davell

Awful choices. He can decide to lose to the Cubs or the Dodgers.

horsefeathers, I'm even watching the Bulls.

John Fox is the devils risk averse brother.

Assuming we get a sit down with Ohtani, I have to think adding Cobb before then, would enhance our chances a bit. Maybe a pen arm too.

I think we'll add another Butler or Mills type guy. I'm still thinking Wisler personally. At this point, I kind of expect Underwood to be moved to the pen. ODLC could start in MB, but the quote about them not wasting whatever bullets he may have, by BA(I think) has me thinking AA. Especially since he's on the 40 man now.

horsefeathers, he's a definite. Just forgot him.

Damn, this looks like it may move very quick.

I'm really interested in placement for 2018. Does Alzolay start in AA? Or do they fast track him? My guess is they'll protect him in AA, assuming he's still a Cub by then. What about de la Cruz? I have to think he'll start in AA too. And maybe move quick, if he stays healthy. Rucker and Robinson surely start in AA too. They'll be 24 at that point, or very shortly for Rucker anyway. Add in Hatch, which seems definite, and that's an extremely interesting rotation in Tennessee. Alzolay/de la Cruz/Hatch/Rucker/Robinson. Clifton doesn't deserve a AAA spot, but they may need to bump him up, or put him in the pen. I guess Alzolay could be thrown into Iowa, but I don't see it. Iowa should have Tseng, Hedges, Mills(forgot earlier) maybe Clifton, maybe Chris Nunn. They'll definitely add to this over the winter. MB is interesting too. Hudson will have a spot. My guess is this is Lange's starting spot next year too. Erling Moreno will have a spot. The other 2 spots probably come down to Tyson Miller, Paulino, Rondon, and Kellogg competing. SB looks like Albertos and Assad, as definite. Kyle Abbott looks like a safe bet too. Little SHOULD be here, but I'd say there's at least a small shot they'd leave him back at EXST, for a bit. Depending on how he looks obviously. I guess Camargo, Keegan Thompson, Uelman, and Bailey Clark find themselves in piggyback situations. Looking at this, I'm kind of impressed. Its far from perfect, but there's plenty of talent in full season ball now. Plus, we'll get Marquez and Estrada in Eugene, with Didier Vargas coming up from the DSL for Arizona.....Not to mention whatever we draft..... I think we look pretty solid overall, from a starting pitching standpoint.

JBJ just isn't a great fit for the Cubs. I feel oddly confident Almora is going to be very solid going forward. My guess is the Cubs do too. That said, you're getting Abreu and much more, for JBJ. Not the other way around.

There's no chance Smyly signs a minor league deal. He'll either sit the year out or get a 1 year, plus option type deal. But, it'd definitely be a major league deal. Unfortunately he didn't get TJS until early July, I think. With us needing to spend plenty of money for 2018 AND try to stay under the LT, I don't see a guy like him or Pineda being good fits for us this year. Unless we trade for a cheap SP.

He's a top 100 guy for Law and Longenhagen. I don't think he's looked at as a Strop type at this stage at all by anyone. Don't get me wrong, I'd trade him while his value is where it is currently, but he's got nice upside.

This is why I expected both to be tendered. I figured ~1.5 million was a worthwhile gamble, considering how much payroll we presumably have. Either Rondon's arm is seriously horsefeathered, or we've got less money to play with than I thought. If the latter, I wonder if it means we plan on spending a ton or if we're going to tighten the belt a little in preparation for next winter. I don't see money as being an issue. Other than staying under the LT this year, before going over it next year. I have no idea, but in calculating LT, its possible the full amount of Rondon or Grimm's deal could count against it, even if we'd only be paying a small portion of it. No idea if its the case or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is. And 6 mill is a decent amount for us, based on how much we've got committed, plus the likely spots and costs of new players. I'm guessing our beginning of the season payroll is in the 170-175 range.

We didn't offer Taylor Davis a contract. After the roster movement of the past couple of days, our 40 man is sitting at 34. Its pretty rare to see our FO with this many open spots. My guess is we'll be extremely active in claiming guys this off season. Even moreso than normal.

And they are keeping him.

With no follow up on Grimm immediately after, are we holding onto him? We'll know for sure in an hour or so. I think the more I look at it, the more I see reason to keep him. If you tender a player(he's projected to make 2.4), you can still cut him n the spring and only be on the hook for 1/6 of the full amount. So, it may very well be worth paying him 400k, just to see what he looks like in March. And if he's remotely decent, the rest is easily affordable anyway. Could be worth the gamble. Guess we'll know for sure soon.

Not a surprise. No word on Grimm yet.

Lauri is 20. I've seen enough at this point to see he's a damn good building block. Definitely a POTENTIAL All Star. He's going to have some struggles and part of it'll be great for him. He's already seeing teams key on him. The fact we're bad is going to indirectly help him in that regard anyway. I figure LaVine coming back will help win them a few more games. I'm not worried about win/loss records this season. Other than putting us in the absolute best position to capitalize on the draft. And I don't trust GarPax to handle the rebuild. But, I do think they'll find ways to add assets, in some way. Whether its trading Lopez and/or absorbing a bad contract or two.

There's Hosmer, Morrison, Santana, Alonso, Duda, Reynolds, and Moreland on the FA market and Abreu available in trade. I don't see a team going for Bour with a bad contract attached.

Nice tank W tonight. Markkanen goes 20 and 9, Dunn goes 19-5-5.

Dario Alvarez is showing up on our 40 man currently. Brett noticed it. No idea if this is a glitch or if we signed him. Not sure if he's a guy you give a major league deal to, at this stage of the off season. But, I do like putting him in the mix for a bullpen spot. Assuming that if we did sign him, its for the minimum or something.

Lmao

Isn't it 21 days now anyway?

Dunn looked great tonight. 10 of 15, 24 and 8 assists, after going 0 for 6 last game lol. I wonder if we'll even know what we've got with him at the end of the season.

In all honesty, endorsements aren't going to be a huge factor. Baseball players just don't get that much. Yes, he'd make slightly more in LA or NY thru that, but money doesn't truly seem to be his hot button. We don't KNOW what his hot button is. We can all guess, based on history. But, its just guessing. What we KNOW though, is he was going to sign with the Dodgers out of HS. So, unless we find out he hates how slow Pedro Baez pitches or they've done something else to anger him, those are the closest things to tea leaves that I can fathom trying to read from.