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Britton and Arrieta on Trading Block?


Bradysburns

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Co-sign. Great post, you captured my feelings precisely.

While I don't think any of us are thrilled with jake's inconsistency this far in his career, trading him for pennies on the dollar in the preseason simply because "we have a plethora of pitchers" would just be a huge mistake.

I'd love to have a second second basemen to plug in when Roberts struggles mightily early in the season, but short of an established stud 2b or at least a solid prospect 2b who can play almost every day in the majors, I do not think trading two of our better young prospects at this point in time for much less than they are worth is a very good idea. At least let a few months play out and see exactly where we are and what we need.

What if we trade arrieta and britton in the preseason for a 2b and then Roberts miraculously rebounds and we are stuck with two playing options for 1 spot and then Hammel gets injured, Chen regressed, Tillman reverts to his old ways or Gonzo's great stretch comes to an end? Any combo of those could happen and then the people who want to drive Arrieta to the airport would be begging for him to come back.

I'd at least let Gausman and Bundy get their feet wet at AAA before we start talking about shipping Jake and Zachary off.

I agree with this take. Luckily, DD is shrewd - he ain't going to trade these guys away for seeds. My take is: There is ZERO urgency to trade either/or this spring, or even well into the season. The only possible thing I could see would be for a really good position player. But there's no way you're getting that without packaging them, so... I suspect we'll watch them both pitch well into summer, even if it's at Triple-A.

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This is complete crap. We didn't hold on to our young starters in the off season to dump them during preseason. The bottom line is that other gms are probably salivating over at least one of them (take your pick depending on the team) and acting like they are failed prospects not worth anything in the hopes they can get them at the lowest value. We didn't make moves over the offseason because young starters with great potential are much more valueable then what we were offered. You sell high, not low and thank God DD knew enough not to treat these guys as if they were not worth much. I fully expect each one of these guys to be in the majors then next 10 years with varying degrees of success. We could hit the jackpot and be sitting on gold or we could get a couple of average starters. But, either way, you don't treat them as throw ins for an average leftfielder or second baseman.

Very few folks, if any, here are advocating moving Britton, Matusz or Jake for pennies on the dollar. I don't think it would be any big shock if multiple starters went down that we would want these guys back if traded.

However, in the normal course of events, the future opportunities for these three could be limited as other pitchers (Gausman, Bundy, others) step up in line to take their chance at excelling as a starting pitcher. Matusz and Jake, in particular, have had numerous chances to establish as positive impacts to our major league rotation over the past two plus years.

The number of five to 10 start trials remaining for each of these three may be two or three at most before their values take a steep dive.

Hopefully, they will excel soon, but it wouldn't surprise me to see one or two moved by mid-season.

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Very few folks, if any, here are advocating moving Britton, Matusz or Jake for pennies on the dollar. I don't think it would be any big shock if multiple starters went down that we would want these guys back if traded.

However, in the normal course of events, the future opportunities for these three could be limited as other pitchers (Gausman, Bundy, others) step up in line to take their chance at excelling as a starting pitcher. Matusz and Jake, in particular, have had numerous chances to establish as positive impacts to our major league rotation over the past two plus years.

The number of five to 10 start trials remaining for each of these three may be two or three at most before their values take a steep dive.

Hopefully, they will excel soon, but it wouldn't surprise me to see one or two moved by mid-season.

I completely agree that they cannot trade them before the season. They need to reinflate their value, to some degree. But that said... would you still be interested in a deal with Jake and Matusz, say, for Headley? It seems Headley-mania has cooled off significantly since Manny came to town.

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I completely agree that they cannot trade them before the season. They need to reinflate their value, to some degree. But that said... would you still be interested in a deal with Jake and Matusz, say, for Headley? It seems Headley-mania has cooled off significantly since Manny came to town.

That deal doesn't come close to getting Headley anymore. I imagine almost everyone here would pull the trigger on that. It would be silly not to.

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... and where Tillman was before his breakout last season...

Off topic a bit, but I think some people might be overstating Tillman's breakout. Our postseason starters lined up as follows:

Saunders, Hammel, Chen, Gonzalez, Saunders, Hammel

My expectations for Tillman remain #4 starter.

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Off topic a bit, but I think some people might be overstating Tillman's breakout. Our postseason starters lined up as follows:

Saunders, Hammel, Chen, Gonzalez, Saunders, Hammel

My expectations for Tillman remain #4 starter.

The bottom line with all these guys is that their upside is higher than the guy we would be getting in return. Since none of them are proven, expecting other GMs to pay top dollar at this time is unrealistic. So we hold on to them and let them compete. One of the ways teams improve is competition from within. That, we definitely have.

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Off topic a bit, but I think some people might be overstating Tillman's breakout. Our postseason starters lined up as follows:

Saunders, Hammel, Chen, Gonzalez, Saunders, Hammel

My expectations for Tillman remain #4 starter.

I think you are my favorite poster on here! ha! Seriously, all your posts are excellent, just though you should know that.

I have stated over and over that # of arms don't equate to depth. Tillman is still a huge quesiton mark and based on his first appearance, he is the Tillman we knew originally. It is early, but he is not a proven commodity. Neither is Gonzo or Chen.

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Tillman made a huge statement last year so he really shouldn't be a "huge" questionmark this year. The big thing with Chris is, can he keep his pitch count down? Chris can do it, we've all seen it. Just needs to figure out how to keep doing it. I believe Chris is only 24 years old, right? I'm not so worried and think Chris will be just fine. Perhaps a #1 or #2 starter by next year. He certainly has the stuff for it. Yes, Chris looked like the Chris Tillman of old after his first outing, and he might be that guy all year, but it's not fair to suggest that. Chris is young and showed enough last year to deserve better from us than making hasty comments. I wasn't too disappointed with Chris's first outing because he showed good poise and you could tell he was working on stuff rather than working on getting outs. That's what spring is for.

As for Britton and Arrieta, what's so wrong about looking to trade them? SOMEBODY needs to go soon- remember, there are guys named Wada, Bundy and Guasman who will be ready in the near future. Zach might just win the fifth spot right- it's early no doubt, but Brian may be the only dependable lefty in our pen which means he stays there. No matter, but as Captain Obvious would say, it's best to sell high. Trading Zach and or Jake in the offseason would have meant selling low. I'd hate to see either one go because I love their potential, but with so many good arms around somebody is going to land elsewhere. I am just hoping we get some good bats in return.

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Tillman made a huge statement last year so he really shouldn't be a "huge" questionmark this year. The big thing with Chris is, can he keep his pitch count down? Chris can do it, we've all seen it. Just needs to figure out how to keep doing it. I believe Chris is only 24 years old, right? I'm not so worried and think Chris will be just fine. Perhaps a #1 or #2 starter by next year. He certainly has the stuff for it. Yes, Chris looked like the Chris Tillman of old after his first outing, and he might be that guy all year, but it's not fair to suggest that. Chris is young and showed enough last year to deserve better from us than making hasty comments. I wasn't too disappointed with Chris's first outing because he showed good poise and you could tell he was working on stuff rather than working on getting outs. That's what spring is for..

It seems like he has pretty good stamina though. I don't think he's a guy you necessarily have to play Cinderella with at 100 pitches.

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It seems like he has pretty good stamina though. I don't think he's a guy you necessarily have to play Cinderella with at 100 pitches.

Agree to an extent. But the way Chris threw the other day, he'd have hit that that mark in the third inning. That's not good.

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The Baltimore Orioles aren't exactly loaded in the starting rotation as the 2013 schedule approaches, and are reportedly in the market for a proven veteran but FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reports the O's are expected to check the market for left-hander Zach Britton this spring, citing a rival executive.

An insider rumor article ..........

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I don't think that Duquette would make a blanket "NO" statement for any pitchers other than Bundy and Gausman. Given the focus on winning now, Hammel, Chen, and Gonzalez would be tough to trade at this point, as well. I think that all of Matusz, Arrieta, Britton, Johnson, and Jurrgens are being given a fair shot at that last spot in the rotation, with Matusz also a likely candidate for the bullpen.

Very interested in watching Braddock's return from injury in the minors, as well. Understand he was cleared to throw from a mound yesterday. Don't want to sleep on Schlereth, either. A couple of interesting lefties. Duquette has done another great job in building depth at AAA. He clearly is using Norfold to stockpile players that can help right away at the major league level - Dickerson, Robinson, Ford, Pearce, Canzler, Ishikawa, Valencia, Navarro, Flaherty, Hendrickson and the other pitchers...

I think that Avery, Hoes, and Schoop, along with Bundy, Gausman, and Wright, all get pushed back to AA which will be were we develop true prospects. They clearly aren't afraid to promote directly from Bowie when the talent dictates.

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