iastfan112

Agree on all counts, though Correia isn't much better.

If we had to go with a ****ty Pirates pitcher I'd have rather had Karstens.

The Reds recently moved their top prospect speedster Billy Hamilton from SS to CF. Looks likely they're going to call him up now. Doubt they'd have had interest in our CFers. From the Reds and Indians perspective this trade makes sense, at least in some form(Choo in CF could be interesting). Just don't see how you can basically do a Bauer for Gregarious swap though. Even if Bauer's value is down some, Gregorius was a C+ prospect last year according to Sickels and he didn't exactly set the world on fire this year either.

Yep, which is why I'd have rather overpaid for Dempster, Haren, Blanton, ect. You would think that after last years Marquis disaster they'd have shyed away from low K, pitch to contact guys with modest success in the NL. I find it hard to imagine there were other teams beating down Correia's door with a 2 year contract at this point.

Good take. No way Mays makes top 100's, my guess is he's in the 150-200 range. Sickels gut reactions was to give him a B- grade, that'd put him in the 9th-12th range for the Twins.

While I don't entirely disagree with much of your post, I want to focus on this. Dempster and Marcum will hamstring the payroll as bad or worse than Mauer and even when combined, equate to a similar amount of wins (Mauer is roughly a 5 win player, Marcum/Dempster combined are 5 win players). Both are older than Mauer and from 2013-2015 (not getting either for less than three years, probably more with Marcum), will be more expensive and declining more rapidly than Joe due to advanced age (mostly Dempster). To boot, to get both those guys, you're looking at paying at least $25m a year, probably more. Keeping Mauer is a risk. There's no denying that. But considering free agent salaries this offseason, Mauer's production per dollar is actually good compared to what these other clowns are getting on the market. It's absurd to think that BJ Upton is a $15m player or that Jeremy-freakin-Guthrie is an $8m guy. And just LOL at Shane Victorino at $13m. This offseason is bananas. If you even manage to get rid of Mauer, that $23m you spend to replace him is going to bring you less in return than Joe. With that said, I'm not against trading him if a team offers the farm for ol' Joe. Disagree with you partially Pig. Upton's been somewhere between a 3-4 win player and is under 30, his contract is pretty much market value. Victorino, again 3-4 win player(5.9 two years ago!). Little bit older so lower payout. I'll agree Mauer will be a solid contract if he keeps up his production for a few more years. The big question will be how well he holds up, if he can keep this 5 win plateau for a the next 2 years and then go into a more typical .5 win decline per year the contract will be viewed as fair. If it starts earlier than that we have a problem, even with inflation.

Prospect return is underwhelming. If you're going to torpedo your team for the foreseeable future, gamble hard on higher upside guys. How Loria is still an owner is beyond me, ran the Expos into the ground and is attempting to do the same in Miami. I like but don't love it for the Jays, the way the contracts are constructed could cause problems down the line, depending on payroll of course, but they acquired a lot of talent while not giving up much prospect wise

Gaze at the power of the multi-quote, a useful too that allows you to respond to multiple points without spamming the board with multiple posts on your part. PS- People might take you more seriously if you at least attempted to follow conventions of the English language. Things such as capitalization, punctuation and grammar count, even on the web.

15 million per year isn't that outrageous, he's been roughly 4 win player for the past 3 years and is under the age of 30 so aging isn't a huge factor. However, I don't see 6 years happening f non ace, much less a guy with Sanchez's injury history.

I'm intrigued by Cozart, thought he looked pretty good in the few Red's games I watched last year. I'd want something in addition to him if we're giving up Span or Revere but he'd be a solid starting point.

Worth mention it's what he's looking for, not necessarily what he'll get, Edwin Jackson wanted a multiyear deal last year and no one sprang for that. I see teams shying away from offering that many years with his injury history. The 15 million per year wouldn't surprise me at all but I see a 4 year deal as much more likely, perhaps an option for a 5th year.

I wouldn't have minded Izturis on that deal. My only fear would've been how Gardy rotated the infield. Plouffee and Dozier need to be given the chance to be "the answer" at their respective positions.

AJ did play significantly more games at catcher than Mauer though. There's more wear and tear at the position so I can see the voters going that direction.

I saw his contract demands and laughed. I think Seth hit the nail on the head, any higher than that is too much.

Wish we would've kept him, generally solid on defense and showed flashes of hitting. Think he's better than Florimon.

Lewis was a better prospect and had better results in Japan though.

It's utterly absurd, the 8 million per win(or 9). You're telling me in true dollars Joe Mauer is a 40-45 million dollar player? Or on the opposite end that Alexi Casilla would fetch 8 million a year on the open market. That 8-9 million dollar figure has been looked at with pretty extreme skepticism. Not to mention your narrative just doesn't fit. Why would the Diamondbacks decline a reasonable ~4 million option on Matt Lindstrom when @ the 9 million a year figure he'd actually be worth closer to 6. Then lets examine the facts from last year. Taking a nice three year WAR average the vast majority of RP averaged nearer to the commonly quoted 5 million a year then that 9 million figure. Pretty much everyone except Valverde(exercised option) and Papelbon(early FA signing). After that there was value to be had. It's pretty clear the League contract is a significant overpay.

Perkins is irrelevant to the conversation, his contract is covering his arbitration years, thus he's getting paid less then market value. Lindstrom is not. Because Ned Colletti never overpays for relief help! Also, the Jon Papelbon contract was completely indicative of the RP market last fall.

I don't mind the idea of Blanton. He's an okay back end of the rotation guy and being at Target Field might help him suppress some of those HR's compared to Citizen's Park. He's not going to get 10 million this off season either.

Based upon? His peripherals and ERA suggest a quality reliever, albeit not a dominant one. While I think the Twins major problems lie elsewhere, if JR could get him for the right price he's a good option.

Good lord guys, its Ervin Santana not Johan in his prime. You know the guy with a career 4.33 era. 3.0 B/9 and 7.1 K/9. Edwin Jackson will probably be signed for a similar, albeit multiyear, deal. He's also a younger, better pitcher.

Sure, but the pitcher whom they acquire actually does matter. In FA they can acquire a pitcher for nothing but salary. Santana has all kinds of questions marks, and might be the wrong pitcher, even if the right type of move. Santana was acquired for pretty much just salary as well, they really only gave up a version of Slama. The question of course is, was it good value. Acquiring a middling pitcher on a not particularly friendly contract isn't exactly an excellent move. There's a reason Santana only brought what he did, all the other teams said "Overpaid".

I presume the Royals idea is if they aren't competitive at the deadline to flip him for a better prospect then.

Eh, not a bad move by the Royals but certainly nothing worth writing home about. WAR the past 4 years: 1.0, 2.2, 2.9, -0.9. He's getting paid 12 million by the Royals. Lets say he bounces back in the 2.5 WAR range, he's still getting paid at pretty much a market rate.

This. I was looking through the International league stats and there's a lot of guys who could fulfill this role and appear to be either blocked or out of favor with their teams. Some fringy prospecty types like Jared Goedert, Josh Satin, and Yamaico Navarra are the ones I like best. All have positional versatility and at least a decent minor league hitting record. Don't look to be very expensive either.