Sorrow

Matt Stairs off the bench, who are you kidding. He was the heart and soul of this teams OF.

I'd like Hannigan if he could be got cheap, someone like Todd Redmond or Luis Perez. I wouldn't trade a legitimate prospect for the guy. Samar is interesting, he'll be a massive overpay that our system can't support - but he is so damn good.

It's something to keep an eye on. It's like the guy that broke the Rasmus and EJax trades, no one had ever really heard anything there.

Remember when JPR was talking to the Dodgers about a Wells for Bills and Kemp swap then f***ing ownership signed Wells to that monster deal? Wonderful memories.

It was greater than 10 seasons I believe. I honestly think (I'm doing this without checking) that it was 1995-2012.

I'm unsure if this article was ever posted, I don't subscribe so I'll link it to a blog that has it broken down. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?type=2&articleid=20474 http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/2013/08/the-missing-ingredient.html?m=0 "Back in May, Russell Carleton published a study at Baseball Prospectus that evaluated hitting coaches based on whether the hitters under their tutelage improved or declined. By his methodology – and it’s only one way of looking at things – Kevin Seitzer was worth about 58 runs over an average hitting coach over the course of a season. Among every hitting coach of the last 20 years who had held the job for more than two seasons, the only hitting coach worth more was Clint Hurdle – who coached for the Rockies from 1997 to 2001, before the humidor, when Coors Field was maybe the best hitters' park in world history. Carleton admits that the extreme conditions may have affected the numbers in a way he could not control for, and made Hurdle look better than he was." Will be intersting to see how it breaks down next season.

It sucks we added people like Nolin to the 40 this year. Off the top of my head you have Storey, Juan Perez, Ramon Ortiz and Thad Weber that can come off. Romero and Oliver come off as well, Rajai Davis.

Agreed on that front my Ottawa brother. I don't know if I can do another winter of Dickey/Marlins/Astros trades and still have any interest in this organization when the other teams that I really enjoy following have finally started doing stuff.

I would be interested to see if we could do something like Conger and Kendrick for Janssen, Rogers, +

If you could snag Porcello for a Janssen do it. If you could also bring in Cahill for a bullpen piece and some minor league parts do that as well.

I'm still amazed that we got Rolen for an injured and degrading Glaus, and then got EE, Stewart and Roenike for a hurting Rolen.

I'm voting for JPR over AA, though it is a really close thing. I feel like both have pros and cons like anyone, and both have been royally f***ed by ownership (Wells signing on JPR by Godfrey instead of trading him to LAD for the rumoured Kemp and Bills package) and AA has been f***ed by the compete now instead of continuing a steady rebuild of the organization. In an ideal world we'd have AA as the GM, running the scouting department for pre-draft and international talent while dealing with the major league team and the media and JPR as an assistant GM looking for players people have given up on (Bautista, Zaun, Encarnacion, etc.) as well as looking through the minors for guys that can contribute at the MLB level, things that he was really good at.

JP was against signing Wells to a long term contract, he was pro-trading him to the Dodgers for Kemp and Billingsly, it was ownership who signed Wells if my recollection of the events at the time is correct.

People hating JPA for being a human being is a bit silly. Disliking him for his baseball skill set as a fan is acceptable. Congratulations JPA.

I'd have no issues with Goins on the bench next season. Sub him late at 2B for the D and having a left handed bat is never a bad thing. There's no way he should be starting.

Carlos Ruiz on 3/22 if he takes that, if not get Molina and Suzuki and platoon them.

Drabek and Huthison have been hinted at enough you can probably assume confirmed. AJ Jiminez if he is healthy enough, Nolin, and Bautista and Rasmus move Gose and Sierra to this list

I've always thought it was Burns bat that was the question mark and that he was sound with the glove and arm. True or false?

.133 babip

No Rasmus can't aim his line drives so we need to keep him down in the order.

Context, as in this is what they would do, this is a rumour?

Machado though I think Lawrie covers more ground.

So who do we ship out? Stroman, Pillar, Nay and Lugo for Norris and some mid 30s reliever on an expiring contract?

Exactly this. If he comes up and allows us to trade Davis this season its a good thing. Heck even if he is only a 4th OF with average D and he hits at all its a good thing with average tools across the board.

Pillar with league average D across the board and a decent hit tool is a solid 4th OF option with no salary commitments that allows us to dump Bonificio and trade Davis. Jimenez will probably never be a starter at the major league level but if he can continue to be this good defensively then he works well as a bench piece. Jimenez is an interested piece in my mind, he's played his first four professional seasons (08-12) with a torn UCL, this is the first year he's actually been healthy. If the mechanical changes to his swing stick and allow him to get the bat to the zone faster he may actually develop a hit tool enough to be a starting catcher. If his career 41% thrown out rate (with a torn UCL) translates to the bigs with his other defensive skill set you can live with a weaker bat.