bill hAll Star

I don't understand why the Pirates keep getting linked to Lind. He is a bit of an upgrade over Alvarez, but not enough of one to warrant a team like that moving for Lind. Maybe that's just me.

Isnt he LH version of Mark Reynolds? What is he hitting about .210 with 15 HRs this year? This year - yes (mostly). Three year outlook - no. He OPSed over .800 several times in a tough hitter's park of Oakland. He's very strong against RHP, but this year he has been really down. Reynolds couldn't hit .700 at all.

I'm not privy to the scouting report on Anderson, but he fell short of 7 Ks/9 in the minors. He just got shelled, so maybe he's over the "book not out on him" stage in the majors. I'm not that interested, though again, maybe he is an incredible sinker guy or something that I don't know. The main pieces would be Zimmer and Frazier. I suggested Anderson for the sake of adding a pitcher. Fair...I didn't really even look at the other two names, so makes sense.

I'm not privy to the scouting report on Anderson, but he fell short of 7 Ks/9 in the minors. He just got shelled, so maybe he's over the "book not out on him" stage in the majors. I'm not that interested, though again, maybe he is an incredible sinker guy or something that I don't know.

I agree with your whole post, this one just sounded a bit fun. "I don't want their moderately ranked infielder...but I'd have take any of their top prospects instead." Not what you meant, I know...but still good. Back to Flores, I agree. I liked the value in principle, but it did feel like Melvin wanting to get an MLB guy, and they were playing this "fill the position game" during an assumed rebuild, which shouldn't matter. "Well who is our 3B for the next few years?!?!?" Of course, it shouldn't matter during a rebuild, but some teams will take less value to make sure they have a guy that they perceive as worth plugging in at each position, even if he's not good enough to be a long-term piece or won't be there when you compete again as opposed to receiving somebody that does fit that bill.

Would be hilarious if they go get CarGo, give up more, and then CarGo goes on the DL within the first two weeks. Entirely possible. Also, this is still an upgrade, but all 4 of the discussed players will probably be .750 or less OPS guys at Citi Field. That's fine, because they are still good hitters with the park factor, but the New York media will tear them apart for being a "bust."

I still think it was probably Wheeler, but if the Mets were really that concerned, maybe they decided to go get the other CarGo, Upton, or Bruce.

There is a slew of these posts in a row, I'll just quote yours. One team doesn't care about the short term of the return. The other team does, and has offers probably of several similar (presumably more healthy) players instead of Gomez. Not saying that Gomez is officially the deal-breaking medical player, but the Brewers were openly admitting that they don't care about the TJ (assuming everything checks out) by a agreeing verbally to the trade.

1. A young pitcher with 4 control years is very nice. 2. Flores has value. 3. Gomez is good, but he's going to be about a .750 hitter in Citi Field (or lower), not that it means a ton. Good trade.

That just makes so much sense. Irrationally hold on to a player so that he can inevitably get hurt/leave for nothing/stay for way too big of a contract after a lost year in 2016.

Here's what we know: -It would probably be foolish to sign Parra given the team's current window -There is some sort of chance (major injury, 2nd half fall-off, market not being what we thought) that we wouldn't get a comp pick. Unless the offers are so completely terrible that the 80% chance of getting a comp pick is better than them, trade him now.

Parra also does have some speed in his game that could decline. What's the point of keeping him if you want to trade those other guys, though? He'll just toil away on a terrible team.

This may sound greedy to some - as Gomez and Lucroy both have about 200x (or more) the money in the bank than most of us do, but this is both of their one chances to become super mega, mega millionaires. It is very, very rare to find a professional player or human on this planet that is going to concede that opportunity.

I'm sorry, but even though those guys did stay around for cheaper/take extensions a few years ago because their stock wasn't high and they probably do love playing in Milwaukee, they'd laugh at you. If Gomez has a nice year next year, he could probably turn in a 5 year, $90 million dollar deal with more TV revenue starting to kick in.

He was a mid-high .700s guy before this year, though. I'm not sure if he's finally coming into his own as a hitter or that he's just doing the contract year thing/getting a bit lucky. This is not something I'm willing to gamble 30+ million dollars on when I'm rebuilding anyways. Even if every prospect the Brewers get back busts, they're not going to compete the next 2-3 years...so we've just saved Mark 20-30 million dollars.

I think that placement in the order can help/hurt guys, but I don't think batting leadoff is the reason for his monster year. I think the "oh, he's really turned it around after moving to the leadoff spot" gets overblown by announcers a lot. Sometimes hitting in front of a certain player gets you better pitches, but it's not some wacky mental change that makes you an All Star like some announcers seem to claim. I think he'll be a .750-.775 guy that platoons (which I would love to have, but not for the money) and I'd rather just get what I can for him right now. Can always sign him back after the season. Oh Id trade anyone for the right price. But Parra is now moving from the nice trade piece to a guy that I would just as soon extend rather than dump for anything less than a very significant package. If he was 34 instead of 28 Id be more concerned with his bump in production as being flukey. Extending him is just going to waste most of his prime on a team that needs to rebuild. Somebody could convince me that this core plus a few changes could maybe compete, but with the strength of the division and the recent history of trying to build around this group, there is no way I want to go that route. So you're going to sign the guy based off of a contract year explosion, and then he's going to sit on a rebuilding team/one that is not going to be competitive and has some major short-term question marks like Gomez/Lucroy. If you sign Parra, while he may have some value in a year or two, you're just going to create more dead weight/not get value on a team that is going to be majorly in flux over the next 2 years. Why?

I think that placement in the order can help/hurt guys, but I don't think batting leadoff is the reason for his monster year. I think the "oh, he's really turned it around after moving to the leadoff spot" gets overblown by announcers a lot. Sometimes hitting in front of a certain player gets you better pitches, but it's not some wacky mental change that makes you an All Star like some announcers seem to claim. I think he'll be a .750-.775 guy that platoons (which I would love to have, but not for the money) and I'd rather just get what I can for him right now. Can always sign him back after the season.

So is 1B, SS, C, some of their rotation, and CF to an extent. I know that team's arrow is pointing up, but I'm not sure they should be trading guys in their system, because I feel like they're just not that good. However, they've been healthy and "pretty good" overall at pitching...and until recently, no one was pushing them. Anyways, I agree with you that they're going to want to and likely trade for RP, just as a person with Twins as my #2 team, I really hope they don't trade what future guys they have for much at this deadline.

If the trade is for somebody that has no future or is someone we're looking to shed like Garza, then fine. I would not trade anything else for a "stopgap" though...and this is coming from someone who likes Guerrero as a hitter. Supposedly a terrible fielder.

Not sure if you were directing that at me - but I noted that in my post. If we're looking at production - that matters. Tulo has been up since basically 2007, Braun since 2008 - and Braun has played more games. He produces less value/game, but plays more games, which one could assume would continue to be the trend, though you can't be sure.

Carlos Gonzalez is basically a pretty good platoon lefty hitter (Josh Reddick or Brandon Moss) on Coors steroids. I'd imagine Doug or one stupid GM in baseball is going to pay the asking price for the .850-900 hitter he pretends to be. No thank you.

I think most people are over the Braun snaffu. They'd be excited. He's hitting well. We may take WAR too literally these days as discussed earlier, but both Tulo and Braun have been worth 34 wins (above replacement) in their respective careers. Braun has done it in less years but has had more plate appearances/games (as we know - injuries). Both Braun and Tulo are at about 1.5 wins this year. Point being, I would absolutely take Tulo if given the choice, but their values are similar. I think GMs would agree that Tulo is more valuable...but not by THAT much.

Not to nitpick too much, but I don't think Carlos Gonzalez or Bruce belong in that next tier. If so, I'd probably put them at 6 and 7. If we're factoring in defense as well I'd put Heyward probably at #3 or #4. If we count Cruz as a RF, he's above them, and I'd probably put Granderson in over CarGo (Granderson is a slightly better hitter and a slightly better fielder).

Will be interesting to see when they flip Reyes. Maybe let him get the Coors Field massive batting average boost (and power, of course) and see if some stupid GM will listen to "we've changed his hitting approach and he's back to his old self!" Sounds like they may not flip him away right now.

I agree with you that it's not a great trade, but while I harp on the Coors factor more than anyone else, the 2nd best SS in baseball is Tulo on the road...and Rogers Centre is still a great hitter's park. That said, as he gets older, slower, and plays on that turf, the reason I agree with you is that he will definitely decline. For the next 1-2 years I'd say he's still probably going to be the best SS in baseball even with a drop of probably .70 points in OPS. Again, I think it's a bad idea, though.