davell

Schwarber singles hard off the RF wall, barely missing a homer.

He's thru 3, only giving up 2 walks. Has 2 K's.

I don't think I've seen anything remotely negative about his glove, its just whether he'll get to enough balls, if he fills out even more. With his arm, I'd say 3B would be his spot, if he can't get to enough at SS.

Robinson goes 6 5 3 0 1 5, 8/4GB/FB, on 88 pitches. Tseng goes 8 4 2 2 8, 10/2 GB/FB, on 100 pitches. Mekkes goes 1.1 1 0 0 1 1 Maples goes 1 0 0 0 1 2

Rosscup dealt to Rockies, for Matt Carasiti, a RHP that's not on the 40 man. Having a solid year in AAA, was out righted after a horrible major league call up in 2016.

Steele was solid tonight, going 5.2 5 2 2 2 4, on 86 pitches, with 7/4 GB/FB.

i was hoping for a cap tip tbh http://deadspin.com/javier-baez-robs-bryce-harper-with-perfect-leaping-grab-1796437758?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow That may be better than a cap tip. Harper was so in awe, he forgot to, is what it looks like to me....

I'm sorry, but I'm confused. The article in the link is written by B. Badler on Oct. 20th, 2016 -- so from last year before the new CBA. Is MLB still trying to implement an international draft? They already tried and failed, and international players were outraged over its inclusion before they came up with the new system. I don't like the new system either, but I guess it makes it more fair. The Dodgers can't outspend every other team in MLB like crazy anymore. I am worried about teams discovering some loopholes and/or doing some shady under-the-table arrangements -- especially Preller and the Padres Front Office. Ha, all I looked at was 6-25. I figured if BA was tweeting something, it'd be new info, not something 8 months old lol. I even re-read it, not remembering 10 rounds was what they wanted to do. With teams signing 20+ players a year on average, it'd be impossible to just have a set monetary limit for UDFA's....Way too easy for deals to get struck.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1258690380848211&id=177433228973937&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&_rdr Baseball America has us connected to this DR OF, Alexander Ovalles, along with Verdugo and Serrano. It also said, "and others" from Mexico. Which is exciting, due to only 25% of the money counting against the cap, in most cases. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/213429920/luis-navarro-debuts-in-ipl-showcase/ This article had gotten past me, but Adrian Gonzalez' brother has opened an academy in Mexico, that evidently doesn't take the 75% fee the teams do.....

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-minor-league-report-spt-0627-20170626-story.html A very good report on Paredes defense, from the Cubs IF Coordinator. If he CAN stick at SS long term, that'd be very nice. At the very least, it seems like the Cubs will try. Or this could be an attempt to up his potential trade value lol. Either way, cool to see some positives.

Hopefully Short gets mostly SS reps now.

You think Candelario is more likely than Zagunis or Caratini? I think both find their way into starters AB's, even if its not necessarily at a single position for Caratini. Can't argue that it does appear a bit weak right now. But, if Amaya shows up big in Eugene soon, this may render it almost moot. At any rate, I think the position player group looks quite a bit better at this point next year, than it does now. Especially if they draft a guy in the 1st next year.

I don't see Little or Lange making any top 100 lists THIS year. They were drafted in the range they were expected to be and I doubt either gets many(any?) innings this year. And only 12-15 draftees are usually included in rankings. They'll certainly have their chances moving forward though. Cease will be interesting for me. There's already some guys(Longenhagen, maybe Law too?) that see him as a closer type. He probably needs to finish strong himself to be assured of being a consensus top 100 guy. I think once these guys get their off season reports up to date, that Hatch will be on most lists. If he keeps THIS up, he may even show up inside a top 50 or two. Pretty unbelievable for a 3rd round pick last year that just got slot. The only other pitcher I could see pop up on a list or two is Alzolay, if he keeps this up. That said, my dark horse, if he continues pitching like this, is Justin Steele. As a lefty with 2 above average to plus pitches, he'll have some supporters. Not thinking he's going to make any lists, but there's a slim shot, in my mind. Alzolay, Hatch, Steele, and Rucker is a pretty damn good group of prospects to all be in the same rotation right now. Caratini SHOULD make it, but he won't. Its unusual for them to start putting guys on in the upper levels, if they've not been on them previously. Burks though, will have a shot. But, my guess is he'll need to make a very good impression in the AFL, to get on them. Assuming Amaya starts hitting, he'll get talked about a lot. Catching in the minors is so weak, he'll have a shot. But its relatively rare for IFA's to make these lists, before they hit full season ball. I think Ademan is a guy that eventually makes these lists, as a surefire guy that sticks at SS, with a decent hit tool and 10-15 HR pop. But, that's one that'll take a year or two before he gets on their radar most likely. I agree that with this depth, its a top 15 system RIGHT NOW. But, if you trade Eloy at the deadline, things look quite a bit differently. The system will have lots of guys with legit upside though, it'll just take another year before some of the guys start making their ascent.(Little, Lange, Amaya, Ademan, Albertos hopefully,) pair them with Cease, Hatch, Alzolay, Steele, maybe Burks and this system looks really good during 2018, even if Eloy is gone, not that I hope he is.

I see no possible way to actually get a draft to work.

Cease goes 4 0 0 0 2 5. I think anyway, the stats just updated his line to only being in the 3rd inning lol.

Yeah, that's the general idea. Add young guys or picks, by taking on bad contracts and freeing up cap space for teams trying to contend. Its NOT about getting flexibility to add max guys right now at all. The only way we can get to that point is to draft or trade for enough young talent to where we eventually become a desirable spot. Until, then, you basically just keep adding assets, to get you closer.

Aren't you a Lakers fan? You just gave one fifth of your cap for LUOL horsefeathering DENG. Free agency prices are high. Ask Mosgov lol. For a team in rebuild mode, you can give LaVine that type of money and not think twice. You don't do it next week, when you're able to, but you see how he performs this year and go from there. But, 4/70 or whatever is not even a bad deal, if he comes back and plays as he did last year. Its the market. And I'd much prefer giving it to a young guy with plenty of upside, to giving it to run of the mill, busted ass vets. What's horsefeathering stupid is paying old guys that type of money. A rebuilding team can take a shot on a young guy and it doesn't affect their long term outlook at all, even if it didn't work out. Seriously, go look at salaries. I know where salaries are going and paying middle class players max deals or near max (which I think what Lavine is/can be) can get you in trouble. Those Laker contracts were awful at the time and are even worse now with the cap not going up as much as projected, they also led to multiple FO/ownership people losing jobs. They just had to give up a recent #2 overall draft pick to shed one of those. Giving big money to washed up/not elite players in FA gets you in trouble in the NBA and think doing a Deng type deal for Lavine is a bad move, rebuilding or not. If the Bulls are looking to spend they should do what the Nets just did with the Lakers, take a bad contract with a young/cheap player and/or first round picks attached. I think you're putting too much emphasis on cap room for the Bulls right now. Seriously, its not even that important right now, because they know they're going to flat out suck for this next period of time. Its just an unfortunate fact. There's honestly not a player on the roster currently that's a guarantee to be around the next time the Bulls are in contention. Its POSSIBLE LaVine can be. But, giving him a fifth of your cap isn't that important, because that leaves you 4/5 of it to operate off of, knowing you're not signing max guys or even solid, long term guys for the next few years. If in 3 years time, there's enough semblance of players that it looks like you can add long term contracts.....Then LaVine is very likely to be a big reason why thats the case.....If he's just an average guy at that stage, he's still tradable. The KEY is keeping cap space open right now. But, having one long term deal on a young guy isn't going to hamper ANYTHING, because the rest of your roster is cheap, young players and hopefully a few salary dumps that get you other assets...... Do one of those moves a year, maybe two, if THEY don't stay on the books TOO long. That's where you actually need to be careful. Don't just add 35 mill in bad deals immediately, that clog up your cap for 3 years. Add guys sporadically, to where they fall off the books at different points. Meaning, if we take Deng, as an example, don't take any MORE guys that still have 3 years left on their deal too. Personally, I like Portland as a team for us to target. But, I'm sure there's plenty of them out there....Because, as you said, there's lots of teams with bad contracts. The difference is they're trying to make the playoffs, we're not. We can extend LaVine and see what he develops into, because there's nobody else on the horizon we will be paying outside of bad contracts and LaVine, who obviously is a solid player and worth seeing if he can turn into more.(again, you don't give him big money until AFTER he's back from injury)

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1367 Here it is.

Holy horsefeathers, do you look at NBA contracts? What the hells wrong with giving him THAT lol? He's coming off a knee injury, whatever value he has is largely based on his athleticism and also the cap just shrunk more than people thought it would. Committing 1/5 of your cap to Zach horsefeathering Lavine is horsefeathering stupid. Aren't you a Lakers fan? You just gave one fifth of your cap for LUOL horsefeathering DENG. Free agency prices are high. Ask Mosgov lol. For a team in rebuild mode, you can give LaVine that type of money and not think twice. You don't do it next week, when you're able to, but you see how he performs this year and go from there. But, 4/70 or whatever is not even a bad deal, if he comes back and plays as he did last year. Its the market. And I'd much prefer giving it to a young guy with plenty of upside, to giving it to run of the mill, busted ass vets. What's horsefeathering stupid is paying old guys that type of money. A rebuilding team can take a shot on a young guy and it doesn't affect their long term outlook at all, even if it didn't work out. Seriously, go look at salaries.

The reason I even brought deGrom up was he obviously is a very good pitcher. Hell, he's been better than Archer(albeit not as healthy and much more of a risk)and much better than Gray. I was debating whether its worth giving up THAT package for him, because I don't think that package comes even remotely close to landing Archer. I don't think it'd get deGrom either, with the Mets expecting(probably wrongly) to get healthy(lol) and contend again next year. The reason it was interesting to me is I figure you probably DO have to send Eloy to Oakland for Gray. That's a definitive no for me. Gray isn't good enough. deGrom IS good enough, he's just got the red flags around him(as does Gray) It'd be a huge risk. But, its something I'd have to consider.(again, I doubt the FO would and I really doubt the Mets would) I've advocated for Gray quite a bit actually. If you can get him for a package led by Cease, probably with 2 of Zagunis, Caratini, or Candelario.....Fine. But, I'm not dealing Eloy, Happ, Javy, or Schwarber in a deal for him. The reason I'd even consider deGrom though, is because my honest guess is it'd take Eloy, Happ, AND Cease to get Tampa to sell Archer off at this stage. He's healthy, he's really good, and he's on a bargain basement deal. And Tampa can't afford to rebuild, with their attendance problems, so my guess is they'd want an insane package for him. My inner debate is do you give up THAT much for Archer, take deGrom at that package and the risk that goes with it, or just settle for a much lesser pitcher? At the deadline, my honest guess is we settle for a much lesser pitcher, probably a rental. I'd LOVE to find another Montgomery type move, I'll probably scan teams tomorrow to see if there's any of those types out there. But, we're going to need 2 guys in the off season. My guess is one signing and one trade, unless we trade for an unknown cost controlled option at the deadline. Again, deGrom is really good. The risk is real though. I'd consider a package like THAT for him though, if the price for Archer is as much as I think it will be. I'd take Gray over either, IF he can be had for a Cease led package. But, since we won the WS last year, adding a Hammel type and hoping for the best in the playoffs is probably the way I'd wind up veering towards, as CW11 said.

Hey, what'd you do for your reception? I watched the Cards get the horsefeathers beat out of them.

Going forward, whats expected in the off season now? I saw a rumor we may cut Rondo and then try to resign him lol. Hopefully that's complete BS. If we actually attempt to buy assets, what do we have? Rondo- He can be cut and just count 3 mill against the cap. There's lots of teams that have cap issues, I'd like to hope we can move him to a team in need of cap space, for something of value. Taking on a shitty contract of theirs. 15 mill TPE- I guess we created this in the Jimmy deal. But, it can be used on its own, or with Rondo, to help acquire something of use. Lopez- In one of Paxson's interviews, he kind of made it sound like he wanted to keep him around, for veteran leadership. If not, I'd guess he could probably net a heavily protected future 1st? Something like that anyway. Wade- Are we going to cut him loose? He opted in, we can do what we want, whatever that is. It seems like our reputation can't get much worse, so could we trade him for a bad contract or two, as well? At 23.8 mill, you could definitely find some bad contracts with him. Or you can keep him, if you think he'd be a good influence on the youngsters, but it seems like Rondo was the guy they all liked. Between Grant, Payne, Zipser, Portis, Valentine.....Maybe you can find a team interested in one of them? Portis is the only one of that group I think that has any shot of becoming a starter for anyone. Now that they've gone down this path, I really hope they add assets in some way, shape, or form, since they're obviously trying to finish as bad as possible.

Gutierrez is 2-3, with a double, triple, and a walk so far.

Duke, Stephen Ridings is a deep as horsefeathers sleeper that might merit paying attention to as well. He's already 23 and came from a very small school. We took him in the 8th round last year, as a true project. He didn't pitch last year, after being drafted. But he's 6'8 and throws mid to upper 90's. I remember reading that the FO was kind of excited about him a few months ago.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think they've said they had no interest in selling. Hopefully I'm imagining that though.