I’d bet that Felix would get more than either of those too(sic).

I won’t argue the point, but Grinke and Lincecum both have a consistent advantage over Felix in K/9, BB/K and WHIP. Greinke has better control than either Felix or Lincecum. And in none of the other categories does Felix have an offsetting edge. In terms of innings and LOB% there isn’t much difference between the three.

Forgive the tweak about the spelling, I struggle here with the spelling and grammar, it doesn’t come easy to me.

I think there may have been some confusion, since the comment about emotional issues failed to clearly identify whose issues it was referring to.

That would be my emotioanl issues he was referring to.

Why not An Uggla for Lopez swap?

Uggla is older (Lopez right now is younger than Uggla was when he reached the majors four years ago) and a lot more expensive (over $5M now, perhaps as much as $9M in arbitration; Lopez is on a contract for about $2M). Uggla has far better plate discipline (but in that regard Lopez is the worst among regular 2Bs in baseball) and overall was slightly more valuable last year, but the offensive value of both is tied to BABIP which tends to be pretty variable.

But if you’re looking for power, I’m not sure that what you get from Uggla will offset the extra millions you pay him… especially since Lopez is still at an age where more power may develop (in fact, take a look at the second graph here.) It’s certainly true that Uggla would have fewer “just barely” HRs at Safeco or McAfee right now, but Lopez is still getting stronger that may be less of an issue for him either.

Defensively, Uggla is a full win worse than Lopez (as hard as that is to believe); in fact, he may not be considered a 2B anymore. I’d say his biggest upside is his OBP, not his power. And I don’t see that being worth his age and cost. I can see why the Marlins might make that trade, but I don’t see why the M’s do it (unless there is more coming from Florida).

But don’t take my word for it: listen to Dave.

Emotional issues? What?

This is a joke, yes?

Emotional issues? What?

I don’t know that I’d call them “emotional” per se but he’s been pretty open about it, which is a step in the right direction for the sport (maybe in another decade one of the gay players will finally be able to admit it). But with it now under control I wouldn’t assume it’s any more of a risk than a past substance abuse problem like Josh Hamilton or even a diabetes condition like Morrow. I mean, hey, let’s not foget we have Ian Snell right here too.

However I could completely understand if Greinke wanted to not go somewhere like NY where it would get brought up in huge headlines in the Post and speculated about incessantly on WFAN whenever he had a bad outing.

Whoever reports the 4/$45 M story is nuts. My gut reaction is also that the offer would be an insult.

I’d guess that the “philosophical dancing” didn’t start with such an exchange of numbers. I bet they started with exploring preferences and years, with the M’s saying something like they’d love to sign Felix to a 4 year deal, and Felix’ agent countering that they’d be open to consider a 6 year deal if the price was right. Something like that, anyway.

Dave:

6/100 would be buying out his first four years of free agency for ~$75 million.

Which sounds affordable, at $18.75 million per year. Felix + Silva in 2010 will be more than that.

I was tempted to wax philsophical about how little it would take to get me to play for Seattle, if I could play at a professional level, but that’s disrespectful to those that can and presumes that I can predict what I would do when there are real 7 digit offers in front of me.