Matt Breen

I think the reason Seager never got ranked was that he advanced so quickly to the majors. He had a mediocre debut in 2009 at rookie ball (hit .261 with 1 HR in 161 ABs), but then had a great 2010 at High Desert, hitting .345, 14 HRs and a .419 OBP). But High Desert is a notorious hitters' park. In fact, of players with at least 100 ABs, 7 guys on the team hit over .300 that year. I suspect the lack of big home run power and the nature of the ballpark and the league kept his stock down as a prospect. Seager went on to advance from AA to AAA to the majors the next year (exhausting his rookie eligibility by playing in 53 big league games), so he never got a chance to be touted as a major prospect. If he had not gotten to the majors in 2011, he probably would have been pretty highly rated.

I thought he'd get 5 years and maybe $75-80 million. I like the guy, but $20 million is crazy. As people keep saying, the clubs are awash in cash. I guess it shows.

Like Mike Piazza was a 50th round draft pick (or something crazy like that). Turned into the best hitting catcher in baseball history.

This is a heck of a list.

It's a four year deal for $88 million, with a fifth year $22 million option. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/11/red-sox-agree-to-terms-with-hanley-ramirez.html

Mariners lock up a good player for a while. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/11/mariners-kyle-seager-nearing-seven-year-100mm-extension.html Looks like it buys out all three arby seasons, plus four free agent years. Seager is 27, so the contract takes him through age 34 season.

Ramirez seems like an odd signing if they are adding Sandoval. Like people say, where do you play him? Rusney and Betts should be locks to play every day. Same with Cespedes. That leaves Victorino and Craig on the bench. Plus Jackie Bradley. I guess you can make some trades, but is Ramirez in LF - at $18 million or more annually - what the team wants. He's barely played there and has a history of injuries. Head shake. Perhaps you deal Napoli and move Sandoval to 1B - but that wastes Kung Fu Panda' defense, which is generally regarded as pretty good. Seems kind of crazy to devote that much cash to a couple of good, but not great players. Especially without a clear plan of what position one of the guys is going to play.

Even if they get Lester they could use Lohse or Gallardo. I would take 3B Garin Cecchini, who we can put at AAA and (potentially) be our 3B of the future. Nelson slides into the rotation. Then we use the savings to add a reliever or two, and maybe good reserve infielder. Trade improves our depth and bullpen for 2015, and fills a huge organizational hole with a promising 3B who we would control for six years.

Middlebrooks looks like a guy who pitchers have figured out - and he hasn't adjusted. He's had horrible walk rates - even when he played well. I suspect pitchers are just throwing him junk more and more because they know he'll swing at it. His strikeout rate just keeps getting worse - and he still can't take a walk.

No, I don't think our talent level was better than our 82-80 record. Here's what I saw in last year's team before the year began: Average rotation. Starters ended up with a 3.69 ERA. NL average was 3.74. Just about average. The starters, for the most part, met my expectations. I don't think anyone expected these guys to suddenly become all-stars. But solid starters - yes. That's what we got. Even when we had a problem (Estrada and then Nelson), it was balanced by Fiers' excellent performance. And one huge thing - no major injuries. Average to slightly above average lineup. We scored 650 runs. The average NL team scored 640, so we were right about average. I think we faltered a bit here, but not massively. A-Ram, Gomez and Davis pretty much performed as I thought. I expected more from Braun, Segura and the Overbay/Reynolds platoon (I also expected more from some bench guys - Bianchi and Schafer). We got better performances from the Scooter/Weeks platoon, and from Lucroy. Ultimately, the offense was slightly disappointing - but it wasn't massive. Here there were no major injuries (unless you count Braun's hand). There were minor ones, but nothing major that forced a guy out 1/2 the season or more. Average bullpen. 3.62 while the NL average was 3.53 - slightly below average. All over the place - but not a shocker. Bullpens are like that. K-Rod, Duke and Smith weren't expected to do what they did. Same with Jeffress. But Kintzler, Thornburg and Henderson regressed or had injuries. And the slot Wang took up hurt as well. So, can we expect much difference in 2015? Not really. I think the team is about .500ish. But that doesn't mean we can't be better. Several players I expect to improve - Braun, Segura, Lind/RH platoon partner. But I also see red flags. A-Ram's age and fragile nature scare me. What versions of Braun and Segura show up? Scooter and Davis both faltered a bit in the 2nd half of last year. Were their limitations being exposed? Will they adjust? (On the flip side, Scooter and Davis could get better - but I don't we can realistically expect huge improvements from either.) A couple of other positives - I think having a quality back up OF will help. Parra will allow the team to have a competent player if someone does get hurt or struggles. And in the rotation, Peralta could certainly improve. The bullpen is a wildcard. I see the potential, but it could implode. A big thing is if we can avoid injuries at key positions. That will be crucial. We did last year, and it really helped. Ultimately, I think the pitching staff can be league average. The lineup has room for improvement - but I think, realistically, not huge amounts. Enough to get us 8-10 more wins? I don't know. A healthy Braun adds a few wins. A competent Segura gives you 2 more. An .800 OPS from 1st base adds another couple of wins. It's all incremental. The tough part is that even if all those things happen, someone is likely to regress. Maybe Khris Davis turns into a .220 hitter. Or A-Ram misses half the games. If we stay mostly healthy and we have a few key rebounds (Braun, Segura, 1B), and no one really goes into the crapper too badly, this team could contend. But that's a lot of ifs. I've said this before - management is making a team that says 'if most everything goes right, we can contend'. That's what we did last year - that's what we are doing next year. But in the end, things usually even out, meaning (like 2014), we end up pretty much how we expected - .500ish.

Very true. How many guys actually get kept - maybe a 1/2 dozen each season? It's not a ton.

They're done, just the three added listed above. Goforth among those available at Rule 5 time. Gotcha.

I'm surprised about Rivera. He profiles as a utility infielder who has less than 1/2 a season at AA. It seems guys like him are plentiful. I'm also surprised Hunter Morris is still on the roster. Does the team really think he's going to be anything special after two mediocre years at AAA? Especially with Lind on the roster (not to mention Clark and Rogers). I'd rather protect quality arms - Goforth, Cravy, Bradley, etc. - than these guys. These guys have some upside.

I think not protecting Goforth is a mistake. I hope he gets the last spot.

I feel as though we could sign two players to be our 4th and 5th OF and be more productive that way using less money than giving Parra. I liked the idea of Parra when Braun's name was being tossed around playing 1B but now, it just seems as though its a large chunk of money being spent on a backup player that may do alright if we have injuries. Example and there could be a lot of them but we could probably sign Jason Kubel who smacks around RHP's to be our corner OF guy and sign Emilio Bonafacio to back up CF, 2B, SS. This allows us to still have Schaffer in AAA in case of a serious injury somewhere during the season where we need help in all of our OF positions. We could probably get these players for $4-5mil combined instead of paying Parra $6-8 mil (really unsure of what he'll get). This allows us some more money to go and throw into our pitching department. Which is needed. Obviously, Kubel comes cheap, he hasn't done anything in 2 years and no one wanted him all of last half of the season. But, I wouldn't trust him at age 33 to be the main OF batting backup. I'm not against your plan of spending Parra's arby money on a righty-hitting, 4th OF and super utility, but I pass on Kubel. Kubel's defense is horrible as well. The guy really shouldn't be in the field. His knees are in awful shape. I'm also not sure about Bonafacio at SS. He's played a total of 5 games there over the past three years. I'm not sure if that's because he's not any good at the position, or because there were better options. However, if he can play a competent SS, he'd be a great utility guy for us. I just don't know if he can.

Very true. He's only 29 - you have to believe he can rebound. But I'd still be wary. He's an awful base runner and bad defender. It really limits him to DH. Oakland has done well using a lot of versatile players.

Boone Logan skulks into a corner and tries not to be noticed.

This confounds me. The guy had a .702 OPS last year. I could see a one year flyer on Butler, hoping he'd rebound. But three years seems a big risk. In Oakland's defense, I can't say I've seen Butler play much the last year or two, so maybe they see something in him that says he's not in decline. They're getting him for his age 29-31 seasons, so a rebound is not out of the question (although he has that body type that screams early decline). Even if he hits like 2013, when he had a .786 OPS, he'd be worth the contract. Also, Oakland DHs hit .215 last year - so even last year's Butler is better than that.

Zach tweeted out his thanks:

3-years, $15 million. $4.5MM in 2015, $5MM in 2016 and $5.5MM in 2017 Nice job by Zach's agent. I was thinking $3-4 million for three years. https://www.facebook.com/notes/chicago-white-sox/white-sox-agree-to-terms-with-left-handed-pitcher-zach-duke-on-three-year-15-mil/10153344718538047?adbid=534776962091581441&adbpl=tw&adbpr=53197137&partnerId=as_mlb_20141118_35813307

I think you're totally right. Just look at last year. Parra got 123 ABs after we acquired him. If we had had him all year, he could have been playing in the OF instead of Gindl, Schafer, Herrera and Reynolds (remember that!). Those guys got 189 ABs in the OF. Those ABs, plus Parra's, add up to 312 ABs. Plus add in that next year he would be a top pinch hitter, and play the field in AL games (moving Davis or Braun to DH), you're talking about a guy who could get 300-350+ ABs. Without Parra, you're potentially giving 300-350 ABs to guys like Herrera in the OF. I know $6 million is a lot for a reserve, but he's the kind of reserve that's going to get into a lot of games.

He had a great year. Someone was going to overpay him. Good for him.

Interesting stat - only 22 catchers in history have produced two seasons of 3+ bWAR after turning 32. And of those 22, only 7 guys were able to produce three seasons of 3+ WAR. That's not a good sign that Martin's contract turns out well. http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/11/18/7237497/russell-martin-contract-signs-blue-jays Cool note #1: Carlton Fisk produced 3+ WAR SEVEN times after turning 32, including a 4.8 WAR season at age 42! Amazing player. Cool note #2: Carlton Fisk actually played more games for the White than the Red Sox. I learned something new today.

Maybe adding a guy like Wren makes Parra a guy that is on the move? Now having Schaffer and Wren, we are pretty set defensively as a backup. Now, if either of them can hit MLB pitching... that's the next step. Wren's had 1/2 year at AA. I would think he's going to get some AAA time before he's handed a job. If the Brewers are out of it next July, and Wren is doing well, I could totally see dealing Parra. But right now, I don't think so. I'm not thrilled paying a back up OF $6 million, but considering the health issues of our OFs (each missed time last year, and Braun's hand issues are troublesome), I think Parra is a golden insurance policy.

Solid move. There's nothing wrong with adding a guy with speed who can play good defense at all three OF positions. With Parra set to be the main back up in 2015, Wren could easily have a shot at the club in 2016 if he does well next year at AAA. But nothing is a given. Guys like Wren, who have no power, can really be exposed against better pitching. I see he has been compared to Schafer, which I understand. But Logan has more pop (he actually has a .800+ OPS at AAA for his career). Personally, I've always liked Schafer, and I hope he gets another chance next season, but his lack of success at the major league level is telling. He's 28 - time to step up and seize the opportunity.