ashbury

It's a shame that (fill in name of fringy prior inductee) already has watered down the honor.

Minus Bellinger/Urias/DeLeon I don't see why Twins management's interest would be "piqued", so I am assuming one of these has been dangled. I'm going to be optimistic. Dozier plus KStewart for Urias would be cool, plus or minus a couple of lesser prospects on either side to blur things up a little. A deal for De Leon would need to include someone highly regarded like Alvarez plus another good prospect, as has been stated elsewhere, and again a KStewart level prospect could be added in order to make it work if need be. For a couple of reasons I'm not too enthused about Alex Wood as any kind of centerpiece. And while I personally could see "helping" the Dodgers by trading for Puig if they are really trying to shed payroll, I doubt the Twins see a fit.

Lux was a 2016 draft pick so they'd have to wait until next June to swap him, don't they? I don't know how long a PTBNL can remain pending after a trade.

That's a good deal less than the $3.5M slated for him by TD. MLBTR was a bit closer at 2.9. Leaves more payroll room to go after a high-salary pitcher via trade.

Google works for me.

Shall we grant that the headlines nationally and probably in both cities would read "Dozier for Puig plus prospects" in the scenario that this outfielder is even part of a deal?

I don't have a strong opinion either way - my question was genuine and I'd love to see some kind of careful study. My approach would be to look at highly successful pitchers, since it's by developing those that you really help build your organization (filler is always available cheaply), and see what their BB/9 numbers looked like coming up through the minors. So, as a very quick and dirty cut at the question, I looked at the top 5 AL ERA (with enough innings to qualify): Aaron Sanchez, Verlander, Tanaka, Kluber, and Porcello. Tanaka is a special case with his years in Japan. Verlander never had control problems in his short time coming up, likewise Porcello. That leaves only two to look at (some study!). Sanchez had BB/9 in the 4 to 5 range, not too far off from Landa, and yet the Blue Jays didn't have him repeat levels after he was 18; he had good ERAs and was promoted. Finally, Kluber was a relatively late bloomer, and his BB/9 was measurably better than Landa but not masterful, in the 3 to 4 range. Again, his team(s) didn't leave him languishing. FWIW, both have had much better BB/9 once they reached the majors. Far from a statistically valid study (duh!), and I don't propose to undertake one. But these are two pitchers who helped their teams a lot this year. Moving them up even when their control wasn't yet pinpoint didn't seem to stunt their development. I'm not saying Landa projects to be like them. But if sink-or-swim at each succeeding level works for other organizations, maybe the Twins have been overthinking it. Move them up, and if they flounder (due to control issues, or just getting hit hard) either demote them if you think a second chance is warranted, or else flush them. And now *I* am guilty of overthinking. But you asked.

We traded Revere for May and Worley. With the recent non-tenders, we now have the opportunity to have all three, if you like that type of symmetry. It scratches a certain obsessive-compulsive "collect the whole set" itch, for me at least. Falvey: "You've got baseball cards for all three? Shoot, I *have* all three." Kind of having your cake while eating it too, if you like noodle-armed cakes. ("Wait, are we still talking about Revere? Or Worley?") Getting Span and Meyer back would be a higher degree of difficulty stunt, requiring trading. This only requires signing low salary free agents. If we were to re-acquire JJ Hardy, it might prove to be an insurmountable challenge to get Jim Hoey to put alongside of him, since I don't know if anyone on the planet has his phone number anymore.

She: I was thinking about baking some brownies tonight, IYKWIMAITYD. He: Can you hold off a couple of days? The Brewers just DFA'ed me and I don't know yet if someone will claim me or not.

Backhanded? Forehand smash, more like.

Good find. The health/life insurance certainly aren't zilch. Your summary left out the Marijuana item listed under Benefits.

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, in case you didn't find out elsewhere. Just across the Potomac, first exit off of eastbound 495. Can't miss it.

Can't one just as easily make the opposite argument, that holding him back didn't appreciably help with his control? It's a nice theory, to bring along certain guys a little slower, but maybe it isn't borne out by practice, in terms of players reaching the majors and being productive once there.

Easy there. The other 27 major league teams haven't had their turn with him yet. I don't know what the off-season benefits are to the individual player. I suspect it's zilch. And, I guess I need to repeat, one marginal player's misfortune is another marginal player's good luck, as regards getting 40-man benefits. It's just not an argument in favor of the present status of the waiver/DFA system, IMO.

I'm worried. The Cubs now possess the necessary sweetener to a deal to pry Byron Buxton away from the Twins.

If you don't mind the occasional two-hop bullet to the cutoff man.

We've still got Trevor May. The Orioles non-tendered Vance Worley. Maybe we can complete the trifecta.

FTFY. Well, OK, you're right, they won't hear what I added. Point taken. And now, even Sarah Palin is weighing in on crony capitalism. Sanders/Palin 2020!

With all the time you've frittered on TD...?

Here are the lawyer jokes from my accumulated 80-character repository. A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats. -- B.Franklin A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge. A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer. A town too small to support one lawyer can easily support two. Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer. -- Robert Louis Stevenson He is no lawyer who cannot take two sides. Hell hath no fury like the lawyer of a woman scorned. If it wasn't for lawyers, we wouldn't need them. If law school is so hard to get through, how come there are so many lawyers? Lawyer is just liar mispronounced. Lawyer, n.: One skilled in circumventing the law. -- Ambrose Bierce Lawyers bat last. Lawyers, I suppose, were children once. -- Charles Lamb (1775-1834) Lawyers: The larval form of politicians. My lawyer calls his doctor Doc; does the doctor call him Law? The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. -- Shakespeare The second thing we do is go back and kill all lawyers we missed the first time. Why won't sharks attack lawyers? Professional courtesy. Will Rogers never met a lawyer. And, two other variants on that Shakespeare thing that assumes you know lawyers are implied: First thing we do is kill all the cabdrivers. -- W. Shakespeare, safety officer First thing we do is kill all the spammers. -- w.shakespeare@bard.avon.org

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae147/aceojuno/backpedal.gif http://i.imgur.com/4zDgecD.jpg

http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/9131/10193110_1.jpg

Looking forward to articles 20 years from now detailing the career of the last player permitted to use the spitter. Somewhere, Burleigh Grimes will be smiling.

Better quality pie. Doubleyum.