Roundtable on the catching situation

what Nolan Ryan’s metric for catchers is. I don’t recall him being very vocal about his catchers during his career – or playing favorites or anything. Are there any historical clues from Ryan’s past that might telltale his opinions of the four?

then hold on to salty and see if he can raise his trade value then trade him for another ml-ready starting pitcher.

Start TT. have max at DH every game except when is catching to rest TT.

Taylor will really help out the defense and especially the pitching. Max will give us the right-handed power we need. Laird and Salty will give us some of the pitching we need

rather simple for me. Keep and start TT. Max Ram is his backup/DH. Maybe get a veteren backup if MaxRam is going to DH everyday because Board Game leaves.

Deal Laird and Salty for pitching. Easier said than done, but that would be my preference.

But like I’ve said a couple times, I’m not worried about keeping the best catcher, I’m more worried about trading for the best pitcher. If somebody dangles a certain pitcher that grades as top of the rotation potential, and will only accept a handpicked one of the four, I’d part with any of them.

Laird has to go, just to break the log jam at the mlb level. Im hesitant to trade salt right now, just because of his value is been pushed down quite a bit. Add to that the as much as I like TT, I am worried about his injury history and ability to make enough contact to stay behind the dish as a everyday C.

I would explore deals for both Salt and TT, just to gauge value, but without a significant return both stay until at least mid season.

This leaves MadMax. He would be an emergency C/DH/1B, that doesn’t necessarily have to start the season at the MLB level. Start the season in AAA, unless Bradley isn’t resigned , and let the rest of the roster shake it self out.

The other two have 1. middling trade value and 2. lower-than-recent-history trade value.

Delicate.

is not a leadoff hitter.

I’m glad to read that so many esteemed writers also have trouble figuring out what to do with these guys. I think you just deal whoever brings back the most in return and find a way to use whoever is left.

1) Trade Laird. Don’t care to who. Don’t care for what. He just needs to go. I like the guy and I think he’s a solid above average big league backstop, but he’s the odd man out and his presence is keeping us from getting superior players onto the field. So, see ya, pal. Hope you bring back an intriguing arm in return.
2) Send Salty down to AAA for a full season to see if he can pull a Stella and get his groove back. Trading him now would be silly. I’d rather risk having him completely fade away into obscurity with us than deal him right now for pennies on the dollar. Having him down there gives us a nice insurance policy for the big league squad in case the guy we end up rolling with gets hurt. If he’s crushing in OKC in July he’s a valuable trade chip. If not, oh well. At least we didn’t give him away for nothing and watch him succeed elsewhere.
3) Wait and see on Tea. Trade him if there is a nice market for his services. But don’t sell just to sell with this kid. He’s legit, imo. If you get a solid offer for a nice arm or if he can be included as a key cog in a big trade for a pitcher, then pull the trigger on that shit. If not, hold on to him and use him at the big league level to spell our regular catcher so he can DH some.
4) As you might’ve guessed, I believe that Mad Max needs to be our catcher going forward. If Tea stays then Max can start 80-100 games behind the plate and DH the rest. If Tea goes then you bring in a gritty veteran with great face and Max becomes the everyday catcher with only occasional forays in the land of the designated hitter. I just don’t see how you can not go with Max going forward. The bat is a weapon and the glove is passable. He’s Jorge Posada! Part Duex and that’s a really nice piece to have, Yankee hatred aside. If he’s not our starting catcher in ’09 and going forward then we suck at making baseball decisions and should all be shot in the face or maybe the leg.

for whatever you can get. He has the least amount of cheap years left, and he is really a fairly replaceable talent, much like Barajas. Unfortunately, I don’t think you get much back in return, but I don’t think you will get overwhelmed with an offer for any of them.

I’d love to trade Salty, but I am not so optimistic that we can trade both this offseason and bring back a truly rewarding package. so I think Laird’s gone, Salty starts for us and hopefully builds his trade value up, Teagarden backs him up until Salts is traded or Tea proves he is healthy enough to take over every day, and Max is on the team as the primary DH if we don’t re sign Milton or he is healthy enough for the outfield, and that Max backs up C and 1B as well