I don't see this at all. Cain, Salome, and Gindl are all solidly above those guys, never mind Lawrie and Escobar. I don't think the Crew has 9 guys in the top 50...right now, it's just Alcides, and that's how I see next spring as well.
Does anyone know if Jeffress (or any suspended player) can be traded? If the roto article is true, the Crew is ready to deal anyone outside Escobar, Gamel, and Lawrie.
He has a sub 3 ERA in AAA, and is still just 25...he'd easily be our top pitching prospect. He may end up in the bullpen, but he'll make a lot of money in the game.
I would assume your collection may well have some value as well, at least more than a baseball that "supposedly" was used during BP. When you start trespassing and injuring people to get a bottle of red, get back to us. It's not my thing, but at least it's not immature and painfully self-important.
Escobar will be a star, while Gamel projects as above average. Alcides was a top prospect before he started hitting, that should tell you how good his D is.
3-5 very good prospects is what's being rumored. You might be able to get TOR to take Hardy or Hart instead, but no offer I've seen on here seems even close.
I was not specifically referring to Halladay, but to the many proposals that have included the future 6 year starters I mentioned. Those youngsters are as key to the success of the Crew as Prince, Ryan, Rickie, and others have been.
Very well put, Sox. The inability to include 6 years of team control (and 4 of them very cheap) in a young guy's worth is why many want to trade Gamel and Escobar for a bag of magic beans. Those guys are 25% of the everyday lineup through 2015, and will be paid about $3.5M each from 2010-2013...which leaves more money to plug holes elsewhere. Hardy is a fine player, but I would not dream of keeping him for 1.5 years for $10.5M when I can have Escobar (and what Hardy will bring in trade) until '15.
I think it's pretty obvious Rivera is not a good defender, game caller, and so on, when compared to Kendall. Neither Yost or Macha dream of playing him more than they have to.
Theo would not be at all bothered by a half-season of mostly bad luck. However, if they wanted to deal Clay, they could have been in on any number of solid vets. They like him, and will only deal him for a Santana/Halladay type, in my mind.
Allen outproduced Ryan Braun as a 22 year-old in high A and AA ball. Hard to believe the White Sox traded him for a middle reliever. He's expected to take over in ARI for the last couple months of '09.
The post about attendance at weekday games is well off the mark. Man y folks only go to day games, and they often out draw weeknight games. Friday and Saturday nights always outdraw Sunday day games, so I have no idea why they would dream of moving more games to weekend days.
4 is always the key number of runs to score...in fact, if you are below .500 when scoring 4, you can pretty much count on the fact your pitching is terrible. It's just like a team's record when not committing an error, it's always very good. That's both an argument for sound defense and against the sacrifice bunt...as if a team simply cannot win by giving up more than 27 outs, it seems to figure they'll have trouble winning only using 25 of their own outs.