Yankees Sign Masahiro Tanaka

[SouthSideRyan]

It's great to say find a way to limit Barney and his .250's wOBA, but who do we have to take those 500+ ab's away from him that will be a substantial improvement? Baez isn't getting here THAT fast that he will take a large chunk nor, like mentioned, is he a sure thing at this point to do all that much better in a limited/initial call up.

Play someone at third that can hit decently and play Valbuena at second.

 

Done.

 

And who is that?

[Rob]

I was reading an Arguello article this morning, prepping us for the second half of the offseason. He prefaced it by saying the first half is generally the more exciting half....

 

I know I can barely contain myself, with the additions of Wright, Ruggiano, Kottaras, and Veras. Oh, and Brett Marshall.

 

I think the closest I came to excitement was adding Kalish and Roberts to minor league deals. Seriously, if Tanaka goes elsewhere(likely) an addition of Hammel or Baker caps off the damn offseason. I'm all about the rebuild, but [expletive]. That's a horrifically awful offseason. Worse than I thought possible honestly. Even if I do think we're a low 70's win type team currently, the activity sucks out loud.

 

I just keep reminding myself that at least the moves we've made have been good ones. That said, they're all pretty minor acquisitions. There isn't even a Shark trade to look at and say "this move will impact the team in 2016."

[Rob]

It's great to say find a way to limit Barney and his .250's wOBA, but who do we have to take those 500+ ab's away from him that will be a substantial improvement? Baez isn't getting here THAT fast that he will take a large chunk nor, like mentioned, is he a sure thing at this point to do all that much better in a limited/initial call up.

Play someone at third that can hit decently and play Valbuena at second.

 

Done.

 

And who is that?

 

The bar for offense at 3B is lower than people think. If we could find even a Vitters-level bat that would play there as long as they were an average fielder.

[SouthSideRyan]

It's great to say find a way to limit Barney and his .250's wOBA, but who do we have to take those 500+ ab's away from him that will be a substantial improvement? Baez isn't getting here THAT fast that he will take a large chunk nor, like mentioned, is he a sure thing at this point to do all that much better in a limited/initial call up.

Play someone at third that can hit decently and play Valbuena at second.

 

Done.

 

And who is that?

 

The bar for offense at 3B is lower than people think. If we could find even a Vitters-level bat that would play there as long as they were an average fielder.

 

It's lower because teams can't go to their 3b tree and grab a decent bat. No matter what the bar is we don't have one in house

[jersey cubs fan]

The problem with the "just don't let Theriot" happen again theory is that even if you find a way to specifically address the Theriot situation, there are other Theriot situations ready to pop up in other positions. There is no depth here, and there is no outfield. There are multiple positions that could end up providing bottom of the barrel type production and over the course of a six month season, you have to expect setbacks to your plan. If your plan is to just be less embarrassing, that doesn't leave much wiggle room.

[davell]

Yeah, each move individually has made sense and you can see why it was made. As we'll be able to say about a Hammel/Baker type move too. But as Kyle said, the talk of adding young power arms has halted, due to our valuation of Shark, I guess. I guess I want to see Iglesias and some more late July 2nd signees. Hell, NEED to see those things, if we've got nothing else going on.

[Cubswin11]

It's great to say find a way to limit Barney and his .250's wOBA, but who do we have to take those 500+ ab's away from him that will be a substantial improvement? Baez isn't getting here THAT fast that he will take a large chunk nor, like mentioned, is he a sure thing at this point to do all that much better in a limited/initial call up.

Play someone at third that can hit decently and play Valbuena at second.

 

Done.

 

And who is that?

The 24 year old prospect, with eye problems, who put up a .302 OBP and .671 SLG in AAA last year.....

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

It's great to say find a way to limit Barney and his .250's wOBA, but who do we have to take those 500+ ab's away from him that will be a substantial improvement? Baez isn't getting here THAT fast that he will take a large chunk nor, like mentioned, is he a sure thing at this point to do all that much better in a limited/initial call up.

Play someone at third that can hit decently and play Valbuena at second.

 

Done.

 

And who is that?

The 24 year old prospect, with eye problems, who put up a .302 OBP and .671 SLG in AAA last year.....

 

I'm guessing you meant OPS?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Everyone is desperately trying to ignore how horrendous this upcoming season is shaping up to be.

 

I didn't think there was a chance it would actually somehow be WORSE, but here we are.

 

I'm not ignoring it. It just sort of ... is.

 

We've dropped Soriano, DeJesus, Garza and Feldman. We've added a bullpen arm, maybe two. There will be some regression to the mean in both directions. Yes, Castro should be better. But we got some crazy-lucky performances from scrapheap guys last year, not to mention Junior Lake.

 

If we add Tanaka, I'd put us at about even with what we had last year on paper. Without him? Easily worse.

 

There were leaks early in the offseason suggesting that the Cubs had given up on at least 2014 and regretted last year's spending spree, and that's exactly how they are acting.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Hairyducked Idiot

[Guest]

We've dropped Soriano, DeJesus, Garza and Feldman. We've added a bullpen arm, maybe two. There will be some regression to the mean in both directions.

 

Ruggiano

[Hairyducked Idiot]

We've dropped Soriano, DeJesus, Garza and Feldman. We've added a bullpen arm, maybe two. There will be some regression to the mean in both directions.

 

Ruggiano

 

We had his equivalent last year. Sort of like swapping Navarro for Kottaras.

[Guest]

 

There were leaks early in the offseason suggesting that the Cubs had given up on at least 2014 and regretted last year's spending spree, and that's exactly how they are acting.

 

How are you differentiating between "acting like they regretted last year's spending spree" and "have been in limbo waiting to offer most of their available money to Tanaka?"

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Wait, they had a spending spree last year?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

 

There were leaks early in the offseason suggesting that the Cubs had given up on at least 2014 and regretted last year's spending spree, and that's exactly how they are acting.

 

How are you differentiating between "acting like they regretted last year's spending spree" and "have been in limbo waiting to offer most of their available money to Tanaka?"

 

Getting nowhere with serious trade talks, allocating the money they have spent in weird ways.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Wait, they had a spending spree last year?

 

Committed like $90m to free agents.

[SouthSideRyan]

lol "spending spree"

[Hairyducked Idiot]

*shrug* It was like 12 times as much as we've spent this offseason.

[SouthSideRyan]

 

There were leaks early in the offseason suggesting that the Cubs had given up on at least 2014 and regretted last year's spending spree, and that's exactly how they are acting.

 

How are you differentiating between "acting like they regretted last year's spending spree" and "have been in limbo waiting to offer most of their available money to Tanaka?"

 

Well we're not getting Tanaka for one?

[Guest]

 

There were leaks early in the offseason suggesting that the Cubs had given up on at least 2014 and regretted last year's spending spree, and that's exactly how they are acting.

 

How are you differentiating between "acting like they regretted last year's spending spree" and "have been in limbo waiting to offer most of their available money to Tanaka?"

 

Well we're not getting Tanaka for one?

 

Oh, OK. Well, I guess they shouldn't bother then.

[Guest]

We've dropped Soriano, DeJesus, Garza and Feldman. We've added a bullpen arm, maybe two. There will be some regression to the mean in both directions.

 

Ruggiano

 

We had his equivalent last year. Sort of like swapping Navarro for Kottaras.

 

Who was his equivalent? DeJesus? If so and that's the way you're doing that, why mention dropping him?

[Guest]

Onto more relevant things -

 

Ken Rosenthal

‏@Ken_Rosenthal

Sources: #Mariners weighing a number of options - Tanaka, Price, N. Cruz, etc. - but need to persuade ownership to keep pressing forward.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

We've dropped Soriano, DeJesus, Garza and Feldman. We've added a bullpen arm, maybe two. There will be some regression to the mean in both directions.

 

Ruggiano

 

We had his equivalent last year. Sort of like swapping Navarro for Kottaras.

 

Who was his equivalent? DeJesus? If so and that's the way you're doing that, why mention dropping him?

 

Bogusevic/McDonald/Borbon/Gillespie/Sappelt. Take your pick. Fourth outfielders are pretty interchangeable.

[Guest]

He's much better than any of those guys.

 

And the term fourth outfielder is about as worthless as talking about rotation spots. Even more so when you have multiple platoons.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

He's much better than any of those guys.

.

 

Is he? Why? He's had one year of 1+ WAR in his career, and that required a .401 BABIP.

 

He fits our roster nicely because of his handedness, but I see no reason to think he's better than those guys.

 

I was using "fourth outfielder" to describe his ability more than his role. We have four fourth outfielders and no starters, and that's being generous to Lake.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Hairyducked Idiot

[jersey cubs fan]

He's much better than any of those guys.

 

And the term fourth outfielder is about as worthless as talking about rotation spots. Even more so when you have multiple platoons.

 

Multiple platoons is not a good thing. Platoons just mean you don't have good enough players and are trying to mask a lot of weaknesses. They do not work out as well as we'd hope in theory.