Little Slide Rooter

I'll probably regret bringing this up, but I've quietly wondered for a few weeks if Chase Utley could have a little bit of lighting left in the bottom of the bottle ala 2008 Jim Edmonds. I know he's on the DL, but if they were willing to give him up for a few AAAAs/Rule 5 bait and a bit of cash, would anyone be interested? Ish?

Watch it be Roach in G1, Cueto 2 and we get shut down by Roach and then torch Cueto.

I would not be at all surprised if Rizzo checks in at the top 3, no doubt top 10. It's hard to imagine Harper not number 1. But Trout's contract goes insane at the back end ($34MM per year 2018-2020.) And while I don't know what kind of contracts some other young players have, Rizzo's is an absolute steal.

Boy, Zagunis has gone cold as ice.

FWIW, BN reposted the first part of the list yesterday, stating that Arrieta narrowly missed the cut, citing remaining years under control as the primary reason.

After the season, we free up Fowler (9.5MM) Wada (4MM) and Denorfia (2.6MM.) We can NT Wood, who currently makes 5.685MM, and after next season, Edwin's 13MM is off the books. Arrieta's likely due a hefty raise, and in the not too distant future, Bryant, Russell, Soler, and maybe Hendricks. Of course there will be holes to fill, but we should understand how huge it is to have a player like Rizzo locked up as cheap as we do, and the same can be said for Castro if he's not dead. Short version: we do.

Yep, though acquiring was the favored word. I expect a trade, a big trade. 1. Lester 2. Price Price, Lester, Arrieta, Hammel, Hendricks would be a sufficient-ish rotation, right?

how is a 4.3% walk rate "poor"??? That "poor" figure is currently tied for 7th in the league with Greinke. That's an easy one; I was looking at the K% and BB% for hitters, not pitchers. So in reality, his 19.8 K% is on the low end of above average and his 4.3 BB% isn't so much poor as it is borderline excellent (4.0%.) And I will now change my pants.

Just thought I'd cherry pick some advanced stats on Kyle. He's good for a 1.8 WAR per Fangraphs or 1.4 per BBR. According to Fangraphs: 1.121 WHiP (above average/great) 3.33 FIP (above average/great) 3.45 XFIP (above average/great) 86 XFIP- (average) 92 ERA- (average) K% 19.8 (average) BB% 4.3% (poor) Truthfully, I don't know what to make of half of this. But I can only assume that it's better than most 4 starters. Probably a few 3s.

Have their been any reports on how Soriano looks? 0.00 ERA, but his SSS doesn't look particularly impressive: 5 IP 3/4 BB/K 1.20 WHiP.

LeMahieu, huh? Raise your hand if you saw that coming a few years back.

Seems like Zagunis has hit quite the slump. .135/.233/.216 over his last 10. Still has a healthy .293/.423/.436, but wasn't his OPS hovering around .900 about a week ago? And Carson Sands was roughed up fairly bad. 2.2 IP, 2/1 BB/K, 6 R: But since 0 were earned, I guess they never happened. A silly concept, really. And FWIW, Emeralds lost 15-2 :hello: Some random low level stuff: Trey McNutt hasn't pitched since he resurfaced for 0.2 inning on July 2. A few of our recent pitching converts are off to good SSS starts: -Mark Malave 8 IP 2/12 BB/K 0.00 ERA 0.75 WHiP -Ariel Ovando (Rule 55 guy) 6 IP 1/11 BB/K 1.00 WHiP

Sounds like it would be a useful tool, but going by this, there's quite a discrepancy between this guy's 1.97 (meh) and the other guy's 1.94 (above average.) This being said, it's a pretty big kink to iron out before making it a thing.

Absolutely. But it's hard to fault them for allowing Almora's past success at higher levels power him over the shinier, newer Jimenez, who happened to heat up for a few weeks before he went down for a few more. Speaking of which, is there any word on Eloy's condition? It was said to have been minor, and not requiring a DL stint. That was July 3, and he hasn't played since, so he may as well have.

. What does this mean?

Now can we all go into the break a little less...Cubs faney?

Done and done.

Feel free to utilize this thread for any and all minor transactions.

Under 30. Former top 10 pick. former top 50 prospect. Bosio signal?

Is anybody else seeing a parallel of sorts between what we have and the Brewers of the mid '00s? They had tremendous crop of PP prospects funneling through; 2 incredible cornerstones in Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun anchoring a foundation featuring Ricky Weeks, JJ Hardy, and Corey Hart. And they still had guys like Gamel, LaPorta, and Escobar in the wings. We have two incredible cornerstones in Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant anchoring a foundation featuring Starlin Castro, Addison Russell, and Jorge Soler. And we still have guys like Kyle Schwarber, Javy Baez, and Billy McKinney in the wings. Even as they experienced some immediate success, some struggled more than others. Braun and Fielder essentially took off running and never looked back. Weeks and Hardy were less consistant. And while they were on tbe fringe of contention in '07, it wasn't until 2008 that they hit their stride; and even then, they were streaky. We all remember them as a 90 game wild card who was at our heels for much of the season, but they were also 83-67 in early-mid September when they fired Ned Yost. They've been very up and down since. Braun's all that's left of that crop (unless you count Gomez, who they got for Hardy.) They've swapped out prospects for veterans and not had much luck with the prospects they kept. And they haven't done a very good job keeping up their farm system since, focusing more on desperately attempting to keep that window open, and are now dangerously close to ending up like the villain from "Ghost" because of it. What's my point? I don't know. I guess it's something about even if you have an amazing young core, most of which pans out, it still takes time to make things happen. And even then, the team needs to continuously build and evolve.

I'm not sure that he's broken (other than his thumb) so much as incredibly young for the big leagues. He strikes out a ton and always has. But we accepted that a while ago, back when he was our undisputed top prospect. I'm not saying that he would be an upgrade over anybody at this time. Just that I wouldn't throw him in the junk bin. I don't know how to calculate WAR, but even if his offensive ceiling were 2009 Alfonso Soriano, from an everyday SS, I have to assume that's a pretty valuable player.

Pretty much. Best case scenario, we end the day 2 games up on the the Mets for that WC, worst case, we end up tied and 5 games above .500. In July.

Maybe ownership pressured management to acquire as many big names as possible to drive up the team's value so they could sell. No, that's just crazy. But speaking of the Padres, here's a thought, and it won't be a popular one. Could be all out rage inducing. And Gifs. Lots of Gifs. But it's just a thought.

Yes. Who the hell is Randy Williams? I feel as though there was a Randy Willians at some point. Speaking of lesser pitching prospects who are considered prospects, Greyfer Eregua went 4 with 1/4 BB K bringing himself to 3/24 BB/K in 17.2. Could be ticketed for SB in the near future.

I'm going to stop pretending not to be stoked about Randy Williams.