George Springer, Archie Bradley, Gregory Polanco Sweepstakes

[Rainiers]

Anyone care to predict when George Springer gets called up to the majors?

Whoever comes closest gets their choice of a bottle of Corona or a bag of Doritos!

Editors Note: I've expanded the sweepstakes and scope of this thread to include Polanco and Bradley. Contest prizes have tripled as well...

[Gekko]

June 12th; however his impact will be far less than his supporters would have hoped for

[ikenbaseball]

Gregory Polanco will have the biggest impact.
RIght now he has 20 hits in 43 AB in AAA. I don't know how you keep him in the minors if he continues to be a beast.
But we'll probably have to wait for the first week of June because of financial reasons.

Marte
Polanco
McCutchen
P.Alvarez

That's a really strong 1st part of the lineup.


Krys

[Deadheadz]

The way things are going, he'll be called up May 5 as an injury replacement then go on the 60-day DL himself nine days later.

[Rainiers]

Gregory Polanco will have the biggest impact.
RIght now he has 20 hits in 43 AB in AAA. I don't know how you keep him in the minors if he continues to be a beast.
But we'll probably have to wait for the first week of June because of financial reasons.

Marte
Polanco
McCutchen
P.Alvarez

That's a really strong 1st part of the lineup.


Krys

Pretty much agree with you here. There are twelve million reasons for the Bucs to wait until June on Polanco.

$12 million is roughly the extra cost of granting Super-Two status to a top prospect over four years of arbitration instead of three.

Its unlikely that the frugal Pirates call him up before June. Despite Gregory being a perfect fit for this team, a left-handed bat and another great outfielder to go with Cutch and Marte in that vast outfield in PNC park.

Its hard to justify spending $12 million on just eight weeks of service time. Heck, that's $1.5 million a week for a rookie, half again as much as the top players in the game make.

Of course, if the Pirates were able to unload Tabata and save most of the $11.5 million left of his contract, maybe, just maybe, they could pull the trigger on Polanco early. They must know their window of opportunity for playing October baseball might not be that large.

Rumors are out there right now that the Bucs are trying to find a trade partner for Tabata. Their biggest problem is that they overpaid him to begin with, so it's likely making it hard to find him a home.

Even without a Tabata trade, the 2 extra wins that Polanco would likely help deliver in the next eight weeks time could end up being worth much more to the franchise than $12 million dollars. Local media rights, season ticket sales, etc, would probably increase well beyond that figure.

But given their parsimonious nature, I find it unlikely that the Pirates call him up without unloading most of Tabata's salary.

[Rainiers]

June 12th; however his impact will be far less than his supporters would have hoped for

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict an April callup.

The Astros are a mess financially, and while the have been granted the right by a bankruptcy judge to renegotiate media rights, no one in Houston is paying attention to them.

The last Neilson rating survey was a 0.0 for an Astros game a week ago against the Angels.

It's really, really, hard to get a 0.0 Neilson rating. Neilson monitored 479 televisions in the Houston Metro region. Not a single one turned on the game.

A zero Neilson rating makes it very difficult to negotiate a new media deal. Media deals exceeded a billion dollars for the Dodgers and $800 million for the Rangers. While the Astros won't do that well, to get anything close to that they need a product that's appealing to the masses now. They can't wait to rebuild.

The size of these media deals makes $12 million seem like chump change. Springer's salary four years from now represents deferred comp, anyways. Make a splash now. Sell some tickets. Create a buzz. Get fans to turn on their damn TV sets! I think we could see Springer as early as tomorrow night at Minute Maid. He is under 172 days of service time now for this year, they have him locked up for his 7th year, so it could happen any time.

Regarding his fantasy impact...power, speed, and a low average. Reminds me of a Desmond Jennings type.

[Bama]

May 13 sounds good so ill go with that or probably sooner as the post earlier suggested because of low tv ratings and needing to do something before they lose there fanbase completely.

[Hells Satans]

No team in baseball has taken a longer-term approach than the Astros. They've intentionally sucked the last three years in order to build the franchise. It would make no sense for them do something short-sighted like call up Springer so they can have six weeks of 0.3 ratings instead of 0.0 ratings. They will wait. Indeed, they care so much about this stuff that they tried to buy out all of his pre-FA years this spring for $23m but Springer's side rejected the offer. That was your chance for seeing Springer in May.

[Yah Mule]

No team in baseball has taken a longer-term approach than the Astros. They've intentionally sucked the last three years in order to build the franchise. It would make no sense for them do something short-sighted like call up Springer so they can have six weeks of 0.3 ratings instead of 0.0 ratings. They will wait. Indeed, they care so much about this stuff that they tried to buy out all of his pre-FA years this spring for $23m but Springer's side rejected the offer. That was your chance for seeing Springer in May.

Longer term approach is so much more polite than to just call it outright tanking.

[Doctor Who]

They had 0.0 Nielsen ratings all last year as well. They wont overreact to it. I live in Houston and can't watch the Astros, but I can other teams. With the whole Comcast issue (Can't watch Rockets either), along with the current state of the team in a town that only follows teams when they are good, they will wait on Springer. Even a MLB investigation couldn't bring him up early.

[Bronx Yankees]

Slightly off post, but I'm starting to think the first major call-up will be Archie Bradley. Have you seen the D'Backs pitching so far? Absolutely putrid. They have much higher expectations in Arizona than Houston, and typically are not as frugal as Pittsburgh. Unless the pitching improves dramatically and soon, I'd be surprised if they kept Bradley down in the minors until mid-June. They need help now.

(This is not wishful thinking on my part. I don't have Bradley on any NFBC teams. I've got Syndergaard stashed on my Main Event team, but am not expecting to see him until June. Although Springer has a high ceiling, sounding to me like Polanco will have the biggest impact.)

Mike

[Rainiers]

Slightly off post, but I'm starting to think the first major call-up will be Archie Bradley. Have you seen the D'Backs pitching so far? Absolutely putrid. They have much higher expectations in Arizona than Houston, and typically are not as frugal as Pittsburgh. Unless the pitching improves dramatically and soon, I'd be surprised if they kept Bradley down in the minors until mid-June. They need help now.

Mike

Spot on. I had not noticed how badly their entire rotation was pitching. So far this year, Bradley is pitching much better than any of them.

It makes me wonder who else out there might be worthy of an early call up.

Robert

[Rainiers]

No team in baseball has taken a longer-term approach than the Astros.

That was true.

But things changed over the winter, primarily in response to their ability to renegotiate media rights, something the new owner, Jim Crane, has never been able to do before.

Look at the change in MO this last off-season.

Does signing Feldman to a $30 million-dollar-deal look like a long-term approach?

What about signing free agents Crain, Albers and Qualls for their bullpen?

Or trading a young Jordan Lyles for Dexter Fowlers?

And the quotes. When Feldman asked Porter about why would a rebuilding team would want to sign him, Porter's response was "that's all changed..we want to win now".

The owner was giving Jeff Ludnow a long timeline to turn things around when he first purchased the team. That was before he realized the poor financial condition of the franchise.

In a recent article from MLB, Crane was quoted as saying his expectation was that the Astros should be 30 games better than last year. The recent actions and their words do not sound like a long-term approach to me any more.

[Hells Satans]

Slightly off post, but I'm starting to think the first major call-up will be Archie Bradley. Have you seen the D'Backs pitching so far? Absolutely putrid. They have much higher expectations in Arizona than Houston, and typically are not as frugal as Pittsburgh. Unless the pitching improves dramatically and soon, I'd be surprised if they kept Bradley down in the minors until mid-June. They need help now.

(This is not wishful thinking on my part. I don't have Bradley on any NFBC teams. I've got Syndergaard stashed on my Main Event team, but am not expecting to see him until June. Although Springer has a high ceiling, sounding to me like Polanco will have the biggest impact.)

Mike

Cahill to the Pen. DBacks called up.........Michael Bolsinger.

[ALL-IN JD]

Slightly off post, but I'm starting to think the first major call-up will be Archie Bradley. Have you seen the D'Backs pitching so far? Absolutely putrid. They have much higher expectations in Arizona than Houston, and typically are not as frugal as Pittsburgh. Unless the pitching improves dramatically and soon, I'd be surprised if they kept Bradley down in the minors until mid-June. They need help now.

(This is not wishful thinking on my part. I don't have Bradley on any NFBC teams. I've got Syndergaard stashed on my Main Event team, but am not expecting to see him until June. Although Springer has a high ceiling, sounding to me like Polanco will have the biggest impact.)

Mike

Cahill to the Pen. DBacks called up.........Michael Bolsinger.

Bolsinger=Placeholder for Archie Bradley!!

[Bronx Yankees]

That move tells you all you need to know about where the D'Backs are going this year ... nowhere. I get the economic considerations. For low-budget and/or rebuilding teams, like the Astros and Cubs, it makes no sense to start the clock early. But, for the D'Backs, who supposedly had aspirations to compete with the Dodgers and others, this move is a joke. This guy isn't even close to a being a top prospect. So far, Arizona's pitching has been so bad that not only does Bradley belong in the rotation right now, I'd argue that he's already their best starting pitcher.

Mike

[DOUGHBOYS]

Its been said time and time again that the rule should go.
But, the Players Union protects the old, knowing the new will be paid soon enough. They have no interests in teams putting their best players on the field.
Another case where it is the fan who gets robbed.

[MadCow Sez]

May 13 sounds good so ill go with that or probably sooner as the post earlier suggested because of low tv ratings and needing to do something before they lose there fanbase completely.

The Astros have a fanbase? You mean aside from Piggy?

[ALL-IN JD]

That move tells you all you need to know about where the D'Backs are going this year ... nowhere. I get the economic considerations. For low-budget and/or rebuilding teams, like the Astros and Cubs, it makes no sense to start the clock early. But, for the D'Backs, who supposedly had aspirations to compete with the Dodgers and others, this move is a joke. This guy isn't even close to a being a top prospect. So far, Arizona's pitching has been so bad that not only does Bradley belong in the rotation right now, I'd argue that he's already their best starting pitcher.

Mike

Bolsinger pitching in relief tonight. Could be Bradley time.

[Bronx Yankees]

That move tells you all you need to know about where the D'Backs are going this year ... nowhere. I get the economic considerations. For low-budget and/or rebuilding teams, like the Astros and Cubs, it makes no sense to start the clock early. But, for the D'Backs, who supposedly had aspirations to compete with the Dodgers and others, this move is a joke. This guy isn't even close to a being a top prospect. So far, Arizona's pitching has been so bad that not only does Bradley belong in the rotation right now, I'd argue that he's already their best starting pitcher.

Mike

Bolsinger pitching in relief tonight. Could be Bradley time.

I saw that. It'll be interesting to see if Bradley gets the call. They couldn't get Cahill out of the rotation soon enough. Collmenter is not the answer and either is Bolsinger. Wonder if the D'Backs regret giving up on Trevor Bauer so quickly (though I understand he's a bit of a head case). With all of the penny-pitching that the Marlins exhibit most of the time, they brought Jose Fernandez up in April last year and that worked out pretty well (he may have been the only reason to go to a Marlins game last year).

Mike

[Hells Satans]

That move tells you all you need to know about where the D'Backs are going this year ... nowhere. I get the economic considerations. For low-budget and/or rebuilding teams, like the Astros and Cubs, it makes no sense to start the clock early. But, for the D'Backs, who supposedly had aspirations to compete with the Dodgers and others, this move is a joke. This guy isn't even close to a being a top prospect. So far, Arizona's pitching has been so bad that not only does Bradley belong in the rotation right now, I'd argue that he's already their best starting pitcher.

Mike

Bolsinger pitching in relief tonight. Could be Bradley time.

They said before the game that Bolsinger would pitch in relief tonight and then start Friday

[Rainiers]

Bradley would slide nicely into the Dbacks rotation on the 22nd after one more start with Reno next Wed.

Towers has got to be feeling the heat after some recent dubious trades...getting Didi, letting Bauer and Eaton go. I bet he pulls the trigger on Bradley soon, to try and save his own hide. I doubt it's just a skipped start for Cahill.

Cahill owners have to be swallowing hard right now.

[Joe Sambito]

Springer 2 for 3 with a homer, but then pulled in the 7th?

a. injury
b. call-up
c. an april AAA breather
d. paternity leave
e. none of the above

[Rainiers]

Hmm. George Springer getting pulled after only three ABs last night, finishing up with a home run and a single?

I've seen that once before with a top prospect, and he got called up the next day.

I have a hunch George is going to show up in Houston tonight.

So I'll go with b:)

[Hells Satans]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/ariz ... ley-041414