If Soler is dealt

[Sammy Sofa]

Fried chicken = bad but choking teammate is tolerable?

 

Fried chicken, beer and video games show a lack of dedication to maintaining quality physical condition. Atleast the choking part shows frustration over an underachieving season and a lack of hustle. Obviously it's still not the right thing to do. But atleast there's a reason behind it that's somewhat understandable. There's nothing admirable about making 10+ million a year and not doing what you can during the season to stay in top shape.

 

Him choking Harper had nothing to do with any of that; Harper ran out the pop-up and would have easily been on first if the ball had inexplicably been dropped. He petulantly didn't like Harper saying earlier that he didn't look forward to getting plunked because Papelbon decided to go all meatball-y and went headhunting after Machado. He was an obnoxious gun-for-hire who hadn't been on the team for two months and his tiny, dinosaur-like brain couldn't process Harper not just rolling over and taking his [expletive]. These were the actions of a psycho, not a "gamer."

[Guest]

it amazes me when it appears mojo has actually been paying attention to baseball

[Sammy Sofa]

Baseball has to earn my love, dammit.

 

Plus it was all anyone here was talking about when it came to sports for a good week.

[Guest]

Baseball has to earn my love, dammit.

 

Plus it was all anyone here was talking about when it came to sports for a good week.

 

It's like when Homer gets the crayon removed

 

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120518145227/simpsons/images/9/9c/Smart_Homer.jpg

[Sammy Sofa]

http://newsradio.certifiedweird.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/newsradio_smatthew.jpg

[SouthSideRyan]

Change your name to Smojo

[Banedon]

http://i.imgur.com/mwsXLmt.gif

[toonsterwu]

Baez or Soler for Gausman - who says no first?

Probably the orioles. They know they need pitching with plus stuff, but they won't spend for the top arms. They also know they need to remake their 1 dimensional offense. Guess is soler gives them pause. I doubt they would consider Baez.

[toonsterwu]

No on Papelbon. Its not needed. They passed at the trade deadline for a reasonable price. Don't see them doing it now, but could be wrong.

 

Still think they may try to peddle Werth's contract with Strasburg to give them greater flexibility. Would not be surprised if they went after Fowler. Robles is a couple years away, and Taylor is okay, not great.

[toonsterwu]

Don't need Werth or Papelbon. Storen has had his issues there and also isn't particularly cheap, he'd be the guy with Strasburg.

Storen has value. I doubt they would combine the two, but could be wrong. Also, Cubs don't need Werth (or Pap) - just guessing Rizzo would want to dump some money to go after FA targets. Wouldn't stun me if they looked at Price/Greinke, but think they may focus on 2nd tier arms.

[Tryptamine]

Zero interest in Storen. He's extremely mentally fragile. He wilts in the playoffs and he went downhill quick once Papelbon joined the Nats.

[davell]

I guess we'll be mentioned with damn near everyone this offseason, but I'm at least a bit surprised Alex Gordon hasn't come up yet on the rumor mill. Heyman mentioned him at 3/38. That can't be remotely close on him, right?(unless he's dead set on staying put and giving them a huge discount)

 

At any rate, Maddon doesn't seem to differentiate between the corners much, so Soler or Schwarber in RF, to pair with Gordon in LF seems doable to me.

[Guest]

I guess we'll be mentioned with damn near everyone this offseason, but I'm at least a bit surprised Alex Gordon hasn't come up yet on the rumor mill. Heyman mentioned him at 3/38. That can't be remotely close on him, right?(unless he's dead set on staying put and giving them a huge discount)

 

At any rate, Maddon doesn't seem to differentiate between the corners much, so Soler or Schwarber in RF, to pair with Gordon in LF seems doable to me.

Don't they have a team option?

[Cubswin11]

Zero interest in Storen. He's extremely mentally fragile. He wilts in the playoffs and he went downhill quick once Papelbon joined the Nats.

He has a mighty sample of 6 postseason appearances, in 4 of them he hasn't allowed a run (3 with no hits), then he had 1 outing were he allowed 1 run and 1 where he did blow up and gave up 4. The outing with the 4 runs came in the 4th appearance in the same series and 3rd appearance in 3 days. I'd gladly take him if he were available for the right price and he was amendable to not being a closer full-time.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=storedr01&t=p&year=0&post=1

Edited October 29, 2015 by Cubswin11

[Cubswin11]

I guess we'll be mentioned with damn near everyone this offseason, but I'm at least a bit surprised Alex Gordon hasn't come up yet on the rumor mill. Heyman mentioned him at 3/38. That can't be remotely close on him, right?(unless he's dead set on staying put and giving them a huge discount)

 

At any rate, Maddon doesn't seem to differentiate between the corners much, so Soler or Schwarber in RF, to pair with Gordon in LF seems doable to me.

Don't they have a team option?

Player option for $12.5 million, so yeah that's getting declined/not exercised

Edited October 29, 2015 by Cubswin11

[davell]

I guess we'll be mentioned with damn near everyone this offseason, but I'm at least a bit surprised Alex Gordon hasn't come up yet on the rumor mill. Heyman mentioned him at 3/38. That can't be remotely close on him, right?(unless he's dead set on staying put and giving them a huge discount)

 

At any rate, Maddon doesn't seem to differentiate between the corners much, so Soler or Schwarber in RF, to pair with Gordon in LF seems doable to me.

Don't they have a team option?

 

Nope. 12.5 mill player option.

[StylesClash]

Upgrading the bench should be a priority too. I know its not the headline grabbing process of going after Heyward, but I think we can all agree that La Stella and Coghlan shouldn't be the top options off the bench next year.

 

I wonder who the current equivalent to Daryle Ward could be. Aka someone with some pop who can work the count and take the occasional walk late in the game. I'd have no problem dealing someone along the lines of a Travis Wood or La Stella to acquire a veteran power bat for the bench.

[rawaction]

Upgrading the bench should be a priority too. I know its not the headline grabbing process of going after Heyward, but I think we can all agree that La Stella and Coghlan shouldn't be the top options off the bench next year.

 

I wonder who the current equivalent to Daryle Ward could be. Aka someone with some pop who can work the count and take the occasional walk late in the game. I'd have no problem dealing someone along the lines of a Travis Wood or La Stella to acquire a veteran power bat for the bench.

 

Coghlan would be one of the best bench bats in the league. He was fine as a starter last year. LaStella is your typical backup IF. Ther'es nothing wrong with those 2 being the top LH options off the bench.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I was going to say, I thought Coghlan was pretty good in his role

[toonsterwu]

Gordon's good but Heyward is 6 years younger, keeps Soler and Schwarber in the lineup by playing CF, and is better anyway. Plus feel like Heyward's deal gets overshot while Gordon's gets under. 3/38 is low, and still think Heyward gets an opt out after 155 or so.

 

---

 

Storen isn't a scared guy. Guy went from school to closing big league games in less than a year, was a first round pick as a reliever, that's not a weak minded guy. As far as money, he and Strasburg would free up ~$15-18 million for the Nats. To help their OF glut I'd look to pick up Goodwin as a smaller piece in a Strasburg deal if he has options - maybe see if the PD guys can fix his swing or whatever it is.

 

Plus I think including Werth/Papelbom with Strasburg hurts the return they could get for Strasburg.

 

Possible ... but I think the flip side argument would go something like

 

a) They have some money to spend, by most accounts. My guess is not a ton without moving stuff, but

 

b) This isn't a team with HUGE pressing needs. There's an OF need (if they can move Werth, corner or CF depending on what they want to do with Taylor), perhaps 2nd, maybe 1st, and maybe catcher. That said ... Ryan Zimmerman is going to get some AB's at first as the "franchise" guy that's been around, so that eats some AB's at first, and a guy like Tyler Moore can flip between 1st/OF. At 2nd, Wilmer Difo and Danny Espinosa could be as intriguing as anything they could get in a trade, and at catcher, Ramos is tied down 1 more year (I think) and they have two intriguing young catchers a year or two away (Reetz is further away but the more intriguing option). Even their pitching needs aren't HUGE. Joe Ross and Tanner Roark are fine end of the rotation options to start the year, if we're being honest. If anything, they need pen help.

 

c) This is a team with some prospect depth. They are strong on pitching, and have some intriguing enough bats. The chance of landing the impact they need likely isn't through the trade market.

 

Short of it is, my thinking is that I think the Nats probably go - "Hey, you want an elite level arm (and lost in the noise about Strasburg's issues is that he has been pretty damn great ... not elite (dependent on how you define that, but pretty damn great), who, prior to this year, was slowly building up his yearly workload, without paying elite level price in years and cost? We'll listen on Strasburg, but we aren't pressed to move him. Take a contract off us and/or give us something we care about, and we might consider it."

 

____

 

All that said, much as I've pushed the idea for awhile now that the Nationals may listen on Strasburg, I still have my doubts. After all, a rotation of Scherzer/Strasburg/Gonzalez/Ross/Roark (or a FA competing), and maybe add someone like Dexter Fowler, plus a healthy Rendon, and this team looks like a playoff squad again, assuming Trea Turner is ready. I think it would probably take a great deal for them to pry him away. By no means am I saying that any team should offer the kitchen sink for him ... just that I think the Nationals view would be that, to give up an elite arm, we're going to need a lot.

 

____

 

To be quite honest, much as I enjoy pondering the idea about Strasburg to the Cubs for the right price, I am starting to wonder if Boston makes a ton more sense than us (and many other squads) as a possible Strasburg trade partner. They have contracts that they can swap (Allen Craig/Rick Porcello come to mind - my belief is that no one's taking Hanley off them unless it's something ridiculous), pitchers that could probably help add competition (Henry Owens, Wade Miley, the aforementioned Porcello, Brian Johnson, and others), positional assets they could move (I mean, in the OF, they could move the likes of Jackie Bradley Jr. or if the Nationals wanted prospect depth, maybe even Benintendi?), and mostly, a GM that loves making these aggressive moves (and it really feels like a Dombrowski trade to do something like this).

 

____

 

All the speculation is coached on the idea that Strasburg's medicals are clean, which I'm assuming, but I guess you never know.

[muntjack]

La Stella was a net positive player who hit .429 as a PH. Who should we find to replace him?

[toonsterwu]

Upgrading the bench should be a priority too. I know its not the headline grabbing process of going after Heyward, but I think we can all agree that La Stella and Coghlan shouldn't be the top options off the bench next year.

 

I wonder who the current equivalent to Daryle Ward could be. Aka someone with some pop who can work the count and take the occasional walk late in the game. I'd have no problem dealing someone along the lines of a Travis Wood or La Stella to acquire a veteran power bat for the bench.

 

Sorry if this is piling on, but Coghlan's fine if they want to bring him back. I mean, Coghlan's last two years (is pretty much what you'd expect from a Daryle Ward type (career .263/.320/.447, ISOP .184, 17.1%K's, 7.8%BB's), and Coghlan did it with a lot more AB's than Ward ever had in a season. Furthermore, Coghlan has a lot more utility potential (even though he should be mainly a corner OF now, you can have him pitch in at a few other spots in case of emergency). Can he keep it up, if he's utilized in a lesser role? Not sure, but he's fine if they want to keep him around.

 

To be quite honest, a part of me wonders if they could move Coghlan this offseason, sort of selling high. He's really not a bad asset to shop this winter (although on a quick glance, the corner OF market seems alright this winter for the Coghlan level players). Really, if a team wanted a major league asset as a secondary piece in some sort of trade, someone that could fill a positional role without costing too much ... Coghlan makes some sense as a guy we can let go and might attract some attention.

[toonsterwu]

A part of me does keep wondering, for the OF, if they might take a gamble on a youngster that's basically ready for a shot and stock up on solid reserves to start the year. Not sure who that youngster might be(I guess the name at the top of my head would be to see what Mark Shapiro (and whoever the new GM is) might want for Dalton Pompey, if they are willing to move him. Or perhaps see what the Indians might want for someone like Tyler Naquin perhaps, or the Braves with Mallex Smith). I doubt it, as I think the most likely scenario is still a veteran like Fowler or maybe Span, but if the price was right and it was someone they liked and was ready for a shot, I wonder if that idea might be convincing enough to them, as it would free up money for moves elsewhere. Edited October 29, 2015 by toonsterwu

[Guest]

La Stella was a net positive player who hit .429 as a PH. Who should we find to replace him?

 

I agree that lastella is fine as one of our backup IF and our second lefty bat off the bench, but this is a really really really pointless thing to mention.

[muntjack]

You're right, of course. I suppose I was trying to illustrate that he didn't under-perform in that role. Obviously very SSS. I still believe with his exceptional minor league history (>1000 PA w/OBP of .404) he could provide even more value moving forward.