RealGM

Are we in a buyer's market or seller's market? Some on here seem to think it's a seller's market because of the asking price for some of these pitchers. However when I see the list of potential names that have popped up in rumours and I see it as a buyer's market. I'm not saying I'd love every one of these pitchers, but these are some pretty high profile names I can think of that I remember hearing in trade rumours.

Gio Gonzalez
Jonathon Niese
John Danks
Gavin Floyd
James Shields
Wade Davis
Wandy Rodriguez
Matt Garza
Brett Myers

Jair Jurrjens

Since we lost Darvish, here is an alternative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisashi_Iwakuma

Hisashi Iwakuma, SP: After Oakland’s proposed deal underwhelmed him last offseason, the 30-year-old right-hander returns from Japan as a free agent, happy to sign wherever he pleases.

As the Eagles' reigning staff ace, Iwakuma won the Eiji Sawamura Award in 2008 and played in the 2004 Athens Olympics as well as the 2009 World Baseball Classic for the Japanese national team.

Should be cheap and cost no posting fee since he is a true FA.... ranked as 18th best FA available in the Majors by Yahoo.com.

At worst he'll become a bullpen ace... at best he's a solid #3 pitcher.... low risk move

Then we hope Texas screws up and we have a chance at Yu Darvish next season

I'm really not interested in trading top prospects for a #3 or #4 starter

This team needs a stud #1 in order to compete

i guess if hes cheap why not

He wants about $10M/yr. Was making about $3.5M/yr in Japan, I think. Post fee was $19M last year and he turned down a $15M/4 offer from Oakland (for good reason). He also had shoulder trouble last season and missed a bunch of time. He won't be too cheap... but hey, if we wants a short-term deal to prove he's healthy, it's better than our alternatives.

if we start the season with ricky, marrow, cecil, alverez, mcgowen/drabek...im not watching a single game

dballislife wrote:if we start the season with ricky, marrow, cecil, alverez, mcgowen/drabek...im not watching a single game

wow.
i think the bandwagon will roll just as smoothly once you jump off.

dballislife wrote:if we start the season with ricky, marrow, cecil, alverez, mcgowen/drabek...im not watching a single game

Looks like a good rotation to me. If everyone can improves a bit, it could be something special.

JoeyBats wrote:

dballislife wrote:if we start the season with ricky, marrow, cecil, alverez, mcgowen/drabek...im not watching a single game

Looks like a good rotation to me. If everyone can improves a bit, it could be something special.

Good rotations seldom play meaningful games in September

JoeyBats wrote:

dballislife wrote:if we start the season with ricky, marrow, cecil, alverez, mcgowen/drabek...im not watching a single game

Looks like a good rotation to me. If everyone can improves a bit, it could be something special.

It's not bad, but still a lot of question marks. I'm pretty sure AA is going to add one more starter before the season begins. I'm not sure if it'll be a #1/#2 type that AA seems to want (Darvish, Latos).

The worst part of losing the Darvish bid, is looking at the terrible alternatives we have now. Gio Gonzalez? I guess Garza would be okay, but the Cubs (Epstein) are going to want so much back for him....probably not worth it.

minus one slip up with Napoli, I like AA's judge of value. I'm not worried about him being forced into a deal for any player. if he likes it, he'll pull the trigger.

What about Kuroda. veteran presence who could be available on a short term deal. He wouldn't be blocking anyone longterm.

If Shields was on the market, I would be interested to see the value.