The date seems so arbitrary and it doesn't make sense for players to miss a year of development.  Why not June 30th? That would put some extra pressure on the players to sign in such a short window.  Also, the July 31st deadline could get real interesting if teams included their newly signed players in deals for Roy Halladay types.  

Anyone know why they picked the August 15th date? Is there some reason I don't know about?

Anyone know the plan for Alvarez, Hosmer, Posey or Alonso?  I see Smoak is in the MWL. and Skipworth in the GCL.  You'd think for the millions paid for these guys they would want to get started right away.

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For starters he is a brutal fielder, he has a good arm but unfortunately you need to get the ball first to show off arm strength.  He's semi-bobbled every other ball this year, not counting when he completely missed it.  So as far as fielding I can't see how anyone rated him high on those skills.

As far as hitting - he can make some occasional contact with the ball but his approach is not MLB material.  He has had quite a few games where he has gone something like 1-4 facing a total 5 or 6 pitches for the game.  His swing is somewhat feeble, loaded on his front side too early and swinging all wrists.  Hence the zero home runs. 

So my question is, what did all the so-called experts see in this guy?

How is Antonio Bastardo doing it.  He's like 5'11" and from what I've read he doesn't have a blazing fastball.  At 23 he's not exactly ancient for High A, so how is fanning 10 or more batters a game?

Anyone seen him throw?

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Seems like something had to happen with Dukes.  Nats give up Glenn Gibson who may or not be a 3 or 4 starter.

That puts Desmond Jennings and Ryan Royster as the 5th and 6th OF options not counting Baldelli, who will never play over 12 games/year anyway.  

Thoughts?  I think they could've pulled a little more considering Dukes' ceiling.

Anyone know of a reliable source for a 2007 Minor League Player listing that includes DOB?  Several sites have databases you can search, but I haven't found a database I can download into excel, not for free with date of birth info anyway. I tried buying something from Baseball Cube once but it was an incomplete pile of garbage.

What is it exactly?  Can you find stats for it? on what website? I am in an exteremly deep league with a draft coming up on June 7th and wondering how the Angel Villalona types have been doing for the last 2 months.

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Let's assume he's not going to permanently replace Pettitte, Mussina, or Wang. That leaves Pavano and Igawa.  Assuming Pavano stays healthy (I know this is a big leap), and Igawa becomes adequate (a smaller leap), wouldn't Hughes need to be completely dominating to stay around as a 20 year old?

From a fantasy standpoint I don't know if he's worth the waiver claim with that much uncertainty. That might be better spent later in the season on someone who will be guaranteed a longer look.  Thoughts?

I thought this may be interesting aside from all the Bailey v. Hughes discussions.  I'm in a 8 team league with 23 starting roster spots, 45 amn active MLB rosters and 100+ minor league spots.  This is who's left for our draft.  Give some top 5's, 10's, or relative unknowns who will rise to the top.

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