Dr. Dinger

NJH is a habitual line-stepper. Wise decision to check him.

I'm going with Stroman due to proximity.

I'd rather just give Stroman a rotation spot from the outset if he pitches in Spring Training like he did in the fall league. He's as ready as he's going to get.

I love Gausman but I'd be surprised if he out-WARs Dickey in 150 IP.

Come on Angie.

If "looking at in-house options" means considering Stroman and Hutchison as rotation options, then I don't see the problem. If the Cubs really want Stroman + Sanchez for Samardzija, I'm glad we're out on him. Tanaka is going to be way out of our price range, so let's not go gettin our hopes up there either. Garza makes some sense, but he's got a lot of suitors.

I call ********.

I'm very curious to see the final draft order, we can use it to see how things stand in DDL. I could see Salazar going as early as the 3rd.

Salazar will likely provide more surplus value to his team over his remaining years of a control, but Price is the better asset because he can return more projected surplus value via trade than Salazar can provide.

Forget Tampa, you should see what Silvio is asking for him.

I don't really see any reason to believe that you can project Salazar for any 180+ IP seasons at this point. He's got an injury history, a small build, and he's never hit 150 in a season so far. There are probably plenty of teams that don't think he'll hold up, which is the primary reason he wasn't even a noteworthy prospect coming into 2012.

I don't agree with that at all, it makes a lot of assumptions about Salazar's value going forward. If Salazar is a true talent 4.5 WAR asset for the next 6 years, then sure he's a more valuable asset, but that's not a rational conclusion to make based on his demonstrated durability. He needs to show that over a full season before he owns it.

I love watching Salazar pitch, he's a bad motherf***er. But until he shows the durability to log 200 innings, you really can't compare him to an ace like Price.

I never read more than the most recent page of this terrible, terrible thread.

So apparently Mark Mulder is trying to make a comeback. He hasn't pitched more than 12 IP in a season since 2006.

I'll take heat for this but I don't think any of AA's trades have been particularly bad in hindsight. IMO we didn't give up any impact guys in the Florida deal or the Happ deal. We'll probably lose the Dickey trade when all is said and done, but at least Dickey is a solid asset on a value contract. Reyes and Buerhle are assets on market value deals. We didn't take on any prohibitive albatrosses or deal any elite young talent with the possible exception of Syndergaard, and he's completely untested still. It may turn out that the best asset we actually traded was Yunel. People cried foul when we traded Snider, Wallace, etc, but it turned out that AA correctly pegged them as non-impact players.

This thread is for pumping my thanks/post ratio, not personal squabbles.

They pretty much only swear on their podcasts, but I find it refreshing and unpretentious. I imagine scouts having equally vulgar conversations about players (and Parks and Ferrin know pretty much everyone).

I could see Tanaka going for $100M+ on the contract alone. He has way more leverage than Darvish did.

It's nice to hear an unbiased source raving about our system. Parks really thinks Stroman can step into the rotation right now.

Some choice quotes: Jason Parks "Their short season levels are f***ing stacked." "This is a team that got rid of a bunch of high-end, Top 100 prospects... (but) this system might even be stronger than I had it last year." Parks: "I had a bunch of sources on Stroman, man... my guys LOVE Stroman." (Ferrin: "He's a MOTHERf***er.") Ferrin: "I saw him in the AFL... my god that's special. I talked to Tom Gordon about him... he said, 'Oh man he looks incredible.' " Parks: "We ranked him #1 in that system based on the fact - or on the theory - that he WILL be in the rotation... I talked to guys that scouted him, and I stayed away from scouts in the org ... consensus was that he's a starter. It's not ideal, it's not prototypical, obviously, he's short but he's not frail. He's strong and he's a competitor in a major f***ing way. He's got balls, he's got #rig, and he's got the arsenal. He's got the cutter that he brought out in the AFL, he's got the big fastball, he's got the slider that he can manipulate... the changeup has got a lot of action to it... man, and he knows what to do with it." - says Sanchez has more risk than Stroman - "would definitely take Syndergaard over Sanchez" - Sanchez has "crazy high ceiling" but bad reports about pitchability - "kinda soured on (Sanchez) a bit, still think he's a Top 35 prospect" - Tirado "is a loose arm kid" - Norris "has really taken a step forward" - "Arms for days" - "Jairo Labourt is a f***ing name and a f***ing arm... big lefty kid with stuff." - "Short season affiliates are f***ing stacked with high ceiling arms" - "That organization is fine." Ferrin: "They're the anti-Cubs: The Cubs have all the bats and the Jays have all the arms." Parks: "Sean Nolin is a guy who came up and got his ******* ripped apart in that one appearance, but he's still a big pitcher with four pitches that he can move around... he's a #4/#5 type starter." "That's a really good organization."

Damn that is some impressive out-making ability. I knew he was awful, but I didn't know he was 11 wRC+ in the 2nd half awful.

From Baseball Prospectus: Fewest Team WARP by 2B, 2010-13 [TABLE=align: center] [TR] [TD]Team[/TD] [TD]WARP[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Royals[/TD] [TD]-2.0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Blue Jays[/TD] [TD]-1.2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Orioles[/TD] [TD]-0.4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Rockies[/TD] [TD]1.6[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]White Sox[/TD] [TD]1.6[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Fewest WARP by Position, 2010-13 [TABLE=align: center] [TR] [TD]Team[/TD] [TD]Position[/TD] [TD]WARP[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Mariners[/TD] [TD]DH[/TD] [TD]-2.5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Royals[/TD] [TD]2B[/TD] [TD]-2.0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Mariners[/TD] [TD]1B[/TD] [TD]-1.4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Blue Jays[/TD] [TD]2B[/TD] [TD]-1.2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Pirates[/TD] [TD]1B[/TD] [TD]-0.7[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Astros[/TD] [TD]LF[/TD] [TD]-0.6[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Orioles[/TD] [TD]2B[/TD] [TD]-0.4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Rangers[/TD] [TD]1B[/TD] [TD]0.2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]White Sox[/TD] [TD]3B[/TD] [TD]0.2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Indians[/TD] [TD]1B[/TD] [TD]0.6[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

So... Stephen Drew anyone? You'd probably have to pay him somewhere between Infante's 4/$40 and Phillips' 4/$50, but signing Drew and sliding Reyes over to 2B might net us a win in itself. Edit: Nvm, Boras.

Their player development is off the charts. No one thought anything of Craig, Carpenter or Adams as prospects. I remembering people poo-pooing the Wacha pick as well, he never got pegged as a top of rotation starter. Lynn and Garcia became strong contributors without much fanfare also. To think that they have all that, and arguably the best hitting prospect in baseball.