Outshined_One

Coco Crisp.

They pitched him in relief the day before he was schedule to undergo surgery for crying out loud! How could anyone defend a move as stupid, reckless, and poorly thought out as that?!!

Isn't one of Dusty's strong points supposed to be that he keeps veterans happy? Wouldn't this have been something that would have helped solidify Dusty's reputation in that regard?

I was reading a Sports Weekly today and they shadowed Jim Hendry during the Winter Meetings. They asked him about the Dontrelle Willis trade. He said that the Marlins hadn't scouted him in years. He also said that you can't be afraid to pull the trigger. He immediately followed that up by saying that he learned never to trade left-handed starters with good makeup. Go figure. Wonder what that says about Renyel Pinto?

He'll be a defensive butcher, but his bat will be better than any other options out there.

Dusty thinks? :D :twisted:

I like the age-relative performance profiles. Those are pretty spiffy for prospects, imo.

While Z is younger than Hill (which surprises and shocks me to this day), I'd be quite thrilled if that ended up happening. :D

Considering the Orioles are supposedly looking for an All Star-caliber player in a trade for Miggy, I'm guessing it would cost quite a bit more than that to land Tejada.

Luis Vizcaino? :twisted: He's not on the White Sox anymore. They dumped his useless rear end and got Vazquez as their number five starter. :x I was referring to this past season. I'm waiting and seeing on that trade, though. Vaz gives up an inordinate number of HRs and is going to one of the most HR-friendly parks in baseball. Also, I'm fairly high on Chris Young, the CF they gave up in that deal. The D'backs had a huge hole in CF, and now they could plug it in the near future with some one who has really nice potential.

Luis Vizcaino? :twisted:

As much as I love Gomes, I would not do that deal. Nor would I do the above deal since I think Crawford is one of the most overrated people in baseball today.

Anyone else notice that Kenny Williams tends to target players who have had off years or are in the midst of slumps?

Garland's a free agent after next season. If the Orioles trade Tejada, it's guaranteed they're going into rebuilding mode. Somehow I don't think they'd do this deal just to dump salary, especially considering Tejada's impressively reasonable contract. They'll want good prospects.

The fun part is that White Sox fans are currently speculating that they could trade Jon Garland + Juan Uribe for Miguel Tejada since this deal gives them six starting pitchers. Heh.

Chris Young and Felix Pie are comparable prospects, only Young managed to put together 466 ABs in the Southern League last season. .277/.377/.545 with 26 HRs and 32 SBs. He led the league in runs, doubles, and homers. He is a year older than Pie and has issues with Ks (129 last season, but 70 BBs) and oozes potential in CF. The White Sox get an immediate upgrade from El Duque, but they give up their best prospect in the process.

This has been something that has been bugging me for most of the offseason, especially since The Raj told the Astros to go fly a kite. The Astros have a lot of trading chips that they could put to use. Roy Oswalt has had his share of injuries, but is likely at the height of his trade value (especially after going into St. Louis and shutting down the Cardinals in the NLCS). Andy Pettitte had one heck of a season last year. Backe is solid, albeit unspectacular. Brad Lidge is still a valuable commodity as a closer and would automatically solidify any bullpen. They have some good young pitching (Hirsh, Nieve, Astacio, Buchholz). If you remember, their primary problem last season was a sheer lack of offense. They haven't exactly gone out and done much about it so far in the offseason. SS and RF are both areas that they could upgrade in the offseason. This is a team that could put together a very attractive package pitching-wise. While the Cubs could potentially do the same, I get the feeling that the Astros are more willing to part with certain guys than the Cubs are (mostly due to age, contracts, and injuries). I would not be surprised one bit whatsoever if the Astros end up landing a big bat during the offseason.

I didn't say anything about the worst teams in the AFC, mind you. :) Here are the remaining teams: Miami, Cleveland, Baltimore, NY Jets, Buffalo, Houston, Tennessee, and Oakland vs. Philadelphia, St. Louis, Green Bay, Detroit, San Francisco, and Arizona I'd say that Miami, Cleveland, Philly, and St. Louis are all mediocre teams on any given Sunday. But the rest? Yuck.

If we're speaking French, it should be Msr., not Mr. :D

And I've read numerous reports all saying that there is no way Angelos trades Tejada, period. Only time will tell. The two aren't mutually exclusive, mind you. ;)

Here's the thing... The AFC is still a good distance ahead of the NFC in terms of the quality of teams. They have the best team in the NFL (Indy), one very good team (Denver,), and a bunch of good teams (San Diego, New England, Pittsburgh, Cincy, Kansas City). You could toss Jacksonville into the good team pile if you want, but I think their current QB situation will end up knocking them out of the playoffs. Meanwhile, in the NFC, the best team is Seattle. After that, it's a huge crush of teams that could all qualify as second best. Chicago, NY Giants, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Dallas, Washington, and Atlanta all fall into that group. So...would you take one of those second best teams on the road against one of the good teams in the AFC? Or even on the road against each other? At home against one of those AFC teams wouldn't exactly be a guaranteed win, either. Heck, Indy could probably pound the crap out of any team in the NFC at this point at home, on the road, underwater, in space, on the moon, or in an alternate reality. After watching today's game, this game cleared that up for me by a ton. I think whoever gets home field in the NFC Championship game is going to go to the Super Bowl. There are too many questionable QBs, too many shaky coaches, suspect defenses, and maligned special teams in the NFC to give road teams much of a shot at pulling off upsets.

I agree, but who is to say Abrue wouldn't cost just as much? I'd honestly rather have Abreu at this point than Tejada. It'd be one thing if the Cubs had some one ready to take over in RF and a gaping hole at SS...but instead it's the other way around.

Minimal, given his likely demands, age, and injury history. Apparently he's leaning towards signing with the Giants.

Er...Buchholz isn't really a high-end prospect. A couple of years ago he was, but that ship has sailed. Hirsh, Nieve, and Astacio are the three top young ML-ready pitchers in that organization. They have some promising guys in the lower levels (Barthmaier, Patton), to boot.

how is he similar to Rich Hill? :? b/c he's a lefty? Lefty with a knockout curve, decent fastball, and a mediocre changeup. Couple that with mechanics that cause him to be wild (15 WPs and 86 BBs) and you have a similar pitcher. Only notable differences are age (Loewen is 21) and G/F (2.58 for Loewen, .92 for Hill).