The Alex Cobb Thread

[Sammy Sofa]

horsefeathers off and sit on an actual corn cob, ya dumb pud.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

this is why cobs never win

[Cubswin11]

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[Transmogrified Tiger]

How many teams, regardless of the pitcher, are interested in giving out a 17+ million AAV to a SP this offseason? The Cubs and Twins seem like the only teams really interested in playing in those waters, with Houston, Texas, St. Louis, and Milwaukee playing coy about it. And those maybe teams are probably way less interested in Cobb in particular at that price.

[Cubswin11]

How many teams, regardless of the pitcher, are interested in giving out a 17+ million AAV to a SP this offseason? The Cubs and Twins seem like the only teams really interested in playing in those waters, with Houston, Texas, St. Louis, and Milwaukee playing coy about it. And those maybe teams are probably way less interested in Cobb in particular at that price.

Yeah I don’t see it, would seem like we’d almost be bidding against ourselves getting to that range for him. Especially if it’s over 4 years. It’s been said before but I do think it’s true that we really control this FA SP right now

[CyHawk_Cub]

Cool, works for me.

 

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[Cubswin11]

Cool, works for me.

 

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We’ve literally known this for like 2 months, don’t know why that guy seems to be reporting that as new, news

[Bull]

Because rosenthal basically said the opposite yesterday, or at least mlbtrade rumors linked to a rosenthal article in the athletic (I don’t subscribe) saying that reports of Cobb asking for 20 mil per and the cubs moving on to Darvish because of Cobb’s Asking price are wrong.

[toonsterwu]

How many teams, regardless of the pitcher, are interested in giving out a 17+ million AAV to a SP this offseason? The Cubs and Twins seem like the only teams really interested in playing in those waters, with Houston, Texas, St. Louis, and Milwaukee playing coy about it. And those maybe teams are probably way less interested in Cobb in particular at that price.

 

Don't sleep on the Nationals. I've said it all off-season, but I expect them to make a splash, and with Wade Davis off the boards, they are probably going to go with the group last year, with Doolittle closing. That means the money they have can be staggered to go after a SP, and with Gio's contract up after next year, it can be creatively staggered if they really wanted to minimize long term impact (basically, front load it if necessary), with raises for other guys on the back end.

 

That said, the more the off-season moves along, the more I tend to think Arrieta might be the fit for the Nationals - knows Dave Martinez, big splash and a good fit as a number 3 starter there, and a make nice move with Scott Boras, which they seem apt to do.

[d_money]

How many teams, regardless of the pitcher, are interested in giving out a 17+ million AAV to a SP this offseason? The Cubs and Twins seem like the only teams really interested in playing in those waters, with Houston, Texas, St. Louis, and Milwaukee playing coy about it. And those maybe teams are probably way less interested in Cobb in particular at that price.

 

Don't sleep on the Nationals. I've said it all off-season, but I expect them to make a splash, and with Wade Davis off the boards, they are probably going to go with the group last year, with Doolittle closing. That means the money they have can be staggered to go after a SP, and with Gio's contract up after next year, it can be creatively staggered if they really wanted to minimize long term impact (basically, front load it if necessary), with raises for other guys on the back end.

 

That said, the more the off-season moves along, the more I tend to think Arrieta might be the fit for the Nationals - knows Dave Martinez, big splash and a good fit as a number 3 starter there, and a make nice move with Scott Boras, which they seem apt to do.

Would the Nats sign a jumbo contract like Arrieta this year? How much would that hinder the LT for them next year - assuming they resign Bryce?

[David]

How many teams, regardless of the pitcher, are interested in giving out a 17+ million AAV to a SP this offseason? The Cubs and Twins seem like the only teams really interested in playing in those waters, with Houston, Texas, St. Louis, and Milwaukee playing coy about it. And those maybe teams are probably way less interested in Cobb in particular at that price.

 

Don't sleep on the Nationals. I've said it all off-season, but I expect them to make a splash, and with Wade Davis off the boards, they are probably going to go with the group last year, with Doolittle closing. That means the money they have can be staggered to go after a SP, and with Gio's contract up after next year, it can be creatively staggered if they really wanted to minimize long term impact (basically, front load it if necessary), with raises for other guys on the back end.

 

That said, the more the off-season moves along, the more I tend to think Arrieta might be the fit for the Nationals - knows Dave Martinez, big splash and a good fit as a number 3 starter there, and a make nice move with Scott Boras, which they seem apt to do.

Would the Nats sign a jumbo contract like Arrieta this year? How much would that hinder the LT for them next year - assuming they resign Bryce?

 

Why would you assume such a silly thing

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The Nationals are over the LT today and most of the money they free up next year is in their best players(Harper, Murphy, Gio, Madson). I'm not sure how keen the Lerner's are to live over the tax(considering their love of deferred money, they probably don't love it), but signing a big SP would seem to make 2018 a last hurrah, since it would hurt their ability to keep together the parts of the team(all of it) that are less deep than the rotation.

[toonsterwu]

I would point out that the parts besides the rotation, their hope would be to supplement it through a fairly strong system. They have an abundance of quality OF prospects (obviously, Robles tops the list, and Soto gets talked about ad nauseum now it seems, but one of my favorite sleepers is Daniel johnson). They've spent big on the international market, there's solid positional depth in the IF, a couple catchers, and there's some arms.

 

Actually, if anything, I tend to think their weakness lies in the rotation, system-wise.

 

Anyhow, thing is, they are loaded for now, and have pieces to supplement for the future. The deferrals on Scherzer/Strasburg may give the Lerners enough space to make some moves, but either way, their big goal is to convince Bryce to stay, and by all indications, the Lerners will spend to do that.

 

All that said, with their system, I'd actually explore a trade for a pitcher first (of course, this market is slow as molasses), personally, but it wouldn't surprise me if their working relationship with Boras allowed them to do some "creative" (deferred) deal with Arrieta.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I would point out that the parts besides the rotation, their hope would be to supplement it through a fairly strong system. They have an abundance of quality OF prospects (obviously, Robles tops the list, and Soto gets talked about ad nauseum now it seems, but one of my favorite sleepers is Daniel johnson). They've spent big on the international market, there's solid positional depth in the IF, a couple catchers, and there's some arms.

 

Actually, if anything, I tend to think their weakness lies in the rotation, system-wise.

 

Anyhow, thing is, they are loaded for now, and have pieces to supplement for the future. The deferrals on Scherzer/Strasburg may give the Lerners enough space to make some moves, but either way, their big goal is to convince Bryce to stay, and by all indications, the Lerners will spend to do that.

 

All that said, with their system, I'd actually explore a trade for a pitcher first (of course, this market is slow as molasses), personally, but it wouldn't surprise me if their working relationship with Boras allowed them to do some "creative" (deferred) deal with Arrieta.

 

They've been able to bank about 10 WAR per year from Harper and Murphy alone. Neither their system nor the 30-35 million they currently spend on those two are going to bridge that gap once they're both free agents, that's the point being made. The point isn't that the Nationals are going to be terrible, the point is they are almost certainly going to get worse by a fair amount unless they want to push the limits on luxury tax penalties. Given the Lerners are so thrifty to be as deferral-obsessed as they are, I can't imagine that's something they'd be interested in doing in general, and especially if anything is remotely imperfect(Bryce Walks, one of Scherzer/Strasburg gets hurt in '18, etc).