davell

No new players were linked to the Cubs in either his shortstop article or his pitcher article. That said, some of the players he mentioned weren't linked to any teams: Osiel Rodriguez, RHP, Cuba Sandy Gaston, RHP, Cuba - possibly could sign with the Marlins but not linked to any teams Jerming Rosario, RHP, Dominican Republic Rainer Polonius, SS, Curacao Ryson Polonius, SS, Curacao Badler said Osiel Rodriguez and Richard Gallardo (the pitcher linked to the Cubs) were the most impressive pitchers at the MLB Showcase last week. Annoyingly, Badler mentioned bonus amounts for many of the pitchers in his article but not Gallardo. Only one pitcher Badler mentioned is currently expected to get a 7-figure bonus (Dominican RHP Starlyn Castillo to the Phillies). Thanks man. We've got the SS and Gallardo as the only names known at this point. I'd love to see us add one other big bonus pitcher and spend the rest on hitting(if there's anything left)

Raisin, anything of note in the new Badler article?

I was going over this article with a buddy and he named Seal Boy almost immediately. He was completely off my radar lol.

We'll most likely suck again? I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're fine with that. Right or wrong, they could easily decide this is one more developmental year. I really hope you're wrong. But, I guess it wouldn't surprise me.

You know what I mean though. He's got to land an impact talent or two, PLUS the mid tier guys he's gotten in the past. Or else what? We'll most likely suck again?

You can't do anything but preach being careful in free agency. You know what I mean though. He's got to land an impact talent or two, PLUS the mid tier guys he's gotten in the past.

Portis might as well be given some run as a starter. See how much his numbers drop. We've only got him four one more year currently. He's obviously a very nice offensive player. Personally, I see him as a 20-25 MPG guy on a solid team. But, dependent on what kind of money he's going to be asking for, I'd at least check to see what his value is on the trade market. If he can move you into the top 5 or into the top 12, with the Pels pick, I'd be super tempted.

Pace preaching the careful route in Free Agency AGAIN, is making me throw up a little bit. Its one thing if he was good at this approach, but he's not. They need to get some big guys this year.

Well, that dream just died a quick death.

Saw the end of Payton's career, so that makes mine an easy choice. Singletary is up there too. Feel the need to mention Jay. And why no ones brought up Hester yet is surprising to me.

so am i correct in that sims, massie, and cooper are the only players on this list that haven't been cut yet? and maybe wheaton? i've read conflicting things about him. Yeah, you're right. Cooper and Wheaton are still being evaluated evidently. No idea why, as both were flat out awful.

Good stuff because every other tanking team lost or is losing tonight Earlier in the year I couldn’t get behind rooting for the team to lose individual games even though I wanted them to get a high pick. Not having that problem anymore Pax is playing the right cards now but I go back to a couple months ago when we were anxious to dump Niko and davell said it might have been wise to just unload him early for what ever they could get. If we had done that we'd easily be in the bottom 3. It's cool that we were able to get a 1st for him but that stretch of really good ball put us behind the 8 ball a bit. However I'm pretty confident that there are at least 5 guys that we should be pretty thrilled if they are available to us. So keep on losing. But good call, davell. That was a pivotal moment in the season for sure. Let's just hope that we are able to claw back into that bottom 3. Good job losing the back to back. I don't think top 3 is realistic at this point honestly. But, its been nice to see that Lauri is a true building block, LaVine looks fully recovered, and Dunn has potential too, even if we don't know what he is yet.... The draft is somewhere between 6-8 players deep, in my mind. Ayton, Doncic, Bagley, Bamba, Porter, and Jackson for sure. Young and Carter possibly. If we get one of that group, plus the Pels pick somewhere in the 14-20 range, we'll be in pretty damn good shape for one year of rebuilding.

The next 9 games could take us out of the running for tanking purposes. Feb 26 @Brooklyn* Feb 27 @ Charlotte Mar 2 Dallas* Mar 5 Boston Mar 7 Memphis* Mar 9 @ Detroit Mar 11 @Atlanta* Mar 13 Clippers Mar 15 @Memphis* That's 5 out of 9 against teams worse than us and 2 more against teams with losing records. The schedule gets a bit harder, after that, but overall its the easiest schedule out of the teams ahead of us for the top pick. Win more than 3 of these 9 and its extremely hard to see moving into the top 5 without lotto help. Win 3 or less and anything is possible.

3 points for the 2nd straight game for Lauri. 6th time in 52 that he's been under double digits. They've got to feed him the ball and get him back going. Its easy to see that Lopez helped him get open. He needs to be more aggressive at this point. Side note, its going to be impossible catching some of these tanking teams.

After a 3 point game, Lauri is scoreless at the half and the Bulls lead by 2 in Minnesota. LaVine looks damn good. So does Nwaba lol. For that matter, Vonleh looks like he has a bit of upside.

I wouldn't make that leap. Pitchers don't generally get as much as the hitters do in IFA. Actually, I'm struggling to think of the last pitcher to get $2 million in IFA. Did Espinoza get that from Boston, or did either of those 2 Rays pitchers get it when they went over their spending budget? But we see $2-3 million dollar position players every year. I wouldn't be shocked to see that he signed for $1 million. Ah, when I skimmed thru, I didn't notice he had just also posted the 5 best hitters. That definitely changes things, as his comment wasn't necessarily meant for the pitchers. I agree that they don't typically get as much. And I'd amend my initial thinking on Gallardo. I'd still bet Rodriguez gets well over that though. Every team has at least 4.75 mill now to spend. I'd guess the players see their bonuses go up a bit anyway, just because of that.

In Kiley's chat today, he listed Gallardo as the 2nd best pitcher there. Said there were a few guys not there, but no idea if he meant pitchers. He did say that the group he listed were all signing for at least 500k and some of them were getting over 2 mill. Connecting the dots.....If Gallardo is the 2nd best(behind Rodriguez) and multiples of the 5 he listed were getting over 2 mill, we're probably giving him over 2 mill...... And considering Rodriguez is evidently an immediate top 100 prospect, according to some.....We're not likely able to nab him too. Unless we trade for quite a bit of IFA money.....

He sure did. Said he was the standout there today despite not having the best FB velocity, with the best combination of fastball, offspeed stuff and control. He's 6'1", 187 lbs. Gallardo is the second 7/2/18 IFA linked to the Cubs. The first is 16-year old Dominican SS Rafael Morel. Of the other two guys in my post above with Kiley McDaniel tweets, Starlyn Castillo is linked to the Phillies and Badler didn't link Abraham Calzadilla to any teams. The hardthrowing Cubans will pitch tomorrow. I can't find anything on this kid. I think I read he's a defensive guy, that has the body to grow into some pop. But, I'm not sure where I got that from or if I'm even remembering the right guy.

Nah. Boston is stacked and still is armed with enough to go grab Kawhi or AD, or anyone else they want. It'd take Lebron going to Philly, to put their future in the same boat as Boston's.

Bulls lose because Denzel was in on the tank at the end. Sit Lopez and Holiday, Lauri scores 3 points..... And Portis gets 38, Nwaba gets 21. Blowing a 5 point lead in the last minute is huge.

Eh, there's some upside there. He's obviously ridiculously unlikely to ever see it. He's been hurt a bunch. But, if the reports Arguello heard early last year were true(hitting upper 90s), he's far from the guy I'd bring up as to why he's ahead of Rucker.(Who is top 15, maybe top 10 for me, by the way) Bote, Uelmen, Thompson, even Steele(since he's out with TJS) are more head scratching to me... In the end, it turns into scouting versus stats and which one you prefer. I look at both. But, if the guy is a scouty type that's doing the write ups, then Moreno over Rucker is understandable.

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Badler just linked us to Gallardo.

I'd feel more comfortable with that too. With QBs in play, its definitely feasible to think we may get a premium too. Especially if a QB is still sitting there at 8. In case its not, I'd prefer making the deal early though. Buffalo is the perfect team to do this with though, since they'd still have ammo to move up further, if they felt they needed to. 8 for 21 and 22, as a straight up deal isn't out of the realm. And they'd still have 2 2nds, if they needed to go further.

Cuban telling his players they might as well lose and then bringing it up in an interview doesn't sound very smart for him to do. He may be right, but you can't just say that.