Cubswin11

It sucks to say but, now that he's drawn the attentions of 30 billionaires who would either want to hire him or send him into the sun, probably not for long. He was the first and a legend. Callaway's 43 to Boddy's 36, just started coaching in 2010, actually has significant MiL and ML coaching experience and success. He may not be shiny and new anymore, but my dude Schwarber proved that's not necessarily the worst thing while you're young The part about outbid/outsold on the Reds is speculation. They didn't hire a niche name who doesn't have any experience outside his niche world, a great one he built himself so awesome but still Maybe as the day to day major league guy Callaway is better. But the pitching development role for mostly the minor leaguers we’re talking here, the in the lab stuff using technology, techniques and methodology he basically created, Boddy is leaps and bounds better. And we offered him a job and he picked the Reds, we got out pitches or out bid and that’s a horsefeathering disgrace.

He has a tough personality which yeah maybe that was part of it but he’s the best at what he does. He’s only consulted with teams and players as far as I recall. Callaway and Farrell are fossils compared to what he’s doing. We badly needed Boddy and now need to find someone like him to take on this new pitching role (I’m sure there’s plenty of suitable gurus out there like him, I just doubt we can identify them properly or pry them away from whatever they’re doing). And again, we got outbid/out sold by the [expletive] Reds.

This is a huge horsefeathering blow, imo. Got outsold by the [expletive] Reds for a guy we badly needed in an area of the organization we are so far behind in. Seriously bringing in Boddy was probably the most impactful move we could’ve made all offseason.

woodruff is actually really good I think he’s still on a bit of a pitch and innings limit from the lat injury. I’d assume he’s good for 2-4 innings then they’ll go Suter/Albers/Pomeranz after to cover 3-4 innings then Hader.

Alright let's have another crack at this Internal Moves: Pick up options on Rizzo and Q, Decline options on Phelps and Morrow. Non-Tender Russell, Cut Descalso FA Signings: Brett Gardner 3/35, he's a redass they want. Still plays a good enough CF, is a leadoff and contact guy, Jason Castro 2/15, Howie Kendrick 2/18 Trade 1: Q, Almora, Zack Short for Nick Pivetta and Cesar Hernandez. Look to give Hernandez like a 3/18-25 extension to save on some AAV/real cash outlay on his arb number projected in the $10 mil range. Phillies need some innings eaten and consistency in the rotation as they had a rough year there, Q gives them that and not a big commitment. Almora can be a RHH option in their OF, Kingery can move back to the IF. Short is a throw in/sweetener I don't see us having a real use of him. Pivetta still has a lot of underlying things to like, they've clearly soured on him. He is still young and has options left, he may be bullpen bound but gives us an internal SP through 2024 if we can get him righted. We'd save a little money on this deal if we do the Hernandez extension Trade 2: Contreras, Chatwood, Underwood, Giambrone or Zagunis, and Corey Abbot for Jon Gray, Jairo Diaz or Carlos Estevez, Jake McGee and a prospect. Get Gray out of Coors and there's still a TOR starter in him, we have him for 2 years. Diaz or Estevez is a nice cheap and good bullpen arm and McGee helps with money and can still get lefties out hopefully he gets a boost out of Coors as well. Rockies add a bat they really need in Contreras and fill the rotation hole with a guy who's had some okay success there and get some filler with the other dudes. 26 Man Roster: Position Players: 1. Gardner CF 2. Bryant 3B 3. Rizzo 1B 4. Javy SS 5. Schwarbs LF 6. Nico 2B 7. Vic C 8. Heyward RF Bench: 9. Bote 3B/2B, 10. Hernandez 2B/SS, 11. Castro C, 12. Kendrick 2B/3B/COF (vs LHP), 13. Happ IF/OF Rotation: 1. Lester 2. Yu 3. Hendricks 4. Gray 5. Pivetta/Mills/Graveman/Rea/Adbert Bullpen: 6. Kimbrel 7. Wick 8. Ryan 9. Diaz/Estevez 10. McGee 11-13. Pivetta/Mills/Gravemen/Rea/Adbert/Wieck/Mekkes/etc. That's a really deep and diverse offense, we take care of some SP concerns over the next two years as we don't need to find 3 guys now next offseason.

Astros-Nats would be a very fun World Series

Nick Pivetta would be a solid, under the radar pick up if the Phillies give up on him. There’s still a lot of talent in him, despite the rough year and and he has 2 options left.

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Without actually knowing anything about him besides things that have been said on this board, Espada from Houston seems like he'd be a logical guess for the guy on a playoff team. Espada, Beltran, Ibanez is probably my top 3 right now of preferred guys (in some order). Ross and Loretta are probably 4, 5.

The little I’ve heard and read on him, he seems like he’d be a very solid candidate.

Yes on Boddy and hopefully they get him. Haven’t heard a thing about the hitting director. Though Driveline does hitting work too, maybe they have a guy Boddy would bring to do that?

I think it’s almost a lock Vic or willy is moved. It makes too much sense. They’re two starting caliber catchers (one who is elite). It helps build out the team/get prospects, it’s not overly hard to replace the value we got from C this year in FA by adding someone like Castro to Vic or Willy and Amaya is within 2 years of being ready. It’s the easiest way to add and still try and win.

"Shame on us if we can't develop a player like that at the major league level." That sounded like he's staying to me. Yeah, I don't know what people here are talking about? We've listened long enough to Theo interviews to know what he means, and how transparent and honest he is. He doesn't talk up a player to try to build up trade value... He genuinely regards Contreras as legit one of the most talented catchers in MLB. I've thought this for a while too that Contreras is one of the most tooled-up, athletic catchers with an MVP upside if he puts it all together and improves his receiving/framing. I'm not saying he couldn't be traded this offseason if the right deal comes along, but it really sounds like Theo wants to keep him and hopes he keeps improving. It should be noted Theo and this FO tried to sign him to an extension and failed. They want to keep him and I'm pretty sure they still want to extend him. I think it would be a mistake trading him. I have a lot of the same sentiments regarding Willson. I’d prefer to keep him too. But in an offseason where change is coming and they want to still try and win but change things up and add to the system or get different players in I think he makes a ton of sense to trade. Theo always talks glowingly of his guys, horsefeathers he talked up Descalso today. Maybe he wasn’t talking Willson up to build value (I think he was a bit) but he also talked about him like he talks about a lot of players with a glowing review. Could be nothing and could be something, I just think it’s far more likely he’s gone than back next year.

I mean they started building the WS winner some 4-5 years before it happened, they all mostly arrived together towards the end, and that worked out fine. This time the media's not walking us through it and telling us it will be special and awesome when everyone arrives, but things went about as well as they could have this year below the ML team and it's one primed to make leaps over the next year probably two for a SP Dude, come on; there was definitely some prolonged stumbling. It wasn't simply a matter of they emptied out the farm via promotions and trades. The system bottoming out a bit was definitely likely with all the graduations, FA signings (losing picks/money), and trades. But they definitely stumbled with pitching at the same time, I don’t know how one can argue otherwise. But they do appear to be back on track with it. With the pitching lab, different profile of pitchers drafted this year, guys emerging, admitting the development side is getting new people

Really? That sounded like a sales pitch to the 29 other teams, to me. He’s gone, imo.

Yeah, Lorretta makes a lot of sense for a year or two if they keep a lot of the guys but do some buying and selling at the same time (like a Willy trade, don’t trade any meaningful prospects, etc). Then next offseason and the one after start adding in FA again as this group leaves and hopefully some prospects emerge/continue to grow.

These are all the vague comments Jesse needs to run the KB is being aggressively shopped and likely traded for two months of click bait articles

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Theo says we are adding a director of pitching and director of hitting. Hopefully Boddy is the pitching guy.

I do agree we should have 2B covered internally. But I just want better overall depth and some more contact on the team. Happ, Kemp and likely Nico can play some OF too and we get 13 position players on the roster this year. It wouldn’t be hard to work Hernandez in and in the end it makes us better. Finding another starter capable player to add to the team, with 13 guys now makes a lot of sense and almost is a priority. I’m guessing the good, smart teams have “too many players” going in to the year.

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I love this idea but the Royals ask will be huge, they also probably think they can win with him. He probably cost multiple of Nico, Amaya, Marquez, Davis too. I’d absolutely love to add him though.

It's less that single sentence and more the underlying confidence in Hoerner to be an impact guy. Like to me bringing in guys like Jed Lowrie or Cesar Hernandez to be the backup plan to Nico Hoerner at 2B doesn't add up. They're cheap, low commit, have long track records of hitting and playing 2B well, and could start for many contenders...but they're the backup plan to Nico Hoerner. Also don't buy the GB thing. If I'm optimistic about Hoerner it's because offense was down in the SOUL so his line was solid and he put the ball in the air If you bring in a guy like Hernandez or Lowrie, even with Nico around they’re all going to play plenty. It’s not like they’re only going to play 40 games or whatever. It’s like when we had all of the depth in 15, 16 and 17 all we heard was questioning how all these guys would play and in the end it gets figured out and you ended up needing the dept. Nico and either of those guys (or similar guys) have positional versatility. Depth was a huge issue this year, someone is going to get hurt or have splits to shy away from, etc. We need better options than Descalso, Almora, Russell, Robel, Cargo, etc. We also need to build out the roster with more complimentary pieces to what the core guys do, these adds with Nico helps that.

Joe is gonna have a job there within a week or two it appears.