Once again, words are being put into my mouth. You literally just quoted me before typing this, then changed every word of it. I meant what I said. I didn't say I "knew that the Marlins thought little of him". I said they weren't confident that he would develop (into the player they envisioned when they drafted him). That much can be easily deduced.
You wouldn't give up the #5 pick, #37 pick and Tucker for a 25 year old starting pitcher under team control with a career era of 3.23? I would. Hell, I would give up the #2 pick, #5 pick and #37 pick right now if you promised me a #2 starter for the next 7-8 years.
Smart. Then what if after you traded for him you were told he's started 2 games in his career? There are other stats and metrics besides a 3.24 ERA that you may want to dive into and evaluate before making that trade. But hey, I'm no GM or scout.
You've seemingly (and, as is your custom, stubbornly) landed on the idea that the Marlins traded Colin Moran when it's very possible - in fact, highly possible - that they instead traded *for* Jarred Cosart. Understand the difference? Moran was simply the price they had to pay to acquire a pitcher with Cosart’s credentials. A trade doesn’t necessarily devalue a player, especially if the team places a higher value on the ROI. And generally speaking, there are few pieces in baseball more desired than pitching; in fact, I’m not sure there is anything of greater value. So a club-controlled 24-year old top pitching prospect with MLB success is a significant commodity. And while you could absolutely read the Marlins’ willingness to deal Moran as a sign of unrest with his development, it’s just as likely – again, given that we can all agree that pitchers of Cosart’s ilk are coveted commodities – that the Marlins offering Moran is indicative of them actually being quite high on him. … Here’s the deal, cardpire… You’re not by any means wrong. In fact, you may be 100% right. But you never positioned your “educated guess” as anything other than “certain” (see Major’s pull quote). And when you were called on it (along with your misunderstanding/misrepresentation of my comment), you unfortunately defaulted to what you do too often: deflection, distraction, misrepresentation, finger-pointing... I think it’s actually a fairly interesting educated guess. Why you too often bury that in guns-blazing, feet-stomping rhetoric, I’ll never understand. (Actually, I unfortunately *do* understand – how long ago was the Manning thread? And you’re still licking your wounds?... Move on, my man……)
All this propping up of Jared Cosart as a viable/young starting pitcher... and the Astros current need for starting pitching... Ok, not going there.
The Astros don't have a huge need for starting pitching. They could use another one, certainly - as could every team. But they have the hardest pieces (a #1 and #2) and another 2 functional starters. Almost every team in the league could use a better 5th starter, but the Astros are somewhere near the top of the league in ERA. I think they are probably pretty happy with Marisnick at this point.
Given that Cosart is a real-life player with real-life stats that was actaully traded in real-life, there's not much hypothetical about it. Except it can't be easily deduced - in fact, it can't be deduced at all. Without knowing how much or little they valued Cosart or Marisnick, you can't determine how they valued Moran. You're just entirely making it up. Ignoring all the secondary pieces, you have an equation of: Moran + Marisnick = Cosart You can't determine the value of Moran unless you know the other two.
Which one of us brought it up, cardpire? Was it me? Given your MO, you probably think it was me.... but it wasn't. So, yeah, I'm good: posted exactly what I meant.
Oh no, you misunderstood me...I was absolutely the one who alluded to it. I just mean that if you want to criticize me for bringing it back up, maybe something like "you're still tooting your own horn" or "you're still rubbing that in my face" would make more sense.
I'm basing my statement on what Luhnow said... he said its our biggest need/weakness and he's going to look to improve this facet. (http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2015/05/04/astros-prepared-to-add-to-keep-team-rolling-division-lead/#31931101=0) I agree we are all pleased with Marisnick... if he ends up being the only viable MLB player in the deal, I wonder if they could have gotten him for something other than a 24 year old starting pitcher with club control (Marlins seemed to be dealing from a position of depth when they made the decision to trade him).
This would’ve been better-timed yesterday, before the Astros lost a game to the Rangers, thereby having their winning streak snapped. Good teams don’t want to make a habit of losing games to the Rangers. But the timing doesn’t matter, because the message still stands: even with the loss, the Astros currently have the best record in the American League. More than that, the Astros have put a full seven games between themselves and the next-closest team in their division. The other AL division leads: two games, and half of a game. As a reminder, the team we’re talking about right now is the Houston Astros. You know how this works. All these posts nowadays have to contain this information. On Opening Day, we gave the Astros a 14% chance at the playoffs, with a 5% chance at the division. Now they’re at 51% and 36%, respectively. They’re the favorites to win the AL West, even though we have them projected to play the rest of the way slightly below .500. It’s the whole thing about every game mattering. The Astros’ advantage is in the books, and the season is about a sixth complete. Let’s say, before the year, you figured the Astros would be 10 games worse than their direct competition. Let’s say you still believe that! Over the remainder, with the season shortened, you’d put the difference a hair over eight games. And, as I write this, the Astros’ lead is seven games. It’s very simple math. Because of their start, and because of the starts of their various rivals, the 2015 Houston Astros are for real. More at the link http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2015-featuring-the-league-leading-houston-astros/
Well, I guess it's true what they say - water always finds its level. I'm still on the bandwagon, FWIW.
Had a friend send me this after last nights game: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v4jGSvxCRp4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
