nate82

It looks like the Mets are not even interested in resigning Reyes at all. http://www.mlbtraderumors...t-market-for-reyes-.html

Apparently everything is going smoothly except for the slotting for the draft which maybe scrapped which the alternative actually sounds better than the slotting. A tweet from Kevin Goldstein. I actually love the idea of scaled/weighted caps for teams that would be based on the teams standings/draft position as Kevin Goldstein tweeted. Article from MLB trade rumors that discusses this and can be found here.

I agree. Those errors were bad.

I think they have something that looks pretty similar. I've seen shots of fans in the stands wearing t-shirts that have an image that looks like a "one hand beast mode". Not sure what that is all about. Actually it said Beast Mode on his shirt. Was similar to the blue shirts that you can see in the MLB store but instead of the Antlers or whatever that other thing is it had Beast Mode written on the shirt.

He maybe given away by the Mets but the Brewers shouldn't even entertain the idea. Jason Bay's remaining contract:12:$16M, 13:$16M, 14:$17M club option ($3M buyout) That is just brutal and you are only getting a .700 OPS out of the guy. I know the stadium that Bay is playing in probably has more to do with his numbers but he is obviously declining and I don't believe he will be worth what he is being paid. The Mets would have to pay at least half of his salary for it to make any sense for the Brewers.

Youkilis could wind up being a decent trading chip with a team like Milwaukee -- reasonable contract, & cheap club buyout option for 2013. I agree. I think Youkilis would be a target for the Brewers if the Brewers believe Gamel is not the answer or trade him for another position of need. Hart or Marcum would be who the Red Sox would want for Youkilis in return. I think the Giants do make sense. Mostly because they really need offense, and Sabean loves making bad long-term decisions. Sabean hasn't really made that many bad moves. Yes he whiffed on Zito but Zito was arguably the best FA available when the Giants signed him. The Rowand deal is the only one that sticks out to me as being a bad long term deal. Some wanted Rowand to become a Brewer instead of Cameron if my memory is correct which it probably isn't. The Zito contract looks bad now but when the Giants signed Zito, Zito was a top of the rotation talent and he was going to be pitching in one of the more heavily favored pitching division in the NL West. I don't fault Sabean here as a lot of teams were willing to give Zito a big contract. Sabean knows his bread and butter is pitching in that league and that Tim Lincecum is the face of that franchise. Until Lincecum is locked up long term for the Giants I don't see them going after many if any big name free agents. They may look at Prince and see if a deal could be done but I don't believe anything serious will come out of it.

Is that what they said about Ryan Howard when he was stuck behind Thome? Speaking of the Phillies and blocked prospects. Matt Rizzotti is kind of like Howard. All offense and rather poor defense. If the Brewers do think about trading Gamel I wouldn't mind seeing if the Phillies would be interested in trading Rizzotti as he would make a good replacement for Prince. Maybe a McGehee for Rizzotti trade could be worked out.

Jed Lowrie maybe a non tender candidate. I don't see the Red Sox keeping Lowrie and Scutaro is probably going to be their back up plan if Iglesias can't handle playing every day. Iglesias is better defensively than Lowrie and Scutaro combined but offensively he is horrible probably worse offensively than Betancourt.

Everyone always brings up the Angels every year for them to sign a big impact free agent and nearly every year since they signed Hunter they have shy'd away from signing a big name player. They didn't go all in on Teixeira or Crawford last year it was almost a given that Crawford was going to sign with the Angels and then poof the Angels didn't want to go all in on Crawford. I believe the Angels are going to do the same thing this year they may have some interest in Fielder or even Pujols but they won't come anywhere near what either of them are asking. I wouldn't be surprised if the Angels offered either Pujols or Fielder a 6-year $132m contract and that may actually be the best offer for Fielder/Pujols depending on how interested Toronto, Milwaukee, Florida, Baltimore, and Seattle are.

The Nationals really do not make much sense with Morse right now but if they are looking more long term they could go with Fielder but I am not really sold on the Nationals but they could be a wild card team. Don't forget about Toronto as they maybe looking for a 1B/DH type of a player and Fielder or Pujols would really help Toronto and would put them as one of the favorites to win the AL East. The Giants make no sense at all really they will probably not have enough to resign both Lincecum and Cain long term let a lone sign either Fielder or Pujols also. I believe the Giants will pass on both Prince and Pujols as they will just go with Belt. The market for Prince and Pujols is going to be very limited as the big market teams will not be involved. The best option for the Brewers and the one everyone should be hoping for is for Fielder to sign with Toronto as that gives the Brewers a 1st round pick if Prince signs with the Nationals the Brewers just get a comp pick and a 2nd round pick.

This is not going to happen as the Angels will just keep him. Morales could play DH if he wouldn't be healthy enough to play 1B full time next year. Plus you are going to have to give up some really good prospects to get Morales probably a Gamel/Peralta/Fiers/Gennett type of a trade just for the Angels to even listen to a trade for Morales. Yes he hasn't played since that injury but when healthy Morales is an impact player and the Angels are not going to give him up without getting a lot of talent back in return. This would be like the Brewers trading Fielder when he had a few years left of control. I just do not see the Angels trading away Morales or even Trumbo unless they are completely blown away by a deal for either of them.

I was watching SportsCenter today and I swore I saw one of the Rangers guys walking around when they were interviewing someone at Busch stadium wearing a Beast Mode T-shirt. Anyone else catch that?

Most of the Red Sox talent is located in A ball. Their best prospect would be 3B Middlebrooks. I would take Middlebrooks for Marcum. The Brewers don't necessarily need pitching back in return with Peralta and more so Fiers knocking on the door. Though depth at pitching is always nice to have. SS would be nice to get but to be honest there really are not that many SS prospects out there right now available in a trade. Edit - Forgot about Oscar Tejada in the Red Sox organization though I am not sure on his offensive capabilities. There have also been reports that he lacks the focus to play SS and he is currently playing 2B in the minors right now but he would be the only player in the Red Sox organization that would be available in a trade that would be a SS. I don't believe he is a SS but that is basically who you could get from Boston in a Marcum trade with some other players. Probably Ranaudo, Tejada, + for Marcum though I would rather take a chance on Middlebrooks and another prospect for Marcum. From SoxProspects.com

Well the blame that people are putting on the umpires that I have seen and what I saw from the games is that the umpires called a bad strike zone. Balls that were thrown that should have been called strikes were being called balls on a consistent basis game 5 was a perfect example of this in the NLCS. There was a couple of pitches to Braun that were out of the strike zone low and away that were called strikes and they were nowhere near the strike zone. While there was a ball that was thrown on the corner in the strike zone and would be called a strike by about 99% of the umpires in the league were being called balls. It was like there was the normal strike zone and the corners were not in play if they were close and then there was a second strike zone where balls that were thrown off of the plate and clearly balls that were being called strikes. It wasn't the reason why the Brewers lost but it was a horrible strike zone throughout nearly all of the six games played. To the original question there is never a single answer why a team loses a game or a series in baseball it is usually a combination of things. In the NLCS it was a combination of the Brewers leaving runners on in scoring position, defensive lapses, and poor pitching. Never once did the Brewers pitchers challenge the Cardinals on the inside of the plate except for game one of the series. The Brewers offensive was horrible while batting with 2-outs and runners on while the Cardinals were playing almost perfectly with 2-outs and runners on. I believe the Brewers only scored once or twice with runners on and 2-outs while the Cardinals scored a whole lot more. It really was a combination of things that doomed the Brewers you can't really point one thing out that killed the Brewers in the NLCS.

I get Philly but the Red Sox? Have they soured on Iglesias that much to go after Reyes? I know Iglesias isn't going to bring all that much offense to the table for the Red Sox but his defense is probably better than Reyes. Will the Red Sox really go after Reyes after signing Crawford last year? I am not so sure that the Red Sox are really a fit for Reyes. While Philly maybe a fit I am thinking that they are not going to give Reyes a contract like what Werth got when they didn't give Werth that contract plus Rollins is going to be cheaper than Reyes and I believe Philly will just resign Rollins instead for almost half the price of Reyes. I fully expect the Cardinals to resign Furcal even if Pujols leaves. I just have this feeling that the Cardinals want to keep Furcal as he is going to be rather cheap for them to resign. I am also not so sure on how much the Mets are going to spend on Reyes. I believe they are not going to come anywhere close to what Reyes is asking for. I believe the last rumor of the Mets offering a contract to Reyes was a 5-year deal around $20m annually at least that is what I remember I could be wrong on that. The market for Reyes could be surprisingly small and he may have to take a smaller deal.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were as they got some key players to play well beyond their talent levels. The Dbacks do have a good team and should compete for the NL West next year. This isn't the Padres of '10 where they relied completely on their pitching and some of their pitching pitched better than anyone could have imagined. The Dbacks will still have Upton and Goldschmidt looks to be a legitimate MLB player probably will be just above average for a 1B. Montero is also a good offensive catcher and he looked as though he improved a ton defensively this year. The only questions really are Young and Roberts and the Dbacks will have Drew back healthy which is one of the reasons why they lost to the Brewers. If Drew wouldn't have gone down with an injury that series may have went the Dbacks way as Drew is a better defender and he hits better than what they had at SS at that time. I don't believe the Dbacks will do what they did this year next year again but the NL West is very winnable as I don't see any team in that division who will be able to run away with it. A lot of question marks in that division on nearly every team. Agreed on the point that it normally goes to the team that overproduced the most.

Lucroy is an average catcher while nice to have he will not net a player like Belt. Even with the price of catching at a premium I still wouldn't trade a piece like Belt for a catcher like Lucroy. Lucroy while he can frame pitches very well he is still average to below average at blocking balls and he is well below average at throwing runners out. Lucroy's offense at catcher is average to just above average nothing really special there all in all Lucroy is just an average catcher. If the Giants offered Belt for Lucroy I would take it and run. I don't really see the Giants putting Posey at 1B right now maybe 3 or 4 years from now or if he gets injured again they may do that but not right now. The Giants may just go with Sandoval at 1B and sign a FA 3B like Ramirez. I believe the Giants would then just stash Belt in the OF probably make him play LF more so than RF.

A little bit of Hockey's Future's rating system and Project Prospect. Some of it is based on my own observations of watching the player. To me Gamel is to timid at the plate at least what I have seen of him at major league level but he is the complete opposite of what I see when I have watched him bat in the minors. I remember stating that Kennedy having a ceiling of a #3 and some said I was to high on him. These are not facts that I am portraying here just my opinions on the players. I don't have a crystal ball and I am by no means the be all end all of what a player is worth. I just do not have confidence in Gamel as to where I believe he will be anything special at all and will be disappointing. The rating I feel more strongly with giving Gamel from the Hockey's Future's rating system would be a D. I just don't see Gamel reaching his full potential which means he will probably be at best a platoon player. I hope I am wrong with Gamel but something just tells me that I should be hoping for a lot less out of Gamel which would be around a replacement level player.

Would anyone do a Hart for Youkilis trade straight up? Depending on what the Red Sox are going to do at 3B they could go with Middlebrooks at 3B next year. There is going to be an opening at DH if the Red Sox don't resign Ortiz to a contract. Moving Youkilis over to the DH is probably the best option for the Red Sox but the Red Sox still need a corner OF. Youkilis can fill a hole for the Brewers that I am not comfortable giving to Gamel. I have just lost all faith in Gamel and I am not sure he is ever going to be the player that some think he is. I believe Gamel is going to be nothing special and will be a major disappointment.

I wonder if a Hart for Youkilis trade would be something the Red Sox would do. The Brewers could then move Youkilis to 1B and then trade Gamel for a SS. For the OF the Brewers could go with Fukudome or DeJesus in RF with a RH platoon FA.

Gindl reminds me a lot of Matt Stairs well a younger Matt Stairs. To me Gindl could be a good option in the OF or he could be a platoon option or a 4th or 5th OF. Gindl is hard to project going forward because of his size and if he has a career like Stairs I would say that would be a success.

The White Sox are not in rebuilding mode. They are just retooling which is completely different than rebuilding. If the White Sox were rebuilding you would see them trying to trade Peavy, Dunn, Konerko, and others. I don't see the White Sox doing that and keeping those players in a rebuilding effort would just be plain stupid. The White Sox were not a bad team last year their whole team just under performed for the whole year. I wouldn't be surprised to see the White Sox take the division next year over the Tigers or the Twins. It just doesn't make any sense at all for the White Sox to go into rebuilding mode when they already have pieces no make that a lot of pieces to win the AL Central next year. If anything the White Sox will be looking to add pieces to win the AL Central next year not trade those pieces away. Narveson makes the most sense because he is cheap and would be controllable for a little bit longer to the team getting him. Since Narveson had a decent year for a #5 pitcher and if the Brewers can get a good piece back I don't see why the Brewers shouldn't trade Narveson as the Brewers already have an inexpensive player available to take his spot in Fiers. As for a SS I really do not like any of the FA SS's that are available especially Rollins and Carroll. If the Brewers can get Scutaro on the cheap then fine but I wouldn't give Scutaro anything more than $2m a year. Scutaro's defense at SS isn't elite and his bat isn't all that impressive to me he is another Counsell type of a player. Scutaro isn't going to do anything great everything he is going to do is just average and sometimes just below that. I wouldn't want to give a 36 year old SS who is going to be in decline anything more than $2m a year. Barmes is probably the best option but I'm not really sold on him. If the Brewers could get him for 2yrs at $8-10m fine but anything more than that and it will be overpaying for him.

Melvin is not going to just dump McGehee without getting something for him. Casey will only be gone by a trade and I doubt he gets traded.

LF or RF I don't think it really matters in Boston. They could always move Crawford over to RF if they wanted to which he should be playing anyways never really understood why they had Crawford in LF to begin with other than his arm isn't all that great that is probably the reason why Crawford is in LF instead of RF. Boston would be a good match up trade wise to trade with as they need an OF to replace Drew I just don't see a match prospect wise as all of the good prospects that I like from the Red Sox are in A ball. Doubront is really the only player I would want from Boston but he is obviously not enough for Hart. The only other player that you could put on the major league roster would be Anderson but he has faded rather fast I am not sure what to think about him. The only other player who is also at A ball is Ranaudo that I like from the Red Sox. I'm also not sold on Iglesias while his defense is nice I don't think he will hit enough even as a SS. The only player who played above AA that I really like from the Red Sox for a trade for Hart would be Will Middlebrooks. He is a good to average defensive 3B I am not sure he is ready yet but he does have a very nice swing as a hitter. If Hart were to be traded to the Red Sox he would be my first option and if the Red Sox said no to that. I would want at least Bogaerts, Britton, and Anderson for Hart.

The Red Sox trade is brutal. If we were tanking to rebuild, it'd be one thing, but you're obviously not rebuilding, so......... The Red Sox really don't have any talent that is worth something for Hart and Marcum and Doubront is really the only real option that could be traded for in that deal that would be major league ready pitching wise otherwise you are looking at more A ball talent coming the Brewers way. I don't believe Iglesias would be available in that trade as the Red Sox are going to need a SS next season maybe if they sign Reyes they would part with Iglesias but you would have to be dreaming for that and plus I don't believe Iglesias is going to hit all that much but his defense is definitely top notch. This wouldn't be a rebuilding move I am really puzzled why people think you either have to go for it or rebuild. You should be putting trades together that will help you today along with helping you tomorrow. You still have to fill up a major league roster even if you are rebuilding. Only one of the players in that trade would be someone you would consider to be a rebuild. Bogaerts is the Red Sox best prospect by far he will be a great 3B or corner OF once he fills out.And Fukudome for 3/$24 is horrible. Twice what he'll get. Or at least twice what he should get. Fukudome is going to get somewhere between $6-8m a year I just chose the higher salary as the worst case scenario for a Fukudome signing. The only trade that I really like that I suggested is the McGehee for Rizzotti as he is currently blocked in Philadelphia because of Howard. But that trade may not happen if Howard is to miss any significant time during the season with his injury. Both Rizzotti and Anderson could be good offensively though I have my doubts with Anderson. Rizzotti though is not a really good defensive 1B but that I can live with if he can out hit his defensive issues.