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In the first 4 years that project to be on mlb rosters this year. That number could even rise after the dust settles if a Romero or Taylor makes the jump for another team. Carson Smith in the bullpen is a reasonable possibility too. Drafting future talent should not be considered an issue the way I see it. That's been done at fairly historic rates, actually. Star talent may be lacking, or we may be too impatient. People talk mostly about Ackley, Smoak and Montero as the failures. Only Ackley was drafted here. Baron may have been a bad move but many of the picks that seemed bad to pundits at the time have proven to be good. I thought Drafting was the one thing there were no questions about it being better than average since it seems is been that much better than average.
I was on board with trading Fister and that could have beena very good move. The problem was more in the return than the trade in general. Trading Pineda, Fister and Vargas then having 2 injuries to key young starters killed any possibility of a good season in 13 but any one of those 5 things in isolation didn't. I'd still rather have had a more productive return on Fister than have him back. I thought we were getting outfield talent there, which could still be a bigger boost now than Fister in the rotation. The production we have in the outfield at present is much lower than in the rotation. Then there's the other pieces returned that also fell flat. I still don't think trading Fister was the problem.
We're in a different situation now though. The 40 man is getting packed. At some point in the near future we will be bleeding out talent beyond what we can protect. Making a 4 for 1 swap to consolidate some of that talent into 1 better piece is something that will have to happen. At this rate, just about annually. If Walker is among those 4 it makes it hard to believe that the 1 returning is clearly the better piece.
Walker and Paxton are no longer 'prospects', they are 'actuals'. Take them off the prospect list so other teams can see the talent still there and stop getting distracted by our big Club roster. I just see no reason to consider trading either. Even for Stanton. Pike, Diaz, Ackley, Franklin, Taylor, Romero, Smith, Erasmo, Maurer, Pryor, Smoak, etc.? You could fill an infield with that list , a couple starters, couple relievers. Who's worth even that much? That's not even a full list, just some of the guys that are within a year or graduated plus a couple higher upside starters further back. Nothing there you want to discuss? Thanks for the chat. That's what's available, sorry.