Hrubes20

They just signe Moreno for $800,000. The question I have is if the acquired bonus pools are also eligible for the 5% overage without surrendering anything next year. That opens them up for another $50,000-ish. Why is it only 50,000ish? Wouldn't it be 5% of all their bonus money? Or is that bonus pool number including the overage? You're right - I assumed bukie had included the overage in the Cubs' pool but he hadn't. If you can count 5% overages for all pool space, they had a total of $5,576,130 to work with. Cubs 1: $2,873,000 Cubs 2: $462,300 Cubs 3: $312,100 Cubs 4: <$209,700> Cubs base: $700,000 Orioles 3: $237,200 Orioles 4: $150,900 Astros 2: $468,400 Astros 3: $316,300 Equals $5,310,600 Times 5% overage = $5,576,130 Torres: $1,700,000 Mejia: $850,000 Moreno: $800,000 Equals $3,350,000 Leaving $2,226,130 for Jimenez. I get over 2.4 million left. Original pool - 4,557,000 + Astros 784,000 + O's 388, 000 - Dodgers 209,000 = 5,520,000 x 1.05 (overage before penalties kick in) = 5,796,000 - Torres 1,700,000 - Mejia 850,000 - Moreno 800,000 = $2,446,000 left for Jiminez.

Just wait until July comes around. Indeed. You probably haven't even hit the "OMG, this one single test will determine if I've wasted $100,000 and 3 years of my life or not" stage yet. That was shortly after the 4th of July for me. Fun times.

wouldn't they still be punished with spending limits next year? Yes. The best case scenario is to try and trade for more spending cap space. Trading for more cap space is definately the best option, as it would likely cost little to nothing. But the spending limits are hardly a big deterrent. Considering this might be the last year when IFA spending wouldn't impact international draft picks the following year, I'm on board with it.

Good news. Now that they won't face any international draft pick loss in 2014, I would have to imagine the idea of spending like crazy in this year's IFA period has gotten a lot more attractice to the FO. SIGN THEM ALL!!!!!

Wow. I thought Houston was the team to beat for Jimenez? He would be a nice get, if this is true. Both of those signings would probably preclude the team from going after one of the big name pitchers, though.

BABIP is fairly simple to calculate, but I'm assuming you are talking about his LD% and such. His BABIP is currently sitting at .280. I didn't realize it before, but dang near half of his hits this season have been HRs (25 of 58). That would explain the absurd ISO of .518. Yes, ISO of .518, not SLG%.

The Marlins and White Sox are the most obvious. The Rays can't sign a player worth more than $250,000 from July 2013 - June 2014, so they might be a good trade match. It'd be great if the Marlins, after selling a rebuild, didn't spen their IFA money. I suspect Hahn will begin to spend more though. In 2012, the teams that spent the least were the Orioles, Rays (hah, how that changed in 2012-13), White Sox, Marlins, Nationals, Diamondbacks and Dodgers (obviously that's changed too). Also, it's been suggested that teams like the Astros who don't normally spend as much will be more likely to spend more because of their bonus pool advantage. The Astros have been linked to some of the bigger names this year, which I have never noticed before. They were linked early on to Ariel Ovando in 2011, weren't they?

Nice. $4,785,059 if you include the 5% overage. If Torres does, indeed, garner a $2 million bonus, that still leaves well over $2 million.

He's likely hurt, given Arizona Phil's reports during spring training. Indeed he is. He was listed as being placed on the 7-day DL by BA. Michael Jensen was also placed on the 7-day DL, so that's where he is. Another name I came across was Marcelo Carreno. I completely forgot that we acquired him in the Baker deal. He, too, was placed on the 7-day DL.

Cubs can spend $11,084,325 without incurring draft pick penalties.

Yeah, that makes no sense to me. Although AZPhil didn't see an injury, it's entirely possible that Torreyes has a minor one. Really the only thing I can think of as to why he's still in EXST. Disappointed that Pierce Johnson is only starting at KC. He'll be 22 in May, had no problems in his tiny cup of coffee at Boise, and threw 100 IP in college last year.

That's very nice to see. Along with the 10 K's, he had a 11:6 GO/FO ratio.

Given what seems to be an almost guaranteed international draft in 2014, I completely ignore MLB's assigned IFA budget for the #2 pick. I sign everybody I want, for as much money as I feel is a good investment. Actually, I asked Ben Badler what was there to stop a team from going all out this year with a draft likely next year and he said there would probably be some sort of penalty similar to penalties for overspending in the Rule 4 draft. I wouldn't give up a potential top 10 pick in next year's IFA draft, especially when next year's class appears much stronger. And if that is the case, then it obviously changes things. But if MLB doesn't have its poop in a group by the start of the 2013 IFA period, and has not given notice of any penalties that would apply to a 2014 international draft by overspending in 2013, I proceed as I stated above. You can't be penalized under a rule that wasn't in place when the infraction occurred.

Given what seems to be an almost guaranteed international draft in 2014, I completely ignore MLB's assigned IFA budget for the #2 pick. I sign everybody I want, for as much money as I feel is a good investment.

I want the Cubs to be in on him as well.

I'm guessing the Cubs brass sees a good bit more projection than McDaniel, if they are willing to shell out $2 million for him. Assuming this is true, of course.

Possibly at TCR? I rarely post there, but I've asked a few questions to AZPhil over the years.

AZPhil mentioned that Dustin Harrington was one of them (another non-shocker) and it appears that Harrington's twitter account confirms it. He said he was going to keep the rest of the names he suspects were cut a secret, so that any family members would not find out from him. Or something to that effect. I also noticed this on Harrington's twitter: Andrew McKirahan (tweeted on March 22: "Trust God's plan. 1 day at a time" He may have been cut as well. Another likely casualty.

Wasn't aware... Welcome over here, hrubes (pretend like you're reading this 19 posts ago). Thanks to both of you. I do really like what I've seen on NSBB. Seems to be a good group of knowledgable posters. I look forward to joining more discussions on here.

Isn't that exactly what he is doing now, though? Perhaps. Maybe this holds up through the year, but he didn't dominate against his one really good opponent this year in Rice. Maybe there was a reason, as admittedly, I haven't followed all that closely this year. Texas baseball is really slid a bit (actually all major Longhorn sports have slid a bit). Fresno State, to the best of my knowledge, isn't that dangerous. I admittedly don't know much about UNLV baseball, and maybe they are a quality squad (did sweep Stanford). This doesn't mean I don't think he's any good. Just ... I've been wary of him in the past, and I guess I want to see him dominate his quality opponents. Maybe he's turned the corner and the Rice game was just ... a game. The guy he's always reminded me a bit of is Chris Tillman, a guy with excellent stuff, stuff that makes you think he should just dominate, but he doesn't. I think Appel's probably better than Tillman, but I don't know by how much. I take it that you haven't watched him this year yet. I would recommend doing so. I was of the exact same opinion as you coming into the season. I believe I only caught 1 Appel start from 2012, but I came away terribly underwhelmed. Fastball command was spotty; he seemed to nibble way too much for a guy with his stuff; his pitch selection was questionable; he had very little deception; etc. I really wanted no part of him as the Cubs pick at 2 overall. But then 2013 came around, and Stanford is generous enough to stream their games online for free. I've been able to watch Appel on there, and the difference I have seen in him is like night and day. I haven't seen the fastball command issues, other than an inning lapse here or there. There is a bit more deception. He's using his plus secondary offerings when he should be (and both are swing and miss pitches). He's aggressively attacking the strike zone and truly challenging hitters. If Appel doesn't revert to his 2012 self, he is easily the #1 prospect in the draft for me.

What I don't get is the thought that signing a Prince/Pujols this year means the team is "going all out" to win in 2012. Does the rest of the contract not count? Does the contending team have to be put together in one offseason? There won't be any bats of Prince/Pujols caliber available after 2012, unless Kemp somehow reaches the market. Getting Prince/Pujols would shore up 1B for the next 5 years at least, allowing Theo to concentrate on the other team needs. It should also be noted that the free agent starting pitching class is absolutely loaded after this next season. A Prince/Pujols in 2011; and at least one of Hamels/Cain/Liriano/Sanchez/Greinke/Marcum/Danks/etc in 2012 would go a long way towards making this team a contender.

I agree with this as well. Maples would be in the 7-10 range for me. I didn't see anything from AZPhil's reports that made me think about Maples any differently. Mid 90's 4 seamer, low 90's 2 seamer with good movement, great breaking ball, concerns about wildness when he throws the heat, concerns about his delivery. I can't wait to see what the kid can do with a winter of professional training and a full season of pro ball under his belt next year. But yeah, this list is pretty terrible, IMO. Zych doesn't belong anywhere near the top 10.

I would have been more surprised had Baez NOT attended instructs. He was one of the best players in the DSL this year. He has tools coming out the wazoo. What surprised me to see, was that Malave, Acosta and Pieters are attending. Not one of the biggish name LA signings last year attended. Also interesting that the 4th bigger LA signing, Ricardo Marcano, a Venezuelan 3B, isn't attending while the others are. It's likely an issue of PT for everyone, and I won't lose sleep over a 16 year old not playing in instructs, but it would have been nice to get a first glimpse of the kid.

The ship has sailed on Carpenter as a starter. He's strictly a reliever now.

Agreed. Not much to dislike about the kid. Good frame, delivery, fastball, curve and changeup. I suppose the command could use some polish, but he still has another whole HS season to work on it.