...............
Another day, another crush. M's with 13 hits, the Brewers with 2. Bet those feebs wish they'd made you GM when they had the chance.
.
=== Dustin Ackley ===
Three hits and - GASP - three more doubles.
Had you noticed? In nine games and 27 at-bats, Ackley has nine long balls for extra bases. Nine! It's one thing when the grounders are finding holes. It's another thing when you're slugging .852 based on one fence-splash after another.
Which you don't take spring training stats as the gospel, but the three highest SLG's at this time of the day are from Albert Pujols, Dustin Ackley, and a Pirates rookie hotshot. I don't suppose you take Albert Pujols' spring slugging percentage to be a fluke?
The question has been, will Ackley be a star, or will he be a huge star. Will he slug .440, or will he slug .500+. Considering that question, his March fence-bashing is relevant to the discussion.
.
=== Alex Liddi ===
Was 3-for-5 with a homer today. He has:
Alex Liddi, a potential 30-homer third baseman for whom everything has gone very right ... and he's #4 on the depth chart. At the specialized position of third base. Insane.
.
=== Trayvon Robinson ===
Has two more hits today, bringing him to 9-for-17 on the spring. He's beaten the house: more hits than outs. Trayvon has:
The traffic jam is nice, but it will shortly reach the point at which it's a genuine problem. Major league baseball has this concept of a 40-man roster, and options limits. The time-river goes over a waterfall and you start losing these players for zero.
In roto, it would be axiomatic that you'd be working a 5-for-1 deal. The 1 being a superduperstar.
.
=== Felix ===
6 IP shutout, one-hitter. 6 strikeouts. He may be able to dodge the bullpen demotion for one more year.
Be bold, Z. Be bold.
Figgins goes. Olivo goes.
Ryan/Kawasaki/Seager SS
Ackley 2B
Ichiro RF
Carp LF
Montero C
Smoak 1B
Catricala 3B
Liddi/Seager DH
Saunders/Wells CF
Uh...That lineup might score some runs.
Be bold.
moe
The traffic jam is nice, but it will shortly reach the point at which it's a genuine problem. Major league baseball has this concept of a 40-man roster, and options limits. The time-river goes over a waterfall and you start losing these players for zero.
Just said that in the other thread too. We're gonna have to Sexson somebody (or two) outta here just because we have a Thome in front of them. That's not the worst problem to have.
Just make sure you keep the Thome of the two. Right now it looks like Liddi will have to go because Smoak's at 1B, Montero is at DH (at least partially) and both Vinnie and Seager are ahead of him at 3rd, with F-Mart having more options left.
Seager and Trayvon are also on the list. But we still get this year to figure it out, to see who steps up. If Liddi is the monster instead of Vinnie or Kyle, then we should be able to see that before trading somebody. Same with Trayvon vs. Wells vs. Saunders. Trayvon, Saunders and Liddi are all out of options after this year, right? It's now or never.
But I'd still wonder who you trade for. I would think a replacement for Ichiro in RF because there's not a lot else that we can pay a huge price for that we don't already have (in theory). 3B is covered, SS has two blue-chip upper-minors prospects, 2B is an All-Star, 1B is good, C/DH is set, we have 3 or 4 CF options, and Carp should be pretty good for nothin. We just have to wait for the roster to mature.
So I'm still thinking we should pry an Alex Gordon out of KC. Of course, with as much money as we should have I'd rather just sign Josh Hamilton...
I guess we could trade Smoak + whatever for Votto, or Catricala/Liddi + for Wright. I mean, who do you target? Can't get Braun, Fielder, M. Cabrera, Kemp, Stanton, Cargo, Tulo, Pujols, Longoria...
And Votto and Hamilton are FAs in 2013. Might as well just sign em, right?
Guess we need to buy a crazy-good bullpen to back our starters. That'd start at the trade deadline, but we'll need to be in it. Like you said, assets only ripen for a certain amount of time.
Sooner or later they have to play for you, or you need to trade em.
~G
As I said at greater length in another thread, the only good trades I can see at this point are for Jack Z. to trade Figgins, Guti, Ryan, et al, to pick up more AA guys he likes, with one possible exception -
If Saunders shows he can handle the bat going through April, Miami has a number of good BP arms and need a CF. Gutierrez for, say, Mike Dunn? I'm worried about Kuo and Sherrill.
As to how long we have to figure out which is Cepeda and which is McCovey -
Since options relate to 40-man roster time (3 years), not time since signed (that's rule 5 and putting them on the 40-man), I believe Saunders is on his last year, Carp is out of options, but Jaso, Moore, Wells, Robinson, Seager, and Liddi should all have them this year and at least Robinson, Seager, and Liddi should have them next.
EDIT: Since Robinson and Liddi were added in Fall 2010, and Seager in-season in 2011, they have 2 option years left. Jaso was added in 2007, but spent all of 2010 and 2011 in the majors per the rules, so 2008 & 2009 are burned, but he has this year left in his 3 year allocation. Wells was added in Fall 2009, so 2010 was burned, but not 2011 per the rules, so he has 2 option years left.
Seager has multiple options left (he was not optioned back to the minors after being called up last year unless I'm braindead).
The rest:
Carp was put on the 40 man in Nov 2008 - no more options for him (optioned to the minors in 2009, 2010 and 2011).
Jaso was also on the 40 man in Nov 2008. He was only in the minors for injury IIRC though in 09 and has an option left. Jack Z agrees.
Same with Moore - one option left which will get burned this year.
This is Robinson's last option year should we use it. He was added to the Dodgers' 40 man in Nov 2009 so he's burned 2.
Wells was added at the same time. He has one option left.
Same with Saunders. One option.
Liddi has only burned one option, being added Nov 2010. His being a 17 year old international free agent saves our bacon there.
So we need to decide on Moore, Jaso, Robinson, Saunders, and Wells this year. Not this Spring, necessarily, but this year. 2 backup catchers, 3 outfielders for 2 spots most likely. I believe it was you who said it, but Jack is gonna earn his scouting stripes this year. :) He's gotta put the final touches on the main young pieces and finish up with the vets.
~G
My info was Robinson was added in 2010, but apparently it was preseason, so you are correct there.
Seager, I believe, came up in July, went back down after 10 days, then came back up in early August. I have forgotten the details, but the fangraphs game logs seem to agree.
I stand on Wells. He spent less than 20 days out of the majors in 2011, so has 2 option years left.
So bloody complicated. Anyway, we agree that there's time for eval if we can get the deadwood/driftwood/flotsam out of the way. I hope Jack Z. will allocate at least 1 roster spot to cycling thru the guys we're talking about, similar to what he did last year. It seems to have made an impression on all of them.