HokieOs

They can have Holliday for Crease...... And Colson Montgomery... and Noah Schultz... and Nick Nastrini... and Luis Robert. In other words.... sure, Holliday's on the table if they want to be stupid.

Only if the return is reasonable. While I'd love to make a deal as much as anyone else, we can't go making trades to make trades. We're probably a year ahead of schedule right now and don't want to get rid of future pieces/trade chips now while we frankly need more than just one high-level starter.

Tillman+Jones+Sherrill (who was a solid closer for us, albeit on a bad team). Mickolio was actually a pretty nice reliever for me in MLB The Show.

And the White Sox sure wont be selling under either assumption. To get Cease, we'll have to give up some real value.

Why would Chicago agree to that? Cease is above average NOW. Norby and Povich are guys who have a shot at maybe being above average one day... if all goes well. Both project to be about average. Cowser or Kjerstad, Povich, and another top 10-15 guy maybe is more reasonable.

Yeah. A one game sample size is nothing. But if he continue to make plays and get those DPs, then we may be on to something.

I'm late to this, but I'd put in a vote for 56-60. But better days are ahead.

Also lovely to see that Dish cut bait with MASN. Oh well, with them ditching the Hurricanes too, might as well switch.

Decent signing and not a particularly high risk one. If he goes all Ubaldo, we can cut bait without too much regret. But he has the potential to be a legitimate mid-rotation guy. Given that we have exactly two guys who have proven anything returning next year in the rotation, it's good to have a third guy. I'd love to sign one more SP in the next couple weeks. And this contract allows us to do so.

Now with the addition another legitimate starter in Miley, I feel a little better about our odds. I had our chances of making the playoffs at a bit 55-60% going into yesterday. With Miley, I think we're at about 60-65% as our big need is a guy who can simply eat innings with moderate effectiveness. There's a decent chance Miley can do that. Odds of winning the division are still about right. My guess is that we finish 3rd and it's between us and Detroit for the 2nd Wild Card bid. The series in Michigan Sept 9-11 could be big for our playoff chances.

I wouldn't say that being a game and a half back in the Wild Card race was an "uphill battle". We weren't that far back. I think there were a lot of warning signs there that the team would fall back, but I could see the logic behind making a move if you think Parra's bat would continue to stay hot. Unfortunately, his bat cooled off as soon as he got to Baltimore. That said, I never really got the feeling that the Os ever saw him as a legit prospect. Maybe it was a mistake, though I still don't really see the big deal. I really saw this as a nothing-burger kind of trade. We gave up a pitcher who some see upside in for a hot bat that ended up cooling off.

That's part of what makes this game great. Guys prove people wrong all the time. Davies has already gotten much further than most people would have pegged him a few years ago. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to still have him on our side.

I don't think the goal was to compete with the moves that the Jays made (and for all the Jays gave up, their moves better work... though I really wish it would blow up in their faces). I think the goal was more to at least stay in the Wild Card hunt and if we're in the AL East race too in the end, great. But yes, the team had bigger problems. I wouldn't be surprised if we TRIED to sell but couldn't get as much for Davis, Chen, and/or Wieters as we thought we should. Parra was a decent move, but unfortunately, we have had other problems that have reared their ugly heads even worse than we had seen earlier this season. There was reason to believe at the end of July that MAYBE we could have another run left in us. Now, there's nothing left in the tank and that is clear. Getting above 75 wins would be pretty surprising to me at this point. A winning record is a pipe dream. But the Parra move won't have anything to do with it, and we gave up a player with little future value IMO.

Not a ridiculous statement at all, as it's not "only" based on a couple starts. I've had this opinion of Davies since he was in Norfolk and pitching well. Also, pitching in the VERY pitcher-friendly confines of Harbor Park surely helped him too.

I'll grant you that, except if our FO saw that potential in him, I don't think we trade him. IMO, Davies was about third down the list this year of guys who could come up and pitch. And as for the future, we can find other guys down the road who have the potential to do the same thing. And the way he's pitching right now in AAA, do we really want him going up against a MLB lineup? He'd be eaten alive even worse than our current crop.