Clem Fandango

Me waking up from a nap 20 minutes ago and entering the game thread: http://i.imgur.com/MDRw2.gif

For starters, I'll agree with you on the FO part. Gomez does not draw a lot of walks, and K's a good bit, too. The FO not being interested in him wouldn't surprise me in that regard. But onto the numbers... His numbers this year are declined a bit because he had been playing through a nagging hip injury for the first couple of months. And you can't compare that to 2012 because for half of 2012 he was hitting the way he had been taught to -- the speedy, grindy lead off hitter way -- until he made an adjustment to his swing between Jul 6th and July 23rd. http://i.imgur.com/V7zlgqq.png His numbers in the 2nd half after he made the adjustment lineup with the numbers he's had ever since. So you can't compare this season's injury riddled down year with a season in which he completely changed his approach halfway through the season when, in the first half, he was quite bad (.709 OPS) and the 2nd half (.809 OPS) is more in line with what he did the following two years (.843 and .833 OPS, respectively). Also his BABIP this season is right in line with his previous two seasons (.330, .339, .344), whereas his 2012 season was .296. Also that .267 AVG is a lot closer to the 2nd half .278 he put up vs the .233 he put up in the first half of 2012. Yeah, the defense in 2012 was a huge aberration, but he's still been one of the Top 5-7 defensive CF'ers in other years. This season's hip injury is the likely culprit behind his diminished play at the plate, in the field, and on the bases, and, IMO, is not an indicator of him regressing to pre-2013 levels.

Upton's best year was 2008 (4.8 fWAR). The year before his FA he had a 3.3 fWAR, and he had a slash line of .246/.298/.454 that season. And of course you'd take Cain, this season and last season his numbers are going to look like... well, Carlos Gomez's from the previous two years. That and he's under control until 2017.

Yeah, the difference here is that Carlos Gomez is still really good. Even if you go all the way back to 2007 when Gomez was a slap hitting leadoff guy, he's still the 9th most valuable CF'er in baseball during that span. That's over the last 8 years through today. 9th. And he's only been elite level for the last two seasons. But let's just go back to 2012 when he had his breakout year and started hitting for power in the 2nd half of that year which carried over into his 7.5 win 2013... http://i.imgur.com/8PZKunZ.png 3rd best CF'er in baseball. The two above him are perennial MVP candidates and two of the greatest players of this generation. So if you wanna take franchise cornerstones and probable future HOF'ers out of the equation, Gomez has been the best CF'er among the rest of the league since 2012 up until today. So yeah, Carlos Gomez is good. Really [expletive] good. Guys like him (elite CF'ers that aren't rentals) usually don't become available outside of free agency. If Gomez is available, you get him and you extend him immediately.

I'm assuming you'd put Davis in LF? The difference between Coghlan and Davis is negligible to this point.

I realize I'm in the minority, but I don't really want Gomez and I actually think he'd be a player many would get frustrated at. I understand how great his WAR was for a few seasons, but he's just not as good as the package it would take to get him. I don't know what his defense rates out, but if you watch him on a fairly regular basis, you can see how bad of angles he takes on balls and how many Castro-type errors he makes where you're like, "WTF?" He also has to be one of the worst overall base runners I've ever seen, and his injury history is starting to build a bit. I'm not saying he wouldn't be an upgrade, but I figure the Brewers will want a lot and I just don't see him being worth it. Again, though, I acknowledge I'm in the minority. Hell, I might be the only one who doesn't want him. I'd rather just get Parra from them for a B-level prospect. He's been worth 16.2 fWAR the previous three seasons so the whole "I know his WAR was good for a few seasons" thing is referring to literally his previous three years. And even in a nagging injury riddled "down year" he's probably gonna be worth 3+ fWAR before the year is over. He IS worth the package it would probably take to get him. As such, he is my #1 target on my wish list. 1) Carlos Gomez 2a) David Price 2b) Cole Hamels 3) Ben Zobrist 4) Gerardo Parra 5) Justin Upton

I used to be a Gyorko fan. Now I'm not. He's quite awful. And we have no place to play him, nor would we really want to as his defense is... well, quite awful. He's seriously just barely better than Castro this year, and Castro is REALLY bad. No thanks to Gyorko

It's time to stop encouraging him.

It would be unconventional if he did considering he's only pitched like 8 games this year at AA and doesn't have a very good peripherals. Yeah the 1.73 ERA looks enticing, but his FIP is 3.54 and his K:BB ratio over 41.2 innings is 32:18. That's... not fantastic. While stranger thing have happened, I'm going to assume Johnson only sees the majors this year as a September call up.

After taking this into careful consideration, I've determined my original position is still the same. :-)

That doesn't seem plausible.

If all signs point to Tulo regressing and this year is a coming sign of that, then I understand. But if it's an outlier it's easier to keep Tulo at SS, where he's played 1,100+ consecutive games at the position (in fact he's never played another position in his entire professional career), and keep Russell at 2B, where he's performing exceedingly well on defense.

I know the metrics say he's been garden variety this year on defense, but if you get Troy Tulowitzki you probably don't move him off SS.

My friend has been toying around with Photoshop and took a stab at coloring a black and white photo, he isn't done yet and knows there's still obvious things he needs to fix, but I think he's doing a pretty damn fine job so far on this Satchel Paige photo... http://i.imgur.com/33d5UUg.jpg

[expletive] the Dodgers

And let's keep the Price suggestions in perspective here. Last year, with a year and a half remaining on his contract, the Price deal was basically... Austin Jackson Willy Adames Drew Smyly for David Price Jackson went to Seattle, and Tampa picked up Nick Franklin in the deal, too. So Tampa took Adames, Smyly, and Franklin for a year and a half of Price. And Detroit lost Jackson, Adames, and Smyly. That's not a huge price to pay for David Price, and that was a year ago. It should take LESS than that now. Not more.

He can play LF, where at the moment we do not have a long term option. Sure Bryant or Schwarber could end up there, but right now they aren't, and as such MCKinney profiles as our future LF'er until Bryant and Schwarber prove they are disasters at their current positions

I'm gonna need to get paid for all the graphic design work

I vote jersey. I'll toss silly graphics into every thread if it means the Cubs win 75% of their games

http://i.imgur.com/X3qPSZz.gif

http://i.imgur.com/b4IL1tm.gif

Also going in the bat flip thread http://i.imgur.com/b4IL1tm.gif

Hammel's K:BB ratio is just silly. Just wanted to reiterate that

They just got Nova back after Adam Warren filled in admirably, plus they've got Severino waiting in the wings who is torching AAA right now. Sabathia has been an embarrassment, but they won't pull him out of the rotation.

He sure as hell can be. A corner OF playing 2B sounds like a recipe for disaster. Especially one that has 600 PA of mediocrity at the plate. Figuring out AAA at 25 doesn't mean you changed anything for the better at the major league level, let alone mask what would be undoubtedly awful defense. I was referring to overall value, not defense. Even then the MI suggestion was just that, a suggestion. Only spitballing. but Lake has more professional games as a SS than any other position, and was moved off the spot because of Castro, IIRC, and the team attempted to convert him into a Zobrist-like super utility guy. He's athletic enough to handle multiple positions. Can he handle them well? Probably not. The Cubs just need to do whatever they need to to get Castro's bat out of the lineup, and I only brought up Lake in the first place because he's the only guy in AAA right now hitting worth a damn that would be considered for a callup to help with the offensive swoon because Baez is on the DL. But until we figure out someone to replace Castro's bat in the lineup, whoever it may be, we'll keep having to trot this out there every day: http://i.imgur.com/wRKpzWT.png http://i.imgur.com/bxDXU70.png http://i.imgur.com/fua555z.png