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By Jeff Todd and Steve Adams | at
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YourDaddy
As far as the shortstop position goes for the Padres, why another older player? Why not make a trade with the Cubs for Javier Baez. There is no place for him as an everyday player on the Cubs roster with Addison Russell at short and Starlin Castro at 2B. Behind those two you have Tommy LaStella, Arismendy Alcantara and a few more.
rdavis1149
I feel as though Baez would cost a lot of talent such as a high caliber starter, which the Padres kind of need to keep as much as they need to add a shortstop. What do you think?
Brixton
Would the Phillies be crazy for going for the 26 year old Heyward, 26 year old Leake or 28 year old Upton? They’d all be right in the middle of their primes in 2-3 years.
eilexx
The Phillies would be crazy to NOT go for Heyward. He’s a perfect fit for the team…a good all-around hitter, great defense, young, etc. He’s definitely worth the cost of a 2nd round pick (they’d have to sacrifice it to sign him).
Mike Leake I’m not sold on…he’s a decent pitcher, but not someone you can build a rotation around. The Phillies have two options in regards to SP in free agency…go big…sign a Price, Cueto or Zimmerman (although he’ll cost draft pick compensation most likely) to headline the rotation (I think Price is the best idea, and front-load the contract so it does not become an albatross) or sign a low-cost, risky but high upside pitcher (i.e., Fister). Signing Leake…who’s in between…a 3/4 type who’s going to be paid decent money, doesn’t make sense with where they are. (I think signing Price makes sense because all he costs is money, which they have, and they can structure his contract so it doesn’t hurt them in the long-run, because the FA classes of the upcoming years are terrible, and because Price makes them better…maybe not playoff better yet, but with all the young players that should be coming up in the next couple of years the environment would be better coming to a team that can win 75-80 games rather than one that struggles for 60-65. Think the time Utley came up vs. the time Rolen came up…Utley became a star playing in a positive environment while Rolen became bitter losing 95 games a year.)
As for Upton? No way! I wouldn’t sign any player with the name Upton. Justin/BJ/Melvin. Nope. And besides…J. Upton is not that good. Sure, he hits home runs…but that’s about it. He’s not a very good hitter overall, he strikes out way too much, is poor defensively and way too streaky.
bravos4evr
Justin Upton hits 20-30% better than an average hitter, walks 10% of the time and K’s less than 1/4th of the time. He’s a pretty damn good overall hitter and possesses the rarest trait in MLB today, RH power. at age 28 he is going to get a lot of money. If I was an AL team, I’d sign him and know that in 3 or 4 years, if he stops playing LF I’d still probably have the best DH in MLB.
eilexx
So because he walks every ten at-bats, strikes out 25% of the time he comes to the plate, and produces a OPS+ 20 points higher than league average he’s a star? He’s a streaky hitter who’s good, but not great. The power drought in MLB is slowly ending, and Upton isn’t a premier power hitter. He’s a decent power hitter. And would you risk spending elite money on another player with the last name Upton? Worked out so well last time a team did that.