ThePenguin11

I wonder if there’s a veteran catcher out there with a long, storied career who could mentor Amaya for a season. Perhaps even has a ton of experience in the NL central and could pass along that expertise as well. (At this point, might as well right? Burn it all down) We don't need a veteran catcher to mentor Amaya, we need somebody to teach him how to hit ML pitching. He's not a great hitter down in the low minors. Wouldn’t like...David Ross be a good person to mentor a young catcher? If you’re gonna blow it up just get any vet catcher to split time with Amaya and have Ross “mentor” him.

I'll go team specific: Angels: Taylor Ward OF, Patrick Sandoval LHSP, Jordyn Adams CF, Werner Blakely SS/William Holmes RHP Jays: Danny Jansen C, Ryan Borucki LHP, Hector Perez RHP, Simeon Woods-Richardson RHSP Seattle: Logan Gilbert/George Kirby RHSP, Taylor Trammell CF, Kaden Polcovich SS Rays: Manuel Margot CF, Taylor Walls SS, Xavier Edwards 2B, Jon Doxakis LHP/Joe Ryan RHP I think I put them in order of personal preference Kirby or Ryan please!

Dare we speculate on what type of return the Cubs should get for Contreras? Top 50 overall prospect? They need to get a top SP prospect at some point.

Devil’s advocate: If the Cubs brass didn’t want to get leveraged into the greatest bidding war in sports history, what type of approach would they have toward Harper this offseason? Would they...Check in early and say keep us in the loop before accepting any offers? Would they publicly cry poor to keep Boras at bay? Now take it from another angle...Would the Cubs be dumb enough to want the negative publicity that would instantly liken them to the MacPhail era team by saying we don’t have any money? On the heels of signing the vaunted television network deal that was supposed to be their cash cow to set record payrolls...on the heels of the shitty press from their racist patriarch? (Unless they knew it would come out later they were in on him all along) It seems at least remotely possible that the Cubs are attempting to pull off the greatest baseball Keyser Soze in order to get the guy that has been rumored to be fawning over playing at Wrigley for years. For the Cubs to not even be on record as having *mild interest at the right price* is almost a tell in itself that they’re in full bluff mode and sticking to it. If you were going to play it cool and try to not pit yourself into a $400MM bidding war...this is exactly how you would do it. If this was the Hendry Cubs with Ricketts money, Harper would have been signed in the Winter Meetings for a 12- Year, $480MM deal with a full no trade clause and no opt-outs.

Just checked Cat's Twitter. Great ratio of following to followers. Great traffic, which includes tweets that have hundreds of retweets and likes. I'm sort of sad how gullable so many people are, but if he's seeking attention, he's done well for himself. Has Charles the Cat ever had info that turned out to be legitimate before?

It’s really dumb that Harper and Machado have yet to sign. Are they still expecting some bidding war to magically happen? Are they expecting a team to come out of the woodwork and offer $350MM over ten years with so little interest in the market? People can blame owners but this falls squarely on the agents who create otherworldly expectations for these players and don’t ever lay out the real possibilities. It’s not like there isnt precedent the past couple years that the market for mega free agents is down.

The Cubs are definitely out on Bryce Harper. However, definitely don’t count them out.

The longer this drags out only makes the situation worse for Arietta, Cobb and Lynn, right? I mean, as we get closer to Spring Training and teams are kinda set on their payrolls, I just can’t see anyone signing for the remaining three at anything less than a deep discount. At this point I would think the first one to sign is in the best position to cash in before the market dries up. I think the teams know this too and nobody wants to be the first team to sign a guy because once Darvish goes for $100M+, Arietta will end up having to take a haircut deal or some kind of “prove-it” deal for a year to try and be the guy next year. Not that it’s any better for someone his age to try and do thus, they’re just out of options and the market just isn’t what they thought it would be. Arietta is still thinking he can get the money the Cubs offered as an extension but it’s not there anymore because the market changed. But he’ll keep waiting because someone’s gotta pay it right? Having Boras involved helps keep pragmatism out of play and further complicates the issue. This is going to get ugly.

All talk when the cameras and recorders are rolling, huh, Demp? What you actually ended up doing was the exact opposite. You have said that you want the Cubs to get the most value possible for you, and when the time came, you completely minimized your value and destroyed any chance for the Cubs to have leverage in a deal. Bravo. Dick. Keep talking.

David Dejesus hasn't really been on my radar for a long time so maybe I'm missing something here. But can someone explain why this is such a great signing? His numbers look absolutely pedestrian, if not inconsistent. He's a power-deficient, average OBP, low-OPS hitter who I'd assume is still athletic, but doesn't steal many bases. Is he an amazing defender or something? He doesn't jump out at me as "get this guy in the lineup at #1 or #2 and let him roll". I'm not opposed to the move, especially since the money is reasonable, just looking for a reason to be excited. Thanks.

I disagree. I think that there will be a significant improvement from last year's club to this year's. It may not be a huge improvement, but it will be enough that I consider them watchable again. Call me a fair weather fan if you want, but gone are the days where I just automatically give the Cubs my time and money blindly because I'm a fan. At 31, I just can't afford to invest myself emotionally to every game of every season in the longest season in sports anymore. If they're bad, I'll find some other, more valuable way to use my time like read a book, spend time with family or do laundry. There's a pretty big area in between watching every game and not watching any games. After you've put up with this team for long enough...there really isn't. If they're not even remotely competitive, to me, they're unwatchable.

I disagree. I think that there will be a significant improvement from last year's club to this year's. It may not be a huge improvement, but it will be enough that I consider them watchable again. Call me a fair weather fan if you want, but gone are the days where I just automatically give the Cubs my time and money blindly because I'm a fan. At 31, I just can't afford to invest myself emotionally to every game of every season in the longest season in sports anymore. If they're bad, I'll find some other, more valuable way to use my time like read a book, spend time with family or do laundry.

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I'm done giving a good g*d damn what the Cubs give up in trades. I'm sick and tired of this team sucking to high heaven and stopped watching this piece of crap in May last season. Archer, Li, whatever. It's all ChoiHillKeltonPieCedeno blahblahblah. Who the hell cares? I want to see this team competitive. A major market team should be able to improve it's roster by making trades as well as building within. The division is easy enough to compete in so you might as well roll dice and try and get into the playoffs, since the numbers bear out that it's anyone's game in October/November. I'm all for this because I'd like to start watching Cubs games that matter again.

I'd say his upside is that of a .350-.360 OBP, 10ish homers and 40-50 steals, while playing a GG caliber SS. That sounds a lot cheaper than trading for Jose Reyes. Reyes is a sure thing. HJ may or may not reach that ceiling. And if he does, it'll be 2-3 more years (at least). It's a long way away from knowin what HJLee is going to be. I don't know much about him, but gold glove caliber shortstop would seem a long, long way off from a guy who's got 61 errors in 190 games. I hope the guy is good but I'd wait a few years before I even set an expectation level.

It seems everyone is assuming that it's a "starting" pitcher. Isn't it possible that it's a reliever/closer?