[AlMoStLeGeNdArY]

TopCat, on 13 January 2012 - 06:45 PM, said:

You don't trade proven young stud pitchers who are cheap for potential.

One season doesn't mean a pitcher is proven. They get injured left & right and fall of quickly.

Would you of rather he traded for an old aging vet?

Pineda first half and Pineda 2nd half are two different pitchers mind you. He started great and finished bad. He's far from a finished product. He still needs to show how he was in the first half of the year. He also only pitched 170 innings last year. When his innings goes up what's going to happen? What about when he hit's 200 innings ?

Pineda had a great first half but his second half leaves much to be desired.

[Grumpy]

Toomany10pins, on 13 January 2012 - 05:41 PM, said:

You must be in love with over-rated yankee prospects then. Safeco is going to kill this kids power numbers. Like I said previously, if the M's don't get Fielder then the M's got fleeced.

No way we're in on Fielder now. Where would he play?

Montero: DH
Fielder: DH
Carp: 1B/DH
Smoak: 1B DH

Jaso: C
Olivo: C

Sure, Carp can play a little LF, but that's not his strong suite.

[Shaggy]

Lonnie, on 13 January 2012 - 06:54 PM, said:

For what it's worth....

Jesus Montero is not a product of the Yankees hype machine. He has been universally viewed as the one of the top hitting prospects in baseball for the last 3 years. This is not from the Yankees, this is from Baseball America, Scout.com, etc. Folks can believe what they want, but to deny that Jesus Montero is, and has been, the best pure POWER/AVERAGE hitting prospect in all of baseball is to deny their very own humanity.

Guys, the M's just scored HUGE! With this move the M's didn't just get better, they got a LOT better.

Agreed Lonnie, wholeheartedly.

[AlMoStLeGeNdArY]

Lonnie, on 13 January 2012 - 06:54 PM, said:

For what it's worth....

Jesus Montero is not a product of the Yankees hype machine. He has been universally viewed as the one of the top hitting prospects in baseball for the last 3 years. This is not from the Yankees, this is from Baseball America, Scout.com, etc. Folks can believe what they want, but to deny that Jesus Montero is, and has been, the best pure POWER/AVERAGE hitting prospect in all of baseball is to deny their very own humanity.

Guys, the M's just scored HUGE! With this move the M's didn't just get better, they got a LOT better.

Man Lonnie I'm been running circles around my house. I'm so excited for this move this move almost makes the offense for me. It will also lessen the hurt if we miss out on Fielder but if we do get him boy oh boy. Also watching this kid hit will be fun.

[Lonnie]

Toomany10pins, on 13 January 2012 - 05:20 PM, said:

Z just fell into the "yankee trap" of trading young talent for over-rated yankee prospects.

Montero is universally seen as the best young power/average hitting prospect in all of professional baseball.

Lonnie

[AlMoStLeGeNdArY]

Grumpy, on 13 January 2012 - 06:56 PM, said:

No way we're in on Fielder now. Where would he play?

Montero: C
Fielder: 1B
Carp: LF
Smoak: DH

Jaso: Bench
Olivo: don't care

Sure, Carp can play a little LF, but that's not his strong suite.

my take on where those guys can play.

[Lonnie]

I was right in the middle of working up a Podcast with Conor Glassey of Baseball America when the news broke, so I have a scouting report on Montero and Noesi to be posted up shortly.

Lonnie

[Shaggy]

Grumpy, on 13 January 2012 - 06:56 PM, said:

No way we're in on Fielder now. Where would he play?

Montero: DH
Fielder: DH
Carp: 1B/DH
Smoak: 1B DH

Jaso: C
Olivo: C

Sure, Carp can play a little LF, but that's not his strong suite.

If Fielder is signed, Carp and/or Smoak could suddenly become trade bait for a LF'er that can hit.

[Shaggy]

Regardless, how can you go wrong with Jesus on your side?

[DaddyO]

Ideally Montero becomes a great hit / nothing special catcher after a year mentoring with Olivo and Jaso. Olivo is gone after 2012 anyway unless resigned. If Montero can't cut it at catcher, then he IS your DH, period. If we sign Fielder and Montero settles in at DH, then Smoak becomes expendable via trade, unfortunately when at least for now his trade value is lessened considerably. It's also unfortunate because Smoak is both a left AND right-handed hitter.

If Smoak can fulfill his potential and Montero and Carp can too, the we have a pretty fantastic three-through-six even without Fielder.

3. Ackley, 2B
4. Smoak (1B) or Montero (DH)
5. Montero (DH) or Smoak (1B)
6. Carp (LF)

Then you can add in guys like Wells or a healthy Gutierrez in the seven slot.

[AlMoStLeGeNdArY]

DaddyO, on 13 January 2012 - 07:11 PM, said:

Ideally Montero becomes a great hit / nothing special catcher after a year mentoring with Olivo and Jaso. Olivo is gone after 2012 anyway unless resigned. If Montero can't cut it at catcher, then he IS your DH, period. If we sign Fielder and Montero settles in at DH, then Smoak becomes expendable via trade, unfortunately when at least for now his trade value is lessened considerably. It's also unfortunate because Smoak is both a left AND right-handed hitter.

If Smoak can fulfill his potential and Montero and Carp can too, the we have a pretty fantastic three-through-six even without Fielder.

3. Ackley, 2B
4. Smoak (1B) or Montero (DH)
5. Montero (DH) or Smoak (1B)
6. Carp (LF)

Then you can add in guys like Wells or a healthy Gutierrez in the seven slot.

Who's hitting 2nd for us ?

[tradedollarnut]

I think I like it. Montero isn't a can't miss prospect, but honestly neither is Pineda. Once the league had a book on him, he struggled.

[phredmojo]

another bad trade by Z, i shouldn't be surprised

[Lonnie]

AlMoStLeGeNdArY, on 13 January 2012 - 07:13 PM, said:

Who's hitting 2nd for us ?

A resurgent Chone Figgins will bat in the 2-hole to begin the season. By late July he will be batting .315 with 23 stolen bases and a nifty .389 OBP. His trade to XXXXXXXXX will be swift with the Mariners getting little in return other than financial relief. Munenori Kawasaki, taking over for the injured Brendan Ryan had been tearing up the PCL slips into the 2-hole seamlessly...

[Lonnie]

phredmojo, on 13 January 2012 - 07:17 PM, said:

another bad trade by Z, i shouldn't be surprised

[phredmojo]

see your personal attacks haven't stopped

[Leo Gomez]

It's all been said, so I'll just add: Yay.

[tradedollarnut]

There is no doubt in my mind that this means the M's are NOT signing Fielder.

[MtGrizzly]

You can't have LH hitters 1-9. I've maintained for a long time that the M's can't win without a great RH hitter in the middle of the lineup. We haven't seen that since the peaks of misters Edgar and Boone. Montero has the kind of power that won't be neutralized by Safeco and IIRC, he's not a dead-pull hitter - those are the guys that Safeco really hurts. This ain't Beltre we are talking about here. Montero hits the ball 450+ feet and it won't matter what ballpark he's in - it'll go out. He does that.

I'm not sure if Montero will be a great hitter. Maybe he'll see MLB breaking stuff and pitch sequences and he'll crumble. Maybe Pineda will never develop a third pitch, start to lose his FB due to the volume of sliders he's thrown and become Ben Sheets. Only time will tell if there is a winner and a loser here. Seems like a lateral move to me - promising young pitching for promising young hitting. It makes some sense if you trust that Hultzen, Paxton and Walker are as good as we think.

[Huindekmi]

Are you saying Jesus can't hit a curve ball?