I would take Gordon over Willingham. 

BBRef has the defensive gap so great between the two that Gordon is out WARing WIllingham 4.9 to 3.1.

On the topic of BBRef, it was quite odd to hear an interview yesterday with Sean Forman on CBC's As It Happens -- those just seem like two worlds that have little business colliding. The interview was focused on the tracking of MLB's 500,000th error. Next year's pet project will be MLB's 100,000 HBP. Really.

The Trout vs. Cabrera vote will be an interesting barometer of the inroads made by sabermetrics into the mainstream. Recent votes, like Felix Hernandez's 13-win Cy Young, would not have been imaginable a decade ago and should give Trout supporters some basis for hope.

Cabrera has a strong negative defensive rep, but has played 3B without complaining which is a plus.

Yes. He'll get serious props for changing positions, particularly to one he is not terribly well qualified to play (it just makes him more sympathetic). However, the narrative where he morphs from selfish drunk to selfless team player will lose much of its lustre if the Tigers don't win their division. Of course, the Angels missing the playoffs and Trout's September swoon (you know, when the games count twice as much) will greatly interfere with his whole Fred Lynn narrative.

I'd go even further than that. I think so would Drew Hutchison, too.

Not sure where to post this, but there is an excellent interview with AA.

http://blogs.thescore.com/mlb/2012/09/19/i-can-be-wrong-but-i-cant-be-afraid-an-interview-with-alex-anthopoulos/

I realize that all this might be pretty curmudgeonly of me. (Whoa. Did I just invent a word?)

Nope, Mags. You've pulled a fair share of "words" out of that aforementioned nether orifice of yours in recent (and not-so-recent) postings, but "curmudgeonly" is, in fact, a proper English term.

So there! :-)

so I'm omitting all of the commentary

Because it is Jim Bowden, thank you.

By this time of the year I'm long past the point where I've had more than my fill of Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler and can only hope that even half of the brain cells that have been destroyed on their watch regenerate over the off-season.

As is their wont, team defense is measured in exactly one way: number of errors. The Rays lead the AL in errors. Ipso facto, their team defense is poor. No mention is made that the Rays' defense is tied for second best in the majors in turning balls in play into outs.

For what it is worth, after today's game Rasmus' wRC+ on the year stands at 85. The heretofore over-matched Anthony Gose ....... 79.

To evaluate Prospects for the purpose of trade, no two G.M.s will have the same opinion on anyone.   The player(s) acquired will vary according to the caliber of prospects required, with each G.M. looking for different things.   A.A. will be looking for a top-of-the-rotation acquisition in trade.   What he will have to give up in trade will vary depending on the G.M. involved.   What A.A. has to offer:

1) Will not include Yunel Escobar as the quality-plus value he once had (MLB-quality SS, with team-friendly contract, and up to 3 years of control) has plummeted or depressed any value he once had.   At present he's at the PTBNL or Cash value in a trade, at best a lower-level 2nd-tier prospect.

2) Will include Mlb-Ready Prospects such as Adeiny Hechavarria, Anthony Gose, Travis d'Arnaud and even Moises Sierra have top trade value (Hech, Gose and Sierra gained value with MLB experience).   These are the players most G.M.s are interested in.

3) I really don't have any idea of who interests who.   A.A. will be the one to know which of our other prospects are available.   (As for last year's Latos and Gonzales trades, it's possible A.A. didn't have the right people to trade.)

At present, Toronto has the #7 pick in next year's draft (which is of little interest to anyone).   Toronto will go over two million fans in their final homestand (which also interests no one).   And I can't think of any thing else to make these last view games pass easier.

Lance Berkman: over 100 OPS+ every year but his first, 128 this year, but loves St Louis.

I have read that it's either retirement (likely) or a swan song in Houston as DH.

A good bullpen and a good manager may help your odds some, but perhaps not as much as we might think. 

Wrong, Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Buck Showalter is inspiring his team as if he were friggin' Tony Robbins. The Orioles are 16-2 in extra innings and 27-9 in 1-run games. And they'll surely repeat this next year to prove their detractors wrong. Right? Right? They will, won't they? C'mon, we've got a Hollywood narrative here. Don't go and mess it with your cold-hearted mathematics and statistical variance and whatnot.

The hybrid "Washington" strategy: trade prospects for a talented young SP (like Gio) but also sign a capable FA starter (Edwin Jackson)

I'm ayjackson, and I endorse this strategy.

I'm beginning to believe John Farrell is among the worst managers the Jays have ever employed at handling pitchers.

Seriously what on earther was he thinking today? Romero has been awful most of the season and was struggling with command big time in the fifth, walking the bases loaded after a double. He somehow flukes his way out of it and is now through five innings in line for a win and sitting at 93 pitches.

So what do you do? Well send him out again of course. To face three more batters while not recording an out. But at least he made it to that magical 100 pitch mark, right Farrell? 

I'd really be happy to see him go, whether they can swindle compensation out of the Red Sox or not.

Chuck, I don't get the logic. Do you prefer a 4th OF who is worse than Davis -- i.e., so bad that he could never be perceived as a possible starter -- to prevent the possibility of ever having the 4th OF pressed into duty as the starter?

Davis is little better than replacement level which does not warrant a few million dollars. So he's overpriced for what he brings, and on a team with dreaded payroll parameters, that's money not well spent.

And the organization has seen fit to give him 800 PAs in two seasons suggesting that he looks to them like a plan B starter, not a reserve pressed into duty. If he were signed it would be an indication to me that the team is less than serious about addressing their LF need. They could yabber in the off-season how he's really a 4th outfielder, but I personally would anticipate another 400 PAs of replacement level performance in 2013 when a real LF wasn't signed.

By not signing Davis they would be forcing themselves to address LF properly.

But the obvious solution is for the Jays to acquire a good starting LF and also keep Davis as a back-up, no?

It would be, except that I don't trust them to do that. I think that having Davis around gives them the sense that LF is a little less urgent of a problem. I may be 100% wrong and overly cynical about this, but that's my fear, Rosenthal's characterization of AA's off-season to-do list notwithstanding.

Base stealers are easy to sell to the public (Zaun, for instance, calls Davis a "game changer") and often too much temptation for a team where other more expensive skills, like getting on base and hitting with power, are truly needed.