<html><head></head><body><div class="yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Hello,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">As we limp into the end of the season I am looking (as most of you non-playoff teams are) to figure out what I have for next year. And what I have is the following:</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> 1. An amazing collection of starting pitching, and;<br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> 2. A terrible lineup.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">My SPs are good. I mean, really really good. Besides ATL Sale (the best SP in the league), CIN Martinez (How, exactly, did he post a 4.0 bWAR?), LAN Flaherty (194/38 K/BB ratio, 1.068 whip), WAS Williams (only 13 MLB starts, but an ace for the playoffs with a 59/18 K/BB, 1.035 whip, and 0.4 HR/9). And that's not even considering my young guys like TB Bradley and CIN Lodolo who have pretty good cards but aren't those four.<br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">So, what to do. I see three possibilities:</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> 1. Stand pat, rebuild my hitting in the draft, and see what happens.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> 2. Trade *one* of my starting pitchers (probably Flaherty or MArtinez but maybe Sale) for hitting and run with the rest. <br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> 3. Blow things up, trade all four aces for future value, and rebuild.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">So, I am exploring (2) and (3). If I trade *one* of the pitchers (Flaherty, Martinez, or Sale), it would be for a really good young/in prime OF. And I mean good, not your 85 OPS hanging around prospect that you will try to convince me will pan out. I want to trade up, not down, and will be willing to package good draft picks in the *right* deal.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">If I go with the "blow everything up" plan, I will only trade more than one of the pitchers mentioned if I can arrange to trade all four plus some RP (King, Floro, Coulombe) as well. So some details we explore may be contingent on others being put in place. But I wanted to see what people were thinking about these guys now.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Joel</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">CAN<br><br></div></div></body></html>