Which players on our major and minor league team would be in play in order to fill team needs at 2B, and starting pitching? I take it the only untouchables on our major league staff would be Bautista, Lawrie, Encarnacion and Morrow and in our minor league system the Lansing Big 3, Travis d’Arnaud, Robert Osuna and DJ Davis (Osuna and Davis depending on who you ask). The thing that AA has to decide is, is he ready to take that next step in the future of our team? Not everyone in our major and minor league system can be considered “core players”. Some of these guys eventually have to go. Now there are a few teams out there that have some very interesting starting pitchers and 2B out there that could be in play through trade this offseason if AA continues his path of resisting signing impactful free agents which he deems “expensive”. Let’s take a look excluding the teams in our division.

Starting Pitching
Cleveland – Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez
Detroit Tigers – Rick Porcello, Drew Smyly
Minnesota – Scott Diamond
La Angels – Garrett Richards
Oakland – Brett Anderson, AJ Griffin, Dan Straily
Seattle – Jason Vargas, Hishashi Iwakuma, Blake Beavan
Texas – Alex Ogando, Martin Perez, Justin Grimm
Atlanta – Tommy Hanson, Brandon Beachy, Julio Teheran, Randall Delgado, Jair Jurrjens
Miami Marlins – Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle
New York Mets – Jonathan Niese
Philadelphia Phillies – Cliff Lee
Washington Nationals – John Lannan
Chicago Cubs – Jeff Samardzija
Houston Astros – Bud Norris
Milwaukee Brewers – Wily Peralta, Tyler Thornburg, MIchael Fiers, Marco Estrada
Pittsburgh Pirates – Wandy Rodriguez
St. Louis Cardinals – Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal, Joe Kelly, Jaime Garcia
Arizona Diamondbacks – Ian Kennedy, Trevor Cahill, Trevor Bauer, Tyler Skaggs, Pat Corbin, Josh Collmenter
Colorado Rockies – Jhoulys Chacin, Drew Pomeranz, Guillermo Moscoso
Los Angeles Dodgers – Aaron Harang, Chris Capuano

2nd Baseman
Chicago White Sox – Gordon Beckham
Cleveland Indians – Brent Lillibridge
Detroit Tigers – Ryan Raburn
Kansas City Royals – Johnny Giovatella, Christian Colon
Minnesota Twins – Trevor Plouffe, Alexi Casilla
Los Angeles Angels – Howie Kendrick, Maicer Izturis
Oakland Athletics – Jemile Weeks, Cliff Pennington
Seattle Mariners – Chone Figgins, Carlos Triunfel
Texas Rangers – Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus
Atlanta Braves – Dan Uggla, Martin Prado, Tyler Pastornicky
Miami Marlins – Emilio Bonifacio
New York Mets – Daniel Murphy, Justin Turner
Philadelphia Phillies – Freddy Galvis
Washington Nationals – Danny Espinosa, Steve Lombardozzi
Chicago Cubs – Darwin Barney
Cincinnati Reds – Didi Gregorius
Houston Astros – Jose Altuve, Jed Lowrie, Tyler Greene, Scott Moore
Pittsburgh Pirates – Neil Walker, Clint Barmes
St. Louis Cardinals – Daniel Descalso, Rafael Furcal, Pete Kozma
Arizona Diamondbacks – Cody Ransom, Willie Bloomquist, Jacob Elmore
Colorado Rockies – Josh Rutledge, Chris Nelson, Eric Young Jr
Los Angeles Dodgers – Dee Gordon, Mark Ellis, Alex Castellanos, Juan Uribe
San Diego Padres – Everth Cabrera, Alexi Amarista, Jedd Gyorko
San Francisco Giants – Joaquin Arias, Brett Pill

Which guys on the list are you intrigued by/want AA to target? Am I forgetting anyone? Let me start off by saying that I absolutely would love for AA to acquire a guy like Trevor Bauer. His value is beginning to plummet as there are reports in Arizona that management/players aren’t to thrilled by his sense of entitlement. He may be just another understood player like Lawrie, Rasmus and Escobar and would love to hear what kind of package excluding the guys I mentioned above that would be untouchable in order to acquire Trevor Bauer. I also like AJ Griffin, Dan Straily, Jeff Samardzija, Tyler Thornburg, Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal, Joe Kelly and Tyler Skaggs. The Texas Rangers have a really interesting dilemna heading into the offseason about what they’re going to do with Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus and Jurickson Profar and there are bound to be teams calling them this offseason asking of their availability. I wonder what kind of package it would take to lure Ian Kinsler to Toronto but I definitely wouldn’t overpay just to acquire him. I also like Dan Uggla, Emilio Bonifacio, Dee Gordon, and Everth Cabrera. Who do you like like/want AA to target?