Laika

I can't wrap my head around why Colorado would release him.

yeah, basically

Estrada is such an uninspiring bullpen arm. It would be hard to use him in any close games because you'd be so scared of the long ball.

Bo knows.

Amazing; yes.

Castro's spider fingers: http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/d45d0e15aa1dcdef07472c38b9bad8dbdddb25eb/c=267-38-638-317&r=x383&c=540x380/local/-/media/2015/03/18/USATODAY/USATODAY/635622989856924403-miguelcastrogrip.JPG

Castro has more swinging strikes today than Sanchez has all spring.

Don't need to get too crazy. If he has a FB/SL/CH, all you really need to layer on top of that is fastball variants (cutter, 2-seamer) and command. Splitter and a change would be weird because they are both feel pitches. Might be better to just have one of them.

Wait, this message board has AOL Instant Messenger functionality and Jonn has it linked to his account? wow funny

It's like if Alexi Ogando had a changeup, wasn't old, and wasn't ugly as f***.

deep, wipeout slider from Castro today. holy f*** these guys are good

Buck Martinez "Castro is 17-7 with a 2.47 ERA in his minor league career. Joe you just don't see numbers like that in the minors". lol

Travis IQ

When Osuna misses, he doesn't miss the zone by much. I think Martin is helping him out quite a bit this game with pitches near the edges, but the stuff is undeniably good. It looks like Osuna has three plus pitches right now. The change looks like a finishing pitch today, the slider looked like a finishing pitch the other day against New York, and the fastball has both velocity and some command right now. I think they should be aggressive with him this season. The only issue with him potentially contributing to the big league team later on this year is that he doesn't have a whole lot of innings due to past injuries, so they shouldn't make his workload too large this year. Maybe they pull him out of the rotation in AA at some point in the summer and put him in the big league pen? That would give him experience, help the big team, but allow them to control/limit his innings and workload. Maybe at some point you call up Osuna to relieve and then throw Castro into the big rotation to get innings (assuming you need a SP).

Have you ever even played baseball?

He throws hard. mid 90s.

It's not over yet!

His ADP in Yahoo is pretty low at 127. I'd take him after this year's biggest near-the-top value guys (Harper, CarGo, Votto) are gone. Their ADP's are 32, 49, and 63, respectively... so, say ~65th if you really want him. Even there there might not be a lot of room for profit though. Mookie Betts is going ~87th - you might want to just sandwich Mookie-Bryant-Soler-Heyward in your rankings somewhere in the early 70s, late 60s.

I would, although Utley's legs on turf is just a really bad idea, so it will never happen. Toronto could think about breaking Devon Travis in as a 2B/LF. Spot Utley once or twice a week and then platoon a bit with Saunders in LF. The question with Utley is health, so there's no reason to fear his vesting options. If they vest (500+ PA in previous season) it probably means that he's healthy. If he's not healthy then they won't vest. But in response to that tweet - who the f*** has defensive concerns about Utley? I get that he's old, but he's still great by any measure.

I know, I can't believe he still doesn't know English very well.

And given his age and body type, there's also a decent chance that 2015 Castro is physically a different/better pitcher than 2014 Castro (just another reason why projections might not have a lot of utility).

Yeahhhh, but when it comes to an A ball starter moving to an MLB bullpen, you almost might want to trust your eyes over the projections. I think RP Castro probably is head and shoulders above some of the names here. The biggest consideration is just his own development.

I know, that's why I said I was hoping. If I were still hoping then I would have said I am hoping. Thus concludes today's lesson.

Still a chance they send Norris to Buffalo for a month and give Estrada the 2 or 3 starts they need out of the #5 slot in April. Drabek is out of options so they can either say bye or give him a spot. Same with Hendriks and Barnes. I'm hoping Bo Schultz cracks the pen somehow (I was also hoping that Lopez would look good and grab a spot). Jenkins should have no chance of cracking it given his role (redundant) + his options remaining.

Yeah I'm surprised Dinger would trade his only decent depth bat for a return like this.