It turns out the real Yu Darvish was the friends we made in this thread

[Bryants Disco Ball]

I also don't understand the point of how our pitching doesn't match up against the Nationals in the playoffs when three months ago we beat them in the playoffs.

[d_money]

Keith Stone's latest:

 

I ran numbers this morning with arbitration estimates. Their payroll at this point is around 160, and they don't have a 5th starter yet(unless they roll montgomery). Also I'm not sure their CF plan, maybe they roll Happ/Almora/Heyward in CF/RF...not sure. If they add Darvish they are up to probably 185ish, a touch high but not unreasonable based on the last couple years. In 2019 though, 25 million for Darvish puts them to around 195 and they'll lose a bullpen arm(Wilson unless they extend him). I'm not sure how high their payroll can go, but I doubt they can afford $40 million for Harper. 2020(without harper) their payroll will be at roughly 185 and they'll have lost 4 more bullpen arms(cishek, strop, duensing, grimm) and Zobrist. And as has been noted, they have nobody in their farm that can come up and fill those roles for league minimum...so they'll have to dive into free agency or find a way to trade for them. By this point they'll probably have had at least a couple prospects breakout that they can trade, but probably not anybody ready to play at the mlb level.

 

The position player side of their 25 man roster is solid(aside from heyward) and they have their 2 stars, but they have no depth behind it. The roster is built to be able to withstand 1 maybe 2 non-bryant/rizzo injuries before they have to plug in well below replacement level players. Looking at their pitching, their rotation is primarily mid rotation guys that are likely to regress. Darvish would become their best SP if signed. Their bullpen is filled with very solid pitchers in all 8 spots, but none of their relievers are as good as Chapman or Davis. They don't have that guy you can throw in in the 8th with a 1 run lead and nail it down in the playoffs, and don't have the ability to get him without shelling out cash or trading from the 25. Their pitching(and team really) are built to make the playoffs the next year or two IF they can stay relatively healthy, but not to win in the playoffs. Their pitching simply will not match up with the nationals/dodgers.

 

Highlighted my favorite part.

 

The Cubs right now are 10th in projected SP WAR. Adding Darvish would likely added 2.2 wins to that projection (over the combo of Monty/Butler that they have as 5th starter right now). This would cause them to leap all the way to 4th behind Indians, Astros and Dodgers. They would have 3 starters with a projected WAR of 3.5 or higher, compared to the Dodgers (1), Astros (2), and Indians (2). Hendricks, Quintana and Chatwood are all between 28 and 29 years old. Hendricks proved last year that if he does regress from 2016, it won't be far. There is no reason to suggest Quintana is due to regress, and Chatwood doesn't have much of a strong track record to regress from at this point. So basically talking about Lester I guess.

 

That highlighted line is quite ironic coming from a Brewers fan.

I like how he totally discounts that system can’t develop any BP arms in 2020.

[ScrubMD]

Keith Stone's latest:

 

 

 

It would be difficult to come up with a better parody of a Brewers' fan grasping at straws.

 

"Next year...well...they'll still have all the players that are better than our players, but they'll lose Justin Wilson. And 2020 is when we'll really have them right where we want them, as (though they might have Bryce Harper) they only have two years to replace both Justin Grimm AND Brian Duensing!"

 

I'm having a lot of fun imaging his maniacal laugh at the end.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

The real mid-rotation guys that are likely to regress are all the ones who had down years after finishing in the top 3 in Cy Young voting the year before. It's definitely not the 30-year-olds who randomly posted 2.7 ERAs after languishing in anonymity their whole lives.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

They don’t deserve their own thread, but we could move the Brewers talk to a combined also-ran thread with the Reds and Pirates rather than make me think there is Darvish news

[jersey cubs fan]

Guys, he ran the arb numbers this morning.

[Cubswin11]

The real mid-rotation guys that are likely to regress are all the ones who had down years after finishing in the top 3 in Cy Young voting the year before. It's definitely not the 30-year-olds who randomly posted 2.7 ERAs after languishing in anonymity their whole lives.

*Who also just started randomly throwing 2 MPH harder across the board on all his pitches and has a litany of arm injuries (amongst other injuries) on his resume

[jersey cubs fan]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

https://twitter.com/dabynsky/status/956224491838984192

[Cubswin11]

They don’t deserve their own thread, but we could move the Brewers talk to a combined also-ran thread with the Reds and Pirates rather than make me think there is Darvish news

I think there's still a thread dedicated to just the Pirates, we could throw it all in there. Also apologies since I opened this can of worms to posting stuff from that site and helped derail the Darvish thread.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

lol that whole thing is hilarious. So he admits that we are built to make the playoffs. Definitely good enough to win a lot of games. But we aren't built to win in the playoffs... despite, you know, winning a World Series already.

[Sammy Sofa]

Yeah, too much talk about vaunted Brewers fans.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

6-2 in playoff rounds in last three seasons. I wonder what being built for the playoffs could have done

[ScrubMD]

The real mid-rotation guys that are likely to regress are all the ones who had down years after finishing in the top 3 in Cy Young voting the year before. It's definitely not the 30-year-olds who randomly posted 2.7 ERAs after languishing in anonymity their whole lives.

 

All the warning signs are there for Quintana, too.

 

*Still under 30

 

*Career 3.51 FIP

 

*Had a worse-than-normal first half but had by far the best K/BB ratio of his career in the second half.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if he's pitching in some independent league by August.

[Brian]

everybody knows that great offense, great defense and great pitching horsefeathers doesn't work in the postseason.

[Sammy Sofa]

[treebird]

i want to hear more from this smart baseball person (who obviously knows what replacement level is) about how the cubs are soon going to be forced to send out sub-replacement level players

 

also jesus christ move this post and all the others to the thread for non-cardinal division rivals.

[jersey cubs fan]

The real mid-rotation guys that are likely to regress are all the ones who had down years after finishing in the top 3 in Cy Young voting the year before. It's definitely not the 30-year-olds who randomly posted 2.7 ERAs after languishing in anonymity their whole lives.

 

All the warning signs are there for Quintana, too.

 

*Still under 30

t.

Turned 29 today, as a matter of fact

[We Got The Whole 9]

He said zero relief pitchers will be ready to contribute from within the system by 2020.

 

He doesn't even baseball.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

the brew darvish thread

[Brian]

how great will it be when the cubs

 

sign Yu

 

win over 100 games

 

win the World Series

 

then sign Harper

[jehr]

how great will it be when the cubs

 

sign Yu

 

win over 100 games

 

win the World Series

 

then sign Harper

Then win it again. Then we'll have to watch Keith Stone lament how our window only has two years left until we have to rebuild again.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

how great will it be when the cubs

 

sign Yu

 

win over 100 games

 

win the World Series

 

then sign Harper

What in the world are you doing?! Expressing optimisim about your very good baseball team on a board dedicated specifically to that team!?

 

Are you not aware that the Cobs did not win a World Series for many many years before just recently?!

[David]

how great will it be when the cubs

 

sign Yu

 

win over 100 games

 

win the World Series

 

then sign Harper

 

don't you realize it's not fiscally responsible to sign lots of good players even when you have a bunch of new revenue streams coming in

[Cubswin11]

To get back on topic a bit.... I wouldn’t be surprised if the agreement is done (if we are to believe the poster) but teams and the league have an understanding to wait until tomorrow or Friday to announce signings/trades with HOF announcement day being today to give that it’s rightful acknowledgment. Since we know there’s the understanding on other things like during playoffs/WS to generally not announce things.

[Tim]

I think we're devoting way too much time talking about a group of fans who are clearly too insecure in their opinions to accept my invitation.