All I want is Martin Prado. That's it.

I got my special little Cueto treat and it was cheaper than I thought it would be. That's huge. If Duffy and Ventura return to 2014 form, our starting pitching goes from our lone weakness to another great strength.

I mean ...

Our potential postseason starters are :

Cueto
Volquez
Duffy
Ventura

Our 2014 WS starters were:

Shields
Ventura
Vargas
Guthrie

Our team this year has no upgraded Shields with Cueto, Butler with Morales, Aoki with Rios (wash with upside), Downs with Madson, Crow with Hochevar, and Vargas with Volquez (essentially).

The trade for Cueto gives us, IMO, the best 25 man roster in the MLB.

Our playoff roster with Prado would look something like this:

SP: Cueto, Volquez, Ventura, Duffy
RP: Morales (or Zimmer/Manaea), Hochevar, Madson, Herrera, Davis, Holland, Guthrie (this is somewhat of a flex ... our bullpen is so deep we might be able to go into the postseason using 10 pitchers and 15 hitters ... probably too risky, though)

C: Sal, Butera
1B: Hosmer, Morales
2B: Infante, Prado
3B: Moose
SS: Esky
OF: Gordon, Cain, Dyson, Rios, Gore, Orlando (maybe)

I see 22 definites with plenty of flex with 23 (Guthrie), 24 (Morales), and 25 (Orlando).

I still like Aoki better than Rios. Aoki was like a good luck charm.

Prado can be had for almost nothing. Zobrist will cost more prospects. I'm fine with either.

I think Rios gets back up to around .730 OPS before it's all said and done. Rios is a better baseball player than Aoki but is prone to terrible stretches of baseball. It's basically a wash, though ... so I won't really argue who I prefer. I don't really even know.

If it works with Butera catching for Ventura and that give Perez knees a break then that will help us too.

As of right now - postseason 25

Position Players (14)
C- Sal, Butera
IF - Hosmer, Infante, Esky, Moose, Morales, Colon
OF - Gordon, Cain, Rios, Dyson, Orlando, Gore

Pitchers (11)
SP - Cueto, Volquez, Duffy, Ventura
RP - Holland, Davis, Kelvin, Madson, Hoch, Medlen, Young/Guthrie (slight lean towards Guthrie if we need a SP)

Morales in the pen is the tough one. But we are in the strange position with our pen, we don't have to play the splits for the most part.

65 games left

I honestly see us going 40-25, at least. Maybe even something like 43-22. I bet we get to, and perhaps eclipse, 100 wins.

Replace Colon with Cuthbert

I keep forgetting to put Medlen on my 25. God damn. Yeah. I don't see Morales making the cut (Franklin). The Young/Guthrie spot might not even be necessary. We have a ton of flex with our bullpen + Medlen.

Wrong. We win 72 games and you will like it.

Ideally you'd replace Colon with Prado or Zobrist.

Ken Rosenthal just now on MLB Network, "the Royals are not done trading."

ROFL

I would keep Medlen over Young/Guthrie and keep Morales to balance things out vs. lefthanders. But that's quibbling, really.

ok you've all talked me into Zobrist

OMG this lineup

Gordon
Moose
Cain
Hosmer
Morales
Zobrist
Rios
Perez
Esky

did we break it?