Clem Fandango

Well Gordon's mediocre years were the years he spent acclimating to major league baseball after being one of the most hyped prospects of the 2000's. Between him and Matt Wieters, scouts and analysts were hyping them up like they were gonna be the GOAT of their era it seemed like. It took Gordon a few years to find his groove and in 2011 that's when he started being a consistent, valuable MLB player. It was also the year he became a full time LF'er, after being moved off 3B in the middle of 2010. Since being in LF Gordon has arguably been one of the best overall left fielders in baseball. His 2015 doesn't look as good as Fowler's because his numbers were down this past season due to his injury most likely. He had a Grade 2 groin strain in July and was out until September. There was a stretch from the middle of September to the end of the season where he slumped and went 10 for 56 (.178 AVG). Could be plausible that the groin issue was preventing him from going max effort, but the fact is his offensive production suffered and really knocked his numbers down a peg. He was probably headed to the ASG before his injury (was batting .279 with 11 HR on July 9th) and probably would've finished consistently with his previous numbers. Only thing about Gordon that worries me is his age (he'll be 32 in 2 months) and, as such, how big his contract will be. I have the utmost confidence in his abilities to be productive and valuable, I just have no clue how long it will last before he starts declining due to his age and since he's been one of the most valuable LF'ers in baseball, how many years that's going to put the Cubs on the hook for if they can sign him. Also, Soler's offensive profile is pretty different from Gordon's so comparing the two is kinda like apples and oranges. Soler has been profiled as one of the strongest hitters in the game and if/when he can figure it out he'll likely be a 30HR type of guy, but Gordon is never gonna be that guy. At his absolute best I'd expect Soler to put up at least one .900+ OPS season with a bunch more in the mid .800's or higher, Gordon is more of a mid-high .700's to mid .800's OPS guy with stellar defense type player, which is immensely valuable in his environment. They're kinda two different players so it's hard to compare the two, IMO. Plus if Soler still ends up needing a couple years before he starts consistently mashing (it took world destroying super prospect Alex Gordon 4 years to find his stroke so anything is possible), the difference between Soler and Gordon could be a chasm of WAR. Gordon has been worth 25.2 fWAR over the previous 5 seasons (and was worth 6.6 just a year earlier in 2014). We know that Gordon would provide immediate value and instantly help the team win vs. waiting for Soler to figure it out which could be next year or it could be two years from now. He's a bit of a wild card at this point. He looked good to end the year this season, but he looked good at the end of 2014, too, and we can see how well his 2015 went. To me, if singing Gordon means Soler has to go, it basically comes down to whether or not you want the immediate confidence you get in putting Gordon out there, or rolling the dice and hoping Soler is more feast instead of famine. I'm kinda torn either way. Love Soler and what he can do, but we can't see the future. If we knew it was gonna take a couple more years for him to piece it together, I'd rather have Gordon and trade Soler while he still has some big value to help the team elsewhere. But Soler is the type of player who might end up crushing 30 dongs next year and you don't want to miss out on those early years of affordable power. It's a bothersome predicament.

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I remember reading they were interested in moving him so they could make Betances the closer earlier this offseason. He's really expensive for a reliever, but i like what he offers a whole lot. If they were to offer some salary relief I'd be all about Andrew Miller.

I wonder what the deal looked like and if it can be revisited. He acted like it could be revisited evidently. Just seemed confused by the Braves situation as to why they'd pull him back away quickly like that. My guess would be that they heard from another team. Cappolella was on the phone with Jed about to make the deal, then he got a call from Dave Stewart on the caller ID and said "Jed, nevermind, gotta go" and picked up Stewart's call and Stewart was like "Listen, about A.J. Pollock" and Cappolella was like "YES? WHAT IS IT!?!" and Stewart was all "You still can't have him *click*" And then Cappolella was all like http://i.imgur.com/nl0vbfE.gif

They're just setting you up to hate Google products so you reluctantly go back to Safari and hate yourself.

And Lackey passed up a QO. He's not signing an incentive laden 1 year deal. Especially not after posting some of the best numbers of his career.

Early opt outs > years. Give Heyward 7 years backloaded, opt-out after 4.

Hey I'm not the one who thought they'd need more than Miller or Teheran, I was just playing along with Crasnick's rumor.

If they want Soler, but they need to add more names into the mix with Teheran or Miller, what about one (or more) of their top prospects? I know he had a bad year this year, but I'd love to have Toussaint in the system. I also like Mallex Smith a bit as a sleeper CF option.

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Yeah, he has my vote for 2nd infielder off the bench with Lastella being the other.He should be an improvement over Herrera, at least. ooh this would be pretty cool Part of me thinks if Villanueva has a big offensive first half he could be a valuable trading chip. Then the other part of me is like "He's never been that guy" and agrees with this sentiment of him being a solid backup IF.

I'd imagine the Dodgers would be more inclined to include him if they were getting back younger, more cost efficient and controlled talent than a really expensive aging ace whose GM, if I had to guess, probably insisted on not including any salary relief.

How much of his Miller's success this year, a year in which his GB rate spiked, can be attributed to having arguably the best defensive middle infield in baseball playing behind him? How much of his performance suffers when he's taken out of that environment?

Jim Duquette of MLB.com seems to think it will take Billy McKinney and Willson Contreras to pry Shelby Miller away http://m.mlb.com/news/article/158170980/5-mlb-trades-that-make-sense

Juan Pierre, duh.

Big strikeout guy (12.2 career K/9 in the minors). Not a very good walk rate though for a reliever (3.2 BB/9). 27 years old too so not that young.

Miller seems like smoke and mirrors looking at how he outperformed his peripherals. I mean he's not terrible, but why are folks so high on him than other possibilities other than age and team control?

No matter how you PM someone to inform them you'd like them to read a post you wrote, it sounds like you're desperate for friendship. Like Chester yearning for Spike's approval.

Last year is the first season Fowler outperformed Gardner. Buoyed by a huge uptick in defensive numbers that it seems most believe are due to Wrigley/positioning. I'm guessing Fowler would outperform Gardner in a lot of previous years if he was playing mostly LF like Gardner has almost every year of his career. 2013 is the only year Gardner has logged more innings in CF than LF in his career. Plus Gardner is entering his mid-30's and has a skillset that relies on his speed, which isn't getting any faster. His two big WAR seasons, 2010 and 2011, were the only seasons he stole 40+ bases and which were, coincidentally, the two best defensive seasons of his career. Ever since he's been averaging 22 bags a season since 2013 and his defense has taken some pretty big steps back over that time span. He wasn't even perceived as a positive fielder by UZR standards (flawed as it may be) in LF this past season. Gardner is fading, IMO. If Fowler's crowd sourced estimate is accurate, he'd make a couple million more than Gardner. Gardner's current contract: Fowler's crowdsourced estimate: I'd rather pay for Fowler's early 30's than Gardner's mid-30's. And if playing in Wrigley and being positioned by Maddon is what helped him be more successful this year, why would that be a knock against bringing Fowler back? All that said, Heyward is the answer.

None of us can ever be 100% sure of that... http://replygif.net/i/1130.gif We're all part of a reality show called "Life", man. ."". ."", | | / / | | / / | | / / | |/ ;-._ } ` _/ / ; | /` ) / / | / /_/\_/\ |/ / | ( ' \ '- | \ `. / | | | |

Brett Gardner is a poor man's Dexter Fowler.

That would be a lot more convenient, actually.

As someone who has built countless websites over the last 20 years with many FAQ sections, I've pronounced it all three ways, just depends on your audience. I personally say FAK simply for convenience.