Clem Fandango

No stats to back it up, but he seems to absolutely destroy the Cubs each and every time they play. Hopefully it's just Blackmon. He absolutely destroys the Cubs. 1.079 OPS against them. Next highest is Blue Jays at 1.007, which he's only played 10 games against. In fact, he has a .900 OPS or better against every NL Central team except the Cardinals. Now, that being said I'm gonna play devils advocate and say all this from a "which move hurts the Cardinals more in the long term" perspective: I think CarGo is who I'd prefer they go after for the following reasons: 1) He's the oldest of the bunch - 30 years old 2) He has trouble staying healthy for a full season - His 153 games this year was a career high. He played in 180 total games over the previous two seasons combined 3) His defense is not that great - He can play all over the outfield, technically, but by any metric his defense has never been truly stellar over the course of any full season of his. If anything he's been well below average. 4) He has the fewest amount of controllable years available of the bunch - FA after 2017. Blackmon is a FA after 2018 and Dickerson 2019 5) He's the most expensive in terms of salary - $37 million over the next two seasons. The others are still in arbitration. 6) He's likely the most expensive in terms of what the Cardinals would have to give up to acquire him - Because of his pedigree, star status, and the fact he still has two years of control vs. being a rental, I suspect he'd likely cost the most in quality players going back to Colorado, making it possible that the Cardinals sacrifice some quality in the future to try and win now with the aging core they have. 7) Even if he may seem like the scariest option of the three, he probably still doesn't put them over the top. - In a year in which he hit 40 home runs, he was worth only 2.4 fWAR. To put that in perspective, here are a few other players with WAR figures between 2.5 and 2.3 fWAR: Derek Norris Neil Walker Brock Holt Billy Burns Austin Jackson Kolten Wong Steven Vogt His defense really dragged him down. Even though he's had some success defensively in RF in recent years (small sample sizes), his defense will never match up to Heyward, and he will lose some pop moving away from Coors. Could he put up a 3.5-4.5 win season? Sure he could, but the odds of him being fully healthy is not in his favor, his defense is declining each year, he'd be leaving an extreme hitters park, and he's going to be on the wrong side of 30 before too long. Even if he puts up a 3.5 win season, that's still a sharp downgrade from Heyward. The Cardinals are not going to get that WAR back with Cargo in RF. I think Cargo will give the Cubs fits all the time, no matter who he's with, but I don't think he makes the Cardinals some sort of juggernaut like I suspect many in the media and public would seem to think.

And for less money

Vlad's contact ability pales in comparison to the immortal Juan Pierre!!!!

Let's just all give thanks in knowing this was the result of him attempting to tag Anthony Rizzo at the plate, and this is his penance for trying to stop the Cubs from steamrolling his dreams.

Nationals are reportedly interested on acquiring Brandon Phillips. I'm sure Dusty has nothing to do with that at all.

You're 7,000,000 spots ahead of me.

I hope not. I feel like like every year there's reports or people overvaluing him immensely like he's some sort of heralded talent. Even at his most hyped I still didn't think he was anything special Did anybody still think Jake Arrieta was an important prospect 2 years ago? No, because Jake Arrieta had thrown 300+ innings and wasn't a prospect.

Ill buy them if he doesn't. For real.

I'm 100% happy with where the team is at right now. If they stopped their offseason today I'd be the happiest I've been in the last 10 years with a Cubs offseason. But like others have stated they can still do SO much more. We've added four quality pieces and are now the #1 projected team in baseball by a fair margin without trading any prospects or youngsters (save for Castro, but the return was good). That's ridiculous. What's even more crazy is some of those coveted young players/prospects are now expendable and they could add even more talent if they wanted. And they absolutely should. There are so many options available I can't even pick a dream trade to play around with that I like more than another.

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-Momentum-On-Ear-Headphone/dp/B00D77UA44/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?ie=UTF8&keywords=sennheiser%20momentum&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&qid=1449808872&ref_=mp_s_a_1_10&sr=8-10 I'm not saying I'd make love to a pair of headphones, but if I would...

I hope not. I feel like like every year there's reports or people overvaluing him immensely like he's some sort of heralded talent. Even at his most hyped I still didn't think he was anything special

Do people still think Casey Kelly is an important prospect?

Theo, quick! Flip Jeimer for Bradley!

Not that it makes a huge difference with that list, but Karns got traded to the Mariners earlier this offseason

Kemp to the Padres made the Dodgers better and the Padres worse than the previous year. That's how bad Kemp is.

Well Kemp is hot garbage.

Hmmm... Hypothetical: Soler package for Miller or Teheran (and/or others) Baez package for Odorizzi & McGee (and/or others) Trade Wood, Hammell, and Montero for salary relief and farm replenishing and/or bench strengthening Sign Heyward Sign Span How plausible is that? Is that even a good use of resources?

And Schwarber. And Baez. And more than that.

I assume the outfield at Kauffman is a bit larger than Wrigley so perhaps the transition wont be all that difficult. I assume it also hinges on who they acquire for CF. Plus in an injury shortened year Gordon was still worth 2.8 fWAR. Unless he gets the yips I would fully expect a 3+ win season our of him at either corner. Plus Soler, despite his upside, has been somewhat babied because of his own injury history, which he was unable to avoid this season again on multiple occasions. In Soler injury shortened year he was worth 0.1 fWAR. I'm not necessarily advocating a trade of Soler or signing of Gordon, but I would totally understand if the FO went that direction and be fine with that decision for reasons IMB mentioned above.

That's why I don't understand so many posters getting excited about Heyward or Gordon. I figure we have around $14 million after signing Lackey with a few more holes to fill, so I can't see Heyward/Gordon playing for a backloaded contract paying about $10 million next year. Also, I don't understand the closer rumors, unless it's part of a package deal getting a CF and/or SP also. Playing for a lower aav early in the contract probably doesn't mean much to the player if you meet their overall cost demands. Unless they're an egomaniac who demands to be the highest paid player at their position, as long as they sign that contract they're getting paid and probably will be open to being flexible to helping their team be successful early on to be in a better position to win, I would assume.

Was he going to share the part that was creative?

Funny enough, apparently everyone jumped the gun. [tweet] [/tweet] From Brett...

The rich get richer