CubinNY

You can hate on the Brewers as much as you want but they are simply better at everything than the Cubs are. they traded horsefeathers b/c they knew they needed Contreras and he was seriously undervalued. They let CC go and replaced him with a better version of himself. they know how to identify, develop, and reshape talent in a way most teams cannot. Im in awe, actually.

Why is there so long between games

I'm a little late, but yes, Milwaukee is a great city. The Brewers are a well-run organization, and I don't dislike them at all. They deserve to be in the WS and I hope they win. On the flip side, St. Louis is a shithole of misplaced White pride and false bravado with the best fans in baseball horsefeathers. They can go horsefeathers themselves instead of their cousins for once.

These playoffs are kind of throwing cold water on the salary cap as a means of making teams competitive.

I don't know. But I have a hard time seeing the big clubs willing to send that much money to the small clubs, if they are telling the truth about revenue. I don't believe they are telling the truth. It's funny how you can play with numbers. The "average" payroll is 183 million, but the median payroll is well south of that at 174 million. If they were to somehow manage a cap at 270 million, only 5 teams would be over the cap, while 18 would be under the floor if it lands at 190 million. I'm having a hard time making the math work unless the "small" teams are hiding money.

Currently, only 12 teams have a payroll above $190M. So, to make that work, more teams are going to be takers than givers.

I would put this as the most likely outcome, along with some harder luxury tax system in place and no floor. The owners are in a tough place. They want cost containment, but don't want to share with the players or each other. I think it will be a marginal win for the owners, while the players get a 154-game season moving forward.

Never underestimate the magnitude of their greed. They have a lifestyle to maintain.

How many innings has Steele pitched in the last three years? Expecting anything from him, Brown, Horton or Wiggins is a fool's errand.

Try reading that again.

I think they are going after Skulbal for real. That doesn’t mean they will get him, But other than that, we should expect more of the same process from them. It will be underwhelming but give them a chance at 90 wins. Someone said Jed pays for floor and that’s exactly correct.

After they sign with another team ”The Cubs were early bidders but quickly bowed out when talks and money escalated beyond their comfort zone. They will now pivot to the next crop of free agent pitchers.”

This game kind of felt like it was going this way for a while. Only so much traffic you can manage.

The Boers and Bernstein, Mike and the Mad Dog, etc. era is definitely over. All those guys were extremely knowledgeable and lived and breathed local sports. They were nerds in the best sense of the word and able to articulate a point in a way to get reaction. Now, it's sort of like East Bond and Down sports entertainment that's about the personality or like everyone else pointed out, a tout board for sports betting.

I think Counsel will roll the dice and just want to get into the playoffs. But I would play for the home game.