It’s too easy to fall in love with prospects. Even the top-rated ones are crapshoots. For every Mike Trout, there are three or more Lars Andersons, for instance.
Loading up on prospects is a way to build up to contending five years from now. A big market team can, and has to try to, win this year and every year. The roster five years from now can be built with the prospects who do work out, and free agents who can be bought. A guy who can help win next year really is a better and surer acquisition for Boston than two or three guys who look good against AAA or even AA pitchers, especially when they have prospects enough of their own.
My favorite Indian since Sandy Alomar, Asdrubal Cabrera, has been traded (to the Nats). I won’t miss his poor performance as of late, and I won’t miss having to watch the other kids on Twitter take him down night after night, but I will miss having him out there filling the gap at short.
Glad he’s going to the NL, for now at least, so he can’t hurt us when he makes his comeback.
I’m really liking the Dodgers essentially standing pat up to this point, and not trading prospects for rentals. Sure, we could stand some upgrades at our #4 and 5 starting pitchers, but who couldn’t? I do think Maholm needs to swap places with Haren if Haren has one more bad start, or we need to think about bringing up our most likely SP from AAA and getting him some seasoning.
I predicted at the beginning of this thread that Kemp would have a monster year, and that Billingsley would have a good one. Maybe the first prediction is beginning to come true. The second, obviously, not so much (good wishes for a strong recovery, Bils).
Sounds that way! The Tigers get Price, Austin Jackson goes to Seattle, and Nick Franklin and Drew Smyly goes to Tampa. The Tigers and A’s have a real mutually assured destruction pitching thing going on.
Obviously he won’t hit enough to replace Ryan Zimmerman’s production, but he should hit plenty better than Danny Espinosa, who strikes out about 40 per cent of the time from the left side. Zach Walters, who the Indians received, has big time power for a middle infielder but also big time holes in his swing.
The Red Sox moves make sense. Why not get something for Lackey and Lester? They definitely improved their outfield, albeit not dramatically.
As for my Yankees…I think every reasonable Yankee fan understands they aren’t going anywhere this year. Even if they snagged a wild card, do they have any hope of getting past Detroit or Oakland? No. I’m not sure why they even bothered with Drew and Prado.
As an A’s fan, I have no problem with the trade, I actually think it’s good for both teams. That Pesky Pole is going to be looking mighty tempting for Cespedes.
I still don’t really understand what the hell’s going on with the new rules regarding catchers and plays at the plate.
Cincinnati just tied the game and then took the lead in the top of the 8th inning against the Marlins after an overturned call on a play at the plate.
Zack Cosart was on third, and Todd Frazier hit a fly-ball to Stanton in right field. Cosart tagged and tried to score, while Stanton caught the ball and fired to the plate. The throw tailed a little bit, just down the third base line. Catcher Mathis moved to catch the ball, which he did well before Cosart arrived. He tagged Cosart before he arrived at the plate, and the umpire called Cosart out. Looked perfectly straightforward.
The Reds challenged the play, and after about six minutes, the folks in New York overturned the call and awarded the run. That tied the game 1-1, and Ryan Ludwick then singled to score two more and give the Reds the lead.
For the life of me, i don’t know what Mathis was supposed to do in this situation. If he doesn’t move to catch the ball coming in from the outfield, then he’ll miss it altogether and will probably allow two runs to score. But if he moves to catch it, he has now apparently violated the new rule about catchers standing in the base path. But i was under the impression that catchers were, in fact, allowed to move into the third base line if such a move was required to actually catch the ball.
And if the play was called according to the new rules (and i’m not exactly sure whether or not this is the case), then the new rules suck. If anyone has any insight on this, i’m all ears.
There’s no highlight video of the play yet on the MLB site. I’ll add a link later if they put one up.
I think the gist of that rule is that the catcher cannot move to block the sight line/access of or to the plate until he has the ball, which he did before the ball arrived.
They’re talking about it here in the Nati, and they showed a clip of “the right way to do it” with Brian Pena in a very similar situation in the same game.
I do know one thing: well over six minutes to decide on a ruling is WAAAY too long.
Nats are in the midst of one of their “disengage brains before taking the field” periods. First it was giving away outs on the bases, then it was horrible fielding. Gio Gonzalez, as much as I like the guy, looks like a space cadet at times. If the Braves could hit a lick they’d be in first, and if the Nats don’t get it together they’ll find themselves in second in short order. If they hadn’t lost Fernandez I’m not sure the marlins wouldn’t be breathing down the necks of the front runners.
You’re right, of course. And if Lackey really does follow through with pitching for the league minimum next season (and is even 5th-starter effective) then the trade is likely a win for the Cards.
It’s just so cold, though. Both of those guys were fan favorites. I’m very much a “rooting for laundry” fan, but the key guys from that magical 2011 World Series are now almost all gone: Pujols, Freese, Berkman, Craig. The only ones left are Holliday, Jay and Yadi, of the position players.
It’s actually pretty amazing that a team that won the World Series, then went to Game 7 of the NLCS, then went to the World Series again, has had so much turnover (or maybe it’s not in the modern game). From the entire 2011 roster, I only count 8 players that are still with the team. And only the three listed above and Jason Motte had any significant role.
