southsider2k5

There was some nasty stuff said when he left, mostly by the people around him, but I can't imagine him coming back without some management changes.

Sure, and those next tier of guys are who I see filling out the back end for the most part. Even if starters at the top flame out, there is a pretty fair chance that they end up in the pen. Guys like Cease and Kopech if they aren't starters, could do some serious damage out of the pen.

If the separation between them isn't that large, and the separation between Barkley and the rest of the Non-QB field is that large, it is a fair question.

I don't agree with that for a second. Those are a package of 3rd tier guys. They don't belong in the same conversation with our Tier 1 (Gio, ReyLo, Kopech, Hansen, Cease) pitchers or even the tier 2 guys (Dane Dunning, Adams, Clakin, Stephens, etc). The list you gave is a list of 4A guys who you hope turn into league average guys. When you look at those lists, you need three guys to hit out of your top tier, and at least one out of your second tier, and hope that you get something out of the rest. What is left of those joins the fray for your pensmen. When you are talking about equivalent pitchers to your list, you are talking about guys that aren't lighting up prospect lists, but are profiled more with solid tools than having + pitches, especially fastballs.

Is the combination of Barkley + 1 one of the quarterbacks greater than Mayfield and someone else, knowing that with three top QBs on the board you will get ONE of them for sure?

That was always my biggest fear when people would ask for a rebuild. Our draft and develop history for non-pitching is awful. It seems to be getting better, as at least we are turning out some starters recently, but still.

I know, but I really don't think it is nearly that dire. If it is, all of this is an exercise in futility and a waste of half of a decade.

It will be interesting to see if he is willing to sacrifice money to stay at SS. If someone offers an extra $10 million to go back to 3rd, does he do it? What about $20? I wonder what that point is.

When it rains, it pours. I am not sure if we would beat Charlotte in a three game series with this line up.

At this point, there really isn't too much else that can be done. Today we are at the start of the second season of this process. While we are off to a good start, it is just that... a start. We still need a lot more talent into the system, and we need more guys to emerge. We still have miles to go.

Did I enter an alternate dimension where people are giving ownership slack for everything after 2005?

Every need the team has makes it that much harder to get this team to the playoffs. If we are already talking about multiple position player signings AND now pitcher signings, we are rapidly going to burn through all of that "flexibility" we had, and it will shorten the window we have at contention. It will start to look a lot more like the Royals who made it and flamed out in a few years. There will be no "sustained" winning if we have to depend on the free agent market that much.

I would guess Moncada because of a sizable defensive advantage. I think Abreu will out OPS Moncada, but it won't be able to make up for the defensive chasm between the two.

Timely article

13 days into the season buys you the extra year of control. It isn't much. Like the previous poster said, at this point the bigger consideration is Super 2. All though I will say it should be a red flag that despite his peripherals, Kopech is only averaging just over 5 innings per start. When he gets to the majors where guys are even more disciplined, that will turn into 100 pitches in four innings.

I don't. I think if someone else with the attention grabbing personality of Ali or Tyson came along people would watch it. I mean golf became a mainstream thing for like a decade because of Tiger. Boxing just hasn't had that star power draw for a long time, meanwhile MMA has absolutely cannibalized their audience for people looking for brutality as a sport.

Not a surprise. It wasn't a bad return for Jennings, but I think with his mechanical flaws, probably a guy that never makes it.

Let's be honest. Boxing didn't fall off because it was brutal. It fell off because it never came up with a draw after Mike Tyson, and MMA gave people something MORE brutal, not less, and absolutely took away an entire segment of people who would have been the next boxing fans.