I don’t care about them much this year, but I’ll still go to a couple of games at MMP this year.

//St. Arnold’s on the on concourse in right field…

All year in our house.

Amen to that.

All year in our house.

Right. Not every move is going to turn out to be a good one. I could see Correa never quite becoming what’s expected of him. But with Luhnow turning so many guys who were on the Opening Day Roster in 2012 into 2-3 prospects from other teams he’s built in a lot of redundancy against failure.

I still can’t believe you guys gave us Singleton and Cosart in that deal. It’s funny because at the time Philly fans were saying how stupid we were, specifically Ed Wade, for not getting Domonic Brown. Yes it’s possible that Singleton and Cosart could both bomb, but I’d rather get an organization’s second and third best prospects instead of their #1 by himself.

Agreed. That trade is emblematic of what Luhnow has been doing. Take a guy with some value and turn him into two or three other minor leaguers with lots of potential. He’s throwing lots of bodies and talent at the lack of depth on the bench and in the farm system. One of them is bound to be a hit.

I’m really big on Singleton

I’m still upset about that trade. Had we not traded Singleton, we could’ve cast off Howard onto the Dodgers at this point. And Cosart too.

/fire RAJ

The Lowrie trade was the first one by Luhnow that caused me to do a double take. But I still think it’s a good deal in the long term. Lowrie is never a lock to play 100 games let along 140 or 162. He may be good when he’s in, but the problem is that he’s never in the game because he can’t stay healthy.

they got a decent haul for him too, I think. Peacock and Carter at the very least are worth a shot.

Harrell was almost the lone bright spot last year. Lowrie is gone too. He wasn’t dead weight, especially by Astros standards.

Yeah Lyles is supposed to be a ground ball pitcher. He’s never going to be a K machine, so when he has a shitty defense behind him, like he did last year, he’s going to be in trouble. I don’t know what the BABIP for batters facing Harrell was last year, but I bet it was pretty low…which means he could come back down to earth a little this year.

The Lowrie trade was the first one by Luhnow that caused me to do a double take. But I still think it’s a good deal in the long term. Lowrie is never a lock to play 100 games let along 140 or 162. He may be good when he’s in, but the problem is that he’s never in the game because he can’t stay healthy.

I’m a big Singleton fan. Hoping to see him arrive at some point this year.

I’m fully on board with what Luhnow and Crane are doing. It’s necessary. The McLane/Purpura/Wade approach was a terrible one and only put off this rebuilding project longer. They deserve the blame for where we are. But mostly under Luhnow’s watch we’ve gone from having the second worst farm system in baseball to the 9th best.

I’m really big on Singleton and if he handles his 50 game suspension well and has a solid stint at Oklahoma City this year then I bet he gets a September call up. It could be earlier if Pena and Wallace suck this year, but Singleton is also going to be missing 250+ ABs and he might need another season in AAA to get on track. He will compete for the first base slot in 2014 spring training though.

I think George Springer is either on the Opening Day Roster this year or is one of the first call ups. Everything about him suggests he is really close to ready for the show.

Matt Dominguez intrigues me at third this year. The only problem with that is that the last time I was intrigued by a guy coming off a solid second half of a season it was J.D. Martinez in 2011…and we saw how that turned out.

Lyles is due for a bounce back from the rough year he had last year. Harrell, though, bothers me. Great season last year but a low K-rate.

Lyles k-rate is super low, too, no?

Harrell was almost the lone bright spot last year. Lowrie is gone too. He wasn’t dead weight, especially by Astros standards.

I didn’t know Nick and Sam’s had a deli

Corner of Cedar Springs and Fairmount. They do great sandwich-soup combos for $10-13.

We did jettison some deadweight from last year: Bogusevic, Schaefer among them. I think Bud Norris will have a decent year and Lyles is due for a bounce back from the rough year he had last year. Harrell, though, bothers me. Great season last year but a low K-rate.

The Boston FO did a good job extended young players to club-friendly terms (Lester/Buch/Youk/Pedroia) but traded away the next group of guys to extend (Rizzo/Kelly etc) to pay for wins on the free market, which is just not a value buy.

the Crawford and Lackey signings are still totally baffling to me.

PECOTA has us at 67.5 wins and 94.5 losses. That seems generous to me. I think 100 losses is in order once again.

I think you’re right but I like the direction they’re going in. They’ve committed to sucking in the short term and developing talent in their system. A couple more years of high first round picks should help.

I’m a big Singleton fan. Hoping to see him arrive at some point this year.

Man, Uptown has some great lunch places. Nick & Sam’s Deli (no, no, not the steak house). Prime Bar. Common Table. Company Cafe. Naan Sushi.

Nope, I went home for lunch. It’s nice to live less than 10 minutes away from where you work.

I didn’t know Nick and Sam’s had a deli. I’ll have to check that out.

Yeah, this.

2014 is when I expect major improvement and 2015 is when I expect us to be competing in the division for at least part of the season if not the whole way.