Very exciting to see that Rizzo will be in the top 100 given that you only ranked him sixth in the Padres org. I gotta think the Padres get at least 8 in the top 100.

The problem is that the Cubs already appear to have hired Theo. Getting anyone else will be a PR disaster.

Mike Brown says hello.

A scout actually said that about Parmelee? I guess we can just ignore all of those minor league at-bats.

Kendrys*

Odd comments from the scout. Lots of Boras clients have signed long term deals that bought out their arbitration years.

To Wrigleyviller: The Twins were cheap in the 90's and into the beginnings of the last decade, but times have changed. Rick Reed, Shannon Stewart, Orlando Cabrera, Matt Capps, etc. are examples of them making moves and adding salary during the season in an attempt to make a run. And the opening day payroll has increased from 15 million to 97 million in the last ten years. Please just let the stereotype die.

The Twins won two World Series titles under Pohlad's ownership.

@winenegress: I agree with your general point, but steroids were banned in baseball since at least 1991, when Fay Vincent sent out a memo to all the teams making clear that steroids and other illegal drugs were not allowed in baseball.

The team. The owners really couldn't afford the team when they bought it in 2009, so the payroll is being kept artificially low while the ownership gets its finances in order. Jeff Moorad said last year that the payroll would rise back into the 70-80 million dollar range, but that it may take 2-3 years to get there. Us Padres fans can only hope that he is telling the truth.

Games in the AFL are not terribly well attended, and an advantage to this is that one can hear the players pretty clearly. Sitting down the first base line I listened to Harper calling out encouragement to his pitcher throughout the game, so maybe he is turning the corner.

You are correct.

Incredible how the Rangers appear to have lapped the field in the other direction. Any hypothesis there?

As a Padres fan I agree. The Phillies need to do what is best for them and owe nothing to any of the three NL West teams. I think the unwritten rule about playing your best against contenders really only applies to teams that are out of the race, not those that have actually clinched.

To do that they could have called him up one day earlier and gotten him 45 days of service before September 1st instead of 44. I don't think they really care much either way, and he will be making near the league minimum through 2012.

Sheehan Red: Why Everything Joe Morgan Says About Baseball is Wrong

One clarification: At the time of the Peavy trade, he was owed 52 million from 2010-2012, including the 4 million dollar buyout for 2013. Even with his 2013 buyout included, Haren is only owed 29 million over the next two years, so you are absolutely correct in stating that the risks assumed by the acquiring teams are quite different. Even worse for the Diamondbacks, Joe Saunders will probably make about 6 million next year in arbitration.

If SHINO means Switch Hitter in Name Only, then that term doesn't apply to Venable, who only hits lefthanded. Of course, he can't hit lefties anyway so the point is not lost.

Gluckschmerz don't forget about the Padres, starting off under 40 million with Heath Bell and Adrian Gonzalez (not to mention Chris Young) about to be traded at a moment's notice. The race to the bottom in the NL will be fun to watch :(

Totally agree Grover. Pittsburgh and San Diego should both end up south of 40 million on Opening Day, and they both have stadiums built within the last decade. Not sure why the Union would go after the Rays and A's, as is being reported, before other far worse "offenders"

Posted this in another thread by accident, but I wonder if the Padres were willing to throw a little extra money Hairston's way to keep themselves off the player's union radar given the recent announcement about the Marlins. For some reason no one mentions San Diego but the Padres might have an even lower payroll than Florida in 2010.

I wonder if the Padres were willing to throw a little extra money Hairston's way to keep themselves off the player's union radar given the recent announcement about the Marlins. For some reason no one mentions San Diego but the Padres might have an even lower payroll than Florida in 2010.

Lincecum is only a Super-Two player, so he will be arb. eligible through 2013. Can't imagine what his award might be then if he continues to be a Cy Young caliber pitcher.

$14.25 million

I think the real reason why Lincecum and his agent are no longer interested in a long term deal is that the players union has been on them to get a massive arbitration award, pushing up the market for everyone else.

Bell is arb. eligible through 2011...

...should say 40% luxury tax, which means A-Rod's 30 million dollar salary causes 12 million in taxes. Padres fans are stoked that our share of that money helped us keep David Eckstein through 2010.

No amount of revenue sharing can help small market teams get their payrolls anywhere close to 200 million. The yankees pay a 40%

I believe those are total WS games for each team, home and away

As a fan of neither team I was hoping the game would go to extra innings so we could all watch the vaunted Guzman-Gardner combo hitting in the fourth and fifth spots of the Yankee lineup, with Mark Teixeira never seeing another strike.

The .342 is almost certainly too much to expect every year, but my point was that Mauer's established level is probably closer to the .320 range where Hanley usually resides.

Mauer has been performing at an exceptionally high level since 2006, so I can't get on board with the idea that Ramirez has been a stud all these years while Mauer just showed up. EQA's last four seasons: Mauer-- .315, .282, .306, .342 Ramirez-- .288, .316, .317, .322 The WARP numbers are similarly close, with Mauer at 31.3 over the last four years and Ramirez at 30.9. Of course, Pujols is up over 40 so there is no debate from me on the best overall player until Pujols starts to slide. But the debate between Mauer and Hanley should be a good one over the next couple of years and given that they are only 8 months apart it's a fair one.

You don't replace a far superior hitter with only a one run lead, especially when, as you said, the Twins have just four good hitters and then a bunch of scrubs. With a larger lead I don't have a problem with the move. Obviously replacing Young is the move there if you have to insert Gomez.

No one has mentioned the terrible move by Gardenhire to bring in Gomez as a defensive replacement for Kubel in the top of the eighth. Given that the lead was only one run at the time, it was not unrealistic to think the Twins would need to score again, and Kubel's spot was likely to come up again in the ninth. Sure enough, Ordonez quickly tied it up. As a Twins fan I hope Gardy finally stops taking Kubel, one of the Twins few competent hitters, out before the game has been decided.

Last week Joe said that the Twins could play just two outfielders if they used Gomez and Span out there as both are outstanding defensively. Now the Twins have only two good defenders, Mauer and Gomez. Apparently Span went downhill in a hurry. With that said I'm glad Joe pointed out the typically un-researched, cliched comments about the Twins being fundamentally sound. They make mental mistakes all the time. I suppose that's par for the course in today's sports journalism world, so thank god for BP.

The Braves went out and spent a ton of money to sign Derek Lowe and trade for Javier Vasquez, so I don't think they were just being cheap. I think the real problem is that there is still a feeling, clearly misplaced, within front offices in baseball that Adam Dunn is not that good of a baseball player.

I would have agreed that there is a larger effort to control bonuses before seeing all these monstrous bonuses coming out of the middle rounds. I don't recall seeing this many mid to high six figure bonuses, and in some cases seven figure bonuses, going to players drafted in the third round and beyond. It seems like every update about the signings over the last few days talks about a new record for a given round, only to be broken a few hours later.

If Moore really did understand basic statistical analysis as the author suggests, he would not put more emphasis on the average piece of the triple slash line because anyone who understands these concepts knows how poorly batting average correlates with run scoring.

Steroids have been banned in baseball since at least 1993, although I\'m not sure that alleged use should keep McGwire out of the Hall.