davell

Pierce Johnson has had an extremely solid year. I'm not even sure how that's disputable. Does he have warts? Sure. But if he's in a different org, their fanbases would likely be fairly psyched about him. Bitching about the pitching, when the entire mantra is to [expletive] pitchers is stupid, in all honesty. Especially when there's plenty of hitting to go acquire it.

Harang was obviously an example. That's not who I'd want. But if we're closing in, I think it's an option. Totally dependent on what cleared waivers obviously. Ian Kennedy perhaps?

If we're closing in heading towards the second pen day, I think we'll trade for a true stopgap. Like a Harang or something. Vet, last year of deal, but a true starting pitcher, even if its a shitty one.

Part of me thinks we'd have gone after Friedman. If we missed, my honest guess is we'd still have Jed. My guess is since Ricketts was talking to the Red Sox guys so much back then, Theo would have steered him that way and he would have listened.

Theolmighty?

I wonder if he's the guy @Cubs posted all his crooked cap comments yesterday?

Catchers typically develop later, so I don't think he'll get docked there. I think Torres and McKinney are the only 2 guys we have that'll get unanimous love for top 100's between BA, BP, Law, Kiley, and MLB. Too many different eval processes going on. But I'd bet we see Underwood, Contreras, and Happ on a list or more. With Almora as a possibility and Jimenez and Cease as dark horses for BP.

82-58.....Gotta admit, as much as I believed in how the rebuild was going, this is better than I thought possible.

I felt a bit sorry for Renteria at the time, but I love Joe. remember when mackanin tried to convince everyone he was like maddon because he had grey wacky hair and glasses? Oh wow. I don't remember that.

I felt a bit sorry for Renteria at the time, but I love Joe.

Wasn't he hitting 93/94 in his rehab? Or am I imagining that?

http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/javier-baez-and-swinging-strike-rate/ I hate seeing an article like this. Javy still has the big swing fairly often before toning it down and I'd say that's what's probably unaccounted for here. But some of you are great at analyzing these things and I'd love a few opinions.... My take is he's always going to K a lot, but I'd think he's very valuable at 25-30% and I think that's doable with his current approach and the elimination of the leg kick at times. If he rids himself of it completely and continues to have power, then he's a stud.

If anything, I'd say this regime messed Starlin up. Trying to change his approach helped him to his 2013 season anyway. I mean, I see why it was worth the shot to try and add another element to his game. But he truly seems to be a guy that's just never going to get to a league average walk rate. Considering he's had his share of lapses, maybe it's something they should have decided the risk/reward wasn't worth trying with him.

Here are a few "what ifs" that we either dodged or missed out on.... Maddux as manager instead of Sveum, if he hadn't taken himself out of the running. If we would have done 4/36 instead of 6/36 on Cespedes, although it seemed Beane locked it up without giving anyone else a shot. If Garza hadn't gotten hurt, the package from Texas had Odor in it as well from most reports. If Shark had accepted 5/85 from us. If Annibal hadn't given Detroit the last shot.... Any of these could have triggered other moves, kept something we've got now from happening, whatever.....

Nice article. I've stayed away from the Wrigleyville stuff for the most part, unless Sharma writes it. Has it been solid stuff?

And they're in a rain delay, up 4-1, top of 9th, bases loaded, no outs.

Any easy way to find out his WAR since the ASB this year? Not that I'm aware of. 1st half-8.2%walk rate, 31.1%K rate, 243AB, .226/.296/.364, 5HR 22RBI 2nd half-6.1%walk rate, 25.7%K rate, 164AB, .268/.315/.476, 8HR 22RBI

Over/Under a 4 WAR season next year?

Williams is the Hendricks redux guy. We drafted Markey last year too, but he's a harder thrower. Shorter though, so he's got the future reliever stigma that he'll have to overcome.

The two cases I remember hearing money being an issue was the Vitters/Wieters pick and the Hayden Simpson pick.

in Keith Law's chat today, he was asked a question about AJ Reed and mentioned that him or Contreras had improved their stock more than any hitters over the course of the year.

Absolutely freaking not. Hendry sucked balls as a GM. He doesn't deserve credit for leaving some assets. Every team has some assets. Hendry screwed the pooch as GM. He inherited a big budget team with a farm system stacked with pitchers but no hitters (that he was responsible for building), his budget increased every year but he screwed the pooch because of his horrible philosophy and general meatheadedness. This could not be more correct.

Their pitching has overachieved to amazingly unsustainable proportions. Their offense hasn't really been able to hit much this year. Not really. They have a extremely high strand rate, but they've still pitched great, just better than their FIP, which is still second to only the Dodgers in all of baseball. So no, they haven't overachieved to amazingly unsustainable proportions. And whenever a team gets blown out, they look terrible. Judging their season performance based off the last two games is silly as the people who judge players off having a bad post season series. But I get it, your Cubs fans who hate the Cardinals, so logic isn't really what you're going to be using when evaluating a rival. The Cardinals can both have a very good pitching staff and overachieve unsustainably, they aren't mutually exclusive. Having a team FIP that is 2nd in the NL means they are good. Having an ERA that is 0.66 better than their FIP(next best gap is the Pirates at 0.25) when their defensive efficiency is middle of the road means that they aren't nearly as good as their results. They've definitely overachieved to a point, but they've sustained it for 140 games. I just hate when people try to simplify things down to luck, instead of giving players credit for their performance. Seems like a lot of Cubs fans do it just so they can feel better about their team being a laughingstock for years. Boiling down the Cardinals being the best team in baseball down to "pixie dust" is stupid on so many levels. Look, this is(for the extreme most part) a very intelligent group of baseball fans. No one here actually thinks the Cards have gotten to where they're at on absolute luck. They do certainly appear to get more than their fair share of bounces. However, this is a Cubs board. If during game threads, some guys critique them, it should be expected. No idea what board you come from, but I'll guarantee there's just as many(or more) asinine things said about the Cubs there as there is about the Cards here. Here's hoping your cheating comes back and changes your fortunes for a few decades.

That seems like a pretty decent offer honestly. Especially if Underwood is a 75-125 type prospect.

Braves maybe? I could see them shopping Maybin again. I don't know that I'd limit it to just teams in need of a CF though. With the lack of bats available, I could see some teams overpaying a bit to get the bat and versatility into the lineup as well. I could see the Cards valuing him too, since they'll be losing Heyward most likely. He could play some CF for them and a corner the rest of the time, I guess. I bet the O's go after a bat too, even if it's LF. If I'm ranking(more just a general list though) Tier 1- Heyward, Upton, Cespedes Tier 2- Gordon, Fowler Tier 3-Parra, Jackson, Span, Rasmus Tier 4-Davis, Murphy, DeJesus, Denorfia, Pearce, de Aza I figure everyone Tier 3 or higher gets a true starting gig, if they want it. And Murphy/Davis possibly can too. I've got no idea what Fowler gets at this stage, but 5/85 or so seems realistic to me. If we balk at that, Jackson is obviously a fallback option. No idea how important sticking in CF is to Jackson. But if he's going to be willing to play a corner, I bet he'll get a bit more money the more I look at this.