2013 MLB Season Thread - Page 2

Not so sure about Giants. Isn't their top prospect 1B Brandon Belt? Hits for power and average and something like 2nd in all minors last year for average. If he startes slow in triple A, maybe they rent Fielder for playoff run but have trouble seeing them pay all that scratch to fielder when they have this kid close. Or maybe he completly falls apart in Trip A?

And again, the Brewers have to be way out of it to start dealing pieces. Trues, the system is not loaded with prospects and Melvin dealt a lot of what he had for ZG. But they have a good lineup and should be close at trade deadline. Right now, I see them more as a buyer for starting pitching come trade deadline.

Worth (no pun intended) noting that the Phils did score the second most runs in the NL last year, despite a bunch of injuries which at one point forced them to start the following lineup:

Juan Castro SS
Shane Victorino CF
Jason Werth RF
Ryan Howard 1B
Ben Francisco LF
Wilson Valdez 2B
Cody Ransom 3B
Dane Sardinha C
Kyle Kendrick P

Also despite Jason Werth hitting .186 with RISP (good for 215th out of 218 eligible major leaguers).

The Yankees have pitching in minors to trade too.

Do you really think the RedSox would trade Clay B for another pitcher? Unless he blows up this year, he was in the Cy Young discussion last year. With his stuff and his success - why would they trade that. Unless it was for a Felix H?

You could be right on Ellsbury but then who plays center? Cameron I suppose but he is getting up there. Reddick? Kalish could play there but think he is more of a corner OF.

Who knows come trade deadline but they traded a bunch for AG. Highly doubt they trade away ss Iglesias. They are counting on Doubront as starter if someone goes down or relief again. They have pitchers Ranaudo and Britton but Epstein hates to trade away young pitchers. 1B prospect Rizzo could be bait but there seems to be so many good 1b prospects out there, don;t know how much they get in return.

I highly doubt a package of Ellsbury, Rizzo and Ranaudo gets them Felix H. But maybe it gets them another solid starter if DiceK continues to be bad adventure most times he goes out there. I think ideally, they would like Doubront to quickly show he has the right stuff as a starter in Pawtucket and bring him up mid season to be #5 starter and another lefty if DiceK shows what he has shown the last few years.

And they should have a healthy Rollins, Utley and Howard - right? I thought Howard's power drop off was his ankle injury he played with? And that OF Domonic Brown sems to be on everyone'slist as best overall prospect or top 3.

^ Brown did not exactly set the world on fire in limited playing time last year, but the skills are there. The hope last year was that he'd be the replacement in RF if Werth left, but at this point I think expectations are he'd be in a platoon situation at best. The hitting is tough to judge since he really wasn't playing consistently, but his defense needs some work. He's still viewed as a very strong prospect (Kieth Law had him as the #4 MLB prospect in a recent ranking on ESPN). A healthy year for Howard, Utley and Rollins would go a long way....(though I think Rollins needs to be dropped down in the batting order regardless). Phils don't have anyone that's an ideal leadoff hitter. The two candidates (Rollins and Victorino) had the lowest OBPs of the 8 starters, but you can't exactly put Carlos Ruiz and his team-leading .400 OPB in the leadoff spot.

i was expounding on the "scary scenarios" where the yankees make a huge push for Felix H, and the redsox have better packages to block the trade.

its scary and sad because the rich get richer.

You're talking about the 2008 National League Wild Card Champions. This is an elite club, and not to be taken lightly.

Meh. The sausage races are more exciting than most Brewers games.

Baltimore's line up looks like this:

Roberts - 2B
Markakis - OF
Jones - OF
Guerrero - DH
Scott - 1B
New guy who hits a lot of bombs - 3B
Pie - OF
Hardy SS
Wieters - C

This team will mash and the secret will be the pitching is going to be decent as well. 2nd place boys, you heard it here first.

if only that team was in any other division.

Baltimore had been a good baseball town for so many years - and it would be nice to see a good team there again. I really hope you are right aboit them finishing second. But I have a tough time seeing how that lineup can come close to Boston & NY. And the Rays pitching looks far superior. But Spring training has not even started so you just never know....

Yanks really won't drop that much from last year. Think about it: Lineup = improved slightly. Pretty much the exact same as last year,with a few key differences. First, Texiera is working with Kevin Long extensively, so he will be more productive than last year (based on Long's track record). Second, they signed Russel Martin/ have Jesus Montero, both of whom are better at catching and hitting than Posada is right now. Third, they move Posada to DH, which is far better than their DH situation last year, when they had nick johnson injured all season, and guys like Thames filling in. Plus Andruw Jones is a pretty good 4th outfielder. Starting Pitching= unknown Obviously they take a hit without Pettite, but they also didn't have him for the second half of the year last year, and survived. CC is an ace, Hughes hopefully can follow up his solid year, and Burnett will definitely improve from last year (they brought in a whole new pitching coach just for him). 4th and 5th spots are up for grabs, but they have a lot of candidates for it, so it'll be an interesting spring training. No Vasquez, which is a good thing. Between Nova, Mitre, Brackman, Colon, and Garcia, the Yankees will be able to find two serviceable guys who can pitch until their bullpen comes in. Bullpen= Probably best in baseball 9th = Mo 8th = Soriano 7th = Chamberlain/Robertson 6th = Logan, Prior, Feliciano, + possible call ups. Their starting pitching only needs to go 5 innings some days. Additionally, their farm system is better than its been in years. They could make a fair amount of trades with it, or, hopefully, let their own players become stars. It'll be a good season this year. AL East: -Boston definitely improved a little, so on paper they are the favorites -Yankees won 95 games last year, and I would say this team is a little better than that one. -Rays took a bit of a hit this offseason, I'm not sure they will do that well -Blue Jays are pretty good, but I'm not sure they will compete with the best in the division -Orioles improved, but still aren't really a postseason threat

no let it continue. because its a textbook example of "yankee fan logic"