he gone.

Of all the names being mentioned? Meh. I'm sorry not many excite me. I don't even know how to retool this team in the off-season. I wish this John Danks Everlasting Gobstopper of a contract would just end already though. Seems like it's been going on forever. I guess in order of who I'm most excited to see? Erik Johnson Montas Micah Johnson The rest feel like Jerry Owens to me.

The fact that this is a thread on September 1st this season depresses me. Also the fact that he could probably slot in play at 3B on this team also depresses me. Saladino is a utility player, have we not all realized this yet? I think it's so blatantly obvious. Even if we don't keep Alexei next year he shouldn't start. It should be Sanchez and Micah up the middle and someone entirely different at 3B.

This is a great topic, and honestly one where I've gone back and forth over and over on. Also why I'm glad I'm not Hahn. It's such a puzzle -- and dominoes in a way. Honestly, the best move long term may be to let Ramirez walk this off-season. However, I think that seriously hurts our ability to win next year as well. Yes, there are a lot of Ramirez naysayers. I still think he's a very good SS. And when people look at his power numbers they neglect his doubles numbers. Moving on to the question though. Saladino -- I think it's a waste to have him starting on this team next year. He is not a long term option starting on a team where there are other holes. Sure if you have the Toronto Blue Jays lineup, a Saladino is actually a very good piece to the puzzle. Not on this team, and not our future teams. We just don't have the offense. He should be our utility guy however. Perfect bench guy. Perfect fill in. Can play all the positions, speed, plays the game right. Want him on my 25 man roster. Not starting. Sanchez -- Saladino 2.0. Younger, slightly better. Still on the fence. The Sanchez we saw earlier this season? I don't think is the real Sanchez. The one were seeing now? Probably not either. I think he can be a .275-.280 guy with defense, but very limited in power, doubles, speed, etc. Again, hard to have that kind of guy starting 162 on an ideal playoff contending team year in and year out when you have the other holes we all know this team has and will continue to have elsewhere. Micah -- I really like him. Just ... no defense. Can you live with him and Anderson up the middle in the future? Unfortunately I don't think you can. You can't have those guys behind Sale, Q, Rodon, Fulmer ... its just not fair to the strength of our team. If you want to hear something out of the box. Why not DH? I'm tired of rules having to be followed because thats the way its been done in the past. The guy is an offensive MLB player. He can be a .290-.300ba guy, not much power, but can also run the paths. I think honestly this is a good role. I'd want to explore it. Anderson -- I do believe he should be the 2B or SS of the future. As long as a Sanchez up the middle, Anderson can be there. 3B -- the key. I think we really need to explore a solid option there. We haven't had a 3B, a real one, since Crede. That's a decade. So I guess in the end I want. 2016: 3b? trade hopefully Arenado!! pipedream -- ss Ramirez -- 2b Sanchez DH - Micah, UTIL - Saladino 2017: Arenado, SS - Sanchez, 2B - Anderson, DH - Micah, UTIL - Saladino

Daggum whippersnappers. I like it. It's about the only enjoyable thing I've had all year.

We should start a petition not to play scrappy good teams. We'd be so good! Imagine if we didnt have to play the Twins in the 00's and the Royals now ... Playoffs every year!

Let's just call it 85 wins as the magic number. Yankees: Older team, questionable pitching staff - 61-50, just like everybody else have to play their own division the most the last month of the season. Not going into details, dont know their actual schedule, but that means the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Tampa (who is getting Smyly back). Think it will be tough to realistically catch the first WC spot though. 24-27 would equal an 85 win season -- doesn't seem that out of the question. Rest of the East: Like mentioned right above - those teams all have to play each other -- you'd hope one team (Toronto) wins the majority of their games and the rest of the teams beat each other up. Preferably everybody beats up on the Yankees, or we just concede that one spot of the Wild Card is unattainable. Baltimore would have to go 28-22 in their final 50 to get to 85 wins. TB 28-21 in their final 49. With these teams hopefully beating each other up -- and maybe some help from BOS? Those don't seem too crazy. LAA: CJ Wilson is done for year, they can't win on the road lately, in a funk, and have 4 upcoming against the Royals. 26-24 would get them to 85 wins over their final 50 games. Let's say we win tonight, and sweep, and then they lose 3 of 4 to the Royals. They'd have to 25-20 in their final 45 games to get to 85. Again, playing the West the final month. Which I would call easier. Texas: 51 games left. 30-21 to get to 85 wins. We all know their holes. But they do have Hamels now. I think you have to include them, especially when they are playing SEA and OAK over the final month. Houston: 24-24 over their last 48 to get to 85 wins. Can safely assume it will happen. White Sox: 51 games left. Would have to go 32-19 to get to 85 wins. TOUGH. VERY TOUGH. We have 6 against the Royals in there too, 3 against the Cubs, 4 against the Yankees ..... BUT also we play in the weakest division right now. Tigers, Cleveland, Minny may be out of it. May be playing young guys. Who knows. I'm saying 85 wins does it this year for the second spot.

QUOTE (scs787 @ Aug 12, 2015 -> 10:22 AM) Small sample size but Rodon has a sub 3 era when pitching to Flowers (12 games). In 7 games pitching to Geo he has an ERA over 9. I feel like every year I do this. I get so entirely frustrated with Flowers, say we can't have another game of him, and then see stats like this, his Sale stats (though I believe I could catch Sale and he'd be fine still) and his framing stats and say he's not that bad and I'm okay with him. This is my final conclusion on him after a lot of wavering: Keep him as a backup. ONLY a backup. Let him catch 2-3 games a week. Don't know the other viable options out there. I just don't want to see 5 days of Flowers anymore. He is what he is. And to me, that is a backup.

You can tell the excitement and hope in this team has worn off quickly. When we were 4.5 back of the Twins everybody was posting and getting excited. 2 wins, going for the sweep tonight against the Angels and only a few naive hopefuls like me remain. You'd have to think a win tonight, coupled with an Orioles loss (Gausmann going against a pretty hot Iwukama)? With this scenario we'd be: 4.5 back of LAA -- they go on the road, where they've been playing terrible (Last road win is July 12 ..), against the best team in the AL in the Royals. 2.5 back of BAL -- have an easier road, against OAK for a 4 game set this weeekend. We play the Cubs, and get Hendricks, Arrieta and Haren -- going against Shark, Q, Sale -- our 3 big boys. Let's call 2 of 3. So let's just play happy land -- Royals take 3 of 4, Baltimore splits, and we take 2 of 3. Meaning Monday August 17, starting a 4 game set on the road against the LAA: LAA: 60-57 Baltimore 59-58 (they play the last of their 4 game set on Monday oddly enough) Sox - 56-59 We'd be 3 games back of the Angels, and 2 games back of the Orioles. Now is that being over optimistic? Probably, but I don't think its out of the question for this scenario to happen.

Let's get that sweep tomorrow! Get the easier part of the Cubs rotation this weekend. Angels go on to play the Royals after this .... Baltimore losing right now... Shhhh... Just let me be excited for a night.

2 for 2. Let's get the sweep, the day off, and let's be back 4 games!

I mean, I've essentially given up. I stopped watching games on Friday against the Royals. Yesterday I watched maybe 2-3 innings. Don't take this as serious, but if you want to twist reality, one can reasonably try and get excited for another week to 10 days (Anyway to trick my mind until football season). With 6 games against the Angels and 3 against the Cubs --- followed by 10 games against the Mariners and BoSox?? Again, this is just to get me to football season, but for the sake of argument, let's go with best case scenario: We sweep the Angels. 4.5 back. (Regardless of what the teams do ahead of us, Orioles wouldn't be able to overtake Angels) We play the Cubs -- sometimes catapults a new energy within a team -- let's say we take 2 of 3. Either remain 4.5 back or 3.5 back. Let's split and call it 4 games back. The Angels go to play the Royals over the weekend in a 4 game set. Let's just call them 2-2 that series. Go to play the Angels - take 3 out of 4. Now we are 2 back -- of the Angels. Baltimore plays SEA, OAK, NYM, MIN over the next 10. They'll probably end up at like 6 games over .500, so 3 back of WC. Again - this is best case scenario. It'd mean we went 8-2 over the next 10 and would be 60-60 with 13 games coming up against SEA, BOS, and the Twins. Nothing that I've watched all season .... and that is probably 90 of the games so far leads me to believe this will ever come close to happening... but letting my mind dream for a few more weeks til football.

I'm just looking forward to next February's articles about how LaRoche is ready to put last year behind him and how is he has come into camp looking "fresh and ready to go".

I agree, I'd rather see the $20mm we are budgeting on Shark spent elsewhere, or at least not at 5yr, $100mm. I think with the amount of pitching talent that is set to hit FA that we may be able to nab a Shark later in the offseason like Shields. Say 4 years, $15mm per. At that -- I'd do it for sure. Even 4yrs, $70mm. That's about where I'd top out. Don't want 5 years. It's way too early in the season to look what FA are out there, but we seem to be able to develop pitchers much better than hitters in the minors. So not signing Shark and acquiring hitters seems like a good idea to me.

In this day and age where there is so much parity I don't think it makes sense to tear a team apart when, if you can make the playoffs, you'd have a three/four headed monster in Sale, Q, Rodon (eventually), Fulmer (eventually), and Shark (if re-signed). In the playoffs you can almost run a 3 man rotation out there and have the others pitching middle relief. For this reason alone, I think it is foolish to completely rebuild. THAT BEING SAID, There are some glaring holes that are very easy for good baseball fans like the ones on this forum to catch. You don't have to be perfect around the diamond, however you can't have as many holes offensively or defensively as we do. Saladino and Sanchez can play D, but have no O. Garcia has holes in his approach, talent is there, but holes and no D. LaRoche looks like Dunn and is old. Alexei has one year left on his contract and Anderson is next in line. But he is much like Micah. He's got an MLB bat, holes on defense. So can you really count on Micah and Anderson up the middle? With the bats, yes, with the defense? No. So good is having these good pitchers if the defense behind is terrible? 3B has been a hole for a decade. Who fills that? The real only solid options I see are Melky, Abreu and Eaton over the next 2 years. Other than that? Woof. My ideal pie in the sky hopes around the diamond -- with a small dose of reality: This is 2 years from now.... 1B - Abreu 2B - Sanchez SS - Anderson 3B - either a trade of prospects for a star, or a big FA signing. LF - Melky CF - Eaton RF - either a trade of prospects for a star or a big FA signing C - Beats me. Someone who doesn't strikeout a ton and plays defense. Dont care who it is, as long as its not flowers. DH - Micah Do i think it will happen? no. But, micah in the DH gives them the speed and good approach at the plate. Leaving sanchez up the middle allows the defense to be okay. 3B will the hardest to fill. I feel like everybody should be jealous/regret not being like the Blue Jays and Tigers when they traded for Miggy and Donaldson. Those two are complete franchise type players that were available. I'll stop rambling. But I think we have the bones to build around -- just need to figure out 6 positions!

That was a riveting interview with that VS Model. What kind of clothing will they have? I have no idea. Awesome. Thanks for coming. Cute girls - they have the life. Don't have to know or do anything.

Our next 15 games are huge. They will determine everything. Need to take the next two from the Rays (who actually since Mid June have one of the worst records in all of baseball), head to KC and not sh*t the bed like we always do against them. Would ideally like to take 2 of 3 -- but even I am a mental midget against them. I just assume lay down and take our series loss. Head to LAA. 7 of the following 10 are against them. These are BIG BIG BIG. They have been scuffling of late. 10 days ago we all thought the only WC spot up for grabs was the last one -- not so much anymore. Oh, and also 3 against the Cubs in there. Those are always big in terms of momentum. Get through that stretch and be 4-5 games back still? I'd take it. Anything better I'd be ecstatic. We follow with 10 against SEA and BOS. So there's hope outside the next 15 if we can make it through. All of that being said -- I still maintain what I said in beginning of June - this team will be 81-81

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jul 30, 2015 -> 02:29 PM) You conveniently left out his age 25 season. Moving from SS to 3B doesn't come with some guarantee that your defense will improve. His contract f***ing sucks. I leave out 25, which is this year, because its not finished. It would be like making an argument against Melky that he was TOAST, OLD!! WASHED UP!! 1 month ago... that argument has changed by 60 batting points in less than a month. His numbers this year aren't that great though.

When did Starlin become Public Enemy #1?? It's a real buy low candidate. Maybe the Cubs toss in some money, maybe not. But I don't think it's that crazy. Again, I haven't watched a ton of Cubs games, so I could be wrong. But, sure he's bad at SS, but 3rd base should be a little easier to handle. Look at his stats. Age 20: .300BA, .347OBP, 3HR, 41RBI 71SO Age 21: .307BA, .341OBP, 10HR, 66RBI 96SO Age 22: .283BA, .323OBP, 14HR, 78RBI 100SO Age 23: .245BA, .284OBP, 10HR, 44RBI 129SO Age 24: .292BA, .339OBP, 14HR, 65RBI 100SO I feel like some are pretty dismissive right of the bat. Buying low on a guy, who's salary is under or about $10mm is not awful in this day and age. Look at what some people are getting out there. Yes there is a decline over time, however this is not like an Adam LaRoche drop off because of age. He's 25. Maybe a change of scenery could change things. Just a thought. Not saying I'm a proponent. But -- sorry, its not like Saladino is our answer. And look at the trash we've marched out to 3b over the last decade.

I mean, this is all make-believe world. But hypothetically speaking, would you entertain buying low on Starlin Castro and slotting him over to 3B? Not the best defensively in the field, or very good. Also declining numbers offensively, however maybe a change of scenery? I mean, he's only 25 -- put up some real slick numbers at age 20-24. Maybe buy on a down year. Not sure what it'd take to get him. His contract is 8.10.11.12 and then 16mm option.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jul 29, 2015 -> 08:32 PM) Only Ross. Stone reporting from bad Twitter reports. What does one expect. You got two old fogies up there reading Twitter. Surprised they didn't say Shields was pulled.

we talking defensively or offensively or combined? I think offensively its not a question. Defensively is probably saladino. But overall, again, alexei

QUOTE (ron883 @ Jul 29, 2015 -> 06:50 PM) is Saladino all of the sudden not a shortstop? People seem to completely forget that for whatever reason. I'd wager money that Saladino is more productive than Alexei next year at SS. I'll take that bet. Times like $10,000

I feel like someone should bump the anti- Alexei thread and have to apologize if they were hating on him. I for one, never jumped ship, however that's not a brag. Just saying, didn't jump ship. Glad to see old Alexei back.

This seems like a good poll question -- who to vote for to bring up. Micah Leury Jones Johnson Other My opinion -- if we trying to win as many games as possible? Micah wouldn't be bad to have up. Can play the DH spot 3-4 times a week and play 2B once a week. Adds a good bat to the lineup and some speed on the basepaths. My other option would be to bring up Erik Johnson. Have him take a couple starts. Maybe skip Rodon once in the rotation and skip Danks once or twice. If EJohnson does well, keep him in there for Danksie Cat. I'm not a big innings counter guy, and in the scheme of things, skipping on Rodon start isn't huge, but if are going to make a run, may be nice to get him a break in there.

I know we have 26.5 innings to go still. But 50-50 sounds pretty good. Might need to go out and by a celebratory bottle of 50/50.