sneakypower

awesome

Cubs Get A Steal With Anthony Rizzo Again http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/cubs-get-a-steal-with-anthony-rizzo-again/

yeah, i was actually thinking Soler might be top-20 by next year's release with Baez dropping out of the top-50

i guess this didn't work http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/sptusncaabexperts/A9ZLMpYCAAMT_PF.jpg

Cubs starters had a 4.52 ERA last season with a 4.36 FIP (.288 babip) Cubs starters have a 3.40 ERA this season with a 3.72 FIP (.253 babip) the babip is the big thing; superior defense doesn't seem to account for it though (+30 team UZR last year vs. -8 this year) it's worth noting we have a real strong IFFB% (12.7% vs. 7.6% last year), which isn't properly accounted for by standard FIP

Wood now has the 3rd-best pitchers bWAR (2.2) in MLB

worst CFs in the past calendar year: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=cf&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=450&type=3&season=2013&month=10&season1=2013&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0

that was pretty enjoyable.

Ryan Braun available for pitching, preferably exempt

fastball average velocity: http://cdn.fangraphs.com/fgraphs/2391_P_FA_20130511.png

i need a cigarette

yes please may I have another

awesome, i was listening to the radio call driving home yesterday and couldn't really imagine it actually happening like Dickerson/Price described i guess it really did

doesn't seem like it, nor were players who contribute defensively i can't see Toews ever winning, if he didn't get nominated this year; the argument for Tavares is basically he carried his team to the playoffs, but i'd figure Datsyuk would have an even stronger case Toews, Getzlaf, Datsyuk would probably be my finalists

i subbed in J. Castro for DL'd AJP, btw

"Soler has shown outstanding power, strong strike-zone discipline and the ability to mash in games. He’s hitting .290/.374/.559 through 25 games" my favorite part: "keep in mind the FSL’s average slugging percentage is .381."

last summer, evaluators were stating a preference for Baez to Sano sigh

Blevins was traded for Jason Kendall, who gave us the comp. pick to select Ryan Flaherty the Harden (and Gaudin) return was Murton, E. Patterson, Gallagher and Donaldson

whoa, kyle is asking others to refrain from doing things that annoy him you ****know**** this has to be some kind of absurd joke

he's currently leading the team in bWAR, so what's the problem? well, he won't be for very much longer... the bad right now, he's been barely above average (106 wRC+, 104 OPS+) offensively, despite the enormous benefit a .431 BABIP provides (it's worth pointing out that it's been partially earned, with a 23% LD rate and .341 xBABIP) the problem here is besides the singles & doubles, he's not doing much else offensively (1 BB and 1 HR -- with just a .341 BABIP, he'd have a line near .248/.290/.332 right now now, the other issue is defense: BB-ref shows him at +6 and FG shows him at +2, but i think it's reasonable to say that's probably generous, as he's pretty poor at blocking pitches (7 PB & 32 WPs in 80 GS) and his framing skills (which aren't factored in) are just dreadful; we don't know the full effect of this, but it's safe to assume it's fairly significant, and his real life defensive effect likely isn't an overall positive the good it's not all doom & gloom though; he's team-controlled through '17 and his overall numbers give some hope: 1.9 fWAR thru 326 MLB PA, and his 20% LDs & .324 xBABIP show he's making good contact when he hits the ball...he's also young enough to still possibly iron out a few wrinkles in his approach and become a hitter with more sustainable bat and for the complaints i had about his defense, his arm is tremendous and he has potential to shut down a team's running game, and his willingness to take HBPs might mitigate the BB problems a tiny bit but i'm starting to feel like this might be another Hendry holdover with too many bad habits and undeveloped skills to bother trying to mold into the type of player Theo wants, to where we'll keep considering other options

i think any chances of acquiring Stanton died with Baez's horrid start

can we hire away whoever got Mark Reynolds to trim his K rate by 8% (career 33%, down to 25% this year) to work with Brett Jackson and Javy Baez? or the Chris Davis voodoo guy, assuming one must exist

the time to trade for Headley was last season, but if it's possible to acquire him without including Shark, Castro, Rizzo, Soler, i don't see the harm in trying but the one thing i don't like about this is it greatly reduces the value of another worthwhile asset in Valbuena, if you feel like his UZR/150s (-7 @2B, +22 @3B) are even remotely representative

there've been several people mentioning that as a possibility of course that'd involve a team passing up the opportunity to have the next Hasheem Thabeet

Dempster did us a favor after all! Whatever you do, don't torture yourself like I did and notice that if we were able to get Delgado, the package of players sent for Upton around him were pretty easily duplicated... NTC