Orgfiller

Dat f***ing moustache though.

I'm so glad baseball is back, god the All-Star break sucks for fans.

Guys, remember that time that GD decided to do the draft order on his own, and emails were not immediately sent, nearly destroying the league before it ever began, with multiple posters threatening to quit, and everyone getting mad at him and each other? All of this on Christmas Day? Truly a golden moment in league history. That's chapter 1 of the f***ing textbook gentlemen.

The closest comp in terms of circumstance - but not talent - would be Hector Olivera who signed for 6/$62.5MM on March of last year. Olivera was days away from turning 30 years old and had injury concerns. In comparison that deal seems absurd to what Gourriel just signed for.

Likewise, this is a guy who's been sought after since pretty much 10+ years ago. I guess age, and maybe some injury risk that I'm not entirely aware of may were factors for his low price relative to other recent Cuban-born signees.

I don't see why he would have faked his own age considering he's played competitively in Cuba's top league since he was in his teens-early 20s. There's no way his age is not as reported.

That seems like a really bad decision on the part of the Astros, unless there's something we're not aware of here. http://img.bleacherreport.net/img/article/media_slots/photos/002/366/073/hi-res-10cf0da2fe6f8a332aec9dd187eec9d4_crop_exact.jpg?w=650&h=440&q=85 http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/442dc771533b420194e0cc51d9580d1a/team-cubas-yulieski-gourriel-bats-a-home-run-the-first-for-his-team-fh8tf7.jpg http://mlblogsbjarkmanlatinobaseball.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/gourrielns2006b1.jpg?w=555 Whatever though.

A lot of teams, the Blue Jays included, could probably use him as a MIF utility man with him having prior experience at SS, 3B and 2B. I suspect this is one way the Astros will use him, with a few COF starts sprinkled in there as well.

What's with the 'o' being omitted from his last name? It has always been Gourriel. I'm assuming they plan to play him in a corner OF spot? He's always been an infielder but the Astros are completely loaded there, with more to come in Bregman. He's obviously pretty old, sad that a player of his caliber will make his debut in the twilight of his career, but I think there's some big potential gains for the Astros here, they're only paying him to be a 1-1.25 WAR player, which he should be capable of easily if the transition is as one would expect.

See above. CarGo is expensive and injury prone, McGee is a reliever and s*** the bed so his value will be low. I also agree that the former is overrated and likely commands more than he's worth, which shouldn't be a whole lot.

Well, he is a professional athlete after all. It's more about how his body will react to playing SS as he gains more muscle. Both are probably 3B longterm. At least in Seager's case we have his older brother who is smaller and plays at the hot corner.

Both those guys are huge injury concerns. Cashner has been complete garbage this year and has lost over 1 mph on his fastball velocity. Probably a guy to steer away from.

Okay I get it, Correa is really good and really young, a definitive top 10 asset in the game, no argument there. But why does ZIPS project him for multiple 8 WAR seasons? I'm guessing the only real comps here would be A-Rod and Cal Ripken, but not only were those players much better in their first full seasons - Alex Rodriguez put up 9.2 WAR as a 20-21 year old - they were also plus defenders at SS, while Correa thus far in his career (SSS and generally unreliable defensive metrics) has not proven to be one. Not to mention the fact that both of those guys are some of the best players of all time. Then there's Seager, only 6 months older, putting up better numbers to start his career, and yet the industry consensus appears to be that Correa is the more valuable asset, I don't get this. I understand there are clear arguments from each side here, Corey Seager has relied on very high BABIP, has lower walk rates throughout his professional (MiLB and MLB) career and higher K rates, but one of these guys projects for a higher WAR total than Mike Trout and the other comes in ~a full win lower each year.

While acquiring reliable elite relievers would be great, their cost probably isn't worth it. I think it's best if we go for more Jason Grilli types giving up just about nothing instead of trading what could be a #4-5 starter for half a year of Chapman.

I guess you're right. I bet it's hard to appreciate the zip on his fastball over the radio.

Because he's a Red Sox prospect? I'm pretty sure he's a consensus top 20 prospect.

That's not really how that works though. The guy just made the All-Star team in the midst of having a breakout season, it's not an under-the-radar move because you haven't noticed how good he's been. He's not "a household name" because he plays in a division the Blue Jays rarely face off against and plays on a s***** team. IIRC he was also rumoured to have been on the block by some sources, so it's not like him getting moved came out of nowhere.

Fixed

So the top 10 will be something like (in no order): Corey Seager, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa, Mookie Betts, Anthony Rizzo, Nolan Arenado, Francisco Lindor and Paul Goldschmidt.

I agree, if it's straight up the deal is fair for both teams.

I think the reasoning is that there's some weird clause in his contract which is that if he's traded by the Dodgers he may choose to opt out of his contact by season's end, so in theory you would be trading top assets for a rental of Kershaw. However, if you trade for him prior to the season beginning that's still a pretty much guaranteed 7+ WAR and the chance that he might not even opt out.

BTS, stahp.

Scola to the Nets! Great news!

Yeah I actually agree with the assessment about defense, it declines faster, it's harder to measure, and because it's harder to measure it can have huge fluctuations from season to season so it's difficult to project.

Well if you read the honourable mentions post, Dave Cameron argues exactly the opposite, which is why players like Pillar and Kiermaier were both excluded. We don't really know if the league values elite defense on the same level as equivalent hitting.