I know I'm a little late with this and someone else has probably asked/answered it a month ago, but what is preventing a team from saying to hell with the draft cap, ignore it completely, and just scoop up every high level player that drops below the 2nd round?

Take the Yankees for example: Every year they draft 28th-30th anyway, so what do they really lose in forfeiting the 1st and 2nd round picks if they make up for it by getting 5-6 1st round talents in other rounds throughout the draft? They can scoop up every player that other teams are afraid to draft because of the new cap and sign them to whatever they want. I bet this will especially affect two sport high school players that previously had to be bought out of their football commitments with 7 figure bonuses.

I mean, if I were Cashman I would gladly forfeit a Cito Culver in return to drafting and signing 5-6 Jameis Winston, Zach Lee, Amir Garrett, Senquez Golson, Brandon Jacobs types.

If other teams are worried that it will take too much too sign those types and don't want to waste a draft pick or deal with negotiations it would just seem smart for the Yanks, Red Sox who draft so low every year anyway

Could John (or someone) look into a high school kid named Amir Garrett?

One of the top basketball recruits in the nation, signed a LOI to play hoops at St Johns. Hasn't played organized baseball in two years but is a 6'5" lefty pitcher. Is working out in front of scouts and supposedly up to 93mph.

I saw the kid at a few showcases summer of 2009 and I thought he was a sure fire 1st round pick back then. Tall, lean, loose and athletic. Pretty much the ultimate pitchers frame. Throwing in the low to mid 90s from the left side gives a lot from a GM to dream on

Anyone have more info other than the few articles I've read on the internet?

I'm involved in high school coaching/scouting and I know there are many of you on here that do the same. In today's baseball world of technology there are very few players that "fall through the cracks" and get no chance at the next level that are deserving. However, there are some. I'm not talking about Toe Nash types that blow their chance, but kids that never even get their foot in the door.

I'm sure folks on here could name some, probably many that don't because they opted to play another  sport instead. One comes to my mind, Kelvin Garner. Garner a 6'7", 250 pound pitcher that threw 90 mph as an 8th grader and was 93-95 at 17. Baseball America had him one of the top 100 high school prospects in the 2006 class and all the scouting services had him as an elite prospect and a probable top 3 round pick. Then...... nothing.

He was never drafted and far as I can tell, never played college ball. I watched the kid play at showcases and he was a manchild. He was raw, but I thought I was watching the teenage version of Lee Smith when I saw him.

Who else out there fits this mold

haven't seen this one posted on here yet, but this is what i'm hearing in the media out here.

Reynolds for David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio. Seems we sold very low on Reynolds. Reynolds isn't going to bat cleanup for you, but having a guy that averages 35 HR a year in the 6 hole is nice, even if he hits 230-240. His defense has also improved over the past 3-4 years as well.

As frustrated with the record K's as I was, I'm dissapointed to see him go and was hoping we'd keep him and bat him lower in the order and aquire *real* hitter to bat 4th

Not familiar with hernandez, what can anyone tell me about him and what to expect.

Why is his name "Lefty" when he is in fact right handed? Oh those crazy Dominicans....

http://www.baseballamerica.com/statistics/players/cards/?pl_id=82221

Just thought this was strange.

Reminds me of when I found and posted Jorge Poo Tang on the board a few years back

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2006/10/17/5404/6409

Its kind of interesting to go through those Dominican League and Venenzuelan League rosters. You see some weird things.

I got there a little late (work and all), missed his 1st AB (heard he popped out to LF), but saw his final 3. He hit a rocket right at the CFer in his 2nd, got jammed and hit a soft line to 3b in his 3rd, and then hit an opposite field ground rule double in his last AB. Overall, not a bad professional debut.

A few side notes:

• Only a couple balls went his way in RF. While he didn't misplay any of them you can tell he has a ways to go before he's a servicable OFer. One popup in particular he couldn't seem to find before he made a last ditch effort and came up with the catch.
• A double went over his head that he froze on and looked like a deer caught in the headlights on as well.
• Just by watching him between innings and on the plays he made in the field the arm strength was evident.
• His ground rule double was hit hard, but in the Bigs it could have been caught by better positioned OFers.
• He seemed to show no patience and swing at everything, obviously could have just been first game jitters and wanting to make good, but an interesting follow none the less as I've heard or read little about his discipline

In honor of the recently disceased?

Lima was always one of my favorites to watch- always flamboyant, full of energy and enthusiastic.

RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP RIP

3 run bomb

maybe he is the return of Jesus

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I know this is really late but my cousin who is a regular on your site informed me that I won the World Series prediction contest held back in Oct. I never received word. Obviously I'm a Dbacks (embarrasing I know), and I just stopped by your board back then to wish you luck against the Yankees.

http://www.thegoodphight.com/2009/11/9/1123022/congratulations-scottaz-winner-of

I want a medal!! Just kidding guys, good luck this season. Hope my Dbacks can surprise some people and maybe we get to see you in the postseason.

Has there ever been a player that was so inbittered by the experience that he vowed publically not to resign with that team again, or left after his contract and stated the reason he left was because of his arbitration experience?

I ask this because of BJ upton just losing his case. Upton is a young player coming off a bad year. Seems arbitration is salt for the wound with the team basically ripping on him and explaining why he is worthless. Could create a lot of resentment with Upton and create a feeling that he isn't valued or wanted.

Has this been an issue before?

Doesn't it seem that every prospect is compared to the same 4-5 players? What baseball prospect comparisons are you tired of? For example:

EVERY athletic black OFer for some pop and speed is thrown the "Mike Cameron" tag.

EVERY lefty is thrown the "Tom Glavine" tag, unless he throws under 90mph and then he gets the "Jamie Moyer" tag.

The new one I'm seeing is any black player that can play more than one position is given the "Chone Figgins" tag. Just in the past few issues of BA I've seen it given to Eric Patterson and Mycal Jones.

Traditionally you could always find a "Roger Clemens" tag thrown on any big high school righty from Texas. Before Clemens it was a "Nolan Ryan" tag. With Clemens' problems does it now become a "Josh Beckett" tag?

What else?

Is there any system in place that attempts to quantify baserunning factoring in all variables? That could include forced pickoff attempts, number of balls thrown away or errors forced while on the bases, number of times going 1st to 3rd with less than two outs, the % of fastballs he forces the pitcher to throw when he is on base, defensive shifts he may create, etc?

Seems to me that this facet could be the least appreciated in the game but always seems to have a huge affect on the postseason

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091115&content_id=7669422&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Am I the only one left scratching their head with this one? I was sure that it would have come down to either Hanson or McCutchen and no one else would even be close.

Not saying Coughlan didn't have a solid rookie campaign or to slight him, but I thought the consensus was Hanson and McCutchen ran away from the crowd

I'm a Dbacks fan that has been rooting for you guys since 1993 and will be as well this year since the Dbacks are done.

Just a question for the board: Ibanez has taken a nose dive and you have two elite OF prospects on the cusp of the Bigs in Mike Taylor and Domonic Brown. What do you guys see happening next year? Taylor is in AAA and appears ready, Brown maybe a year behind him. How long does Ibanez have left on his contract? Does Brown get a chance to start next year or is too much money tied to Ibanez? What about in the future? Obviously Victorino isn't going anywhere and Werth is unlikely as well.

Good luck in the postseason guys

I don't understand the Rockies handling of Eric Young Jr. First they announce he's untouchable before the trade dead line, turning down numerous trade scenerios involving him, now they announce he's moving to CF when they already have their "future", Dex Fowler firmly entrenched and starting to flourish in the majors in CF.

If they didn't see him long term at 2b why not trade him at the deadline when his value was high? Now what is he, a backup CFer and 4th OFer? A utility sub type maybe? Dumb move IMO, because some teams were offering legit established players (like Freddy Sanchez) straight up for him.

My brother and I got into a discussion last night over who had the most crippling contracts in the game today. Not refering to guys like CC Sabathia, because even if he doesn't pan out the Yankees have enough resources to burn up his 7 year $161 mil deal. I am talking about teams that are affected by the bad economy and have guys that are putting a huge strain on resources while providing little on the field. Being here in Arizona, we hand the dubious honor to Eric Byrnes. Byrnes being a 32 year old career journey man/ 4th OFer that cashed in on a big 2007 season and is currently fleecing the Dbacks for $11mil per year. Byrnes not only raises the ire of Dbacks fans because he is our highest paid position player and sucks, but also because every time I see him I think he is the sole reason Orlando Hudson and Randy Johnson are not on the team this year. Further more, Curt Schilling made statements back in the winter saying that he wanted to be reunited with the Dbacks and Randy Johnson to finish out his career. Schilling may never pitch again, but if he does and he still has something left in the tank and he goes somewhere like Philadelphia because the Dbacks either don't have the money or don't have Randy Johnson, it will give me yet another reason to boo the shit out of Byrnes every time he bats.

Andruw Jones may have received attention before being released, but I'm not sure how his $18mil/per affected the Dodgers budget.

Who else should be nominated?

I bought The Show 2009 yesterday and spent all night playing it. So far I'm nejoying it. It hasn't changed much from last year, just cleaned up a little. I like the additions of the 40 man roster and all the challenges that brings. I also like the new features on player editing

Anyone play MLB 09 yet? Last year's game was terrible IMO so my expectations are low for this year too.

Anyone have any thoughts on the games?

Its no secret that Sabathia really wanted to stay on the west coast for either the Dodgers, Angels, or anyone else in California, then came returning to the Brewers, last came the Yankees. The Yankees kept dumping cash on him until he finally submitted.

How long is he actually a Yankee? I highly doubt he will play all 7 years in pinstripes. (and I know that would mean the Yanks eat a large % of the contract in a trade)

Got into a debate with a co-worker on this and wanted to see what people thought here. Moyer, at age 44, has 246 wins and 2248 K's on his career.

I argue very good numbers, but not Hall worthy.

My co-worker says that soon 250 wins will be the new 300 benchmark and Moyer will get in at some point.

IMO, he'd need over 280 wins (34 wins is a lot left for a 44yr old), 3000 K's, (750 short, no chance) or be a post-season stallwart (in the mold of a Duque Hernandez).

I have been a little skeptical after such a  mediocre regular season, but there is no doubt he has been the best hitter (not named Manny) this entire post season. 6 bombs, .400 ave to go along with the speed and athleticism. Will this postseason catpult him into elite status in 2009? Eric Davis in prime type #s? ( .300/.400/.600 with 30+ bombs and 50 steals ) Just based off this coming out party, I wouldn't be overly shocked

Thoughts ?????

Now I'm not trying to turn this into another Bash Baker thread, as I have defended him in the past. Obviously he has flaws as a manager and I have noticed something that struck my curiousity following the Reds recently:

Jerry Hairston is now the starting SS for the Reds and has been performing pretty well with the stick, hitting over .350 as the fulltime starter. My question is why is Hairston playing SS and why is Brandon Phillips still at 2b? Wouldn't the logically thing be to flip flop them? Phillips was rated the top defensive SS in the minors by Baseball America back in the day, and many cosider him the top defensive 2b in the game right now. I watched him play in the AFL years back and he has it all defensively- glove, range, arm, flash and that attitude that great SS's often seem to have. Hairston played a total of 15 innings of SS prior to this year. Hairston has been pretty much a career 2b while Phillips was regarded a future GG'er at SS.

I would do anything possible to help my pitchers out on defense, epsecially in that ball park they play in.

hell, even when I was in junior high they would allow students with their eyes closed to retake their pictures. You think MLB would be the same way.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7812

Did they sneak up on him while he was napping in the club house?

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I just recently bought a PS3 and wanted to get whatever baseball game is the best for that platform- either The Show or 2K8. Who has advice?

I was a huge fan of MVP 2005 and also the MVP 2006 games as far as gameplay, graphics, etc. Which game is closest to what MVP put out in those terms?

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Most of the folks on here participate in Fantasy Baseball, and many (like me) buy magazines or websites that project 2008 stats. I liked the results from the board here in the past on similar discussions and would like to get one going before my draft for some key players.

Ryan Howard for this first one. Mixed opinions on what the future holds for the Big Man. I will let you all decide and we'll average it out tomorrow. Stupid predictions like a .210 ave with 13 homers or the other spectrum of .370 with 72 homers will be thrown out.

I will get it rolling:

AB- 512
H- 143
AVE- .279
BB- 122
HR- 52
RBI- 137
R- 101
2B- 24
3B- 1
SB- 2

Interesting that MLB is considering to reduced punishment to the 2004 bargaining agreement of 10 games rather than the new 50 game suspension.

Obviously this is just the tip of the iceberg, and this witch hunt can go on for years if they really want to dig up everyone that did it. I'm not sure if its good for baseball since realistically about 70% of ALL players messed with them from 1999-2003. Basically, if they pursued this, you could see 1/2 of all rosters serving steroid suspensions to start next year. I say just leave it alone and move on from it at this point, because really nothing positive can come out of implicating more than half of all the MLB in this

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ao1L5mYDxbF2LCDeYXAZHoMRvLYF?slug=ti-glaus091307&prov=yhoo &type=lgns

Although he's just 19 years old and this is his first full year of pro ball. He's already played three games in AAA. He just hit his first AAA homer and is hitting .500 so far.

Anyone shed some light on this uber aggressive promotion?

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His 940 ops looks pretty awesome in his first full season. What is the opinion of what his peak could be? Regular seasons of ops of over 1000? 30-30 years, every year? 40-40 years, every year? Barry Bonds career minus the steroid era (1999-2004)?

How soon will he reach this peak? This year his numbers put him in the top 5 offensive players in all of baseball, next year will he be in the all world class of Arod and Pujols?

I was thinking about purchasing the only game for my consul (xbox), that being MLB 2k7. With last year's I had a few problems with the SIm that I was curious if they were corrected:

1- Players on opposing teams actually getting fatigued and sitting out- I noticed that really the only time starters sit is if they are injured, even with adjusting their fatigue levels. It is possible, if you don't have any injuries, to see teams that run out the same lineup every game for an entire season. I hope this was corrected.

2- Players on opposing teams playing out of position- An example: Giambi was traded to the Phils, but since Howard was already at 1b they stuck him at catcher! Giambi went the entire SIM season as the Phils catcher, which dramatically helped the Phils offense, but was extremely unrealistic.

3- Trades- there are too many and too many of them are plain dumb. The Braves trading McCann and Brandon Jones for Randy Winn?!?!

Can someone who has played the new 2k7 version give me some answers before I buy it?

Yeah, yeah, I know these are getting old, but....

1b- Carlos Quinten: Connor Jackson is packaged to Tampa for BJ Upton. Quinton's injury problems limit him in effort to get bat in lineup

2b- Orlando Hudson: O Dawg is the team leader

Ss- Stephen Drew: Young stud will finally be reaching his potential

3b- BJ Upton: Refuses to sign a long term pact with Rays (clock started in 2004), Rays don't risk losing him for nothing and ship him to AZ for Connor Jackson, Chad Tracy, Max Scherzer. Upton is a little out of place at 3b, but his athleticism allows him to play anywhere and the Dbacks have proven in the past to be creative with position changes.

Ca- Miguel Montero: Servicable option. Never will be a star, but pitchers like him behind the plate and he has some pop. Could be a lefthanded version of the good Molina brother

Lf- Carlos Gonzales: Won't be the uber star he appeared to be 2 years ago, but provides pop from the left side and strong arm

Cf- Chris Young: Will be a star by 2010. Perenial 30-30 man, GG defense, low BA

Rf- Justin Upton: Best player in baseball by 2010?

The lineup:
Young
Drew
BJ
Justin
Gonzales
Quinton
Hudson
Montero

Pitching staff:
#1- Brandon Webb
#2- Big Name Free Agent (with all the money the Dbacks save on homegrown position players, they can over pay for a workhorse #2
#3- Micah Owings
#4- Doug Davis
#5- Livan Hernandez/Dustin Nippert: The battle of the ageless one and the dissapointment

Long- Edgar Gonzalez
Long- Wes Roemer

middle- Brandon Medders
middle- Tony Pena

SU- Jarrod Parker: young flame thrower will be brought up ala Marmol/Chamberlain/Zumaya and provide spark

CL- Jose Valverde

Pretty impressive line this year (375/429/422), and although no one in the world thinks he can keep up that type of production, has he turned a corner in his career and now a legitimate starting OFer? If he tones down his numbers and still posts a 300/350/400 line he could be a force with his speed. Also, what type of fantasy value does he hold? Maybe a guy to pick up next year since he really doesnt have anything ahead of him in KC