Bnowell4evr

The Rays and Redsox stand out to me. The Rays because of how many comp picks they had a year ago and the Sox because of how well his RH power would translate to Fenway.

Feldman should be healthy. He pitched throughout September and into October.

I certainly don't see spending big on two starters. But Dougie might bring in a reclamation project at a low salary with incentives. Maybe a guy coming of injury (Dallas Braden for instance). Or someone coming off a poor year, willing to work for cheap. Someone (Doug or Gord) said they would like to get 1 or 2 SPs at the start of the offseason. I think getting a reclamation project would be a smart plan and I kind of got my eye on Scott Feldman to fill that role. If you look beyond his 2012 ERA and his injury riddled 2011 season you can see a potential #3 starter for very cheap. He's young for a FA (30), throws hard (91.7), limits his walks (2.33 BB/9) and a switch to the NL should boost his K ratio (6.99) The bonus is that he has experience pitching out of the pen if he should fail as a starter.

For one season of a 38-yo. Lucroy... Lucroy+!. I have to channel McEnroe... "You have got to be kidding me!" I agree that Lucroy+ is ridiculous but what about Hart for Dickey? Dickey's value is difficult to assess. How much can the Mets expect to get for 1 season of a 38 year old Knuckleballer?

Just reading on MLB Trade Rumors, and they're speculating one halfway decent prospect gets him. Maybe take a AA pitcher and trade him for Nolasco? I've been thinking about it and Nolasco is kind of an enigma. I don't think there's anyone who's had as big of a disconnect from their ERA's and FIP's as he has had the last 4 years. The peripherals say he's a solid #2/3 but his ERA is always in the mid 4's to low 5's. After a several years of it you have to believe that's what he is as a pitcher. I don't think trading for Nolasco would be the best way to use a good chunk of our limited resources. Although there's certainly a case to be made that he'd be safer than signing a FA like Dempster, Jackson or dare I say Lohse to a multi-year deal. Plus there's something to be said about getting a pitcher in a FA year. That extra motivation has turned scrubs into aces before.

That's not the counterargument, it's who else the team could've traded for to have for longer than less-than-half a season. I respect anyone's stance that would still make the CC trade, but at least recognize the alternative being argued instead of playing 20/20 hindsight with prospects. I can see your point however if you're gonna bash any move then atleast have the common courtesy to suggest who we should have targeted instead of suggesting some mythical player is just gonna fall out of the sky for the same prospects we offered up. The only other starting pitcher of relevance who was traded at that deadline was Rich Harden. Are you or TC07 suggesting that we should have gone that route or done nothing instead?

This is exactly what I was thinking. Everyone saying it's a terrible franchise is following a franchise that would kill for the Marlins' post-season success. From 2004 on I'd rather have what the Brewers have had. When the Seligs were running the team I was envious of what they were doing. Now I'm disgusted.

Count me in the group that would do the CC Sabathia trade 100/100 times. What did we really give up? A guy without a position with a career sub .700 OPS? A LFer with no power? A reliever who still hasn't gotten out of AA and a former 1st round bust with an ERA near 6.00 in the pros? Ya I can see why no one would ever want to make a trade like that again.

Any interest in Ricky Nolasco? He makes over the major league minimum so its a safe bet to say he's on the market.

You gotta remember we have Lucroy, Maldonado, Segura, Bianchi, Gamel, Green, Schafer, Fiers, Rogers, Peralta, Kintzler, Henderson, Thornburg and Narveson all making under a mill and a couple others like Aoki and Estrada who won't be making much more than that in the near future. If we resign Hart like it sounds like we plan on doing then all you have to do is replace Gomez in 2014 and guys like Schafer, Gamel or Morris can do that for the ML minimum. The bullpen and rotation will continue to be filled with cheap pre arb talent which will alleviate your payroll concerns going forward. Care to elaborate more on that statement I bolded though? What particular arms do you see emerging that much by then? I'm not talking cheap #4/5's who can give you a 4.50 ERA. I'm talking #3's or higher where you can expect around 200 innings of 4.00 ERA or under from them?

That's the reason why I've always thought we were a legitimate contender. I can't see anyone else crazy enough to give him 5-100 much less 7-175.

Great point about the end arriving quickly. Thats why I'm torn between Edwin Jackson and Dempster. The difference in years makes me favor Dempster but Jackson has a better chance of being productive through whatever contract he signs. What makes me lean Dempsters way is that the market most likely will overpay for Jacksons Fastball. For as good as Jacksons "stuff" is his FB has been below average to downright pathetic his entire career. He only started becoming more successful when he stopped leaning on his FB so much and started throwing more CB's and CU's. Dempster seems just as likely to post an ERA around or below 4 as Jackson does and for 2 years instead of 4 or 5 I would go that way. The thing that gives Jackson an edge is his bat. The guy can rake and seems to stick it to the Brewers every year.

Nice post Reily. Thats exactly how I break down each potential signing. I weigh the positives to the negatives and in Dempsters case the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. The only thing that concerns me with Dempster was a 1.3 MPH drop in velocity over the past two years and him getting up there in age. If signed him for 2 years and still planned on getting another #2/3 starter in FA or trade then I would be 100% behind a Dempster signing.

I wonder if the Mets would give up Dickey for Fiers, Schafer and Maldonado. I view all 3 of those guys as spare parts but they could be solid contributors on a pathetic Mets club. The Mets would probably try to do another Beltran esque deal and get the best prospect possible which would leave us out of the running. It's too bad though because the Brewers could compliment a Dickey trade with a Dempster or Jackson signing. Gallardo, Dickey, Dempster, Peralta, Rogers would be a very interesting rotation.

Ken Rosenthal is saying were showing interest in Ryan Dempster. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/winter-meetings-new-york-mets-tampa-bay-rays-david-price-ra-dickey-110812

The only 3 pitchers I see the Dodgers trading are the 3 that wouldn't improve our rotation at all. I would be interested in Beckett but trading Beckett when Billingsly is hurt doesn't make sense for em. They want a 3rd top of the rotation starter to team with Kershaw and Beckett.

I see Nedley getting him in KC.

What he said ^

Personally, because I think Hart could bring back a better pitcher in a trade than we could find as a FA. I'd rather have Hamilton and trade for a young SP than re-sign Hart long-term and sign Dempster/EJax/Lohse/etc. I also don't think Hart will be that much cheaper. He'd still probably cost in the 4/60 range. Again, this is all assuming Hamilton could be had for relatively cheap, which I doubt. But given a choice, I'd trade Hart and sign Hamilton rather than resign Hart and sign a FA pitcher. I bet the Braves would swap one of their starting pitchers for Hart. They have like 9 guys competing for 5 rotation spots with a clear need for RH power. Both Hudson and Maholm are gonna be free agents in 2014 like Corey Hart so that's probably the starting point.

I just checked twitter after I read your post. Adam Kilgore ‏@AdamKilgoreWP The Nats extended Adam LaRoche a qualifying offer, as @evandrellich first reported, and did not give one to Edwin Jackson. Expand Adam Kilgore ‏@AdamKilgoreWP I would expect that cuts the cord between Edwin Jackson and the Nats. If they don't want to give him 1/13.3, then they're not getting him. Expand Reply Retweet Favorite

Thats the million dollar or should I say 10 million dollar question. If you look at his 2nd half stats in Texas they are eerily similar to his rough 2011 season. 4.80 ERA 1.448 WHIP 9.4 H/9 5.09 ERA 1.435 WHIP 9.7 H/9 Throw in a declining FB velocity that has fallen from 91.0 to 90.3 to 89.7 a year ago and you have a lot of red flags. I agree completely that he shouldn't be compared to Suppan, Looper, Davis or even Wolf if you look at his FIP's the last couple of years but that FB velocity invites those types of comparisons.

- Melvin talked about how he could go in house for his rotation but then the team would be spread to thin if an injury occured so he will probably look to FA for a starter. Mentioned Edwin Jackson like you said and also refered to Lohse as the 2nd best starter available and never mentioned Anibal Sanchez. - He specifically said its time to give Rogers and Peralta a shot in the rotation. Almost made it seem like Estrada and Fiers would battle it out for the 5th spot in the rotation with the other guy joining Axford, Henderson and Kintzler in the bullpen as a long reliever. - He said we can expect 3-4 new guys in the bullpen this year. He mentioned he wants a lefty but not if isn't a quality one. - It didn't sound like he was too keen on testing the trade market as he doesn't want to give up his young arms. Then he talked about having 8-9 guys between AA-AAA as legitimate prospects who will pitch in the big leagues.

I know Tampa has needs in the outfield with Upton being a FA, DH with them buying out Luke Scott's option and catcher if they don't pick up Molina's option. I wonder if Schafer, Gamel, Maldonado and an arm not named Wily Peralta or Taylor Jungmann would be enough to pull if off.

Do you remember how bad our pen was that year? That was when Derek went TurnBLOW on us. I'm not saying that trade was the way to go as I remember some Ervin Santana rumors floating around that time but a closer was most certainly a need. That is unless you thought Matt Wise could have gotten the job done

Between Thornburg, Henderson, Kintzler and Rogers I'd argue that we have 4 who fit that description. Each guy averages over 8 K's/9 so far in the pros and has a FB that averages over 92 MPH. If you don't think 92 or 93 is hard enough you have to think that pitching out of the pen would help raise Thornburg and Rogers velocity a tick or two. Throw in a Rob Wooten who I think ends up in Milwaukee before the year is over and you got 5 cheap arms who can be shuttled back and forth between the minors and pros barring ineffectiveness. There's something effective about a motivated reliever who's future in the big's lives and dies with each pitch he throws compared to a dude who's guaranteed to collect a check no matter how good or bad he pitches. The same could be said about the starting pitching and I agree with you about our pitching depth but its not elite depth. Other than Peralta (who has his own warts) everyone else seems to project as 3-5's. I look at that pitching depth as an opportunity to splurge at a top arm in in FA because our cheap pre arb guys would balance out the costs compared to what we've had in recent years. I know your reservation about big contracts to FA pitchers and I can see anyones concerns with tieing up a bunch of money into a guy who plays 1 every 5 days and has injury risks just being a pitcher. However the elite arms (Sabathia, Halliday, Lee) seem to pan out a lot better than your #3-5's in the Suppan, Looper, Wolf, Davis mold. If you're gonna spend in free agency then spend it on the best instead of paying a ton for mediocrity. If we don't go elite FA route then I would hope to see us going after at least 1 (preferably two) of Francisco Liriano, Ervin Santana, Scott Baker, Shaun Marcum, Brandon McCarthy and Dan Haren. Everyone of them has #3 or better potential and should be available on 1 year deals to regain their value. Even a guy like Daisuke Matsuzaka intrigues me if the price is right. Just please don't go after Kyle Lohse or Ryan Dempster! Multi-year deals to aging pitchers with sub 90 mph fastballs haven't work too well for us.