Re: 7/9 Angels (Blanton) @ Cubs (Wood) 7:05 PM CT CSN/720

[Sammy Sofa]

I was at Friday night's Angels' game. Absolutely no one there likes Hamilton and his 0.5 fWAR with his contract either. CJ Wilson's contract is a big fat anchor too.

 

But as long as Trout keeps putting up 10 WAR seasons on a minor league contract...

 

How is Wilson's contract a big fat anchor?

 

It's a team spending long term money on a player over the age of 23...that's madness!

[KaiserCesar]

Peralta just shut out the Reds. Time to get back in this race.

[Schwarber Fan]

Seriously, why not throw H-Rod here?

[Schwarber Fan]

Alex Rios... 6 for 6 tonight. Wow

[Sammy Sofa]

Seriously? Kevin Gregg was going to warm up if they got on base there? Calm the [expletive] down, Dale.

[Schwarber Fan]

Win tomorrow, sweep the Cards and get to 45-48 at the break.

 

Man, that'd be nice.

[Castros trade value]

Alex Rios... 6 for 6 tonight. Wow

 

Who's Alex Rios?

[Castros trade value]

Haha! 9 back in the wild card.

 

http://www.walkoffwalk.com/cinema.majorleague.jobosmoking.jpg

[SouthSideRyan]

Cubs have their best record since they were 2-2.

 

They have a run differential of +1

 

They are 27-22 against teams outside the NL Central.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Wellington Castillo: 233 AB, 2 HR, 15 RBI, 12 BB

Dioner Navarro: 114 AB, 8 HR, 19 RBI, 13 BB

 

Just sayin'

[Sammy Sofa]

Castillo: 2.1 WAR (or 1.2 per FG)

Navarro: 0.9 WAR (or 0.7 per FG)

[mul21]

Wellington Castillo: 233 AB, 2 HR, 15 RBI, 12 BB

Dioner Navarro: 114 AB, 8 HR, 19 RBI, 13 BB

 

Just sayin'

 

Castillo: 2.1 WAR (or 1.2 per FG)

Navarro: 0.9 WAR (or 0.7 per FG)

 

[Little Slide Rooter]

With Parker, Guerrier, Strop, Russell, and Gregg, this team's Achilles heel has quietly made quite an upgrade.

 

Probably too little too late, but this team could be fun to watch in the weeks leading up to the fire sale.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Castillo: 2.1 WAR (or 1.2 per FG)

Navarro: 0.9 WAR (or 0.7 per FG)

 

According to DRS, Wellington Castillo has been the best defensive catcher in baseball. He leads with 11.

 

Anyone know how the hell that's happened?

[Sammy Sofa]

With Parker, Guerrier, Strop, Russell, and Gregg, this team's Achilles heel has quietly made quite an upgrade.

 

Probably too little too late, but this team could be fun to watch in the weeks leading up to the fire sale.

 

There's not going to be a fire sale. There never was going to be a fire sale. They weren't ever going to trade off a huge part of the team, you tremendous oaf.

[Sammy Sofa]

Castillo: 2.1 WAR (or 1.2 per FG)

Navarro: 0.9 WAR (or 0.7 per FG)

 

According to DRS, Wellington Castillo has been the best defensive catcher in baseball. He leads with 11.

 

Anyone know how the hell that's happened?

 

Love for his arm.

[TruffleShuffle]

With Parker, Guerrier, Strop, Russell, and Gregg, this team's Achilles heel has quietly made quite an upgrade.

 

Probably too little too late, but this team could be fun to watch in the weeks leading up to the fire sale.

 

well, a lot of those guys suck. blake parker has been trying to hold down a spot in the cubs' bullpen for five years now (and that's not an exaggeration; he's been pitching for iowa since 2008). strop's command tends to vary between below average and abysmal. guerrier was dumped by a team that wanted to replace him with marmol. russell was already here, so i have no idea why you included him. gregg - well, we already know his history, and he's likely to be gone in the next few weeks.

 

still, they've added a couple of live arms. and they're only 8 games below .500 with a bullpen that has been pathetic; even with an average bullpen they're a .500 team. that's why people say they can see the cubs contending next year; just put together a reasonable bullpen, hopefully castro goes from terrible to at least good (like he used to be), rizzo improves, maybe sign a free agent outfielder, sign a starting pitcher (feldman-ish), and hey they're not far off.

[Little Slide Rooter]

With Parker, Guerrier, Strop, Russell, and Gregg, this team's Achilles heel has quietly made quite an upgrade.

 

Probably too little too late, but this team could be fun to watch in the weeks leading up to the fire sale.

 

There's not going to be a fire sale. There never was going to be a fire sale. They weren't ever going to trade off a huge part of the team, you tremendous oaf.

 

Maybe not in the traditional sense, in which a fire sale suggests that everything goes, down to the seats. But anytime a team says that everybody on the team is available, with the exception of 3-4 guys, then yes. They have every intention of selling off a huge part of the team, assuming that they have takers. We've already traded or released 8 guys from or opening day roster (Feldman, Marmol, Hairston, Camp, Takahashi, Lillibridge, Clevenger, Gonzalez). If you count Stewart who was at the time thought of as a lock to be our starting 3B when he returned from the DL, make it 9. And one lost for the season to injury, so make it 10.

 

Assuming that at least Garza, Gregg, 2 of Soriano/DeJesus/Schierholtz, Navarro, and Ransom follow them out, that makes 12 from our opening day roster, 2 projected to be on it but started on the DL. and another 2 who were later added, one of whom was a major player for us. Wood, Villnueva, Russell, Guerrier, and Valbuena are a few others who could be moved at the right price. So what's a huge chunk of the team in your mind?

[Sammy Sofa]

Look, just admit you couldn't think of any other words to use, so you just used the wrong ones. What the Cubs are doing is in no way a "fire sale."

[Little Slide Rooter]

Look, just admit you couldn't think of any other words to use, so you just used the wrong ones. What the Cubs are doing is in no way a "fire sale."

 

Ever see the Monty Python argument clinic sketch? Just curious. By definition, in a fire sale, everything has to go, and the merchant will take any reasonable offer made because they plan to liquidate, they've gone bankrupt, or the merchandise is damaged. By that definition, the only time that I know of when a baseballl team had a fire sale was the Cincinatti Redlegs in 1879-1880, the very one which brought young Michael Kelly to the then Chicago White Stockings.

 

Other than that, when teams break down their current roster to rebuild for the future they tend to want a higher value for the assets they're selling off, not a discounted price. And more often then not, the plan is to hang on to their younger, cost effective players, as we are. But they refer to it as a fire sale. Which is what we're seemingly having. Or at least willing to have. And by the traditional definition of a fire sale, the fashion in which we moved Zambrano, Marmol, and were trying to move Soriano is more representative of a proper fire sale then simply trading players for prospects.

[Sammy Sofa]

Holy hell, that is some torturous logic.

 

You tossed Zambrano in there? So the fire sale is a multi-season process? So then every team is perpetually involved in some variation of a fire sale at all times?

 

Trading guys like Hairston and Gregg and Schierholtz isn't a fire sale. That's moving guys from a mediocre team that you were hoping to move at some point to begin with.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Whatever it is that you want to call it essentially began when Epstein took over. But when a non contending team openly announces that they're open for business on virtually their entire big league roster, it's generally referred to as a fire sale, whether or not it's correct use of the term. There's a difference between a team that's fallen out of contention looking to move a few expiring contracts and one that is clearing out their entire big league roster in 2-3 year time frame.

[mul21]

THAT'S NOT WHAT THEY'RE DOING YOU TOOL!

[Sammy Sofa]

THAT'S NOT WHAT THEY'RE DOING YOU TOOL!

 

Listen to this man.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Of the big league players inherited by Mr. Epstein in October of 2011, 7 remain. Two of them have have been agressively shopped since he took over and at least one will likely be gone by the time we turn the page on our calabdars. If the other one isn't, it won't be due to lack of trying. But what do I know.