Oz27

Just looked up Austin Adams ... holy crap that walk rate is really something.

He has posted a combined -1.2 WAR over the past two seasons and he has hardly played second base in recent years. I'll pass, thanks.

I'm constantly amazed at the things people get this angry over. I mean, even if you disagree with the decision, is it that big a deal?

Our friend who put Trout seventh has made questionable voting decisions before too... http://articles.latimes.com/1996-11-15/sports/sp-64865_1_mvp-award A-Rod had a 9.4 bWAR season in 1996. This voter had him six places behind Juan Gonzalez, who was worth 3.8 WAR.

Worth pointing out that WAR was effectively invented by someone who is now a Red Sox employee and played a big role in their recent success, making that early comment look even funnier.

How do we decide which stats are made up and which ones aren't. So many questions.

I guess that works on the assumption that you wouldn't be very intelligent in the hypothetical scenario in which you're a Red Sox fan, because that is the only way to justify being upset with this outcome.

lolwut. You've got to be kidding me.

Wow. People in here are REALLY overvaluing Tyler Skaggs.

John Hickey of the Oakland Tribune put Beltre first and Trout 7th!

So much to process. Ortiz and Beltre got first place votes? Someone put Mike Trout seventh? Anyway, yay for Trout. It should be number five but number two is still pretty damn good.

Brian Dozier is coming off a 6.5 win season. He would cost a lot more than Tyler Skaggs. Also we traded Santiago awhile ago.

How did Britton get more first place votes than Kluber? Sheesh.

Really agree on Skaggs. I don't see him as any more than an average starter anymore and that's if he stays healthy, which there are obviously substantial doubts over. I think other teams would be extremely reluctant to place much value on someone who seems to be having constant arm problems and is probably a higher than average risk of needing TJ surgery again.

Smith, Banuelos and Middleton would all likely be claimed if left unprotected. I'm not going to lose any sleep if we don't protect the others though. They sure don't seem major league ready. If another team takes one of them, we would probably get them back soon enough.

Yeah, or if he decides he is happy here and doesn't want to move and would be happy with that number I mentioned. I really struggle to believe though that the best player of our generation will be happy to go through his career without ever testing his free agent value.

To anyone saying "just offer Trout an extension", what is the incentive for Trout to sign an extension? To even get close to what he would be paid if he hit the market once his current contract expires, we would be looking at around a $500 million commitment (the 4 years/$122 million he is owed plus say 10 years/$378 million). That might be at the top level of what is reasonable for us now, but if he becomes a free agent he will earn more money than that. Why would he sign an extension?

Disagree on Walker. He is criminally underrated.

The Sox need to blow their team up and this is the time to do it.

Yeah probably. If he's healthy and good for a year and hits the market without the punishment of losing a pick then he will do well next year. He isn't a full time solution but I hope we sign Steve Pearce. He can play a bit of second, third and corner outfield, as well as 1B or DH if Cron or Pujols get injured. He should be available pretty cheaply too.

Walker and Hellickson accepting really isn't ideal for teams who want to improve via the free agent market. I thought Walker would be valuable enough to overcome that but I guess he thought he would be better placed in a year.

Otani probably isn't going to be posted this year, so this is most likely a discussion for a year or two down the track. I can't vouch for him strongly enough, however. I've watched heaps of Japanese baseball in the past 18 months and the biggest reason is him. He is the most exciting baseball player in the world at the moment, Mike Trout aside. His power is crazy, he runs the bases pretty well, walks at a pretty good clip and back when they let him play the field he was actually a pretty good outfielder. Of course that doesn't even mention that he throws about as hard as Syndergaard and has good off-speed pitches too. When he eventually comes over, I really hope he ends up on a team I don't hate because I can't see myself ever cheering against him. I also really hope he ends up on a team that uses him as a two-way player. He's good enough to scrap the DH for when he's pitching and to use as the DH (or even in the outfield) on days when he isn't.

I don't actually think this is true anymore, in part because of how loaded the Cubs and Dodgers are. At some point in the near future, Trout will stop being the most valuable trade chip in baseball purely because his period of club control is getting shorter. That point might not be far away. Corey Seager and Kris Bryant are both under club control for a year more than Trout now and, while Mike is still significantly better, the gap in quality between them isn't that big. It wouldn't be that hard for the Dodgers to put together a package of, say, Seager, Urias and Pederson or for the Cubs to package Bryant, Soler and Contreras and suddenly you have the building blocks of a pretty epic deal. None of this will happen, obviously. And I'm not saying it should, either. I'm just pointing out that I think we're past the point of it being impossible for a team to put together a pretty damn compelling offer, if one so desired.

I paid very little attention to Phillips and the Reds this year. Taking a quick look at his stats, how the hell was his walk rate only 3.1 per cent? Even Mark Trumbo and C.J. Cron would laugh at that one. I don't really get the attraction to him to be honest. He's a below average hitter these days, who would be moving to a better league, and the numbers say he can't defend anymore either. That's an opportunity I would be happy to pass up.

I really like what the Braves are doing. They got Colon and Dickey on very reasonable deals and Walden has the potential to represent very good value too. As much as I think they'll improve a lot this year, they'll probably still be deadline sellers and all of those guys could have decent value in July.