costs less than 2 grand let alone less than $300. You've crossed a line that I never thought would be crossed on this forum.

I almost hope they don't win it all just for the fact that Derrick may actually jump off a building to not have been part of it. This is ridiculously horrible in so many ways.