my recipe for success
Posted: Thu Jun 7, 2007 5:57 am
trade away:
Teixeira for a starting pitcher or #1 prospect.
Arias for a top position prospect
Gagne for a starting pitcher or top 5 prospect
Sosa for a 1-5 round draft pick
Otsuka for a majors ready pitching prospect
Lofton for a draft pick
Catalanotto for a first or 2nd round draft pick
Millwood for a draft pick
Padilla for a draft pick
Promote:
Nate Gold to first base/DH
Travis Metcalf to third base
Jason Botts to DH/First base
Victor Diaz to full time RF
Nelson Cruz fulltime LF
Marlon Byrd fulltime CF
Taylor Teagarden part time C
Eric Hurley to SP
Edison Volquez to SP
Omar Poveda to SP
Kasey Kiker to SP
Explanation:
With all the starters being traded away, it clears a lot of space for call-ups. The call-ups clear a lot of space for the new draft picks. This scenerio provides the top position and pitching prospects 2/3 of a season to showcase thier talent. This is kind of a "throw'em in the deep end and see who's ready to swim" style of play, but what's the worst that could happen? The starting rotation ERA is almost 7.00, so letting these prospects get thier collective feet wet couldn't be any worse.
Keeping McCarthy and Tejeda in the rotation and adding the 4 prospects sets up a 6-man rotation rather than a 5-man rotation, but with a young outfield, we shouldn't need so many outfield replacement players on the bench. Send Loe back to the pen as another long relief guy. With so many young pitchers, you'll probably need more than one. Set C.J. Wilson up as the set-up guy and put Benoit as the closer. It's not like he'll get many opportunities, but he'll get to tryout for the spot.
I'm not sold on Laird as our catcher. Seems like Teagarden has been doing a descent job bouncing back from injury.
Just think of this as an extended september call-up. Maybe a few of these guys stick as MLB players. To relieve any pressure the players may feel, you just tell them winning isn't the bottom line for the rest of the season. "this is just an extended spring training tryout." Next winter, you know what you have waiting in your farm system and what you need to do to make your team competitive with FA's.
Next spring training, you keep the guys who performed well, kind of like what they did with Tejeda last season. I know some of them like Kiker are real young, but they could go back to the minors knowing what they need to improve on, kind of like Volquez this year.
We get to see what we've got and reload our farm system at the same time. I know this is far fetched, but this kind of thing has never been done. I'd like to see how this would pan out. It couldn't possibly be any worse than what it is right now. And, even if it was, who cares? we're already the worst team in the league. This way, we get a bunch of MLB ready prospects and maybe the #1 pick in next year's draft.
Thoughts?
[/u]
Teixeira for a starting pitcher or #1 prospect.
Arias for a top position prospect
Gagne for a starting pitcher or top 5 prospect
Sosa for a 1-5 round draft pick
Otsuka for a majors ready pitching prospect
Lofton for a draft pick
Catalanotto for a first or 2nd round draft pick
Millwood for a draft pick
Padilla for a draft pick
Promote:
Nate Gold to first base/DH
Travis Metcalf to third base
Jason Botts to DH/First base
Victor Diaz to full time RF
Nelson Cruz fulltime LF
Marlon Byrd fulltime CF
Taylor Teagarden part time C
Eric Hurley to SP
Edison Volquez to SP
Omar Poveda to SP
Kasey Kiker to SP
Explanation:
With all the starters being traded away, it clears a lot of space for call-ups. The call-ups clear a lot of space for the new draft picks. This scenerio provides the top position and pitching prospects 2/3 of a season to showcase thier talent. This is kind of a "throw'em in the deep end and see who's ready to swim" style of play, but what's the worst that could happen? The starting rotation ERA is almost 7.00, so letting these prospects get thier collective feet wet couldn't be any worse.
Keeping McCarthy and Tejeda in the rotation and adding the 4 prospects sets up a 6-man rotation rather than a 5-man rotation, but with a young outfield, we shouldn't need so many outfield replacement players on the bench. Send Loe back to the pen as another long relief guy. With so many young pitchers, you'll probably need more than one. Set C.J. Wilson up as the set-up guy and put Benoit as the closer. It's not like he'll get many opportunities, but he'll get to tryout for the spot.
I'm not sold on Laird as our catcher. Seems like Teagarden has been doing a descent job bouncing back from injury.
Just think of this as an extended september call-up. Maybe a few of these guys stick as MLB players. To relieve any pressure the players may feel, you just tell them winning isn't the bottom line for the rest of the season. "this is just an extended spring training tryout." Next winter, you know what you have waiting in your farm system and what you need to do to make your team competitive with FA's.
Next spring training, you keep the guys who performed well, kind of like what they did with Tejeda last season. I know some of them like Kiker are real young, but they could go back to the minors knowing what they need to improve on, kind of like Volquez this year.
We get to see what we've got and reload our farm system at the same time. I know this is far fetched, but this kind of thing has never been done. I'd like to see how this would pan out. It couldn't possibly be any worse than what it is right now. And, even if it was, who cares? we're already the worst team in the league. This way, we get a bunch of MLB ready prospects and maybe the #1 pick in next year's draft.
Thoughts?
[/u]