Link to entire chat here.

Allan (Wisconsin)
Keith, how polished is Lewis Brinson, is he more of an athlete or baseball player to you at this stage in his development?
Klaw (1:09 PM)
Rangers made some significant changes to his swing last summer that turned him from tools guy to potential impact hitter. Very impressed to see how quickly he took to the adjustments.<

Andrew (CA)
Will Yu Darvish lead the AL in Ks this season? Slider is unhittable when he's on.
Klaw (1:12 PM)
The version of Darvish we saw in the second half could easily lead the league in Ks or even in fWAR.

red (NYC)
Better 1 year deal: Javy Vazquez or Lance Berkman? Any chance either one replicates their last full season in the majors?
Klaw (1:56 PM)
Vazquez.

Also, he discussed how he thinks Wil Myers is going to end up too big for CF over in Tampa, and how MLB really screwed up the CBA with the compensation/draft pick/FA changes they made.

Please pardon the formatting, I didn't proof the HTML before submitting.

cool stuff...I'd be open for both Berkman and Vasquez

If we sign Berkman to something like one-year, $8 million, trade Cruz, then trade Andrus for Upton, I think our roster will damn near be complete. Well, except for the 5th starter, but maybe Texas has planned all along for Perez to start the year and have Colby Lewis slide in at the end of May, or what have you.

The lineup would then be something like:

Kinsler - 2B
Profar - SS
Upton - RF
Beltre - 3B
Murphy - LF
Berkman- DH
Pierzynski - C
Moreland/Olt - 1B
Martin/Gentry - CF

with a rotation of:

Darvish
Harrison
Holland
Ogando
Perez

(with Lewis on the way)

and a bullpen of:

Kirkman
Ross
Scheppers
Frasor
Nathan

(with Soria and Feliz on the way)

I can get behind that. It seems cost effective and realistic.

what is this damn fascination with justin upton? it makes no sense how many of you would trade elvis for upton. you wanna trade elvis? fine but do it for stanton. for cargo. not upton!

I've definitely been thinking that the loss of the draft pool from the draft pick has been a bigger detriment to teams signing compensation FA then the loss of the pick itself. I don't think we were seriously on Swisher or LaRoche partially because signing either one would have seriously crippled the draft, so they were judged not worth the contract for the lost of the ability to do a lot in the draft. Might only be a secondary reason but I think that's about all that was needed to convince us not to go 4 for Swisher or 3 for :LaRoche.

what is this damn fascination with justin upton? it makes no sense how many of you would trade elvis for upton. you wanna trade elvis? fine but do it for stanton. for cargo. not upton!

Stanton is signed for four more years. Cargo is signed through 2018, I believe. It would take more than just two years of Elvis Andrus to get either, and a lot more. A ton more. Upton, on the other hand, is accessible without having to unleash a fair amount of prospect capital.

Wake up and smell the roses.

@jtorr21

You should probably consider a teams needs before saying trade Elvis to team x for player y. What would Colorado want with Elvis?

Upton > CarGo. Upton's ceiling isn't any lower, his splits are less suspect as he doesn't play half his games a mile high, and he will cost less and not for as long, so if it's a bad contract we're not stuck with it for as long.

I don't want to lose Elvis, but I think a decent trade could be made involving Upton, though I would prefer not to give up anyone of consequence (i.e. above C level) in addition unless we got more than Upton back, because I honestly think 2 years of Elvis at his salary is (slightly) more valuable than 3 years of Upton at his.

Of course, Towers has 4 shortstops on his 40 already, so he may not "need" Elvis (why did he trade for Pennington?) Anyway, Olney says his "demands have changed". Maybe now there's a fit with us that doesn't involve a SS.

@Andy: Towers is an idiot. That's the problem with trading with Arizona, is that Towers is very inconsistent with what he wants.

He's an idiot? See if we can do a sign-and-trade with Chone Figgins.

Ever wondered why Upton hasn't been traded after being shopped two years? Think about before you trade a truly elite Andrus with two years of contract remaing for a guy who has shown to be streaky and inconsistent at best.

I'm a 'what the hell is it with Upton' crowd? My sources tell me he is not liked in Phx, and when was the last time he hit 25 hrs in a season? He is lazy, narssistic, and we got too many outfielders now. Get over this guy, he is not Texas rangers material.

@mmurph

He hit over 30 two seasons ago and was #3 in the MVP vote. Thanks for playing though.

Eric you got Cruz traded, for what a bucket of baseballs? I do not see anything in your 25 that reflects upon a Cruz trade. As much as everyone seems to want to clear Cruz off the roster, over the last 4 years Cruz has produced 108 homers and 331 rbi to Upton's 91 and 310, with less games played. Upton does have vast upside, but numbers have not even come close to Nelson's in the recent past. I do agree that come this time next year Cruz will likely head down the same road as Josh or Nap and Upton could break out as an MVP candidate on the Rangers. The reality is if the Rangers do sign Berkman, and trade Andrus for Upton, and what ever seems to balance out the trade [ and by all accounts it seems that the Diamondbacks will need to sweeten the pot, not the other way around - an all star corner outfielder does not equal an all star good bat shortstop ], then the outfield will be for at least 2013 until July: Murphy- Upton- Cruz. Right, Upton would play in center, just like he would with Arizona if they did not trade an outfielder, and that is why the Diamondbacks will move one of their corners, so Parra can play the center [ that was why they moved Young to begin with ]. Saying all this, I still see an Andrus and Grimm for Upton and Skaggs happening on the Diamondbacks side, but still a major hesitant on the Rangers side. Kubel or Upton is going for a high caliber major league ready shortstop.

@Romro212000 you obviously looked at one number. In SIX YEARS of professional ball in over 3,000 plate appearances, Upton has averaged 18 home runs per year and 2.1-ish WAR. He is bullshit, plain and simple. Get over him, Martin will be better and with Andrus as a teamate.

Procurion
He asked when was the last time he hit over 25 homers. I merely answered his question in earnest. I'm not an Upton fanboy.

or how about how he has been worth more than 16 WAR in the past 4 seasons and hasn't even hit his prime yet?

Eric you got Cruz traded, for what a bucket of baseballs? ... As much as everyone seems to want to clear Cruz off the roster, over the last 4 years Cruz has produced 108 homers and 331 rbi to Upton's 91 and 310, with less games played. ... an all star corner outfielder does not equal an all star good bat shortstop ... I still see an Andrus and Grimm for Upton and Skaggs happening on the Diamondbacks side ...

It's irrelevant what Cruz would be traded for. It could be a bullpen arm to help in 2013; it could be a C-level AA prospect and a higher-ceiling lower-level prospect; it doesn't matter. The point is to shed his $10.5 million price tag. Nothing more.

As for your production argument, Cruz has been in the prime of his career for the last 4 years; Upton has been in the infantile stages of his. Not a valid comparison.

For your third argument, Elvis Andrus is not a "good bat" shortstop. He's never posted higher than a 95 wRC+. That's not a good bat. That's a league-average SS.

The Diamondbacks would never trade Skaggs and Upton for Elvis and Grimm. Grimm is a potential #3-#4; Skaggs is a potential TORP. That doesn't balance.

My point is, the Rangers have a SS surplus. The Diamondbacks have an OF surplus. It makes too much sense. The failure of the Rangers offseason will be not making this move. Nothing more.

to be fair, elvis is a better than average offensive SS but still an average at best overall hitter. Upton's ceiling is much higher and they have similar floors. With profar in the wings and Elvis unlikely to be resigned, trading him for upton is a no brainer

Cruz is 32, Upton is 25... Cruz has a WAR of 11.1 over the last four years, Upton has one of 16.7. Elvis has a WAR of 14 over the same time period...

Elvis needs to be traded... love him, but i can't imagine his trade value is going to ever be much higher and Boras is going to have him on the open market when his contract runs out in two years... Profar is a superstar waiting to happen....

I'd still love a trade for taveras and miller from st. louis for elvis and grimm....

@ Procurion

Yes, averaging Upton's numbers (starting when he was 18) is the best way to evaluate how he will perform over the next 2-3 years. Why not go back and include his high school numbers?

Nothing about Andrus is elite. He's a good ML SS who will/should be gone in two years.

@ Procurion

Yes, averaging Upton's numbers (starting when he was 18) is the best way to evaluate how he will perform over the next 2-3 years. Why not go back and include his high school numbers?

Nothing about Andrus is elite. He's a good ML SS who will/should be gone in two years.

This is why I love utb.

@Romro212000 yes, he did ask and you gave him a smart-aleck answer. You did not answer in earnest-it is a few paragraphs above this post, you answered like an ass.
@YP....16 WAR???????? What are you smoking? Stated before. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/u/uptonju01.shtml
@UTB....started averaging his numbers when he had over 3,000 plate appearances at age 25. Confucious say when a player has 550 plate appearances, average established.
Not arguing that Andrus has a trade value, but when you look at it, a team NEXT YEAR or at the trade dealine in July will pay the same. The FO has walked through the market and said "Day-yam!!!!!!!! Shitz expensive!!!!"
And to be fair, YP, look at shortstops. NONE are barnburners, NONE are offensive monsters. Don't compare Andrus to anything but shortstops. Really? It makes us normal people tired.

Procurion
Ask a stupid question, expect a stupid answer.