Depends on if his arm blows up again or not. Josh Hamilton might serve as an interesting example of what can happen if you have some pretty large questions surrounding your long term viability as a baseball player. I wonder if Straus runs into the same thing in a few years?

If he stays healthy through his arb years, at that point people will assume the injury is behind him.

 

AJ Burnett and Adam Wainright got big paydays several years after TJS, each closing in on $100 million. Neither of them seems to have wound up with much of a "Post TJS discount" in their contracts; Burnett in particular was huge money given his performance level.

If Strasburg makes it to his first contract, there's no doubt he's at least a $30+ million a year guy.

Thoughts? Um, the Nationals are significantly better in every aspect. I think the days of the Sox getting fat off the nl (not sure what their interleague record the last two years is, but prior to '11 they feasted) are over. The nl has caught up big time. I don't feel crazy when I say the top 5 teams in baseball could all be in the NL.

Thoughts? Um, the Nationals are significantly better in every aspect. I think the days of the Sox getting fat off the nl (not sure what their interleague record the last two years is, but prior to '11 they feasted) are over. The nl has caught up big time. I don't feel crazy when I say the top 5 teams in baseball could all be in the NL.

 

At no point did I feel like we were gonna beat the Nats the last three nights. Our starting pitching needs to pick it up big time.

Thoughts? Um, the Nationals are significantly better in every aspect. I think the days of the Sox getting fat off the nl (not sure what their interleague record the last two years is, but prior to '11 they feasted) are over. The nl has caught up big time. I don't feel crazy when I say the top 5 teams in baseball could all be in the NL.

 

And it's bad timing for the Sox to have the Cubs games switched from 6 to 4, with them being so much worse than most of the NL.

At no point did I feel like we were gonna beat the Nats the last three nights. Our starting pitching needs to pick it up big time.

Yup. If the starting pitchers can't give 80+ pitches, we have bigger problems.

"Thoughts on the Washington series"

 

It sucked.

Thoughts? Um, the Nationals are significantly better in every aspect. I think the days of the Sox getting fat off the nl (not sure what their interleague record the last two years is, but prior to '11 they feasted) are over. The nl has caught up big time. I don't feel crazy when I say the top 5 teams in baseball could all be in the NL.

 

I don't agree that the NL has caught up at all. You have your cream - Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, LA, and you can throw Arizona in there as well - but the Phillies are nothing more than a .500 team, the Mets are SCRAPPY but not a talented bunch, the Marlins are one of the two worst teams in baseball, the Pirates are going to be .500 or worse, the Brewers are mediocre, the Cubs are terrible, the Rockies are terrible (even if they've played well to open the year), and the Padres are not very good.

 

I'd say Philadelphia is probably at the top of the best of the worst, and I would say only Minnesota and Houston are definitively worse than them.

Thoughts? Um, the Nationals are significantly better in every aspect. I think the days of the Sox getting fat off the nl (not sure what their interleague record the last two years is, but prior to '11 they feasted) are over. The nl has caught up big time. I don't feel crazy when I say the top 5 teams in baseball could all be in the NL.

 

Judging the NL soley on Washington is like judging free agency solely on what the Dodgers did. It misses the whole story.

I don't agree that the NL has caught up at all. You have your cream - Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, LA, and you can throw Arizona in there as well - but the Phillies are nothing more than a .500 team, the Mets are SCRAPPY but not a talented bunch, the Marlins are one of the two worst teams in baseball, the Pirates are going to be .500 or worse, the Brewers are mediocre, the Cubs are terrible, the Rockies are terrible (even if they've played well to open the year), and the Padres are not very good.

 

I'd say Philadelphia is probably at the top of the best of the worst, and I would say only Minnesota and Houston are definitively worse than them.

You just named like... half of the NL

You just named like... half of the NL

 

I actually named them all. Just saying that there are really only 7 good teams in the NL, where there are at least 7 in the AL (Tampa, Baltimore, Toronto, Detroit, Texas, LAA, Oakland) without including teams with a fair amount of talent in New York, Boston, Chicago, KC, Cleveland, and Seattle.

 

There, between two posts, I've named every team in the Majors.

The pitching was absolutely horrible. I was shocked to see us give up runs everytime we scored a f***ing run. I thought Jake would do a better job than he did. Gavin and Axe are who we thought they were.

Our starting pitching couldn't get past like 5 innings and I can't say our relief corp did much better. No hitting and we lost our 2baseman to injury. Let's not play in Washington anymore. Enough said so now let's get on a winning streak

I don't agree that the NL has caught up at all. You have your cream - Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, LA, and you can throw Arizona in there as well - but the Phillies are nothing more than a .500 team, the Mets are SCRAPPY but not a talented bunch, the Marlins are one of the two worst teams in baseball, the Pirates are going to be .500 or worse, the Brewers are mediocre, the Cubs are terrible, the Rockies are terrible (even if they've played well to open the year), and the Padres are not very good.

 

I'd say Philadelphia is probably at the top of the best of the worst, and I would say only Minnesota and Houston are definitively worse than them.

 

Ok, and the entire al central division sucks outside of one team. There's only one sure thing in the east, and I feel that's tampa. I'm not sold on toronto at all. Yankees and red Sox aren't what they once were. Still not sure what the O's are. In the west, the angels should be good (thought that last year, though), texas has slipped some, the mariners suck. The a's, like the o's, are another team I can't figure out. But I wouldn't put either in the top 5 in the NL. I'm sorry. The gap has closed significantly.

That series sucked. Those are my thoughts.

Our starting pitching couldn't get past like 5 innings and I can't say our relief corp did much better. No hitting and we lost our 2baseman to injury. Let's not play in Washington anymore. Enough said so now let's get on a winning streak

 

Th= 4.1 IP 1 ER

Wed=2.2 IP 0 ER

Tue=2.2 IP 1 ER

 

Total 9.2 IP 2 ER = 1.86 ERA

Th= 4.1 IP 1 ER

Wed=2.2 IP 0 ER

Tue=2.2 IP 1 ER

 

Total 9.2 IP 2 ER = 1.86 ERA

 

That is a respectable ERA. The starting pitching is what sucked. Peavy and Floyd serving up longballs like it's going out of style.

Ok, and the entire al central division sucks outside of one team. There's only one sure thing in the east, and I feel that's tampa. I'm not sold on toronto at all. Yankees and red Sox aren't what they once were. Still not sure what the O's are. In the west, the angels should be good (thought that last year, though), texas has slipped some, the mariners suck. The a's, like the o's, are another team I can't figure out. But I wouldn't put either in the top 5 in the NL. I'm sorry. The gap has closed significantly.

 

Then use your knowledge of baseball and look at how good those teams are. Both Oakland and Baltimore are loaded with talent. Toronto is going to hit at some point in time too, my concern with them is that their rotation isn't going to keep people off the board (Morrow is solid, but they're depending on a knuckler, two soft-tossing lefties, and a pitcher who is overly dependent on his fastball...it just scares me). I'm also taking KC/CLE/CHW over MIL/PIT/CHC, but the top two in the NL are better.

 

I see the best two teams in the MLB being Detroit and Washington. Atlanta and Cinci are in the top 10 for sure. Tampa, Texas, Baltimore, and Oakland are in my top 10 too. I probably go LAA/SF/STL/LAD after that.

 

The gap has closed signicantly, that you are right on, but I think the AL is still superior. There are more good teams in the AL and the middle of the pack teams are better too. The only thing the NL might have are better cellar dwellers, but Miami/Houston is going to be tight all year while Chicago/Minnesota is tight too.

That is a respectable ERA. The starting pitching is what sucked. Peavy and Floyd serving up longballs like it's going out of style.

They both collapsed right around 75 pitches.

They both collapsed right around 75 pitches.

 

And the third time around the order with a great offensive team. Honestly I think the pitching truth is that we are worse than we saw versus Seattle, but better than we saw against Washington.

The Nationals have a very nice stadium; this team probably won't be above 81 wins.

We need a hard-throwing righty SP. I want Peavy to be our 2nd righty. Then we are set.

We need a hard-throwing righty SP. I want Peavy to be our 2nd righty. Then we are set.

 

Quintana for Verlander

Quintana for Verlander

You want to take on that contract? I'm not sure I do.

We need a hard-throwing righty SP. I want Peavy to be our 2nd righty. Then we are set.

 

One thing I can promise we aren't trading for is starting pitching.