MPrior

I'm a little sad to say that after that interview, I don't really...LIKE Bryce Harper. He seems a little like he's a bit full of himself, takes himself too seriously - not sure he'd fit in super well with the loose vibe of the current players. That said, I still obviously WANT him on the Cubs. I just wish I liked him better.

Someone convince me that trading for Machado at all is the right move - I mean, he's obviously an excellent player, but it seems like getting him is going to require a lot of long-term value, if what's said about the Orioles' asking price is true. And for a team with a window like ours, giving away a bunch of long-term value for one year of an excellent player (who, I might add, does not really fill a position of need for us) seems like a sub-optimal use of resources. Obviously, if we do trade for him, I'll be excited to watch him for a year, but I just have a hard time feeling too jazzed about any scenario that involves trading for Machado. And I agree with TT - any trade that involves sending Russell for Machado makes particularly little sense to me. If Russell is flipped for pitching, especially a good pitcher with multiple years of control, then that makes more sense.

Omg omg omg omg omg omg - I love everyone in here and I know none of you. Go Cubs Go!

Found this site in 2003 or 2004, I can't remember. Initially registered under a different name, then lost the password. Anyway, I'm still on here all the time. Mostly lurking - most of my posts are from a half-drunken late-night argument many years ago with Sulley/Stannis (I think? My memory fails me) about atheism, if I remember correctly. All the same, just as excited about the Cubs as anyone else!

Is there any way to stream this game if I don't have a cable subscription? Not finding an easy way to stream.

Yeah, I think you'd have to be willing to part with Soler for Miller (although I don't think the Yanks would accept Soler as the centerpiece for Miller) - we don't even know if Soler will ever be a useful baseball player - I know we all look at his potential and salivate (me too!), but thus far, he's an injury-prone defensive liability whose hot streaks with the bat are matched only by his cold ones. Miller is a reliable monster out of the pen, good for 2ish WAR and 4ish WPA, and he addresses a weakness. Otherwise, though, I'm more in David's camp - I wouldn't be interested in trading, say, Torres for him - I agree with you David that the opportunity for us to substantially move the needle on our chances this year is slim to none (although the best way to do that would likely be with an ace LH relief pitcher, unless one of our starters gets injured), and I wouldn't want to give up too much for it - my main goal at this point would be to ensure that our team remains this good for as many years as possible.

I work at one of the world's most advanced and respected hospitals; we're flush with resources and have access to just about every cutting-edge medical technology there is. And not only do I routinely use the fax machine, the primary method that people use to communicate with me is my pager. Aren't you glad that your health is in good hands?

This. When the season's over, whether for good or ill, I won't have my conscience sullied by having - shudder - rooted for the Cardinals.

Don't give in, brother. I thought you had changed your handle - so glad to see I have a partner in miserable, futile obstinacy.

As perhaps the lone holdout who refused to change his handle after Prior left, I feel as though I'm obligated to post somewhere in this thread. .... I now hate myself for doing so.

Forgive me for not reading the entirety of this thread - it looked like a disaster of a thread, so I skimmed judiciously (i.e., I stopped reading after ~1.5 pages). In any case, I'm sorry if I'm just repeating what's already been said, but here goes: There are some reasons for optimism with Stewart if you look a little deeper into his stats: I think someone earlier pointed out that his K% was a career low, now at 19.0%, down from a career of 27.0%, while his BB% is right about at his career average of ~10%. It turns out that this is substantiated by his plate discipline stats, which are typically the first statistics to stabilize - most notably, his swinging strike % is also a career low of 9.8% (vs a career value of 12.2%; his previous low is 11.5%). The league average SwStr% is 8.8%, which is similar to previous years. He's swinging at 28.6% of pitches outside the strike zone, which is the lowest value he's posted since 2009. His contact rate on pitches out of the strike zone is also a career high, at 64.2%, up from a career value of 53.4% (you could interpret this in a couple of different ways, but at the minimum it corroborates his low SwStr%). His contact rate on pitches in the strike zone is consistent from the last two years, but is still above his career rate (84.8% vs. 81.7%); all this results in a career-high contact rate of 76.5% (vs. 72.5% career). Additionally, his batted ball profile is dramatically different from his career norms (for better or worse), as I think has been discussed already. Sorry for all the wordiness, but the bottom line is that he really does seem to have changed his approach fairly dramatically, and his K% may remain low, and we might see his average climb into the not-terrible range. FWIW, his xBABIP from one calculator is .335, which is a whole hell of a lot better than his current .217. I don't think Stewart is all of a sudden going to be a world beater, but there is reason for optimism that he might become a slightly below league-average 3B bat with really good defense. Which would make him a totally usable major league player that the front office got for basically nothing and at no risk.

I'm not sure it would be a great idea unless we trade Marmol now (and that doesn't seem to be a wise move, as discussed elsewhere). I know teams have come a long way in their evaluation of players, but many of them are still going to put a lot of value on the "closer" label and on saves totals. If we've got Marmol and Madson on the roster, we're going to have de-value one of them by keeping him out of the closer role. That doesn't seem like an efficient way to gather assets.

So this is my first post in a LONG time, and I apologize if this point has been made ad nauseum all across the board (I admit I haven't been paying much attention), but Soriano probably isn't as bad as this past year indicates. Now, he's not particularly good, either, but he was fairly unlucky this year - he had a .266 BABIP, the lowest of his career in a full season, accompanying a 19.8% LD percentage. There is a disturbing trend in his plate discipline numbers (and a corresponding dip in his walk percentage from what it had been in 2008-2010), but if he just regresses to the mean a little next year (fingers crossed), he'll be useful. Just not anywhere near worth his contract. Basically, I'm not really adding anything new to the conversation: like many have said, it would be pretty dumb to just drop him, since he's not blocking anyone better, and he still has some value. I just added some numbers to the mix. As far as the lineup construction thing goes, I really doubt it had much impact on his performance. I'm sure he'd be happier hitting more consistently in the 6th spot (or higher, I suppose), so I guess Quade could have appeased him a little and just left the lineup card the way it was. My inclination, though, is to think that he wouldn't have hit any better in that situation.

I know this has probably been discussed ad nauseum on here, but I just thought it'd be worth pointing out that Geovany Soto is second only to Jorge Posada among all MLB catchers with at least 150 PA in wOBA. And yet Lou continually benches him. If that's not frustrating, I don't know what is. Just venting. Both the Cubs and my fantasy team are suffering.

I know it may not be too pertinent, but Lee is better than Price, and possibly Greinke too (he certainly has been so far this year). If the other guy values one of them more than Lee, I'd try to leverage that - maybe he'd be more willing to let go of Gonzalez if you include Price, for example.