{"id":10097,"date":"2014-12-22T09:24:47","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T14:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10097"},"modified":"2014-12-22T16:49:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T21:49:59","slug":"post-winter-meeting-bonanza-who-improved-their-rotation-the-most-whos-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10097","title":{"rendered":"Post-Winter Meeting bonanza; who improved their Rotation the most?  Who&#8217;s left?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_8007\" style=\"width: 205px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/LesterJon-Redsox-unk-via-weei.com_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8007\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8007\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/LesterJon-Redsox-unk-via-weei.com_.jpg\" alt=\"Lester joins the Cubs revolution. Photo via weei.com\" width=\"195\" height=\"258\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8007\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lester joins the Cubs revolution. Photo via weei.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>(Editor&#8217;s Note: sorry for the tardiness on this post: I had it completely written and a WordPress or browser glitch lost 1,000 words of analysis.\u00a0 So it took a bit of time to cobble back together what I had originally written.\u00a0 Then the Souza trade hit, then the Cuban thing &#8230; and this got pushed).<\/p>\n<p>What a GM Meeting week!\u00a0 As one of the Fangraphs guys noted, there were so many transactions, so fast, that he literally gave up trying to write individual analysis pieces and went to a running diary of sorts.\u00a0 I was amazed at the number of significant deals and trades made, especially when it came to starters.\u00a0 So lets take a look at who shook things up.<\/p>\n<p>Many teams are making big moves (almost the entirety of the the AL it seems) to try to win in 2015.\u00a0 And many teams have revamped their rotations.\u00a0 First, here&#8217;s a quick run through teams that have made significant acquisitions to their starting rotations (using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rosterresource.com\/mlb-boston-red-sox\/\">BP&#8217;s Depth Charts page<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/leaders.aspx?pos=all&amp;stats=pit&amp;lg=all&amp;qual=0&amp;type=8&amp;season=2014&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2014&amp;ind=0&amp;team=3&amp;rost=0&amp;age=0&amp;filter=&amp;players=0&amp;sort=6,d\">Fangraphs stats pages<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseballprospectus.com\/card\/card.php?id=45581\">BaseballProspectus<\/a>&#8216; page for injury history, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseballprospectus.com\/compensation\/cots\/national-league\/washington-nationals\/\">Cots at BP<\/a> for salaries, and of course <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/\">baseball-reference.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Teams who have Improved<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Chicago White Sox<\/strong><\/span>: acquired <strong>Jeff Samardzija<\/strong> in Oakland&#8217;s fire sale to go with established ace <strong>Chris Sale<\/strong>, the highly underrated <strong>Jose Quintana<\/strong>.\u00a0 From there the White Sox have question marks: <strong>John Danks<\/strong> is just an innings eater at this point and <strong>Hector Noesi<\/strong> was not effective in 2014.\u00a0 But the White Sox have one of the brightest SP prospects in the game at AAA in <strong>Carlos Rodon<\/strong> (their fast-rising 2014 1st round pick) and their former #1 prospect <strong>Erik Johnson<\/strong> (who struggled in his debut in 2014 but has a good minor league track record).\u00a0 So by the latter part of 2015 the White Sox could be a scary team for opposing offenses to face.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Minnesota<\/strong><\/span>: just signed <strong>Ervin Santana<\/strong> to join a rotation containing the rejuvinated <strong>Phil Hughes<\/strong>, the decent\u00a0 <strong>Ricky Nolasco<\/strong> and first rounder <strong>Kyle Gibson<\/strong>.\u00a0 If they (finally) call up former Nats 1st rounder <strong>Alex Meyer<\/strong> to fill out the rotation and replace the dregs that gave them #4 and #5 rotation spot starts last year, they could be significantly improved.\u00a0 Of course, the problem they face is the fact that they&#8217;re already playing catchup in the AL Central and still look like a 5th place team in this division.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Los Angeles Angels<\/strong><\/span>: adroitly turned one year of <strong>Howie Kendrick<\/strong> into six years of <strong>Andrew Heaney<\/strong>, who should thrive in the big AL West parks.\u00a0 If the Angels get a healthy <strong>Garrett Richards<\/strong> back to go along with the surprising <strong>Matt Shoemaker<\/strong>, they may have a surplus of decent arms being stalwards <strong>Jered Weaver <\/strong>and <strong>C.J. Wilson<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Miami<\/strong> <\/span>has spent some cash this off-season, but they&#8217;ve also gone shopping and upgraded their rotation significantly.\u00a0\u00a0 After acquiring the decent <strong>Jarred Cosart<\/strong> at the trade deadline, they&#8217;ve flipped bit-players to acquire<strong> Mat Latos<\/strong>, added <strong>Dan Haren<\/strong> and a $10M check\u00a0 while parting ways with the <del>unproven<\/del> youngster <strong>Andrew Heaney<\/strong>, and should get ace <strong>Jose Fernandez<\/strong> back by June 1st if all goes well with his TJ rehab.\u00a0 Add to that <strong>Henderson Alvarez<\/strong> and the Marlins look frisky (their new-found depth enabled them to move <strong>Nathan Eovaldi<\/strong> to the Yankees).\u00a0 Rumors are that Haren won&#8217;t pitch unless he&#8217;s in SoCal, but $10M is an awful lot of money to turn up your nose at.\u00a0 This is an improved rotation no doubt, and the rest of the Marlins lineup looks good too.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>New York Mets<\/strong> <\/span>get <strong>Matt Harvey<\/strong> back.\u00a0 Enough said.\u00a0 Harvey-<strong>Jacob deGrom<\/strong> is one heck of a 1-2 punch.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Chicago Cubs<\/strong><\/span>: added an ace in <strong>Jon Lester<\/strong>, re-signed their own effective starter in <strong>Jason Hammel<\/strong>, and will add these two guys to the resurgent <strong>Jake Arrieta<\/strong>.\u00a0 Past that you have question marks: <strong>Kyle Hendricks<\/strong> looked great in 2014.\u00a0 And the Cubs gave nearly 60 starts last year to <strong>Travis Wood<\/strong> (5+ ERA) and former Nat <strong>Edwin Jackson<\/strong> (6+ ERA).\u00a0 I could envision another SP acquisition here and the relegation of Wood &amp; Jackson to the bullpen\/AAA\/scrap heap.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Pittsburgh<\/strong> <\/span>was able to resign <strong>Francisco Liriano<\/strong> and get <strong>A.J. Burnett<\/strong> for an under-market deal.\u00a0 This should keep them afloat if they end up losing <strong>Edinson Volquez<\/strong> in free agency.\u00a0\u00a0 Otherwise they have decent back of the rotation guys and will get back <strong>Jamison Taillon<\/strong> perhaps in the early part of the year.\u00a0 This could help them get back to the playoffs with the anticipated step-back of NL Central rivals Cincinnati.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Los Angeles Dodgers<\/strong> <\/span>said good bye to a stable of starters (<strong>Josh Beckett, Chad Billingsly, Kevin Correia, Dan Haren, Roberto Hernandez<\/strong> and <strong>Paul Maholm<\/strong> are all either FAs or have been traded away) and signed a couple of guys to go behind their big three of <strong>Kershaw<\/strong>, <strong>Greinke<\/strong> and <strong>Ryu <\/strong>who could quietly make a difference (<strong>Brandon McCarthy<\/strong> and <strong>Brett Anderson<\/strong>) if they remain healthy.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a bigger &#8220;if&#8221; on Anderson than McCarthy, who excelled once leaving the circus that Arizona was last year before the management house cleaning and should continue to excel in the huge park in LA.\u00a0 Were I <strong>Andrew Friedman<\/strong>, I&#8217;d re-sign at least a couple of these FA guys for 5th starter insurance &#8230; but then again, the Dodgers also have a whole slew of arms in AAA that could be their 5th starter.\u00a0 Or they could just open up their wallets again; there&#8217;s still arms to be had.\u00a0 Nonetheless, replacing 32 Haren starts with McCarthy will bring immediate benefits, and whoever they end up with as a 5th starter has to be better than the production they got last year out of that spot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Team most improved: likely the Cubs.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>What teams&#8217; rotations have taken step backs or are question marks heading into 2015?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Boston<\/strong>: <span style=\"color: #000000;\">after trading away most of their veteran rotation last season, the Red Sox seem set to go into 2015 with this rotation: <strong>Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello, Justin Masterson, Joe Kelly<\/strong> and <strong>Wade Miley<\/strong>.\u00a0 This rotation doesn&#8217;t look as good as it could be; Buchholz was awful in 2014, Porcello is good but not great, Masterson the same, Kelly seems like a swingman, and Miley has back to back 3.98 FIP seasons in the NL and will see some ERA inflation in the AL (though not as much as normal since Arizona is a hitter&#8217;s park).\u00a0 But Boston&#8217;s entire AAA rotation are among their top 10 prospects, so there&#8217;s plenty of depth they could use in trade or as reinforcements.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Detroit<\/strong><\/span>: Arguable if they&#8217;ve really taken a &#8220;step back,&#8221; but you have to question their direction.\u00a0 In the last two off-seasons they&#8217;ve traded away <strong>Doug Fister<\/strong>, <strong>Rick Porcello<\/strong>, <strong>Drew Smyly, <\/strong>prospect\u00a0<strong>Robbie Ray<\/strong> and have (seemingly) lost <strong>Max Scherzer<\/strong> to free agency so that they can go into 2015 with this rotation: <strong>David Price<\/strong>, <strong>Justin Verlander<\/strong>, <strong>Anibel Sanchez<\/strong>, <strong>Alfredo Simon<\/strong> and <strong>Shane Greene<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 Is this a winning rotation for 2015?<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Kansas City<\/strong><\/span>: They have replaced departing free agent ace <strong>James Shields<\/strong> with newly signed <strong>Edinson Volquez<\/strong>, keeping newly acquired <strong>Brian Flynn<\/strong> and 2014 draft darling <strong>Brandon Finnegan<\/strong> in the bullpen for now.\u00a0 KC is going to take a step back and will struggle to compete in the new super-powered AL Central in 2015, but have a slew of 1st round arms that look like they&#8217;ll hit in late 2015\/early 2016.\u00a0 I do like their under-the-radar signing of <strong>Kris Medlen<\/strong> though; he could be a very solid addition to their rotation if he comes back from his 2nd TJ.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Oakland<\/strong> <\/span>will have a new look in 2015, having traded away a number of core players.\u00a0 But their rotation should be OK despite having traded away Samardzija and let <strong>Jon Lester<\/strong> and <strong>Jason Hammel<\/strong> walk.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because they stand to get back two very good rotation members who missed all of 2014 with TJ surgery in <strong>A.J. Griffin<\/strong> and <strong>Jarrod Parker<\/strong>.\u00a0 They should re-join the 2014 rotation members <strong>Sonny Grey<\/strong>, <strong>Scott Kazmir,<\/strong> newly acquired <strong>Jesse Hahn<\/strong> and either <strong>Jesse Chavez\/Drew Pomeranz<\/strong> to form another underrated rotation.\u00a0 Of course, if these guys have injury setbacks, it could be a long season in Oakland.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Texas<\/strong> <\/span>made a couple of acquisitions, re-signing their own <strong>Colby Lewis<\/strong> and trading for Nats cast-off <strong>Ross Detwiler<\/strong> (who should fit in immediately as their 4th starter), to go with ace <strong>Yu Darvish <\/strong>and recently recovered <strong>Derek Holland.\u00a0 <\/strong>But Texas could significantly improve come mid-season when injured starter <strong>Martin Perez<\/strong> should return.\u00a0 The big question mark for Texas is <strong>Matt Harrison<\/strong>, who had to have two vertebrae in his back fused and may not return, ever.\u00a0\u00a0 But if Harrison can come back, that gives Texas an opening day 1-5 that&#8217;s pretty improved over last\u00a0 year.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Cleveland<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">didn&#8217;t exactly have the world&#8217;s best rotation in 2014 but has done little to improve it going forward.\u00a0 They will continue to depend on <strong>Corey Kluber<\/strong>, newly minted Cy Young winner to head the line, but then its question marks.\u00a0 <strong>Carlos Carrasco<\/strong> was great in a combo role in 2014; where&#8217;d that come from?\u00a0 He was awful in years prior.\u00a0 Is <strong>Trevor Bauer<\/strong> dependable?\u00a0 They better hope so; that&#8217;s your #3 starter.\u00a0 They just signed <strong>Gavin Floyd<\/strong> after his injury shortened 9-game stint with Atlanta last year; he&#8217;s no better than a 4th\/5th innings eater.\u00a0\u00a0 Is <strong>Gavin Salazar<\/strong> ready for prime time?\u00a0 He wasn&#8217;t in 2014.\u00a0 And there&#8217;s little else on the farm; the Indians don&#8217;t have a significant starting pitcher prospect in their entire system.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Atlanta<\/strong><\/span>: The Braves surprisingly parted ways with <strong>Kris Medlen<\/strong> and not-so-surprisingly parted ways with <strong>Brandon Beachy<\/strong>, <strong>Gavin Floyd<\/strong>, Ervin Santana and Aaron Harang.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a lot of starter depth to cut loose.\u00a0 They look to go into 2015 with ace <strong>Julio Teheran<\/strong> followed by the newly acquired <strong>Shelby Miller<\/strong>, the inconsistent <strong>Mike Minor<\/strong>, the excellent but scary <strong>Alex Wood<\/strong> and under-rated 5th starter <strong>David Hale<\/strong>.\u00a0 That&#8217;s not a *bad* rotation &#8230; but it isn&#8217;t very deep.\u00a0 They have cut ties with guys who made nearly half their 2014 starts AND the guy who went 10-1 for them in 2012.\u00a0 They (inexplicably) picked up a starter in Rule-5 draft who had TJ surgery in June; are they really going to carry him that long on the active roster?\u00a0 They have no upper-end SP talent close to the majors.\u00a0 If one of these 5 starters gets hurt, Atlanta could be in trouble.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Philadelphia<\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">: all you need to know about the state of the Philadelphia franchise can be summed up right here: <strong>A.J. Burnett<\/strong> declined a $12.75M player option to play for the Phillies in 2015 and, instead, signed for 1\u00a0 year, $8.5M to play for Pittsburgh.\u00a0 They will head into 2015 with their aging 1-2 punch of <strong>Cole Hamels<\/strong> and <strong>Cliff Lee<\/strong>, the former being constantly dangled in trade rumors but going nowhere because the Phillies GM clearly over-values what a guy like Hamels and his guaranteed contract can actually bring back in return in this market.\u00a0 Past Hamels\/Lee there&#8217;s a bunch of non-descript names (<strong>David Buchanan<\/strong>, the waiver-claim <strong>Jerome Williams<\/strong> and the untested Cuban FA <strong>Miguel Gonzalez)<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 Can this team even broach 70 wins?<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Cincinnati<\/strong> <\/span>is moving backwards: they&#8217;ve traded away <strong>Mat Latos<\/strong> for\u00a0 pennies on the dollar (<strong>Keith Law<\/strong> says there&#8217;s &#8220;make-up issues.&#8221;) and moved the effective <strong>Alfredo Simon<\/strong> for other bit players.\u00a0 They&#8217;re putting a ton of faith that one-pitch <strong>Tony Cingrani<\/strong> will last a whole season and the youngster <strong>Anthony DeSclafini<\/strong> (obtained for Latos) will comprise a workable rotation.\u00a0 They do have a couple of decent prospects at AAA (<strong>Robert Stephenson<\/strong> and <strong>Michael Lorenzen<\/strong>) but they seem to be accepting that they&#8217;re taking a step back.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>St Louis<\/strong> <\/span>traded away their least effective starter (<strong>Shelby Miller)<\/strong> and acquired the best defensive RF in the game (<strong>Jason Heyward)<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not a bad bit of work.\u00a0 But they now will go into 2015 with a question mark in the rotation; prospect <strong>Carlos Martinez<\/strong> will get the first shot and could be good; oft-injured <strong>Jaime Garcia<\/strong> is still hanging around, and there&#8217;s a couple of good arms in AAA who could matriculate into the rotation via the bullpen as Martinez did in 2014.\u00a0 It could end up being addition by subtraction (Martinez for Miller) but we&#8217;ll see.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Arizona<\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> has boldly re-made their rotation this off-season, dealing away 2014 opening day starter <strong>Wade Miley<\/strong> for a couple of SP prospects and dealing for 6 arms in total thus far.\u00a0 New rotation may not be flashy at the top (the enigmatic <strong>Josh Collmenter<\/strong> is slated for the opening day start in 2015) and is followed by former Tampa pitcher <strong>Jeremy Hellickson<\/strong> (traded for prospects), the two pitchers acquired from Boston for Miley in <strong>Rubby de la Rosa<\/strong> and <strong>Allen Webster<\/strong> and then a cattle-call for the 5th starter competition this spring.\u00a0 Arizona also ended up with former Nats farm-hand <strong>Robbie Ray, <\/strong>still have the highly regarded <strong>Archie Bradley<\/strong> waiting for his free agent clock to get pushed out a year, plus 2013&#8217;s darling <strong>Patrick Corbin<\/strong> coming off of TJ, not to mention <strong>Bronson Arroyo<\/strong> coming back from TJ later in the season.\u00a0 So there&#8217;s a lot of arms out there to choose from, eventually.\u00a0 But getting to Bradley-Corbin-Hellickson-de la Rosa-Webster from where they&#8217;ll start will be rough.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">San Francisco<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8216;s 2015 rotation could be just as effective as it needs to be (after all, they won the 2014 world series having lost\u00a0<strong>Matt Cain<\/strong> mid-season and given the ineffective\u00a0<strong>Tim Lincecum<\/strong> 26 starts).\u00a0 They seem to set to go with Cain, WS hero <strong>Madison Bumgarner<\/strong>, the age-less <strong>Tim Hudson<\/strong>, and then with Lincecum and re-signed aging FA <strong>Jake Peavy<\/strong>.\u00a0 This pushes <strong>Yusmeiro Petit<\/strong> to the bullpen for the time being and seemingly closes the door on <strong>Ryan Vogelsong<\/strong>&#8216;s SF time.\u00a0 Rumor had it that they were all over\u00a0<strong>Jon Lester<\/strong>&#8230; and missed.\u00a0 So a big acquisition to permanently sent Lincecum to the pen could still be in the works.\u00a0 SF&#8217;s bigger issue is the loss of offense.\u00a0 But the NL West is so weak they could still sneak into the playoffs again.\u00a0 I list them as question marks though because Cain might not be healthy, Lincecum could still suck, and Hudson and Peavy combined are nearly 80 years of age.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>San Diego<\/strong> <\/span>has completely re-made their offense; do they have the pitching they need to compete?\u00a0\u00a0 They signed <strong>Brandon Morrow<\/strong> to replace 32 awful starts they gave to <strong>Eric Stults<\/strong> last year; that should be an improvement.\u00a0 But they&#8217;ve traded away their 2nd best guy (<strong>Jesse Hahn<\/strong>) and are now set to have two lesser starters (<strong>Odrisamer Despaigne<\/strong> and <strong>Robbie Erlin<\/strong>) compete for the rotation.\u00a0 The Padres re-signed lottery ticket <strong>Josh Johnson<\/strong> (coming off what seems like his millionth season-ending arm injury) and still have TJ survivor <strong>Cory Luebke<\/strong> in the wings, possibly ready for April 1st.\u00a0 Their 1-2-3 of <strong>Andrew Cashner, Tyson Ross<\/strong> and <strong>Ian Kennedy<\/strong> isn&#8217;t that inspiring, but in San Diego&#8217;s home park, you don&#8217;t have to be <strong>Sandy Koufax<\/strong> to succeed.\u00a0 Have they done enough to compete in the NL West?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Which team has taken the biggest step back?\u00a0 Clearly for me its Arizona.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Who is left?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Well, clearly the two big FA names are <strong>Max Scherzer<\/strong> and <strong>James Shields<\/strong>.\u00a0 Scherzer gambled heavily on himself when he turned down 6\/$144M.\u00a0 Would the Tigers make him a new offer?\u00a0 Are the Nationals possibly involved (I hope not for the sake of the team&#8217;s chemistry; what would it say to players if the Nats jettisoned <strong>Jordan Zimmermann<\/strong> so they could give Scherzer $150M?).\u00a0\u00a0 He&#8217;d make a great fit in San Francisco &#8230; who wanted Lester but would get nearly the same great performance out of Scherzer.\u00a0 Meanwhile Shields could fit in Boston or for the Dodgers to give them the depth they&#8217;ve lost.<\/p>\n<p>Past the two big names, you have older guys likely to go on one year deals.\u00a0\u00a0There&#8217;s no longer really room for <strong>Ryan Vogelsong<\/strong> in SF; he could be a decent option for someone.\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>Aaron Harang<\/strong> has earned himself a likely 2 year deal as someone&#8217;s back of the rotation guy.\u00a0 Guys like <strong>Kyle Kendrick<\/strong> or <strong>Joe Saunders<\/strong> could be someone&#8217;s starter insurance policy.\u00a0 And of course there&#8217;s a slew of injury guys who are like pitching lottery tickets.\u00a0 Beachy, Billingsley, and <strong>Alex<\/strong><strong>i Ogando<\/strong> all sound intriguing as reclamation cases.<\/p>\n<p>But, once you get past Scherzer and Shields, anyone looking for a big upgrade will have to hit the trade market.\u00a0 The problem there seems to be this: there&#8217;s just not that many teams that are already waving the white flag for 2015.\u00a0\u00a0 From reading the tea leaves this off-season, Atlanta is giving up, Cincinnati may be close, Philadelphia has begrudgingly admitted they&#8217;re not going to win, Arizona has already traded away its assets, Colorado is stuck in neutral, Oakland may look like they&#8217;re rebuilding but they still will be competitive in 2015, and\u00a0 young teams like Houston and Tampa aren&#8217;t giving up what they currently have.\u00a0 So a GM might have to get creative to improve their team at this point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Editor&#8217;s Note: sorry for the tardiness on this post: I had it completely written and a WordPress or browser glitch lost 1,000 words of analysis.\u00a0 So it took a bit of time to cobble back together what I had originally written.\u00a0 Then the Souza trade hit, then the Cuban thing &#8230; and this got pushed). 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