Have a seat, Neifi

Speaking of which, our favorite Twitter “source” is at it again — Charles the Cat @CharlsMeow Multiple relievers I'm hearing the #Cubs have had recent discussions with. Kelvin Herrera, Brad Brach, and Oliver Perez. #HotStove

The Bulls reportedly have waived Cam Payne, putting the proverbial exclamation point on an utterly horrendous string of transactions and front-office decisions.

Not to derail the thread, but have we submitted our respective guesses as to what Bryce's ultimate contract will be (regardless of team)? I'm honestly at a loss as to whether he ends up with like 8 years / $300 million or something more in the framework of 4 years / $200 million with all kinds of opt-outs. Or neither (as in, something richer than anything I've described). Edited to add apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere.

The Cubs operate on a Jan-Dec fiscal year? All these big companies, they just write off everything. You don't even know what a write-off is.

My two guesses are they didn't think the guys would 100% buy in/adapt to the approach and lose their Donging ways but more blend it with their Dongs and have a super approach and also in that article Chili mentioned pitchers "pitching away from launch angles" or something. Maybe they thought pitchers would correct faster against the launch angle revolution and get ahead of it with an approach Chili ball would have the offense ahead of the curve vs the league? Either way it was a horsefeathers up and they failed and am glad they admitted it and moved on. I think it's basically this. JD Martinez, who is probably the smartest hitter in the league and basically the Che Guevara of the fly ball revolution, has embraced Chili ball a little bit. Last year, JD went to the opposite field 28.9% of the time. This year it's 31.4%. Last year, JD hit 38.3% of balls on the ground, this year 43.5%. And with it, his K% dropped, his BABIP skyrocketed, and he had a career year. The high fastball has never been more popular, so somewhat lower launch angles are probably called for. I think the key is balance. You could argue Chili ball helped Schwarber, who was an extreme fly ball hitter in 2017, but became more balanced this year and saw his K's go down and his BABIP go up while losing practically nothing off his HR/FB rate. Almora and Contreras, two guys who were already too GB heavy, clearly suffered (though I tend to think Contreras probably just got worn down). Russell became a total horsefeathering mess, probably because he never really had second deck power to begin with. tl;dr Chili, like his namesake, has its place but is best enjoyed in moderation. You did it and I love it.

670 The Score @670TheScore Joe Maddon doesn't expect that Kris Bryant will get back to 100 percent this season; the #Cubs' goal is for his shoulder ailment to be 'manageable' (link: https://bit.ly/2BaWZJ2) bit.ly/2BaWZJ2

I would be shocked if Jake gets more than Yu, at least in terms of total dollars. Could see him getting a higher AAV on something like 4/100.

[tweet] [/tweet] I find this somewhat interesting: [tweet] [/tweet]

I know you're not advocating that he adopt that strategy but man, that seems awfully risky for a dude who's had TJ surgery and at least one other extended bout of "elbow inflammation." Also, count me in the camp that would be totally fine with 5/$125 or whatever. And while I'd obviously prefer not giving a 6-year contract to a 31 year old with a not-100%-clean injury history, I'd rather have him for 6 years than Arrieta for 5 or 6 or Cobb for 4/$72 or whatever.

Solely to make the waiting that much more painful and distracting, apparently the Cubs' WS odds at an offshore site mysteriously rose from 12/1 to 9/1 over the past day or so. [tweet] [/tweet] [tweet] [/tweet]

Other better/more informed posters have already said this, but I assume most of these trade and free agent "offers" are contingent on other things happening or not happening. For example, I suspect our free agent offer to Cain (and/or our trade offer for Archer) is contingent on us not signing Darvish or Arrieta or the Marlins accepting any currently outstanding trade offer for Yelich. The more interesting piece to me is what Theo and Jed's internal "pecking order" for these various moves. My personal preference would be Darvish + a trade for Yelich (assuming the price isn't outrageous), though Cain + a trade for Archer (same assumption) wouldn't ruin my January either.

Charles the Cat? Meh. Think I'll hold out for true confirmation from Wetbutt23.

Me too. I spent about 15 minutes on his FanGraphs page with my admittedly (very) layman's eyes and came away utterly terrified at giving him $25 million+ based on the general trend in some of his metrics over the past 3 years.

Joel Sherman @Joelsherman1 #Yankees also getting 2 RH relief prospects: Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen #Indians

JJ Cooper @jjcoop36 After these trades, Yankees will have 7 of our midseason Top 100 (also Sanchez, Mateo, Judge, Kaprelian).

Looks like entire return to NYY is Clint Frazier (BA midseason #21) and Justus Sheffield (BA midseason #69). Kinda surprised it's not more, honestly.

The discontinuing of The Baseball Show with Rany and Joe (Sheehan) is a blow from which I still haven't fully recovered.

Bob Nightengale ✔@BNightengale MLB executives are absolutely convinced #Tigers David Price will wind up with the #Dodgers, who likely will have to part with Urias.

Such expected to sign with Miami: 6 years $114 million ($60 million guaranteed). Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

@JimBowden_ESPN: I am expecting Shields deal to reach the finish the line in the 4-year 72-80 million dollar range. #Padres Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Jay Glazer was on PFT yesterday and said that Fox to Chicago was basically "done" and that his separation from Denver was at least a year in the making and arose from "irreconcilable differences" with Elway. FWIW.

Looking at B-R, his FTr (ratio of FT attempts per total FG attempts), FTA/36, dunk rate (an actual thing), and most importantly, the rate of FGAs taken within 3 feet and within 10 feet are all down significantly from 2010-11. Expectedly, his 3FGAs/36 and 3FAr are up. Also, his shooting % on FGAs within 3 feet and on 2-pointers generally are down (particularly in the 10-16 foot range). So yes, he's drawing fewer fouls, shooting more 3s, and shooting fewer shots near the rim and (generally) shooting worse on the closer 2s he does take. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The BBs are great, but it's the drop in Ks that's really exciting. The fact that he's getting promoted soon is what's really coming. Javy is coming. Agreed. Not to go all #hotsportstake or #insidesources but it honestly *does* seem like between Javy's continued month-by-month improvement, Barney's DFAing, and Javy's recent shift over to 2B, everyone (including Javy) must now realize that barring some massive slump, he's probably a couple of weeks away from a promotion to Wrigley.

Bryant 0/3 (but 0 Ks), Baez 2/3 with a 1B, 2B, and a BB.

Rodon signs for $6.582 million; slot value was $5.72 million.