biggentleben

Definitely Segura. Gomez may be a top-20 guy in regular leagues (although his value is horrible in a points league, so beware if you're trying that format out for the first time), but there are a few guys who have the upside of what he'll give you (.260/20+ HR/40+ SB) while Segura is among a pretty elite group at SS.

I would never touch Puig over Adam Jones, because Jones is still incredibly young and has an established track record already. It's all a matter of what you have to pay. At $20, I'd rather have Pedroia than Segura, but at $10, I'd rather have Segura.

#1/#2 is personal preference - Miguel Cabrera or Mike Trout is a personal preference thing as long as Miggy still has 3B eligibility. If he was 1B only, Trout would be ahead by a good distance. Biggest sleeper - depends on what you consider a sleeper...early rounds, I think the classic "established player returning from a bad year/injury" strategy will work best - Pujols and Bautista being big ones. Middle rounds - James Shields and RA Dickey will give you 220+ IP, so even with their win totals not being great, their strikeout levels will always be good, and they'll have more "chances" to win a game than most 6 IP and out starters. Late rounds - guys with a big opportunity and skills that haven't had the playing time previously - Kelly Johnson, Evan Gattis, Jonathan Villar, and Junior Lake are all on the radar as $1 sort of guys in an auction. Best pitcher - Easily Kershaw. That said, one thing many haven't noticed is that with the increase in quality pitching, elite closers have become much more valuable in baseball. Of the top pitchers in ESPN's player rater from 2013, 4 of the top 10 were closers, 5 of the top 15 and 7 of the top 20 follow suit. Guys like Kimbrel, Kenley Jansen, and Chapman are actually worth an early pick over a second-tier starting pitcher. Biggest risk: I love young stud hitters as much as the next guy, but Goldschmidt, McCutchen, Harper, Chris Davis, and many more simply haven't done it at an elite level for long enough in my eyes for the prices they're going in mock auctions at this point. Blowing your budget to lock down these guys is the biggest risk I've seen in early mocks and "expert league" drafts so far. Rookies: I'd keep my eye on position battles in the spring that could give guys like Yordano Ventura, Jonathan Singleton, Trevor Bauer, Noah Syndergaard, Jon Schoop, and Adam Eaton significant playing time to open the season. The guys who will have certain spots to get ahold of are Juan Abreu in Chicago and Billy Hamilton in Cincinnati right now. One of the great things in the game right now is the high amount of young players who are emerging, both pitching and hitting. Guys like Julio Teheran, Leonys Martin, Andrew Cashner, and Wil Myers have only just begun to tap into their possible fantasy value. Then again, one of the more underrated values in the game is a long-standing veteran who hasn't really faded at all, like Alex Rios, or one coming off a tough season, like CC Sabathia or Nick Swisher.

I'll echo something that has been posted already in a slightly different way. When I was pitching growing up, I threw against a garage that had a board about the size of an old catcher's pud. Every time I was working on a new grip on a pitch, if I couldn't consistently hit that board with it, I wasn't going to use it in a game. Once I started pitching in games, coaches knew I had a strong arm from watching me at third base, but they were astounded at my command and ability to hit the catching mitt every time. I wasn't anywhere near the skill of a major league pitcher, but we've all seen plenty who don't hit their catchers in the mitt at all. I'd say the ratio is very, very high that if your catcher's glove doesn't move, you get a strike called for you, even if it's a bit outside or inside. That's one thing Eddie Perez did masterfully for the Braves for years. He would set up just a tick off the black outside or inside, and Maddux would nail his glove without moving it. Even if you're an inch inside with the pitch, if you hit that spot perfectly, you'll get the call. I'd be curious to go through the data and find the difference in fastball vs. changeup vs. breaking pitches and framing of them. From the eye test, one thing that always astounded me with Suzuki was how many breaking pitches he caught from guys in Oakland and how well he made sure they never got by him. A young guy throwing breaking balls will make his catcher's framing look poor, but Suzuki spent years catching entire staffs of young guys living on breaking stuff in Oakland, so it's understandable his numbers were off some. One interesting correlation that Baseball Prospectus mentioned in a discussion on the Suzuki signing is that catchers who have high framing ratings tend to also have more passed balls, and the opposite has also been true, to the coefficient of roughly 0.5, so not amazing, but certainly notable, so perhaps there's something in that holding your position to the very end gets you more calls, but you end up having more balls get by you or the opposite, you never let a ball get by you, but you take your body out of position to frame the pitch best for an umpire by doing that. Just some thoughts...I like the idea of rating framing, but I feel like it's where things like UZR and Range Factor were 10-15 years ago. As more and more factors are figured out to get the best measurement, the numbers will balance with the eye test, and right now, there are some catchers who get rated low on catch framing that seem to do a very good job protecting their pitchers, so perhaps it's not always the best indication of success behind the plate.

Some of us were transfers, though. RIP, BYTO

I feel like there's a joke there somewhere...or perhaps an insult to my prowess between the sheets! Joke, definitely a joke (because I can't go after Pseudo - I already have two strikes!).

I understand that you're anti-Biggio, but he also had one negative WAR season in his career - his last one. He's said in interviews that he knew that season that it was time to hang it up, whether or not 3,000 came or not because he just couldn't be an asset to his team anymore. Through his age 35 season, he had career numbers of .291/.381/.436 with 2,149 hits. If he retired right then, he is probably in the HOF already. Of course, his injury at 34 that sapped his speed is why Biggio has stated that he changed his approach to drive the ball more rather than spraying line drives because he wasn't happy with his results without his high-end speed that he'd had his whole career.

No mention of Shirley Temple's death at 85?

It is a shame that the Twins are remembered for that moment...

Trading Knoblauch away acquired the pieces the Twins needed to finally break their decade-long losing ways and turn into the team that was a threat all through the 2000s in the AL Central. His trade brought back Eric Milton, Cristian Guzman, Brian Buchanan, and Danny Mota.

I remember sitting in left field that game. It was a bad combo of a perfect storm with a weekday game, so seats were $3 for local college students, and it was dollar dog night. No matter how bad the Twins were in those days, left field was packed on Wednesdays while college was in session. Add on top of that the stress of it being finals week at the U, and there were a lot of college kids who wanted to let off steam. The groupthink was strong in that whole section that night. I was about 10 rows up close to the pole, and I got hit by a flying beer bottle from the upper deck section (it was a dang good throw even to get it to me, not sure how he thought he'd hit Knoblauch). I can see a lot of things about that night clearly, from the very-scared look that the normally calm Jeter had on his face as he ran toward Knoblauch to tell him to come into the dugout, to Bob Casey's plea to the fans as this was "the championship game of the series", and Tom Kelly coming all the way out to the left field section to plea with fans to calm down. I had no issue the second time things started flying on the field pointing out the offenders to security. I was hit by a baseball, multiple beer bottles, and my white tshirt worn that night became a workout-only shirt due to the mustard and ketchup stains on the back of it. It truly was a shameful day to be a Twins sports fan, and the most embarrassed I've ever been to refer to myself as a baseball fan - even worse than the Braves infield fly reaction, and they're "my team".

True until you look at his leagues that he put up those numbers in. Cal League and Texas League are both notorious hitter's leagues. Not quite to the level of the Pacific Coast League, but still definite hitter's parks. I'll be interested to see if he can handle AA for a full season with any power. He's also not built like a big masher. Not saying you have to be 6'4 and 240 to ever be a power hitter, but 6', 190 is not exactly screaming power hitter.

Hursh is a guy who was considered to be on par with Jonathan Gray in stuff before he was hurt in 2012. He has come back with a ton of correction to his mechanics, so many thought his once-elite control would return as he got farther away from TJ surgery. The Braves drafted him in the first round and sent him to low-A to work with pitching coach Derrick Lewis, a long-time member of the Braves' minor league staff. He'll likely move to high-A in Lynchburg where Lewis was promoted this offseason. Lewis is a master of the changeup, which could be the key to whether Hursh becomes a solid mid-rotation starter or ends up a very good reliever (and in the Braves system, a reliever will have a tough time making headway). Okay, away from my admitted too-deep knowledge of the Braves, that was nowhere near enough for Choo to get Hursh and a guy who benefited from the Cal League's offensive environment. Heck, he moved up to AA in the Texas League, another hitter's league traditionally, but he managed a .413 slg in that league. Muncy's also defensively most skilled for DH, and a platoon DH at that.

DRS has little to do with error totals.

D'oh, my apologies, the number I was quoting was his fWAR in comparison to other SS, which included both offense and defense into it. I didn't identify that in my post. In bWAR, he was 16th in the league.

Interestingly, he was a top 20 shortstop last year, judging by MLB shortstops with more than 400 PA as a shortstop.

Or that Florimon brings value to the table other than at the plate. Florimon had the second-most defensive runs saved at shortstop last season behind Andrelton Simmons. He may not be killing it offensively, but he does bring some excellent defense to the table.

BP's Jason Parks (who basically IS their minor league prospect department) stated this offseason in an Effectively Wild podcast that the Twins were "far and away" the best system in baseball right now in both top end talent and depth.

Not sure where you're getting that. Baseball prospectus called the Twins "far and away" the best system in the game this offseason, and John Sickels has stated that if he made such lists, he would have the Twins at the top right now. Those are two of perhaps the three most trusted prospecting sources there are.

Yet none of them won with major free agent signings. The Yankees teams that were so successful were built through their minor league system and the willingness to take on contracts in trades. When they turned to free agency, their team success went down. The Rangers built from within and continue to have a very highly ranked farm system that fills roster holes. Heck, one of the biggest propulsion moves for the Rangers to succeed was a trade where they acquired prospects and traded away an established star before he hit free agency. The Tigers built their rotation through trades (even Sanchez was traded for and then kept through free agency), and they've traded away the biggest free agent splash they made. The Red Sox just a season and a half ago traded away a collection of free agent signings and then utilized trades and small signings to win this year. The perception that these teams with high payrolls did such by signing the best free agents every year is simply incorrect. Often the top dollar free agent goes to a team like the Mariners or White Sox or Angels trying to make a jump, and interestingly, none of them have made that leap to championship caliber despite their spending. I'll repeat that money has never bought wins, and it never will. The scouting department for the minor league system and major league scouting for trades are the most important ways that winners have been built.

There were 14 teams with payrolls exceeding $100M on opening day 2013. There were 11 teams that won more than 90 games. Only 5 teams were on both lists. Interestingly, of the top 5 teams in salary, 3 won 90 games. Of the 14 over $100M, 8 were over .500, so nearly half of those teams finished under .500 on the season. Money doesn't buy wins, it never has, and it never will. You win by producing talent from the minor leagues and utilizing that talent either on the field or to acquire additional/different talent to enhance the major league team.

I don't see this as an issue at all. Nelson had some moments, but he all too often made bad head decisions that his body couldn't overcome. I love the group of QBs they have. This isn't an Ohio State or Wisconsin roster, so you need guys playing smart to maximize their talent. One of the few positive things I took away from playing under Glen Mason was how much he stressed smart play because his teams typically were less talented then their opponent on the field.

Sorry for the long run-on paragraph! Rant-dump.

It frustrates me because of this because the Braves are a small-market team at this point due to arguably the worst TV deal in all of baseball and an ownership group with no intentions to invest at all in the team. They have one of the better young cores in the league with Heyward, Freeman, Simmons, Minor, Teheran, Kimbrel, et al, and yet none will take an extension offered thus far as they all know the money will be there in free agency. This occurs to the Rays as well, so they have learned the art of trading just before they hit free agency to a team that can afford their contract and can return prospects to maintain the Rays' success. The Braves haven't taken this approach yet, and as a fan of the team, it's hard to watch homegrown players go to another team. Brian McCann will be a much better fantasy option as a Yankee in 2014, but to a Braves fan, it will be painful to watch him abuse the short porch in New York because that's a young guy who came up with the team and made his value with the Braves. Yes, I know that guys like Chipper Jones, Barry Larkin, Craig Biggio, and such really don't exist anymore, but it doesn't mean I have to like that...

I hope they play the commercial between their speeches.