At this point, the most shocking part of a Florida Marlins trade is if they go 48 hours without making one. Sure enough, Florida is back at it again, sending reliever Tim Crabtree to the Oakland Athletics for a 1997 third-round pick. And honestly? This feels like one of those trades where everyone involved probably got exactly what they wanted. The Marlins just announced that Crabtree was available, and unlike some players who linger on the...
The Montreal Expos enter this draft in one of the most frustrating positions in baseball. Not because they're bad. Not because they're rebuilding. Not because they lack talent. Quite the opposite. They just finished with the best record in the league and still found themselves watching somebody else play for a championship. Welcome to baseball. A sport where 162 games of dominance can be undone by three cold hitters and one reliever forgetting...
If this offseason has taught us anything, it's that the Orlando Devil Rays have finally accepted reality. Reality, in this case, being that paying large sums of money to aging veterans on a roster isn't good. First it was Jeff Bagwell. Now it's Andy Benes. The Devil Rays have sent Benes to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for a 1997 fourth-round pick, continuing what has become the defining theme of Orlando's winter: converting bad long-term...
There are days when a trade comes across my desk and I immediately start writing. There are days when I spend an hour digging through statistics, contracts, scouting reports, and organizational trends trying to understand what just happened. And then there are days like today. The St. Louis Cardinals traded Luis Sojo to the Florida Marlins for Gary Disarcina. Seriously. What am I supposed to do with this? This...
The Cincinnati Reds are in unfamiliar territory. Not because they're drafting in the first round. They're always around. Not because they're bad. They're very much not. What's unusual is seeing Cincinnati picking this high after the type of season they just had. This is a franchise accustomed to competing. And honestly, they did plenty of that last season. Division winners. Top three in most offensive categories. Top three in most starting...
Oh look. The Seattle Pilots are back on the clock. Again. At this point, half the first round feels less like a draft and more like an extended Seattle team-building exercise. Somewhere around Pick #12 I started wondering if the Pilots were simply going to draft every player I like and leave the rest of the league to sort out the leftovers. To their credit, they've been remarkably committed to a philosophy. No half measures. No playing it safe....
MOCK DRAFT — PICK #15 Seattle Pilots The Seattle Pilots are back. Again. At this point, Seattle has accumulated so many premium assets that every few picks I expect them to wander back into the draft room carrying another first-round selection they found behind a couch somewhere. So far, the strategy has been remarkably consistent. Acquire talent. Ignore timelines. Embrace risk. Ask questions later. The Pilots entered the offseason with...
The league-operated Colorado Rockies are back on the clock, and after selecting Mike Lowell at Pick #7, they've got a chance to continue something they haven't really had in a while: A coherent long-term plan. That's admittedly a low bar, but we're working with what we've got. With no permanent owner yet in place, the Rockies continue to lean into the safest philosophy available: accumulate talent, don't overcomplicate things, and leave the...
Sometimes draft picks require pages of analysis. Sometimes there are multiple viable candidates. Sometimes front offices spend weeks agonizing over competing philosophies, positional value, organizational fit, and long-term projections. And sometimes the player who has been sitting at the very top of your board for weeks unexpectedly falls right into your lap. As soon as Seattle announces Paul Lo Duca at Pick #12, somewhere in St. Louis, owner...
Just when you thought the Seattle Pilots might settle down and make a sensible selection, they remind everyone that "sensible" appears nowhere in their organizational mission statement. This is already the franchise responsible for one of the biggest moves of the offseason, shipping away the first overall pick and walking away with Vladimir Guerrero. At the time, I described Seattle's strategy as a simple one: Best player available. Every pick....