Sammy Sofa

Yes. This shouldn't be left up to the owners. And it shouldn't take someone dying to make it happen (I'm looking at you, NHL) People always argue it away with some variation of, "well, you should be paying attention to the game/stay off your phones/don't bring kids to those seats." Outside of the obvious reasons why the latter is beyond dumb for a sport that desperately needs kids to be into it, the whole "pay attention" way of blaming the victim is nonsense when the entire experience is designed by the teams to distract you. What, all the vendors and foods and drinks and scoreboard stuff aren't also competing for attention during the game? Come on. Speak of the horsefeathering devil: [tweet] [/tweet] horsefeathers you, dude.

What’s this say? Just saw a little toddler get hit with a foul ball at the Astros game 3 rows in front of me. It really did not lol good. They rushed her out of here. It is shocking. Follow up tweet: She went completely limp when the ball hit her. Is it scary quiet . Oh, horsefeathers. This is horrible. That poor kid.

They all should have a while ago. Yes. This shouldn't be left up to the owners. And it shouldn't take someone dying to make it happen (I'm looking at you, NHL) People always argue it away with some variation of, "well, you should be paying attention to the game/stay off your phones/don't bring kids to those seats." Outside of the obvious reasons why the latter is beyond dumb for a sport that desperately needs kids to be into it, the whole "pay attention" way of blaming the victim is nonsense when the entire experience is designed by the teams to distract you. What, all the vendors and foods and drinks and scoreboard stuff aren't also competing for attention during the game? Come on.

They all should have a while ago.

Oh, horsefeathers. Almora just rocked someone in the crowd with a foul and everything is stopped. All the players look freaked out.

I will be forever baffled as to how Baez wasn't a part of that New Era subway ad.

Bryant transferred his concussion to that poor ball.

[tweet] [/tweet]

Because he's cool and has decent speed and he's cool and has a rockin' arm and he's super cool. If Schwarber can be graded as being serviceable or better out there (well, or at least used to be), I've got no doubt Willson could swing it.

No, I love it; make it kinda be like the baseball version of pulling the goalie in hockey. Nobody's on base, just need one out, and you can move the catcher elsewhere onto the field as an extra fielder in front of the plate for that AB so long as you officially do it before the first pitch in the sequence (and then he has to stay out for the entire AB). So long as the pitcher fires in strikes called by the amazing pitcher tracker that replaced stupid useless umps, hey, who cares if you're firing to the backstop with nobody on. Of course, now there's the gigantic question of what the hell the pitcher is aiming for without anyone behind the batter, but these are mere quibbles. This is pure insanity and I want it to happen. MAKE IT HAPPEN, MLB, YOU COWARDS.

I LOVE IT.

I guess I just figure it's a safer gamble to find someone serviceable at catcher at a more reasonable cost than what it would cost to upgrade the OF at this point. But I appreciate all of your points, squally, and realize this was me going out on a limb to begin with. Well, back to pining about the trade for Lindor that will never happen.

Why wouldn't he be a regular starter in the OF? No platoon player he. He'd get more playing time, and arguably end up being even more valuable...this doesn't seem like it would be a very hard sell. In the hypothetical world where Grandal is available, wants to sign, and the front office is cool with it and won't use it as justification to not do anything else, sure. I'm in. In the other scenario, where we're plucking some version of Francisco Cervelli off the FA pile (still at around $10m/year)...I think we're making some marginal upgrade at the expense of a possibility of something more. We're stuck with Heyward on the roster regardless, and I assume you aren't bouncing Contreras around the outfield. Locking him into a spot makes the chance of a Schwarber, Happ, or Almora as above average regular Cubs very remote. And yes, for that group, maybe it's time for them to horsefeathers or get off the pot. Maybe it's past time. But doing it to bring in some revolving door of David Ross 2.0s doesn't seem like the solution. And this is all without mentioning that we're less than a year removed from Contreras falling off a cliff in the second half last year. Yeah, I will fully cop to not caring at all about Almora, Happ or Schwarber losing playing time. And I think the final point was due in no small part to him bring worn down as a catcher. I just want this FO to do something different. They apparently can't spend, they don't really have the resources to pull off a trade...it's frustrating. Their whole plan at this point seems mostly just hoping/praying that guys like Bote, Happ, Almora, Schwarber and (ugh) Russell aren't the guys they likely already are. I look upon that OF, so easily bolstered by nothing more than money and/or moving some players around (what's up Machado at 3B and Bryant to RF), and it fills me with despair. Stupid scumbag Ricketts.

Just win, you turkeys.

I'm not going using it to justify his continued catching...but he's also great at keeping runners from advancing, particularly when Lester is pitching. While you may want more from the catcher position than that, he's so good at it that it's a factor that shouldn't be ignored. Well, yeah; that's basically the only thing he's good at as a catcher. But, big picture, I'm not worried about the Cubs working around the needs of Old Man Lester; dude's likely gonna be nigh useless sooner rather than later.

If Contreras finishes with a career year like he's on pace to, and then in the offseason you go sign the catcher that was like, one of two or three people to be move valuable than him (and is four years older), and tell Contreras, undisputed starter at catcher for the last 3 years, to go join the revolving cast of outfielders, it's pretty close to kicking him out. Why wouldn't he be a regular starter in the OF? No platoon player he. He'd get more playing time, and arguably end up being even more valuable...this doesn't seem like it would be a very hard sell.

Like, Willson is awesome, almost totally due to his bat at this point, and playing another position gets his bat into the lineup more. I don't get throwing his WAR out there like it justifies how much he horsefeathering sucks at catching. Yes, it IS awesome that his bat can overcome that, and it would be even more awesome if he was even more valuable; I'm pretty sure a .302 .405 .579 would still be valuable from an OFer, too. And then the added bonus of not having a terrible defensive catcher on a team run by people who inexplicably built a starting rotation and a bullpen that desperately needs someone who can frame and block worth a damn.

"Kicking out" makes moving him to another position sound a tad dramatic.

I mean, yeah, I get it; the Cubs are trying not to spend, but at some point they're to have to. That OF is too much of a wasteland.

Yes, because catcher is a far more important position defensively, and because I think Willson in a corner OF spot is essentially an automatic upgrade over either the hapless bums currently taking up space. And I don't agree that finding a serviceable defensive-first catcher is some kind of dire financial burden the Cubs couldn't handle. Yeah, the 'pay more money' was referring to Grandal, which I covered above. I think it's a little naive to just assume 'replace Almora with Grandal' is some definitely viable option. Which leaves you with 'serviceable defensive-first catchers', which goes back to original point of 'like who?' Yes, catcher is more important defensively, but Contreras is much better offensively than the average catcher, which still matters. And he'd be better offensively than the average OF, too, and he'd do much less damage out there than behind the plate. IMO, the guy is a massive liability defensively, but it's at a position where he's arguably dragging down the pitching, which already needs to walk a pretty fine line.

Yes, because catcher is a far more important position defensively, and because I think Willson in a corner OF spot is essentially an automatic upgrade over either the hapless bums currently taking up space. And I don't agree that finding a serviceable defensive-first catcher is some kind of dire financial burden the Cubs couldn't handle.

MY IDEA IS BETTER BECAUSE IT KEEPS WILLSON CONTRERAS AND SPARES HIM FROM COMING DOWN WITH CATCHERITIS.

Man, I don't want to trade him, dammit. But if I WAS an insane baseball president, I would definitely look to move catching prospects who can hit but aren't actually any better than serviceable at best at catching to literally any other position ASAP. Between how it seems to shorten careers, has them playing fewer games each season than the average healthy starting player, and how the margin of good to suck seems like a gigantic cliff that favors the latter, I'd make catching the dumping ground for guys who can't hit. Get those swaggy bats somewhere more valuable. Also: convert more starting pitching prospects to relievers sooner rather than later. GIVE ME A BASEBALL TEAM.