Dojji

Strickland is a legitimate pitching prospect. He's a dark horse, no doubt about that, but the guy is 20 years old in age appropriate competition and he's a big powerful kid (6'5" 200LBS) so the 93 he throws now is in a good position to go up. He also has excellent command, a useful component for a guy who also throws hard. He gets that fastball up into the mid 90's, with his command, he could get himself on the radar screen. In short he's got good projectability and he's exactly the kind of pitcher you like to take in the lower rounds. That said, he's someone else's problem now. I'm not sure why a Pirates prospect is showing up here.

Tim Lincecum -- 9 IP, 0 ER, 4H, 15K

Al Leiter?

Masterson is hardly the only sinkerballer with dramatic splits. Brandon Webb and Derek Lowe also had strong splits and struggle (relatively in Webb's case) against lefthanders. So does Fausto Carmona and Chien-Ming wang. It's not insurmountable as long as he can dominate righties adjust well enough keep from getting completely owned by LHH's.

Thought you were implying it. I don't think Masterson is going anywhere this deadline. Just isn't the best time to move the guy. I don't think they're in a hurry to deal any of their current bullpen. We've got 6 of those guys next year and our only big concern in building the pen next year is that we'll have to pay Delcarmen, Paps and Oki a little better.

Couldn't be Orlando Hernandez could it?

Doesn't mean they'd be willing to pay for him as if he was a starter, not when they can spin him as a reliever and push down his value. SCM is right, Masterson's trade value is not high now.

that doesn't mean they'd necessarily count for him in trade as if he was a starter. If you introduce Masterson they'll spend the entire negotiation assuring you he's a reliever no matter what their real intentions are with the guy. because that lowers his value and pushes Boston towards including more in their end of the deal. That's Haggling 101, so basic even I know it.

Walk off grand slam for Alfonso Soriano tonight.

It's a fan forum. wishful thinking will rule.

How did that "Cy" get in there? Shows me for not proofreading that post a bit better.

You already know my opinion. I don't really go for first hand second half splits as anything more than a suggestion. But the margin between Martinez and LaRoche as hitters is not very big. If we're bringing in VMart primarily as a first baseman the answer is heck no. I wouldn't go after a guy like Martinez unless I was sure Lowell would not play another inning in Boston. For the record I would happily pay Buchholz and quite a bit more for Cliff Lee and if you package Lee and Martinez it'll be hard to tell who was paid for whom. The net result would be an upgraded roster anyway.

I'm serious, every time you don't like someone's ideas you accuse them of gay sex of some kind. At some point this has to be the voice of experience, right? Or at least a thing that is on your mind far more often than is probably healthy. How about instead of idiotic posturing we actuallty get back to discussing the subject of the thread? You OK with that or do you want to keep dragging the forum down?

I dunno, becuase I don't know what procedure was performed. This is the reason I said what I did about waiting for a healthy season. if this guy doesn't make the majors, it'll be because of injuries. Unstead of a great young CF we may be looking at one of the better LF prospects in baseball

Such as the rampant homophilia in nearly every single post, exactly. Thank you, Dipre. I mean I didn't want to say anything. I respect your lifestyle and all. But at some point it's just so obvious you gotta say something.

Bearing in mind that Tek has been far more consistent and that V-Mart's 2008 sample (his best year) is based on a season cut short by injury. Neither of them really have what could be called a great arm. You are going to be able to run on either catcher.

You're really going to go on a flying tangent to play the Teixeira card. You have an act, and it's getting very old.

Because he's coming back from an injury.

You just hate being called on your act don't you?

I'm reserving judgement on Westmoreland, but only until he has a full healthy season. He's undoubtedly talented and plays all facets of the game well. If he can stay healthy I don't see that much that's going to stop him getting to the majors.

For the record, LaRoche is doing a great job at first so far, and Varitek is actually an average to above average offensive catcher this year. You will now proceed to downplay this and proceed to explain in very condescending terms why we need to deal high-value assets for marginal gains.

I'm not sure why we want Victor Martinez so badly. He's a great player, but not the best fit for us ATM as Varitek isn't doing that badly this year. VMart loses a lot of his value as a 1B. We don't really have a position player who's an attractive trade target for a rebuilding team other than possibly Lowrie, and we need him. So the most logical way to put Victor Martinez on the roster is to take George Kottaras off. since he's out of options that means waiving him, and it'd be a gamble to waive him considering how weak some teams in this league are at catcher. I suppose you could get away with that if you commit yourself to calling up Dusty Brown once Wake gets off the DL. But at some point you have to either chance VMart with the knuckler or bring up a caddy for Wakefield, and I'm not really comfortable with either option -- or with just dascarding Wakefield or putting him at a disadvantage just so we don't have to carry 3 catchers. The only other way to do this is to put Lowell on the disabled list until September and use VMart primarily as a 1B. That's only a move you make if Lowell will definitely need additional surgery. And I'm not sure about the fallout at corner infield from that since LaRoche loses a lot of his utility if Youks switches fulltime to third for the season. At least with Lowrie having some reps at third we don't lack for a viable backup at any position in that scenario.

Bard is the player above all others that the Guardians will want though. They've been desperate for a top closer for years. In 2007 they lost in the playoffs at least partly because of Joe Blow. In 2008 and this year their biggest problem was lack of a shutdown bullpen. We could prboably take 2 other top prospects out of the deal if we do include him. I still don't do it but it's worth thinking about if we can preserve Kelly and Bowden for putting in Bard.

No, but I can't see Theo dealing the kid unless he's doing it to keep othe prospects out of the deal that he thinks would be higher impact and the only guys I can think of who fits that description in comparison to Bard is Buchholz and MAYBE Josh Reddick. And we've already heard that Theo IS willing to put Buch in the right deal.

As I said, the only prospects I don't move are Kelly and Bard and the Guardians can pick any one reliever in the current pen other than Papelbon and Bard. Dan Bard stays.