He makes me smile.  He's Seth Smith as The Hulk.  Except he bats RH.  So he's not Seth Smith.

I saw the 4 fer 1 absurdity.  Uh...No.  The Cards are the best run franchise in professional sport.  They are not stoopid.

There is a limit on how much I pay for one year of a guy.  Even Karns might be too much.  Considering that Karns isn't an FA until '21.

Is 4 years of Karns worth 1 year of Martinez?  We don't do real well trading pitchers to the Tigers.

I won't do it for Vogs, because then we're looking for a 1B each and every year forever.  Unless you trust in Deej.

How about Deej and Heredia?  Tigers might consider that.  

Martinez makes Seth Smith look like Paul Blair in the OF.  Well, he did last year.

He's nice.  Really nice.  He's way better than one year of Aoki.  Cruz-Cano-Seager-Martinez is a bashing 3-6 (in some order).  

Not Vogs, for me.  Gamel?  Maybe.  I don't want to think about it, however.  But maybe.

Is Gamel Brett Gardner lite?  BG was .283-.390-.394 in AAA.  Gamel is .304-.361-.447.

I like 5 years of Brett Gardner.  In 7 complete MLB seasons, Gardner has never been below 2.5 WAR.  Averages 3.5, or so.  Martinez has averaged just over 3 for the last 3 mashing years.  OK, I know about soft WAR.  What is a Gamel?  Is he Gardner?  Then I'm not trading him for one year of Martinez.

His defense isn't just bad...it's legendarily bad.  He makes first-half Aoki look like a gold-glover.

I give them Vogelbach and install JD at first base.

With Matt and Moe here.

I'm not as sold that Gamel will be anything more than a decent 4th OF.  I see the possibility.  To me it's the same with Heredia and I think with options remaining it's best to try to keep both.  If you have to move one for the right corner coming in, then that's what you've got to do.  But their MLB defensive stats have to be better than either Heredia or Gamel so far.

I do not believe the Dipoto will spend as much capital on another power / RBI bat. It's possible, but I'm expecting more OBP and athlete = defensive prowness... and one that can be near top of order.

I believe that Dipoto thinks the offense is good enough for now. Let Bach, Gamel / Heredia, Marte develop and grow into their positions, and thus it is time to move onto another area.

I think the big move Dipoto is going to make will be in the pitching area.

I am fully expecting the M's to pick up a high priced contract SP in a trade... and Dipoto sending young starting pitcher (Walker, Karns, Miranda), young reliever(s), and other farm guy(s) in top 20 prospects for a Zimmerman, Wainwright, Porcello, Price, Greinke or in that vein. It is time for Dipoto to make his signature move.

I'm the contrary voice here, but I don't think the Ms are or should be in the market for Martinez. The M's already have the best defensus-deficientus slugger around in Nelson Cruz. One to a team is quite enough (pace JackZ). And Vogelbach has a good enough track record to give him the chance at 1B, even though he already may be a #2 in that category. The Ms issue has not been HRs - it's been that too many are solo and not enough are 3-run types. The Ms need guys who can get on base in front of a formidable 3-4-5. They need a lead-off man that gets on base at least as often as 2nd half Aoki, but one who doesn't give back the next half-inning in the field.

If they keep Smith, they've got a #2, at least against RH, but Cozart has better results with less split. Of the 2, I'm leaning now towards keeping Aoki and trading Smith for that LH BP  arm, unless the Ms can find a better lead-off man than Aoki or Cozart (who is only passable, but won't give it back). I still would prefer pursuing Charlie Blackmon, who gives some power and intelligence on top of OBP. With Blackmon and Cozart #1-2, those 2 and 3-run HRs might come more readily.

As to those who prefer Fowler, I agree he's exactly the skill set needed - but he's going to get a QO, and I don't think the Ms are going to give up the #18 pick if they can get Blackmon for Karns + prospect arms, which sounds possible if the bidding doesn't get too wild. Karns + Aro/Caminero  + Yarbrough  + ???(low A) might be in the right range. One can hope.

On a related point, the Ms have promoted Brian Hunter to Tacoma as base-running and fielding coach and said that there will now be 3 coaches under Listach. I'm wondering if they've offered the hitting coach job to Guti and are just waiting for him to make up his mind - if they non-tender him and sign him to a minors contract, he could be a player-coach if he likes.

I agree with Tacoma Rain that DiPoto will likely try a move for pitching. I hope he trades for Cozart, but hope he doesn't use Gohara, because he's the classic Tampa Bay-type target if the Ms want a pitcher in the class of Price, et al, that Tacoma mentions, but younger -- Chris Archer. If Gohara keeps it up in the AFL, a trade of Gohara + DJ  + ??? might be enough to catch the Rays' fancy. Coming off a down year with a reasonable contract that Tampa still can barely afford makes him prime bait. He's one guy I'd consider putting O'Neill out there for. The only guy off-limits for Archer would be Kyle Lewis - I think he's going to be *extra* special.