Bleacher Bums Forum

Porcello's FB velo was up 2 mph last year. His FIP was high 3's. He's still just 23 and is already eating significant innings at league average production rates. I'd love a Porcello acquisition.

There has been a lot of speculation on other boards about who the Cubs would give up for Porcello.  I certainly would not give up either Barney or Marmol, and I see no reason why the administration would be so soured on Jackson that they would trade him for a mediocre pitcher like Porcello.

Dioner Navarro isnt worth a dime.

Hopefully they let Welly catch all he can handle and Navarro is just the backup.

Maybe Volstad's shrink could have a few sessions with Porcello.

I wouldn't give much of anything for Porcello, either. The Volstad comps are pretty accurate.

I'm sure Theo is talking FA and trade regarding lots and lots of unexceptional pitchers.  So not sure how likely it is that Porcello is any more serious than Villanueva or Haren or Liriano or Jackson or who knows who else. 

I assume analysis is a blend of scouting and stats.  The Volstad comp is obviously striking:  tall, young, low K's, better FIP than actual ERA's, ground ball-oriented but pretty high-HR anyway, and haven't shown much improvement. 

If K/BB/HR are the big three fundamentals for a pitcher, Volstad appears to be poor in two of them (K and HR), and favorable in only one (BB). 

But, each is individual, and some guys plateau for a while and then take a step forward.  If you take shots on guys like Volstad, sooner or later one of them might work out well, even if Volstad didn't. 

I wonder if Detroit is shopping him because they expect meaningful value for him?  Or is it because they want to upgrade their rotation and they're going to replace him anyway, whether with a more promising prospect or a FA or via trade?  Or is it just a budget thing; they've got a lot of expensive stars and paying $3-4.5 million for a consistently below-average starter just doesn't fit? 

This reminds me of the days when I used to go looking for bargains on Maxwell St.

On Halsted, just north of Maxwell Street there was a second floor store called Cynofski's.  They sold second hand clothing, and they had the contract to sell the clothing that came of the dummies at Marshall Fields and the other downtown stores.  They were wadded up in a bin, and looked like they went through the war, and you could have your pick for 50 cents.  Their guarantee was that every item would clean up perfectly, and if there was a stain that wouldn't wash out, you just brought it back for a refund, no questions asked.

And the Sloppy Joe's stand east of Halsted on Maxwell was better than Jim's Original.

My mother and her sisters would shop there, and would talk to each other in Dutch so the predominately Jewish shopkeepers wouldn't understand what they were saying (the shopkeepers talked Yidish among themselves for the same reason).  One day her sister was about to purchase something, and my mother said to her, "let's try across the street first.  This guy looks like a crook".  When the Jewish shopkeeper replied in perfect Dutch (Madam, he is even less honest than I am"  my mother almost died.  It hadn't occurred to her that Jewish shopkeepers could have immigrated from Holland.

She was so embarrassed, she didn't go back to Maxwell Street for a couple of months.  Even today, almost 80 years later, she blushes if you can get her to tell the story.

I have been called both a shlamazel and a shlemiel, and I'm still not sure what the difference is.