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Not sure if that was directed at me but I am not suggesting we do that. Kendrick, Trumbo, Aybar, or even Bourjos should only be traded for starting pitching period. If, for instance, you trade Kendrick he has a lot of value and could bring back a young starting pitcher plus 1-2 additional prospects, one of which could be a MLB-ready reliever or prospect that is near-ready.

I have to disagree a bit. Power like Trumbo has is getting more and more rare in an increasingly non-PED's environment. 30 HR power doesn't grow on trees and because of that it commands a higher value in trade discussions. Additionally Trumbo has 3 more years left before he is a free agent. That has quite a bit of value. It may be enough to convince a team for one of their top young starters in my opinion. If you had too, there is no reason you couldn't throw in another prospect to acquire the right SP target.

Jeff's sister said to Cory, "You wanna touch them?" and he just kissed her instead.

The only way Aybar goes is if we get a really good offer in return. I think Dipoto would rather move him next off season if we find ourselves out of contention or in need of more rebuild. Romine is a pure defensive backup. If you have to run another player out there on a regular basis it would seem like Tommy Field might get that opportunity but who knows. Kendrick seems more likely to go than Aybar, imo.

With the usual disclaimer that none of us are really privy to what is actually being offered and discussed during trade talks I offer the following: Trade Kendrick to either the Dodgers or the Orioles for a young, cost controlled starting pitcher (Zach Lee, Kevin Gausman, or by some bizarre miracle Dylan Bundy). Also trade Mark Trumbo to a team like the Pirates (for Jameson Taillon) or the Cleveland Indians (for Danny Salazar). Then resign Jason Vargas for 3 years/$30 million. Resign Jerome Williams in long relief (or alternatively place him in the 5-spot in the rotation and have Blanton in long-relief). This gives you the following rotation: Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson, Garrett Richards, Jason Vargas, and Jerome Williams. At AA/AAA you would have, for instance, Zach Lee and Taillon as pitching depth (7 deep). With someone like Blanton or possibly others in AA/AAA you'd have upwards of 8 or 9 starting pitchers as depth in case of injury. On the offensive side you replace Kendrick with either Grant Green or a platoon of Taylor Lindsey and Green which should make up for approximately 80% of Kendrick's production. You'll lose Trumbo's home run capability but it would allow you to run Kole Calhoun out as a replacement outfielder/first baseman about 3-4 times a week. Also you could add Conger into the DH role when he isn't catching to keep his bat sharper. Calhoun and Conger would provide some thump with the bats and both have a better eye than Trumbo does so part of the loss in Slugging would be made up with on-base percentage (more getting on base but less home run power). This scenario would help balance out the team in terms of offense and defense. The rest would rely on Hamilton gaining some (but certainly not all) ground from his horrible outing this year and Pujols being healthier. Finally the bullpen would need an upgrade. It is not unreasonable to get a young, power arm in a trade of Kendrick or Trumbo included in some type of package (even if it means we include more in the deal). Ideally we need to acquire two relievers who could compete for a late inning role in the bullpen. Because we are using trades to gain our starters it is not unreasonable that we could sign a reliever like Parra in addition to a trade acquisition. That would upgrade our bullpen significantly and some of our Minor League guys could be depth in case of injury. That's my 2 cents.

I don't think the TV deal was contingent on signing Pujols either. However it certainly may have had an impact in how much the deal was worth, including partial ownership of Fox Sports West.

Why is everything always about Double D's with you?

Ouch!

I agree with AO. As far as I am concerned RePLAY can post as often as they would like.

This is why trading Kendrick or Trumbo (or Bourjos if you don't like him too) is probably the best way to acquire a good starting pitcher.

Trout is a Fame whore. Hall of Fame that is!

Jeff's sister only dates baseball players.... in other words no glove, no love.

When Cory first laid eyes on her was he s-mitt-en?

I'm sure she's a good receiver? It's in the blood right?

He did?

Not to be a bit of a party pooper but he is rolling out a .398 BABIP. Considering that he has speed this may not be an issue but that is a high number. I hope I am 100% dead wrong and he just kicks so much ass and runs a .450 BABIP throughout the Minors and into the big leagues.

Don't forget the Reliever of the Decade, Scot Shields.

I think the main reason they have a short shelf life is because of the extra stress they put on their throwing arms and the higher likelihood they can suffer an injury. Beyond that they may have only 1-3 good to average pitches to throw but to help counter that they usually only come in for one inning which makes it difficult for hitters to find a rhythm or weak spot against them. The relievers with crappy stuff would fit your above statement as they will get tagged up a lot more often by decent hitters. Also most relievers throw a fastball and either a slider, curve, or maybe a change up. They tend to throw a lot of those heavy off speed pitches that have been proven to cause greater injury to the arm if they are thrown more than approximately 30% of the time. This is one reason why I believe Dipoto was worried about Ervin Santana and traded him was because Ervin, as a starter, throws his slider on the order of 35+%.

I wouldn't be so fast to criticize the Cal State system happy. The reason you don't see them listed in the best schools is because of the nature of their funding. Cal State Long Beach's Business and Engineering departments are quite good and I'd rank the Aerospace Engineering department as one of the best in the state (they have done groundbreaking work in NanoSat Launch Vehicles, aerospike engines, special composite fuel tanks, etc.). There are shades of gray everywhere. Cal Poly SLO also has a great engineering program (they invented the CubeSat P-POD's among other things). Money talks in those rankings too.

By the way welcome to the board!

You should take pain killers more often.

The fact that you know one of their songs is disturbing.

Money is a resource? All that I was saying is that JD has made it clear that investing too heavily in relief pitching is not strategically smart. It IS okay to trade for a reliever as long as you don't give up too much in return. Your statement seemingly assumes that we'd have to give up significant talent to get a good young bullpen arm and I don't think that is the case all the time. There is no reason we couldn't make a bigger trade where, for instance, we send Howie Kendrick to another team for a young, high-end starting pitcher along with a couple of more prospects, one of which could be a reliever type? I don't think we are disagreeing on anything to be honest eater.

This was also true of Joakim Soria when he was with the Royals. He signed his contract and basically didn't pitch for them after his injury.

Article on why you shouldn't give 2+ year contracts to relievers: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/multi-year-deals-for-relievers-an-ugly-retrospective/ Before this season even started Dipoto stated that he didn't like the idea of investing a lot of money in relievers. Unfortunately the one he did sign, Burnett, got injured and combined with other risk based signings such as Madson, left us in a difficult situation with a not-so-good bullpen. I agree with the principal of not overly investing in relievers but we do need to improve in this area in the off season so it may require a signing or two. Trades would probably be preferable in my mind to find a young, flamethrower to fight for the closing role against Frieri, De La Rosa, Burnett, and Coello.