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If it's in this article, it's a good read.  Trust us on this.  Just 'cause Dr. D ping-pongs against the playback table, with every blinkin' one of 'em, don't mean we can't be friends.  Actually, it probably does mean that, but we are Way. Too. Old. to care.

:- )  Read thusly:

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Lookout Landing on Nate Karns.  Yep, LL did a great job in identifying Karns as juicy, Reifenhauser as vigorish and Powell as intriguing.

Ping-pong back at this, however:  Karns would be more interesting if he weren't 28?  Dr. D thinks if you took that and reversed it, you'd have something.  Just last week he read a Bill James interview going "There are at least 100 pitchers in the minor leagues who will be superstars if they stay healthy.  And AT LEAST 98 of them will hurt their arms."  James meant those two sentences quite literally.  Think about them before you move on, if you please.  So, our org has an average of 3.3 theoretical superstars in the minors?  Oh yeah.  Luis Gohara is the spitting image of CC Sabathia, even more when throwing the ball than when standing still.

Point is, you simply cannot overstate the value of passing the filters.  Especially the "shoulder matures at age 25-26" filter.  The fact that Karns is age 28 is a colossal plus.  Age-arcs are for hitters, babe.

Back on topic, Jake Mailhot does a great job of consolidating the first week's intel on Karns, complete with changeup sink chart and all the trimmings.  One thing that Dr. D did NOT know:  Nate Karns gets a terrific hop on his fastball, 11" average.  Wowzapalooza.  (As to batters going 9-for-16 on centered high fastballs:  we're learnin', dude.  We're learnin'.)

By jingo!  For ONE cent we'll make this kid a Best Bet.

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Ryan Divish on the Iwakuma QO.  His sidebar lists the 20 free agents who received Qualifying Offers.  If you just joined us, no player has ever accepted a QO (!!) including Kendrys Morales, who wound up taking about 60 cents on the QO dollar.  The players:

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Other players getting $15.8 million offers

In addition to Hisashi Iwakuma of the Mariners, these players received $15.8 million qualifying offers: 

Pitchers: Brett Anderson (Dodgers), Wei-Yin Chen (Orioles), Marco Estrada (Blue Jays), Yovani Gallardo (Rangers), Zack Greinke (Dodgers), Ian Kennedy (Padres), John Lackey (Cardinals), Jeff Samardzija (White Sox), Jordan Zimmermann (Nationals).

Catcher: Matt Wieters (Orioles).

Infielders: Chris Davis (Orioles), Ian Desmond (Nationals), Howie Kendrick (Dodgers), Daniel Murphy (Mets).

Outfielders: Dexter Fowler (Cubs), Alex Gordon (Royals), Jason Heyward (Cardinals), Colby Rasmus (Astros), Justin Upton (Padres).

The Associated Press

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Let's dovetail that Readage with The Fangraphs Crowdsource of Baseball's Top 82 Free Agents.  All 20 of the above players seem to be no-brainer QO declines except for perhaps:

• Colby Rasmus = 25% chance of accepting, per Fangraphs, despite a crowd estimate of a 3/$42M contract (projects to actual 4/$60M)
• Matt Weiters (?!) = 31% chance of accepting the QO, despite a 4/$47M contract estimate (projects to 4/$65M)
• Brett Anderson = 48% chance of accepting, with $3/30M crowd estimate (call it 3/$36M)

Really, among all of the QO's, Brett Anderson seems to offer the best chance at an MLB player actually accepting a 1-year, $15.8M deal.

Matt Weiters is kind of interesting here because he's one of four latent Mike Zunino replacements on the FA list (Alex Avila, Chris Ianetta, Dioner Navarro), and by far the priciest.  True, DiPoto has said "no free agent splashes," but Dr. D fancies a play to shed Mark Trumbo and swoop for Weiters or, ahem, Chris Davis.

Sudden thought.  Does the LoMo move mean that JeDi buys into Edgar + Trumbo?

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Oh yeah.  Dr. D never gave you his take on DiPoto's claim of Dan "CF stoploss" Robertson off waivers.  True, a waiver claim isn't exactly a Presidential election.  But Robertson is (a) an athletic little guy with (b) contact skills only, who (c) creates 2.5 runs per game.  This, gentlemen, is going much too far.  Jack Zduriencik never made a single move that was so extremely catered to his biases.  Maybe Luke French.

Well, we don' wanna spoil the mood.  Like we sez, it's just a waiver claim.

Cheers,

Jeff