WilliamC wrote:30 million plus?! In that case I think God will tell Albert to stay in St. Louis.

Woops misread what Brantt said the first time.

Pujols will be a Red if they offer that.

ek wrote:what do you think? amaro wants to go for it and the scouting dept wants to hold on to the prospects?

Amaro yes, Monty is scared to death to pull the trigger.

Where the hell would the Reds come up with that kind of scratch for one player? I hope Albert can play all nine positions simultaneously.

GMAN wrote:

ek wrote:what do you think? amaro wants to go for it and the scouting dept wants to hold on to the prospects?

Amaro yes, Monty is scared to death to pull the trigger.

Not worried, Amaro is in charge. This is happening.

mozartpc27 wrote:Where the hell would the Reds come up with that kind of scratch for one player? I hope Albert can play all nine positions simultaneously.

I don't think it will ever happen. The Cards know they have to do anything to keep Pujols, and they don't think he's all about the money. But they know they need to pony up and show him the money. They will be on it immediately when the time comes.

mozartpc27 wrote:

GMAN wrote:

ek wrote:what do you think? amaro wants to go for it and the scouting dept wants to hold on to the prospects?

Amaro yes, Monty is scared to death to pull the trigger.

Not worried, Amaro is in charge. This is happening.

Wow. Imagine reading that six months ago.

I was thinking about this today. The Blue Jays should NOT be trying to move Wells' salary as part of this deal. And here's the reason. The Jays are not going to win the division next year with their current team, especially if you subtract Halladay. They have a few interesting arms, a few decent young position players, but they still have big holes in their team, and they haven't been able to stay healthy. They might win 85 games, and in that division, that would be great. But where does it get them? To seriously challenge the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays they are going to have to completely rebuild. Right now, they have 1 stud prospect; Travis Snider. They have a few interesting prospects in Justin Jackson, JP Arencibia, and Brett Cecil. And they should get Marcum back next year, maybe McGowan. But they need A LOT of help. Their farm system is still very shallow. Trading Wells, taking that $20M and overpaying for two mediocre free agents isn't going to turn them into champs, or even challengers. The Yankees will far outspend them, both on the ML roster, and in the draft/Latin American markets. The Jays need to do what Baltimore is doing now. They need to draft well and try to make trades to add prospects. Sure, Wells' contract is terrible. But you focus on building up your farm system, trading your veterans for as much as you can get, and then biding your time. When the farm is better, when your prospects start to peak (Rays last year), you can mount a charge and have a self sustaining model.

Whatever. I'm growing weary of this process.

And there may be only a handful of people I hate more than Kurkijan.

1.) Sean Hannity
2.) Lance Armstrong
3.) Kathy Griffin
4.) Tim Kurkijan
5.) Oliver Perez

ek wrote:Kurkjian was on BBTN last night saying we don't have the prospects to make the trade. but he was on earlier in the day saying we are the best fit so he must have gotten some info between then

To say we don't have the prospects is just dumb. Not willing to part with the prospects is another story. These guys are guessing and reading what other people say and just throwing it out there.

Kurkijen was on Mike and Mike being called out for being feminine and went on this awkward rant about how he recently moved a few doors down the street and carried all the boxes himself. Highly doubt that Tim, in fact I wouldn't surprised if you've got a box

Gammons on Mike and Mike this morning stated:

* Talk to JPR yesterday and its still 50/50 (FWIW)
* Says the Jays have scouts all over the Phils minor league system right now
* Says the Phillies definitely have the talent to make it happen
* Says the Jays really don't want to deal to the Yankees
* Says Drabek/Knapp/Taylor/Brown from the top of his head as players the Jays covet
* Says Carrasco and his 5+ ERA in AAA is of little interest to the Jays
* Says he believes the Phillies will make this deal and should be in position to add 1-2 World Series titles in the next handful of years if they do

Obviously - nothing more than speculation but - while Gammons is not my favorite - you have to listen to a guy who was speaking to the decision maker for the Jays yesterday.

JP Riggleman could, at this point, be blowing smoke up the commentator's asses, and, indirectly, ours

The other thread got me thinking that the longer this drags out the less the Phillies may need Halladay. If they are 8 games up are we still willing to offer up Drabek and Taylor (or Brown if you rate him higher) for what might amount to meaning less game sin August and September and the playoffs?

I am really bad at putting together trades scenarios but is it possible that the Phillies could still get him without giving up Drabek or Taylor?

Would Toronto go for Happ, Brown, Carrasco, Knapp and Donald?

Let's keep winning so we can find out

We need Halladay for the playoffs. Not the regular season.

kruker wrote:not mutually exclusive....not mutually exclusive

This was my first reaction as well. The system may be deep enough at this point (I can't believe I'm about to say this but...) to make this trade and still have enough pieces to be competitive into the future.

One question I do have though - why is everybody sweating Jason Knapp so much? I understand he is putting up incredible numbers but he is doing it in A-ball. It will be, what, three to four years before he will even be remotely ready for prime time? And even at that it is probably still 50/50 that he even makes it that far, right? I mean look at Carrasco; he was the toast of the town the last couple of years and now he is just toast. Knapp is still a big risk at this point in his career; if you can transfer that risk to somebody else in exchange for a known quantity it would be insane not to do it, IMHO.

Knapp has one of the biggest arms in the minors. He's already sitting 93-96 as an 18 year old. It won't take him 4 years to get to the majors.

Mind you, I'm not thinking of trying to say he's as good as Drabek or Knapp in terms of prospect status, but is Carrasco being underrated to the point he's way more valuable to us than them?

His FIP is 3.65. His K/9 is very good, his K/BB is decent, his H/9 is not good but does that even get looked at anymore?

Here's my question, Flop, it seems like a baseball guy would say "Yeah, of course that happened, he's a space cadet who will always have a worse ERA than his periphs indicate". Is that part true, or is analysis more deep than that? Second, is there any reason to think that maybe a good prospect should NOT have that type of discrepancy? Third, let's say he finishes relatively strong and ends up with a 4.4 or 4.5 ERA and the same peripherals, where is his prospect status?

jeff2sf wrote:Mind you, I'm not thinking of trying to say he's as good as Drabek or Knapp in terms of prospect status, but is Carrasco being underrated to the point he's way more valuable to us than them?

His FIP is 3.65. His K/9 is very good, his K/BB is decent, his H/9 is not good but does that even get looked at anymore?

Here's my question, Flop, it seems like a baseball guy would say "Yeah, of course that happened, he's a space cadet who will always have a worse ERA than his periphs indicate". Is that part true, or is analysis more deep than that? Second, is there any reason to think that maybe a good prospect should NOT have that type of discrepancy? Third, let's say he finishes relatively strong and ends up with a 4.4 or 4.5 ERA and the same peripherals, where is his prospect status?

Perception tends to trump reality when it comes to prospects.

Im sure most teams are hesitant on Carrasco because of his struggles. He's worth more to us than he is in a trade.