KingCubsFan

Definitely nitpicking, but I wouldn't put the Cubs behind the Yankees, Red Sox and DBacks. All those teams have legitimate question marks.

Not interested in using Happ to get rid of Heyward's contract. Unless it's required in order to sign Harper or something else similarly awesome, I'd rather keep Heyward as a 4th outfielder if nothing else.

Too horsefeathering late. There's so many awful, sexist, misogynistic reasons that they should have distanced themselves from Barstool before this...but now they'll distance themselves because Portnoy screwed up their ESPN deal? horsefeathers them. Well, I think they've already been doing it. I think this will just expedite the process.

Big Cat tweeted at Mooch today and he’s coming on the podcast to discuss getting fired in 11 days. PFT and Big Cat should leave Barstool. They don’t belong there anymore. I was never really exposed to any of the Barstool horsefeathers before I started listening to PMT. I just saw PFT Commenter was doing a podcast and was curious. They are really almost a parody of the dopey Barstool shtick. All the other Barstool people seem terrible and not funny. If I was PFT, I’d stuff Portnoy into a pillow case and throw him in the East river. They discussed the cancellation on PMT today. It's pretty clear they both blame Portnoy for this, and he inserted himself at the last minute to get the show renamed to "Barstool Van Talk" at the last minute. I think they'll continue to distance themselves from the rest of the company after this debacle.

They couldn't have possibly handled this any worse. They shouldn't have agreed to include Barstool in the title of the show. The PMT guys are much bigger than Barstool and that's who they were hiring.

i mean, this isn't really an example of why you don't build a team through free agency. heyward was a 26-year-old coming of 6.1 and 5.1 win seasons the previous two years. he just fell apart. I'm just referring to the financial aspect. Now a non-significant part of the payroll is tied up in a pretty bad offensive player. But I agree that Heyward was exactly the right type of free agent to target if you're going that route.

Zobrist is old, so getting injured and falling off a cliff wasn't a huge surprise. I expected more from Russell, but the divorce/injury certainly affected him, and I was encouraged by the fact that he probably had the best AB's on the team during the playoffs. Schwarber was playing his first full year in the majors, and the adjustment was a bit more drastic then I think anybody really expected. Heyward sucks, but that's why you don't build your team through free agency.

As desperate as they are, they still can't afford to lock in at WR. I think they can, assuming Trubisky is the franchise QB (also means WR is the only dire need) . I mean, drafting a WR #1 and signing one in the offseason isn't really "locking-in" so much as it is solidifying the position. The rest of the draft and FA can be used on depth up front on both sides of the ball. Assuming Sitton has another year in him and the rest of the line continues to perform as they have over the past two seasons. the potential emergence of another Carson Wentz minimizes any need this team has outside of WR. If Trubisky is truly a franchise QB then the Bears just need to surround him with competent WRs. The Bears need too many impact players on D to waste a top 5 pick on a WR.

he was a garbage 2nd round pick.Maybe one day he'll get into the rotation but he was drafted in the 2nd round by a team with many holes and no weapons and he can't see the field. That's bad. Yep. Trubisky forced the issue. Tarik forced the issue. The fact that Shaheen hasn't doesn't bode well for his future.

Don't feel bad. They voluntarily hired Dusty.

Up 3 runs, the defense is more important at this point I would guess Then put in Almora for D after Happ hits

Agreed

Prospect? He's put up 5.1 WAR in less than a full season. The real question is why would the Nats do that deal? no one is talking about trading Russell for actual Joe Ross and actual Trea Turner. R. Show's idea is to trade him for a package similar to the Turner-Ross package the Nats got from San Diego when they traded Souza a few years ago. Yep. Didn't scroll all the way up. My bad.

Not sure it would be all that stupid if you had Trea Turner headlining the deal Why would we trade our 23 year old SS who already has 8 career WAR for a SS prospect? Prospect? He's put up 5.1 WAR in less than a full season. The real question is why would the Nats do that deal?

If he wasn't playing so poorly, this would be an issue. He has nobody to blame but himself.

A good running game plus a strong defense seems like an ideal situation for a rookie QB to gain experience. Glennon needs to be on a short leash.

I was hoping Stephen Ridings would become something after reading Verducci's book. So far, it's not looking so good.

To me, he's more important to this team in the playoffs than the regular season. If sitting him until mid-September will get him ready for the playoffs, they should do it.

Aramis went 3/5 2 doubles With a name like Aramis, he has to be good.

Would be even better if he stole Darvish from the Dodgers.

There's some moving pieces involved. - If nothing else materially changed, adding Verlander would take them out of the running for pretty much any 25+ free agent for the next 2 offseasons. So no Otani if he waits a year or Harper/Machado. - If Otani doesn't wait a year, then the money doesn't matter at all in his case. - Heyward opting out would basically bring that back to where we are now. You can decide for yourself if his rejuvenated self would opt out a of 5/106 at 29 with an additional 2019 opt out. - There are not very many pitchers worthy of 25M+ in these offseasons. Otani if he waits a year is one. Other potential options are Darvish at 31 (2017), Kershaw at 31 if he opts out of 2/70 (2018), Price at 33 if he opts out of 4/127 (2018), and Keuchel at 31 (2018). With the exception of Otani and Kershaw, neither of whom are at all guaranteed to be available just for money, you can make the argument that Verlander on 2.5/70 is a better option than whatever FA contract Darvish, Price, or Keuchel might sign. Also Verlander helps you today, which is a nontrivial benefit, and in the case of Price/Keuchel/Kershaw, he also helps you next year instead of keeping your powder dry for 18 months and who knows what other circumstances. EDIT: It's also possible that after 2018 they might go into the luxury tax for a year to get someone they really like(I would think Harper is the name for this). After 2019 you'd be losing Verlander and Zobrist for 40 million(and maybe Heyward for 22 million) so you could get away with only one year above. That's the thing. I don't think they'd care about going into the luxury tax for one year. It's the multiple years in a row that's a killer.

Kaplan is a clueless moron and so is Silvy. I used to listen to them all the time but I just can't, I follow Silvy on Twitter simply because he's a meatball and it's blast to call him out on it. I've always subscribed to the idea that there are 12 aces in the majors at any given time. I don't know where I got this number or why, but I'm pretty sure I heard it once and stuck with it. Since he made his debut in 2012, Quintana is 12th in fWAR, which I actually didn't know until I just looked it up. He's so much closer to being an ace than not being an ace, it's amazing these idiots get paid to spew dumb horsefeathers on the radio and tv. The only reason he's not considered an ace is because 1) he doesn't throw hard, and 2) he doesn't have some type of defining playoff performance. It also doesn't help that he was on the same team as Sale, who is one of the few pitchers actually better than him.

If any team could make it work, it'd probably be Oakland with their penchant for guys who don't necessarily have super high ceilings, although I agree it would probably require either Almora or Happ. i'd be willing to give up almora + whatever hipster prospects he wants out of our minors, but that's about it. maybe montgomery but i tend to be in the school of liking montgomery as a starter and having questions about gray's health that you mentioned. so, in other words, if it were me, we're probably not getting sonny gray. but it's beane so who knows. Yeah, I've never understood the hype with Gray. I've never been interested in giving up a lot for him. Certainly not Happ.

Should be tomorrow. is therr any doubt that he's our #1? Particularly given Theo's comments today.

So...when does Alzolay pitch next?