jay87shot

I worry about the Padres bullpen a lot, the Cubs bullpen is ok but they don't have anyone scary. My answer is I would rather face the Cubs basically because with all the days of in the playoffs that Padres pen will be consistently rested and Miller, Morejon, and Suarez can average like 4 innings a game most of the time. There would be 3 off days before game 3 of the series. I am thinking we do Freddy game 1, Priester game 2, bullpen game 3 (Misi starts but for like 2-3 innings) and than Freddy, Preister 4/5 since game 4 is 5 days after game 1.

The Rays are looking for catching help, I would be ok with trading Quero if the price would be right. Yandy Diaz would be interesting but with Vaughn and Yeli locked in that doesn't make a ton of sense. I wouldn't mind just doing a prospect for a prospect deal. They also have Pete Fairbanks and Brandon Lowe who could make some sense. 1)OF Theo Gillen (#63 mlb pipeline) for Quero (#61 mlb pipeline) We get a bit more potential and clear the path for Dinges. Gillen definitely fit our mold of OF and could make an interesting OF prospect group with Lara, Payne, and possibly Josh A. (I believe he is going to play OF in the AFL) 2)Fairbanks and 1 of OF Braden Summerhill/P TJ Nichols/Ty Johnson for Quero Fairbanks is pretty similar to Megill, we don't usually acquire guys on expiring deals but the 7 million salary isn't huge and if we could get a solid prospect back having another high end reliever would be exciting. 3)3 team deal Marlins get Yandy Diaz, Chad Patrick, Garrett Mitchell, and Ray pitching prospect around 15-20 in org, Rays get Quero, we get Edward Cabrera The Marlins have said they are looking to add offense and 1B would be the obvious spot. In this deal, the Marlins get a big bat, young 4/5th starter, and 2 upside pieces. We get 3 years of a high end top of the rotation arm for Quero and Patrick, Mitchell has very little value at this point but makes the deal look better for the M's

The Miz for sure, I doubt we would have put in Made but Pratt or Quero (unlikely because of inury). I think that with Miz and Pratt being ranked lower than Teel and Montgomery the 3rd/4th pieces would have had to be more. I think that there would have been a good chance they would have insisted on Pena as the 3rd piece which might have been a no go for me.

The way I read it was that he is saying Kim is the only obvious target unless someone like Bellinger (or a different good bat he said like Naylor or Suarez) goes unsigned and we can get them for cheap.

None of those 6 guys have big value, Neto probably has a value similar to Garrett Crochet. Myers and Patrick are like 4-7 starters for us, Childers would be the 3rd-ish reliever in AAA. Ortiz is solid but his bat drives down the value, Mitchell is like our 5th/6th OF next year if he makes the team, and Wilken is a borderline top 250 prospect. Neto has 2, 5 WAR season and cheap control, I like our prospects but Made could move to 3B and we could trade Pratt for help somewhere else. I would guess in teams of value from the baseball trade values website my offer probably is a relative low ball offer for Neto. From my perspective, we get a hidden star without giving up a big player (only depth) and the Angels get 2 starters and a reliever, 2 young starting caliber position players and a power prospect a year away.

I don't disagree with this, I think that top of the market has a lot of question marks and teams are going to be worried about huge deals. I think it would be crazy to pay Kyle Tucker 10/400 like some people have suggested, Bregman, Schwarber, Alonso, Bellinger, and Bichette all should have teams apprehensive about the lengths of those deals. The pitching market with Suarez, Valdez, King, and Cease has solid pitcher but not really an ace, with the landscape I wouldn't go over 5 years for any of them.

He has probably had 2 of the best seasons of Brewers 2B ever but he is going to need to do I for longer to be the best ever. Gantner and Rickie were good for a while and played on good teams. I would say Brice needs like 2-3 more years at the 4-5 WAR area to go against guys with 11 and 17 years. I do think that list is pretty flawed but will leave that for now.

I would much rather face the cubs from a roster standpoint, but agree that the Pads likely have the better chance of of winning the WC. The Pads pitching staff is just way more scary and I don't really worry about the Cubs offense like earlier in the year. I would worry a bit about losing some of the home field advantage if we play the Cubs but do think that would be an epic matchup.

I think if we are looking to improve SS next year JP Crawford would be the only non blockbuster vet trade that seems logical to me. He has one year left and the M's have Colt Young and Colt Emerson is close. That being said I don't really see the M's taking that risk and trading Crawford. As mentioned above, Kim likely picks up his option. I doubt he would make much more than 10-12 million on a 1 year deal on the market. I don't see it happening but I do think the Angels would be smart to trade us Neto for a depth trade. Neto for Patrick, Myers, Childers, Ortiz, Mitchell, and Wilken, this gives us a stud SS and the Angels get a crazy amount of depth that there organization badly needs.

I personally like upside is my rankings until a player turns around 22, then it kind of becomes a feel game. So someone like Luke Adams is still going to get judged as a what is the ceiling where as Brock Wilken is going to be judged a lot harder because he is over 2 years older. I will say over the past couple years I have changed looking for more athletic well rounded players over big skills (especially power based prospects) because those players are working for the big league club. On the pitching side I really try and look at stuff over command again until a prospect is around 22/23 or so. So for now I am likely a bit higher on guys like Manny Rodriguez or Melvin Hernandez because I think that both have some chance to get to the mid 90's. I do drop players when injured but try and reinstate previous rankings when they get healthy.

I thought this could be an interesting discussion. Where each of you prospect fans are on your own philosophies on how you evaluate prospects? Things like potential vs. result/mlb readiness, long term results vs short term results, gauging injury factors, 1 big loud tool vs. solid tools across the board. Here are some cases studies that maybe can guide some discussion Potential vs. MLB readiness Robert Gasser (BF #7 prospect) vs. Braylon Payne (BF #8 prospect) When next season begins Gasser will be nearly 27, where as Payne will be 19. Gasser is a good bet to be a quality 4/5 starter but likely not much more than a solid 3. Where as Payne has at least 3 more years to the bigs and could easily flame out or turn into at 30/30 perennial all-star. There are some injury notes in this one as well with Gasser's history. Long-Term Results vs Short Term Carlos Rodriguez (unranked) vs. Tyson Hardin (BF #17) These 2 are like a week apart in age but have pretty drastictly different paths. CarRod had a 3.86 era mostly in AAA with 84 innings 86k/38 BB Career 3.56 era 449.2 innings 502k/192bb (20 mlb innings, 7.65 era) Hardin had a 2.72 era in A+/AA in 96 innings 96 k/17 bb only 3 innings last year. Hardin may throw a bit harder and his slider is probably better than any of CarRod secondary pitches. However CarRod had a very similar season to Hardin 2 years ago in AA, that being said Hardin is almost unanimously a higher ranked prospects. Thoughts? 1 Big Tool vs round skillset Eric Bitonti (BF #16) vs Josh A (BF# 13) Bitonti is a half year younger but has true 65 or better graded power. Josh A maybe isn't the greatest example of solid across the board but I think of him as have solid tools across the board with a 60 or so grade on hit tool. Maybe for this picture a Josh A who hit like .290 this year instead of .320. Injury Factors Josh Knoth for example moved done most lists from like 15 to 30ish, however alot of people didn't move Robert Gasser down there prospect ranks earlier in the year. The are a lot of factors that can go into this so kind of chosing 2 similar case studies is hard. I would imagine a case like Knoth vs. Gasser would also include a bunch of the other prospect philosophies mentioned above. This probably would have some sub categories like seriousness of injury, injury history, and a bunch more. The Eye Test I don't get to watch alot of minor league games but see a lot of highlights and post from you fine fanatics. What are some things that you look for when you see a player in person and are impressed.

After Peralta and Priester who starts game 3? Maybe game 3 is a bullpen game and then Misi or Patrick start game 4 depending if we are up or down in the series. I am starting to worry about the rotation especially since Freddy isn't really a guy who has started before on short rest. Do we have any updates on DL Hall, Q, or Woody? I know it's is a bit early on a woody update.

I think there is some nice potential to be a very similar pitcher to Quinn Priester if he develops well. Not many 20 year olds have 5 solid pitches with good command. The fact that he got a late season AA look tells me that the front office values him very highly. I wish he would have gotten and AFL look, I get that is an offense heavy league but even 10 innings would have been huge for him.

I don't dislike Tovar but the high strikeout and low walk players are not our orgs cup of tea, especially since he isn't a great baserunner either. As you mentioned, I doubt the Rockies give him up cheap since they don't have many other face of the franchise (in the mlb at least) players and Tovar could be that if he can get back on track.

Bonet wasn't really a name on my radar, would it be expected he will be in Rookie ball or A ball next year. The stuff seems really solid if he is at 94-95. I had read that Thompson breaking stuff was going to need some improvement that it was relatively low spin, so to read/see that it is pretty solid is a big positive for me, Has there been any updates on the Brett Wichrowski injury from the last week of the season and if it will have any AFL ramifications?

I agree yes take a flier, guys like Steward Berroa, Zimmerman, and Fedde don't really have a future on our team. This would be a low risk signing, I do believe he would make a couple million next year to tender him a contract. That being said I doubt he makes it through waivers deep enough for us to get him through a claim.

Rickey Moneys, Ricky Moneys, Rickey Moneys I can't decide if that is beyond sweet Latin Gangster name or a racecar fan (ala Ricky Bobby). Not only does the name buy him some sneaky favorite points, but that scouting report is as good as I have seen from a 16 year old we have signed. Very Nice. Frontado looks pretty high potential as well. With most of the signings from last year likely to repeat in the DSL again I fully expect better result from those squads next year.

I wouldn't mind Buehler as an offseason minor league deal, I agree there could be some upside as a reliever. That way our people have some time to work on things with him. However at this point in the year (or even a couple weeks ago) it is kind of useless.

What is the likelihood we keep one of Daz or Oliva? Both are great AAAA players but guys like them seem to switch organizations every year. I would really like to keep 1 if possible for depth purposes but would pay them anything more than a standard vet minor league deal.

Kukucki is a solid pitcher, just got to battle and get into that soft bullpen.

I put Robert on there in part because he is a big name, I agree he is a 4th OF/DH based off his last 2 years. I will point out the re-animation of Andrew Vaughn after he left Chicago. If he does get cut he could be a sneaky upside add just for that reason. What would you all think about trading for Byron Buxton? He is a 5 WAR player in what will be like 120 games and he has gotten poor defense grades in CF. If were to acquire him and platoon him and Yeli in LF/DH he would be the kind of bat that would take the offense to the next level. He is only making 15 per for the next 3 years. With the tear down the Twins had I would think he would wave a no trade. Collins could either be part of the trade or maybe move to a 4th OF/3B/2B platoon.

I think I would go Grant Anderson over Chad Patrick, the only way I would see us go to Patrick is if we are down big. I think there are scenarios where Anderson would be used in competitive games. I would have Rhys on the roster, he would likely be the 2nd or 3rd pinch hitter just based on having playoff experience. Also the power on the bench is important, we are down like 3 or 4, I would rather have him pinch hit than Perkins. In a bases loaded, 2 outs down by 1 situation maybe that would go to Perk.

He was on the 40 man so he is eligible, any player must be on the 40 man roster by Sept. 1 to be eligible. So say a non-playoff team cuts an upcoming FA, say the Angels cut Taylor Ward to save like 400k. A team can pick him up the last 2 weeks but he won't be eligible to play in the playoffs. If we put a player like Will Childers on the 40 man today and he would not be eligible because he wasn't on 40 man Sept. 1, even though he had been in our organization the entire year.

I wouldn't think we would but if a guy like Belly or Bichette don't get a big multi year deal and take a 1 year deal with a player option, we could maybe (extemely unlikely) sign a bigger name if we make a run and Mark A. gets a bit wild.

I wouldnt really put a specific number on it. I think it is one where you kind of look at innings per game and pitches per game probably add in safeguards for longer or more stressful outings. Since we gave him a bunch of shorter starts and the 10 day dl stint, I am not really worried about how many innings he throws the rest of the way. I would probably just keep him to like a 75 pitch limit. If that ends up being 130 or like 145 if we have a long playoff run and we get the good Misi, I am fine either way if he isn't putting in 100+ pitches.