I currently have this catcher playing in my bigs:

General & Fielding Ratings
Event	Season	Height	Weight	OV	RA	GL	AS	AA	PC	DU	HE	SP	PA	TP	MK
Current	-	6-1	193	76	13	31	69	73	68	88	86	32	67	5	58

Batting & Pitching Ratings
Event	Season	CN	PW	LH	RH	BE	BR	BU	PP	ST	CT	LH	RH	VE	GB	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5
Current	-	88	61	75	69	67	63	0	40	21	16	2	3	7	36	65	0	0	0	0

He's 28 years old and still has another 5-6 good years left in him. My pitching staff is horrible, but I have 2 stud SP in my minors almost ready for the bigs.

There are 2 stud IFA's available right now, a power hitting catcher with nice defensive stats, and one of the best IFA pitchers Ive ever seen. My question is, if you had more of a need for a catcher 4-5 years from now, would you take the catcher over the SP?

Here are both the IFA's ratings, I have a 15 Mil IFA scouting budget, so the projections are fairly close:

Catcher - Signability:  Looking to sign. Would love an opportunity to play in America.

General & Fielding Ratings
Event	Season	Height	Weight	OV	RA	GL	AS	AA	PC	DU	HE	SP	PA	TP	MK
Current	-	5-9	199	63	12	32	67	52	66	66	62	21	66	49	76
Projected	-	5-9	209	79	13	37	75	68	86	82	68	21	88	49	86

Batting & Pitching Ratings
Event	Season	CN	PW	LH	RH	BE	BR	BU	PP	ST	CT	LH	RH	VE	GB	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5
Current	-	47	87	72	53	79	49	47	54	20	8	0	0	3	35	59	0	0	0	0
Projected	-	62	97	80	61	81	62	55	62	20	14	3	0	3	42	67	0	0	0	0

LH SP - Signability: May sign if the deal is right. If not, he'll continue to play outside the States.

General & Fielding Ratings
Event	Season	Height	Weight	OV	RA	GL	AS	AA	PC	DU	HE	SP	PA	TP	MK
Current	-	6-1	175	76	26	22	67	70	23	28	89	32	54	52	66
Projected	-	6-1	175	89	26	23	70	81	27	28	94	38	70	47	79

Batting & Pitching Ratings
Event	Season	CN	PW	LH	RH	BE	BR	BU	PP	ST	CT	LH	RH	VE	GB	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5
Current	-	16	3	15	22	22	17	54	60	82	69	79	78	78	59	67	67	58	35	37
Projected	-	17	7	23	26	26	19	66	65	95	81	97	91	82	63	82	72	66	47	38

I'm sure you'll hear good cases for either player. I would choose the pitcher because I believe he will provide greater leverage for you in a short series than a hitter who gets 4-5 AB's. With that guy's stamina, if you chose to keep his pitch count to 90-95 he could probably pitch 3 of 5 games. And with 90-95 pitches of that quality, I bet he could get 7 innings most of the time.

Thanks dwoolery

dont read my posts then jonas, im new at HBD, and making a mistake early on can set my team back a lot

i like the pitcher

1.  Unless it's really, really close between two players, don't use projected need as a basis for your prospect acquisitions.  Your needs will change unpredictably between now and then anyway.
2.  You can always find a catcher lying around, because (1) their low overalls make them affordable in FA, and (2) owners have very different types of players they like to use as catcher, making less competition for any one catcher.
3.  The pitcher, assuming he's 18 years old, is truly outstanding.
4.  The pitcher is going to go to whoever sees him and has the most prospect dollars, including transfer from payroll, available.  $30M would not be out of the question.  If it were me I would run up the bid quickly on the pitcher, and if you can't keep up, try to switch to the catcher so you can at least get something out of this.

What dedelman said.

All else being equal, I'll take the pitcher every single time.  Seems like an all star level pitcher is always in demand on the trade market since we all need multiple good ones.  You may offer the catcher up on the trade market, but if I've already got a good one under my control, I may not be willing to give up as much as he's worth.

+1 on what dedelman said.  Those pitchers are extremely hard to get.  Just on ratings alone it's already a no-brainer, but factor in the rarity of pitchers like that, you shouldn't even have to ask.  Expect to pay max prospect $ for him as dedelman said.

That pitcher is outstanding.

thanks guys, ended up getting the pitcher for $24 Million

Well worth the $$