Pitchers and catchers are reporting? It's the Spring Training Thread!

[Tryptamine]

I can't believe Tauchmann had to settle for a minor league deal 

[Geographyhater8888]

7 hours ago, Tryptamine said:

I can't believe Tauchmann had to settle for a minor league deal 

What’s the catch? The Rockies, Nationals or or any number of teams couldn’t find a ML roster spot for an above replacement level outfielder coming off a 115 wRC+? 

Edited February 17 by Geographyhater8888

[Rcal10]

5 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

What’s the catch? The Rockies, Nationals or or any number of teams couldn’t find a ML roster spot for an above replacement level outfielder coming off a 115 wRC+? 

It is kind of strange. And if that was all it took, why not the Cubs giving him the chance. They signed McCormick and Carlson instead. Both haven’t been good for a while. Why not Tauchman, who was solid last year?🤷 what are we missing? 

[Backtobanks]

2 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

It is kind of strange. And if that was all it took, why not the Cubs giving him the chance. They signed McCormick and Carlson instead. Both haven’t been good for a while. Why not Tauchman, who was solid last year?🤷 what are we missing? 

Hoyer blew it.

[Bertz]

The Mets' non-Soto OF/DH situation sucks.  Tauchman has a golden opportunity to hold down an everyday spot until Benge is ready, and by then there's a decent chance Luis Robert or Mark Vientos will have played themselves out of everyday at bats.

[KCCub]

Glad we didn't end up trading for Pablo Lopez

[Dfan25]

According to Levine , Cubs are planning to play Shaw a lot in RF againts lefties 

[Tryptamine]

I love Shaw, the baseball player, in the Zobrist role for the Cubs. There's just a tremendous amount of value to be had there if he can be .750-.800 OPS bat who can fill in at 4 or 5 different positions. I'd honestly be OK with them extending Nico and continuing to use Shaw like that for the foreseeable future. 

[Stratos]

9 minutes ago, Dfan25 said:

According to Levine , Cubs are planning to play Shaw a lot in RF againts lefties 

Why not Suzuki in RF and Shaw at DH?

[mul21]

9 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Why not Suzuki in RF and Shaw at DH?

Probably to keep Seiya fresh.  I imagine he'll be out there most of the time against righties and the days a lefty is starting he can DH to get a break.

[Dfan25]

14 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Why not Suzuki in RF and Shaw at DH?

Because if Shaw is DH and he has to move into a position during a game , Cubs would lose the DH . DH a guy that you expect to be your main backup at several positions , doesn’t make sense 

[Bertz]

It's hard to be too confident in the impacts of ABS ahead of time but I feel like we've got a lineup that seems as likely as any to get a boost from it.

[javy knows my name]

7 hours ago, Backtobanks said:

Hoyer blew it.

He was asking everyone but you

[CubinNY]

3 hours ago, Bertz said:

It's hard to be too confident in the impacts of ABS ahead of time but I feel like we've got a lineup that seems as likely as any to get a boost from it.

Does anyone know what the data looks like for the minors? 

[Backtobanks]

1 hour ago, javy knows my name said:

He was asking everyone but you

Unfortunately, he must not read NSBB because Tauchman was mentioned by quite a few posters over the last few months as a good addition.

[Rcal10]

46 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

Unfortunately, he must not read NSBB because Tauchman was mentioned by quite a few posters over the last few months as a good addition.

I read NSBB regularly. I was agreeing that it seemed strange Tauchman had to take a minor league deal. Maybe you should read what I posted before assuming I haven’t been reading NSBB. Actually I was one of the posters who thought Tauchman wouldn’t be a bad idea. I mentioned it a few days ago. But if the Cubs didn’t do it, I doubt that means Hoyer messed up. As Bertz pointed out, the Mets have an easier path to playing time. Maybe Tauchman wanted a better chance at playing. Or maybe front offices don’t value him as highly as this fanbase does. Maybe the baseball people know better than random fans. I mean it took until games were starting in 3 days before he signed with a team on a minor league deal. Sure, I wouldn’t have minded Tauchman, but I doubt he makes or breaks the season for the Cubs. 

[Geographyhater8888]

I like Shaw’s range but should I worry about his arm in right field? . 

Edited February 18 by Geographyhater8888

[Backtobanks]

14 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

I read NSBB regularly. I was agreeing that it seemed strange Tauchman had to take a minor league deal. Maybe you should read what I posted before assuming I haven’t been reading NSBB. Actually I was one of the posters who thought Tauchman wouldn’t be a bad idea. I mentioned it a few days ago. But if the Cubs didn’t do it, I doubt that means Hoyer messed up. As Bertz pointed out, the Mets have an easier path to playing time. Maybe Tauchman wanted a better chance at playing. Or maybe front offices don’t value him as highly as this fanbase does. Maybe the baseball people know better than random fans. I mean it took until games were starting in 3 days before he signed with a team on a minor league deal. Sure, I wouldn’t have minded Tauchman, but I doubt he makes or breaks the season for the Cubs. 

I was referring to Hoyer when I said he must not read NSBB because many posters (including you and I) stated often that Tauchman would be a good addition.

[Rcal10]

2 minutes ago, Backtobanks said:

I was referring to Hoyer when I said he must not read NSBB because many posters (including you and I) stated often that Tauchman would be a good addition.

Got it. Now that makes sense. It is rather strange that Tauchman took so long to sign and did so on a minor league deal. I guess no FO in baseball reads NSBB. 😬

[cl smooth]

[We Got The Whole 9]

Thats horsefeathers great 😂

[We Got The Whole 9]

2 hours ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

I like Shaw’s range but should I worry about his arm in right field? . 

Id think the range will provide enough value to offset the throws that dont come in on time 

[Outshined_One]

2 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Id think the range will provide enough value to offset the throws that dont come in on time 

Plus his arm at 3B wasn't particularly bad, either. I wouldn't expect him to showcase a cannon, but he has enough baseball smarts to hit the cutoff man and make runners think twice on shallow fly balls.

[chibears55]

20 hours ago, Backtobanks said:

 

...

Edited February 18 by chibears55

[Jason Ross]

2 hours ago, Outshined_One said:

Plus his arm at 3B wasn't particularly bad, either. I wouldn't expect him to showcase a cannon, but he has enough baseball smarts to hit the cutoff man and make runners think twice on shallow fly balls.

Just to add to this, the most valuable player in FV according to Statcast arm value was +7 runs and the worst was -5 runs. Assuming that Shaw isn't a full time player in the OF and gets part time out there, he's probably going to settle in the middle. Only three fielders in the league were worse than -3 and 14 were above +2 and all of them were full time players. So it's probably immaterial to the point of disqualifying him from the position he's going to be asked to do: play out there some of the time.