biggentleben

Braves sign Nick Markakis for too many years and too much money to do nothing of notable value. #HotBravesTwitterTake JA Happ traded for Michael Saunders. The combination of the two meaning Justin Upton to Seattle?

Honestly, if the Twins got half this return, they should do backflips. I think Lawrie's talents are being vastly undersold in the trade evaluation. Save Lawrie would be a solid return for Plouffe, to be honest.

I do believe that Donaldson will be a monster in that park. I just disagree that it was a completely one-sided trade. I think it's a very high-risk trade for Oakland, but I don't think it's the one-sided disaster that the initial reaction was. The big difference with the Hudson deal and this one was that any Braves fan out there would tell you they fleeced the A's at the time. Meyer was a backend starter who flamed out, but Thomas was crap, and Cruz, in spite of his cult following, was terribly inconsistent in the pen and only a pen arm. Blue Jays writers I've talked with are genuinely miffed about losing Barreto and Graveman, though, which the latter intrigues me.

The scouting reports I've seen have all gauged his arm at a 55, which is MLB starter level present, let alone what it could be if shifted from shortstop. His arm and speed have kept him at short so far, and Kiley McDaniels' write up on Fangraphs mentioned a scout who basically said that he could be 2B/SS/CF at the major league level depending on what the team he was with needed due to his defensive skills, so there actually may be more value for some teams in that flexibility than a pure shortstop as well. He would only move off shortstop because his hit tool and offensive skills carry him to the major leagues before his defense can catch up. With Robertson in the fold for the Athletics, they may have an elite defensive shortstop and choose to move Barreto, but if Robertson doesn't pan out, he could stay at the position as well.

My apologies for not responding to this sooner. I will admit I exaggerated the 5-10 mark. There's roughly 20ish guys in that first tier. I'd have all but Crawford ahead of him, as you do, but Seager I wouldn't assume as a shortstop, unless you also consider Hanley Ramirez a shortstop. He's a great offensive prospect who can play passable short, so he'll stay there for now. Miguel Cabrera played short until his last full minor league season as well, and he even played outfield for three seasons before moving back to 3B. Seager's a passable shortstop, but he's most likely moving off the position quickly, if not this year, then before he hits the major leagues. To the point, the main difference is the amount of time left that a team can develop a guy. I'd actually knock someone down in trade value somewhat if they've already done one of two things - 1. hit AAA, or 2. lost some significant upside potential. Lindor has actually lost some of #2, but not to a significant enough level to knock him down too much as he's shown some exploitable holes in his offensive game. A guy like Barreto is so supremely talented, provides power and speed offensively at a very high level, and he's done "stathead" things like drop his K rate by 5% and raise his BB rate by 4% in his first year of full season ball at age 18. The only question about him at this point is future position, but he has the arm and range to play SS/CF but the size that normally translates to 2B/CF long-term. In scouting, the closer to the majors a guy gets, the better his 20-80 scores get because there's more surety, and scouts hate to be "that guy" who put a 70 on a fastball that in the end is really more of a 55, so there's err on the side of caution. Barreto already is receiving 55+ ratings on his speed, arm, and bat control, which is essentially saying that he's at MLB starting caliber level with those tools. Now, that alone does not a baseball player make, but it's a huge mark forward. When a team has little time to work with a player, there's lesser value to them as they cannot teach their system's philosophy to the player. A guy traded at AAA has usually had 2-5+ years of training in an organization, and if the approach of that organization is to work the count and strikeouts are okay as you wait for your pitch and then moves to an organization where there's a pointed focus to reduce strikeouts, you often see a year or two step back for that player as he adapts the years of training he's had to the new approach. It's also why you often hear of prospects that were hyped being traded multiple times and becoming late bloomers because they need time to put it all together. I personally believe that Jason Heyward would benefit from a couple of years with the same hitting philosophy as he's had three hitting coaches in his five year career. His best season may still be his rookie season when his MLB hitting coach was the same coach who had set the Braves' hitting philosophy for all of Jason's time in the minors. Teams value the ability to put their print on a guy, and Barreto's 2-3 year likely window before he's in the majors is in that perfect window of development on an 18 year-old kid to make his trade value skyrocket. I'll use an example from the Braves farm system. Right now, the clear #1 prospect in the Braves system is 2B Jose Peraza, but I would wager that it would take as much or more to pry SS Ozhaino Albies away from the team in trade right now. He's going to end up a top 5 prospect in the system and at 17 blew through the two rookie league teams in his first experience stateside while striking out at a sub-10% rate and walking at about a 12% rate while showing a ton of baserunning ability and surprising power. Peraza is only 21 next season, but he's already been moved off of SS and his power has shown to be in gap/ally power only, not really over-the-fence power. Still useful, but taking a possible skill off the table does lessen what a trade value for a player is when they're early in development. Peraza's also already reached AA, so he's hit the high minors while Albies is going to his first full season club this year. I know this is TL;DR, but I think I explained stuff a bit better. I will say that this concept had to be explained to me by a former scout I sourced for a story a few times over before I got it.

Franklin Barreto is a throw-in in the same way Miguel Sano or Alex Meyer would be a throw-in to a trade. He's not in the Buxton class of prospect yet, but for current trade value, there's not much else the Twins could roll out on their prospect list with more trade value. Read that I said trade value, however, as prospect lists and rankings are not a trade valuation and no list maker would ever assume them to be such, which is why I always find it humorous to hear "to get Superstar X, team Y would have to give up their #1, 2, 4, and 8 prospects" and disappointment when none of the return is in the top 5 of said list. Barreto is one of the highest trade value prospects in the second-tier of trade value right now, and that first tier only has about 5-10 names.

ESPN should have suspended Schilling just because he was a moron. Instead they suspend Law and have suspended Bill Simmons for having the gall to talk negatively about the NFL or their colleagues when they do spout off and act idiotic.

They only got a small sample of the greatness that was the exchange between the two. Law made him look the part of the dumb jock over and over.

True, but in my experience, your left tackle is how the center sets up the pass blocking when he sets for the blitz coming before the snap. The Gophers may key off another position to set up their blocking, but most teams start at the blindside tackle and go from there over to pick up a blitz. Not being sure of the LT would make the job difficult for me as center because I wouldn't know how he responded to having to chip and slide, how he was with speed rush vs. power rush, etc. that would key how I set up the blocking from there over to ensure the QB was protected. Though they didn't do it much all game, Leidner had significantly more time to pass before Campion went out. It could factor into play calling if they weren't sure how much time they had to get receivers into the routes on longer plays.

I think a lot of that coaching had to do with losing their LT, but a lot of people won't believe me on that because it doesn't feature a "skill" position guy.

I really think it was a big turn in the game when the Gophers lost their left tackle. Their vaunted right tackle rotation, which has allowed them to have a fresh outside guy on the prime running side each play, suddenly were both playing every snap, and it was obvious as Cobb didn't have quite the holes as he would normally to exploit. The defensive communication cost the Gophers multiple times, and Leidner had a poor game, but I honestly think either team on the field today would steamroll the Buckeyes without Barrett. Two very similar teams and the Badgers made less mistakes in the second half.

I think it's a fair trade as it is, despite what guys like Keith Law might say. I think the highest upside is absolutely in the Oakland end while the highest floor is in the Toronto end.

Lawrie and Donaldson are virtual equals defensively, but Lawrie can't stay healthy. Both are first year arby eligible, but Lawrie will get 1/3 to 1/2 of what Donaldson does and is 4 years younger. I still like the deal for Toronto, but it's a high-risk, high-reward return for Oakland that could pay off huge in the end as well.

Mentioned in the offseason thread already. Lawrie covers 3B for the A's, Nolin slots into the rotation as he was going to do for the Blue Jays, Graveman will be getting a lot of helium this offseason as a 3/4 starter type who blew through the minors last offseason, and Barreto is an 18 y/o middle infielder who posted an .865 OPS last year in low-A.

Josh Donaldson traded from Oakland to Toronto for Brett Lawrie and three minor leaguers.

Yasmani Tomas signs for 6 years, $68.5M with the Diamondbacks. Way below the 7/$100M that he was expected to get by many pundits. Ben Badler was on the BA podcast really talking down Tomas and talking up a few other Cuban guys, specifically Yoan Moncada.

He's done a much better job of getting a full basket of eggs rather than putting an entire recruiting class on the back of one or two high-end recruits. The verbal commit of a 4-star in-state recruit for 2016 on the weekend of the Iowa game was a big get for his recruiting as well. I can tell you that Minnesota is finally recruiting in the Dakotas better as well, something completely absent in Mason's and Brewster's regimes...not a ton of high-end talent there, but I've never been a fan of ignoring your back lawn and going to the coasts for recruits less talented than ones who would rather stay near home (plus the PR is great for the school as well). The great thing I got out of reviewing the current 2015 class is that while they're predominantly 3-star guys, every single one that I read talked about projectable size and/or skills. Kill's not going to be a guy that will attract a Johnny Manziel looking to start from day 1, but the guys leaving his program into the NFL have been receiving plenty of notice for how football smart they are. You bring in a few 4-star guys and a 5-star in state when you have the chance, and you can build a very good program as long as there's plenty of depth in 3-star types alongside.

13 many of his seasons, 12 some seasons. They've only added one game to the regular season in the new format. It's the championship game and bowl game that can make the season longer.

Gophers ranked in the AP poll for the first time since 2008 at #22, and have the same #22 rank in the coaches poll. Likely will have about the same rank in the playoff rankings once those come out tomorrow. Hard to complain about that!

We're simply remembering the Mason era completely different then. I remember 1999 when a #12 Gopher team was defeated by a deservedly unranked Oregon team in their bowl game. I remember 2000 when the Gophers followed up a great win at Ohio State (#6 in the nation at the time) with a loss to a mediocre-at-best Indiana team. I remember in 2001, Mason's 5th season as coach, when the Gophers fell back to a 4-7 record. I remember 2003, the only double digit win season of Mason's career when the Gophers had Michigan down 28-7 at home and let them come back in the 4th quarter to win and then had one of the poorest coached 1st quarters I've ever witnessed the next week hosting Michigan State that couldn't be overcome in two losses that should have been wins and led to a 12-1 record. Overall, Mason was a coach who took a lot of teams that barely qualified to bowl games. His overall record was 64-57, or a .529 winning percentage. In the conference, he was 32-48, or a .400 winning percentage (akin to a 97 loss pace in baseball). So far Kill has managed a 25-24 record, or a .510 winning percentage. Yet, the comments about his play in the Big Ten are interesting seeing as he's posted a 13-18 record in the conference, which isn't great, but it's a .419 clip rather than .400. Out of his 10 seasons, Mason posted a .500 or better conference record in 4 seasons, never posting more than 5 wins. Kill is in the midst of a 5 win conference season after going .500 last season, so in his 4 years, he's already got half the amount of .500 or better seasons in the conference as Mason did. Overall, Mason put up 3 seasons of 8 wins or more in his 10 years with the Gophers. Kill just clinched his second 8 win season in 4 years.

On the last point, I will just say as a guy who played under Mason, I don't think a Mason team comes back in this game. The Texas Tech game that mercifully lead to his dismissal, I was in a hotel room with my dad listening to the TV while my dad watched as I'd just had my 14th and 15th eye procedures and couldn't see anything on the television. We intended to finish the game out, then head out for a late supper. When Cupito was sacked on 4th and 7 rather than kicking the field goal, I told my dad we could leave. The score was 38-21 Gophers at the time, but I told him we could go eat as the game was over, and the Gophers would lose. It was almost too predictable with Mason. Even though they haven't come back to win each time or they had a lead and let a team catch up on them, the thing I think is so different is that Kill's teams are fighting until the last bell. That 4th down call today that led to the TD was bold, and if it is stopped for no gain, it's very possible the game has a different outcome, but I will bet that if they didn't get it, they wouldn't have died and ended up losing by 20 like a Mason team would have done had the same play not gone their way. That's the huge difference I see already with Kill's teams. Wisconsin will be in for a fight next Saturday, win or lose, and I like going into a game with that knowledge.

I worry about Wisconsin, but I said to start the season that I hoped for 2-2 in the month. They've secured 2 wins, and this one could bump them as high as #20 in the rankings, which is more of a cool thing to talk about than anything that really means something to the team. What I did like is that they continue to show the growth under Kill in team "moxy" that allowed them to be down 14 in one of the traditionally difficult environments to play as a visitor yet come back and win the game. I'm not going to make any assumptions about the game, but the Gophers now enter the last game of their season playing for the Big 10 West title and the opportunity to play in the Big 10 championship game against Ohio State. Can't complain about that!!

I do think the White Sox made a sneaky good move for Zach Duke. They paid top of the market for him, but his performance last year was that good.

I would wager Abreu does the most DH'ing as LaRoche is a tremendous defender at first, specifically in receiving.

This is an instance of really not using the statistic well, though. Comparing Punto to another middle infielder would be a valid use of WAR, but Cuddyer should be compared with other RF/1B types for a more accurate comparison.