mikelink45

Please keep putting our prospects ahead of waiver wire pickups. I am happy for him to get another chance, but I do not believe we are hurting for corner outfielders with some power.

Tom seems to have very different opinions from the rest of you. Does he have a secret formula?

That is an interesting list. It is fascinating to see Rooker ranked 12 when he has already been in MLB and looked great for his brief time. I hope he will at least be on the Bench and get some at bats this year - if nothing else it raises his trade value.

KC has become an interesting club again. Not ready to compete, but still some fun moves this off season.

I would say it is okay - not very good

Since Spahn is my all time favorite pitcher this really warmed my -28F soul

Is this column just designed to send our old bench coach a few good players? Let's move on from the Pirates - has anyone noticed how successful they have been?

This far down on the list everyone is a question mark. I have no insights, but I am glad to have names to follow.

No losers - look at the Dodgers rotation 1 - 7. Tell me a few of them would not make the Twins or displace Maeda. In an era where BP counts so much Graterol at 22 is making his mark and just what LA needs just as Maeda is exactly what we need. This is just a good trade.

The most interesting names in the comments are Thorpe and Smeltzer - I have no faith in either of them. I understand they want a bulk pitcher, but in the long run I would move on from them. Like many I do not have a lot of faith in Dobnak, but he has earned the right to prove that he is legitimate.

I was hoping to see Cavaco in this category. It seems like the descriptions have many players who have shown more than he has at this stage.

He is the essence of entertainment and that is what sport is supposed to be. I am all for the Turtle - ready for more smiles!

Nice article. Henry Aaron - .268 .341 .491 at age 40 with 20 HRs. Two mediocre years left in his career. Year by year contracts are essential, Cruz can crash quickly even though he has the advantage of modern medical help. I always think of Pujols who continues to take money that the Angels surely regret because they paid him for the first half of his career that was with the Cardinals. Age 40 - .224 .270 .395.

Nice thought, but I think we have our starting rotation and cannot see the upside of trading prospects for an older pitcher like Price. Price sat out last year and was 7 - 5 with a 4.28 era his last year with Boston and a 1.34 Whip. Is it possible he is done? Would he really be better than what we have? I see Enlow as a tradeable prospect and probably Larnach too (where will he play) so that could be a trade deal, but then the Dodger lineup does not look like it is missing much either.

The key is Taylor Rogers - is he back, or is he done?

I have no idea, and as usual the BP is a mix of unknowns so I will just wait and see.

This old school educator would have had to work two and a half years to get the earnings from his one inning. This is the perversion of our economy. I would rather see him make this outrageous salary that have the owners pocket more millions, but the fact is the values of sports figures and sporting events has become too outrageous. So what if they do not have fans buying tickets, they obviously have enough from radio and tv and other revenue sources. I see the salary of a division one football coach - P J FLeck earns $3.6 million, far below the salary of Bauer, but enough to hire 36 professors! Things are so out of perspective that I have no rational way of writing about them. And as I said, my first degree was in economics.

Just to set the time frame = I graduated high school 1963. Thanks for the comments.

What a wonderful post. I really enjoy these thought out responses. I doubt I will ever stop watching baseball, but I do tire of all the money talk and the emphasis on what is being paid out, how cheap a team owner is, etc. Things like Bauer's contract simply amplify what I think is wrong. On MLB.com I am thoroughly enjoying their essays on the negro leagues now. It is the story, not the contract that interests me.

I like the comparison of Wong and Simmons and their impacts on the new teams. Not being locked into Ozuna for four years could be a very good thing. A pitcher receiving over $1 million per start is not what I call a good investment. Checking 2019 the most starts for a Dodgers pitcher was 31. Two teams outbid one another and Bauer and his agent chuckled all off season.

I once had a degree in economics - admittedly it was in the 1960s so it is out dated. What I am trying to figure out is how do these intelligent, super rich owners in major league baseball get bamboozled. Okay, the LA Dodgers got Bauer. Wow is that special. Were they not going to win the NL West before they got him? What will he add? What if he gets hurt? How many people/teams were they bidding against? Last year the Angels signed Mike Trout to a $30 million dollars a year contract because he is the best in baseball and he had given them how many championships? I guess it was because their long term investment in Albert Pujols paid off so well. Now we have a $40 million dollar a year pitcher - and of course pitchers are not prone to injuries. Trevor Bauer really blossomed in a short strange Covid year. He is now 75 - 64 in 9 MLB seasons according to BR. Not even 10 victories per year. I know wins don't count (BS). If he starts 40 games (unlikely)he will be paid one million per game - does he have a refund for bad games? So what are they getting? Yes he has talent and will be really good for them, but how good? How much better than if they had signed Jake Odorizzi? Next year we will need a $50 million per year player and on and on. Why? What is the madness? I do not want billionaires to pocket all the profit, but my god is this ridiculous. The dollars are so insane I am losing my ability to watch the ball as it comes across the plate. Sorry for the rant, but I cannot help it. I remember when players got jobs in the off season. But I am sorry to be so old fashioned, poor MLB owners are hurting and want to have some relief from their Covid losses!

Is Cave next? He would seem to have higher value and is another one of the OFs long list.

We can live without Odorizzi, but not without more help in the BP

I feel like it is done, but that is not my decision so I will wait and see. It is a fascinating process that the FO has developed/

Keep it simple