Which one of these teams could be good in 5-10 years?

[slugger33]

Well you can look around at many teams in MLB that aren't good, but have a lot of kids with talent, but lacking experience. These teams have potential. Which one of these teams has the most potential?

Royals
Marlins
Nationals
Devil Rays

[Colorado Express]

I'm betting on Florida simply because of their pitching. Tampa Bay looks like they have the best hitting of that group. I'm also basing this on 2-3 years and not 5-10 years from now... in 10 years, I doubt that even half these players will still be on their current roster.

[cosmo34]

Based on the Marlins 6 year span between series victories, chalk them up as 2009 Champs.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

The D-Rays are this close to being a legitimate playoff contender. If they can bolster thier pitching then can be an above .500 by 2008.

[KCGHOST]

I took the Marlins because they have a track record of doing it before.

[Erik Bedard]

I took the Marlins because they have a track record of doing it before.
Agreed, though if the Marlins didn't have their track record, I'd say D-Rays in a heartbeat. Neither KC nor DC have many top-notch prospects like Florida and TB do.

[Centerfielder2]

id agree

but even thought the Rays play in the AL East . one of the hardest divisions in baseball , but the yankees are getting old n the Jays n Os arent looking so good


they have alot of good young talent , then again so does florida

either way a team from florida will be pretty good

[Wade8813]

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see any or all of those teams being good in 10 years. That's a really long time.

In a little over 10 years starting from 1994, the Mariners went from a losing record, to being arguably the best team in baseball in 2001, then to one of the absolute worst teams.

[natsnsoxfan]

I'd say all of them will be pretty good teams in about 4 years. Marlins probably next year, let not forget that they're not half bad this year too. I'd say Royals and D'Rays next because they both have superb hitting prospects at almost every position, C is the only weakness for the Rays and 1B seems to be the weak spot for the Royals, with some pretty good pitching prospects, plus the Rays already have an ace in Kazmir and the Marlins in Willis. Then the Nationals, they have a great young 3B in Ryan Zimmerman, they have some very good prospects at the lower levels of the minors with Chris OF Marrero, SP Colten Willems, SS Esmailyn Gonzalez, OF Stephen Englund, OF Justin Maxwell, SP Collin Ballester, RP Zech Zinicola, and 1st round pick Ross Detwiler. They have some chips to trade to get more prospects with guys like Cordero and Lopez. I love them but they are definately the furthest away because of the mostly barren farm and what prospects they do have are quite a ways away.

[Biggtone23]

Whoever decides to open up their wallet. They all have some good young players but will they be able to put them together before they hit the open market.

[slugger33]

So you guys think maybe we will have a Marlins-Tampa Bay World Series anytime soon?

[rdonahue]

I picked the Nats. The DRays have BOS and NYY to compete with. Their farm teams may not be the greatest (I think) but they'll spend the $ needed. The Royals have a division that's got a few teams ahead of them that look like they're set for a while. That could change but until it does I'll assume it won't.

The Marlins were my second choice, but I picked the Nats and here's my reasoning:

They're getting a new stadium which will likely create more revenue. They'll likely spend a lot of $ and there you go. The Marlins don't look like they're doing that right now. Acquiring all that young talent worked twice but I don't know if they can do it three times. Also, I just watched the Nats take on my Tigers last week and I was fairly impressed with them. On paper they're pretty awful and should have lost every game 15-1 (that happened in one of the games) but they showed up for at least part of the other 2 games. There record is a lot better than anyone expected so far so I give their manager a lot of credit. If they can win 77 games this year (which they probably can't but it's still technically possible) I'd vote their manager MOY.

[Mattingly]

Whoever decides to open up their wallet. They all have some good young players but will they be able to put them together before they hit the open market.
In addition to increasing their payroll, what do you feel are the needs of each team? I'm asking one of those, "Team A would be great if only they'd get a better [player position, or rotation/bullpen]" type of thing.

Is it the manager that's not decisive enough to help them get a few extra wins that they'd need to be a winning team? What would these teams take to get to 80-90 wins on a regular basis?

[Centerfielder2]

Whoever decides to open up their wallet. They all have some good young players but will they be able to put them together before they hit the open market.

im guessing ur a yankee fan ?

[TG Coach]

Talent doesn't matter when there's atrocious management. The only team in the four choices that doesn't have poor management is the Marlins. The Marlins seem to be able to allow high priced players to get away, yet continue to rebuild and win. The Marlins management has two World Series wins to show for their efforts. The others have a lot of last place finishes.

[Biggtone23]

In addition to increasing their payroll, what do you feel are the needs of each team? I'm asking one of those, "Team A would be great if only they'd get a better [player position, or rotation/bullpen]" type of thing.

Is it the manager that's not decisive enough to help them get a few extra wins that they'd need to be a winning team? What would these teams take to get to 80-90 wins on a regular basis?

They all need better pitching. The Devil Rays have some good young pitching but they need to get them together before their offensive talent stars start leaving. The same can be said about the Royals. The Marlins have good pitching but need more hitting and have to find a way to get it without giving up Miguel Cabera or Willis. The Nationals are a bit of harder case in my opinon. They have Cordero, Johnson and Zimmerman but thats about it. I honestly dont know much about their farm system so I cant say whether they have young guys ready to come up in a year or so.

I dont think the managers are making much of a difference one way or the other. I think it is somewhat intersting though to see what Fredi Gonzalez does with basically the same Marlins team Joe Girardi nearly took to the playoffs, and the struggles that Joe Maddon is having with the same core of players that Bill Evers took to back to back Govenor's Cup Titles.

Centerfielder2 - What gave it away? The Yankees logo in my avatar? Anyway though all teams need to spend money to be competive. Not just to sign players from other teams, but to keep their players from leaving. Let's us the old Expos as an example: They had a great farm system but whenever a player got near free agency they were traded away. Even a great farm system can't produce quality major leaguers fast enough to keep up with the big club trading away everyone of value after just a few years in the majors.

[Erik Bedard]

Talent doesn't matter when there's atrocious management. The only team in the four choices that doesn't have poor management is the Marlins. The Marlins seem to be able to allow high priced players to get away, yet continue to rebuild and win. The Marlins management has two World Series wins to show for their efforts. The others have a lot of last place finishes.

Jeff Loria isn't poor management? I'd think that whatever he does would cancel out Larry Beinfest's amazing GM skills. And we haven't seen what Dayton Moore can do in KC. He's making himself look pretty smart (and everybody else look pretty dumb) with the Gil Meche move. However, both Tampa Bay and the Nats have horrible management, I agree there.

[natsnsoxfan]

I agree to some degree with the assessment of the Nationals management. Overall, the management isn't awful, but Jim Bowden is such an incompetent moron that he makes the entire management look bad. The new owner and president seem to be committed to winning and spending some money.

[-Kyle-]

In addition to increasing their payroll, what do you feel are the needs of each team? I'm asking one of those, "Team A would be great if only they'd get a better [player position, or rotation/bullpen]" type of thing.

Is it the manager that's not decisive enough to help them get a few extra wins that they'd need to be a winning team? What would these teams take to get to 80-90 wins on a regular basis?

The Marlins need a good CF and C, after that they're set for posistion players, well maybe 1b. They have great pitching potential, with D-Train (25), Josh Johnson(23), Scott Olsen (24) as all close to being aces. They have young pitchers that are top notch prospects, Petit, Pinto, Volstad, West, Tucker, and Thompson. Sanchez has some potential, but Mitre is on fire right now but doesn't grade out spectacularly and is 26. Marlins bullpen is decent as they are going to have a closer in Tankersly. Bowyer, Owens, Nolasco, Delgado, Tyler and Lindstrom are all going to have great power in the bullpen.

Marlins are close to becoming a playoff potential, espicially if the Braves and Mets keep their current records pace.

[Charger567]

I am going with the D-Rays on this one. They already have a solid offense, and do have some good pitching prospects on the rise. Including two potential aces in Kazmir and Shields.

[natsnsoxfan]

They have a real rough division though with the Red Sox and Yankees....

[skeletor]

I took the Marlins because they have a track record of doing it before.

yeah, count me in on the fish as well...couple of series since their birth..

current team has some good players..on the flip, I like Kansas City..

I'm hoping good things eventually happen there...and return to their glory
days...instead of being the Kansas City clubs of the 1950's..

as for the Nats...the GM is suspect...but ownership could open the purse strings, once the new park opens..the farm really needs to start producing

as for the D-Rays, potential..yes..but will they get over the hump ?

probably no...add to the mix, trapped in the same division as NY and
Boston...tough division....management there is suspect..

would be interesting to put together a team with the best of all those
clubs..and what mgr from that group, would lead them ?

[eric_p]

the devil rays*

*on the condition that tampa/st petersburg law enforcement agrees to look the other way in hopes of the hometown team maybe, someday, somehow reaching .500

[hudsonharden]

All of them, but I would say that Florida and Tampa Bay have the best chance of doing so. I don't see the Nationals turning it around any time soon.