Cubswin11

Lol, absolutely not

This sucks so much. Leaving for the [expletive] white sox radio booth!?!????!!!!! horsefeathers Marquee, Crane and the Ricketts. They had to go hire bum ass Chris Meyers too and couldn’t at lease soften the blow with someone cool like Sciambi.

God damn it

Cut out the work, Willy for McNeil with some other pieces either way makes sense. horsefeathers maybe you could do Vic+ for Mcneil if McCann is valued at that.

Been wanting Stanek for 1-2 years now as a pen arm. Hanser Alberto may be my favorite bat target without digging to much in to other names. He does the contact thing.

What’s the appeal? He doesn’t really walk, doesn’t hit for power (and he’s played in coors), doesn’t make contact, defense metrics don’t like him.

Maybe they’ll work out like a 3/14 or something deal with Schwarbs to lower the AAV.

Winkler and Ryan over Tepera is so dumb

Almost like there’s a whole offseason to figure it out

The Schwarber NT The Almora NT, Play Levels Alexa It’s too bad schwarbs NT has to get tied to the horsefeathers bag Almora NT

Why hasn’t Almora been NT’d yet

Why? It's not like he was a bad hitter in the minors (.290/.371/.428 with a 17% K rate, including .332/.393/.527 in 481 AAA PAs), so what's this based on? He hit fine in the minors. Never hit for power there and partly why I think 2019 likely wasn’t the real him. Also hits the ball on the ground a ton (50%+), which is problematic. Plus there just something watching him I don’t like on a subjective level. He’s a fine backup. I think a .240/.330/.350 type slash line is what I’d expect from him over a full season, maybe he can pop a 2019 slash line in a backup/limited role/batted ball luck. He’s a light hitting catcher with who plays adequate defense and seems to frame and call a good game. Perfectly fine as our backup, but wouldn’t want to depend on him as a full time starter if we were trying to win and if someone does I’d take advantage.

I think Vic is closer to the hitter he was in 2018 and 2020 (still above average backup) than where he was in 2019. If a team values him as a top ~5 catcher in MLB (like Willy) under team control I’d love to move him.

I mean of the pitchers signed who should’ve gotten significantly more? The numbers all seem pretty good (some seem to have exceeded my expectations and others on the board) given their age, injury risk, recent and expected performance, etc. Morton is 37 and wanted to stay close to home, Ray has been average to bad the last 3 years with major control issues, Smyly has thrown like 120 innings since 2016 with mixed results and looks more like a pen/swing man type player now, Minor has been average the last few years, is 33 and saw a velo drop this year. I think they all got pretty healthy amounts for what they are and where the market is.

Yeah these early numbers have been decent. I still think there’s going to be a lot of guys who have to take 1 year deals in the $3-8 mil range and there will be good bargains for us to wait it out. Assuming Chatwood is healthy (don’t know if he ever had a surgery) I wouldn’t mind him back on a cheap/make good deal.

Please don’t NT Tepera (he’s projected for a little over $1 mil in arb, it’s no money and they may have unearthed something. Also want to keep Rea to a lesser degree but similar reasons that they may have found something in a 1 inning true reliever role).

I’m pretty sure Adbert has another option year. But yeah I get not wanting to go all of Urena/Adbert/Mills in the rotation. Like I said I’d view Urena more as a bullpen piece (kinda like Rea). Adbert needs to be given the chance to sink or swing as a SP (he’ll obviously be on an innings limit so having extra SP depth this year will be big). I think Mills fizzles out if he’s given a full rotation sport over 162, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s not on the roster/in the rotation by the ASB/trade deadline. He obviously deserves a spot to start the year but I think he blows up. But yeah Gray needs to be a legit target in some way. Either as a NT FA or a trade target.

Always liked Urena. Think there’s a solid swing man/bullpen arm in there with maybe still a chance to make it as a mid-back end starter under the right coaching.

And yeah, definitely look at upgrading the shaft based on the data and go with it if it’s within the budget. It will make a difference. I got a whole new set of clubs ~18 months ago, Titleist TS3 drive and AP3 irons and the rep from Titleist who had me on track man recommended different shafts (project X on driver and Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour on irons) than the stock ones. Definitely can see an improvement in my game and worth the up charge. Most of the drivers now will have 3-8 shafts that you try out for no up charge and somewhat the same for iron sets IIRC? I think there’s a little more room for drivers that they have multiple stock options that don’t cost extra but think they will still look to up charge you on something different (but if it’s based off of simulator/track man data I’d roll with it if it’s not a lot more). That’s been my experience at least. Think I spent an extra $60 on my driver shaft and the irons were like $6-12 a club (I forget).

And yeah, definitely look at upgrading the shaft based on the data and go with it if it’s within the budget. It will make a difference. I got a whole new set of clubs ~18 months ago, Titleist TS3 drive and AP3 irons and the rep from Titleist who had me on track man recommended different shafts (project X on driver and Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Tour on irons) over the stock ones. Definitely can see an improvement in my game and worth the up charge. Golf Galaxy or Golf Smith (always forget which one it is, one got bought out/merged/whatever by the other a few years back) offers the fitting services if you have one by you. Dick’s also might, from the chain store perspective. I’ve always gotten fitted through my course though. They bring in reps from whatever brands and have a track man+simulator to analyze and the pro knows his stuff too. So there’s a few ways to go depending on what you have around you.

Is there really that much they can do about competitive balance? The best players are worth so much more in basketball than in other sports so that if there’s a dominant team/player, that team is always going to be good. The Spurs and Lakers won the West all but one year from 1999-2010 and won 9 of the 12 titles. It was Jordan before them. And the Lakers/Celtics before that. I agree that there are desirable markets that players are always going to want to go to (i.e. LA). GS looks good now but they were largely a joke of the league for 40 years. Cleveland made two ECF in 36 years and no finals before 06-07. SA has always been good (39 playoff appearances in 45 seasons) but nobody would call them a destination. And even being a place people might want to play (New York) means nothing if your franchise is a disaster. I’m just not sure what can be done in basketball other than restricting player movement to get players to not bolt all the time. Yeah it’s a stars league. You need a top 2-7 or so player to win titles, that’s kinda always been the way outside of some fluke years. Idk if there really even is a competitive problem, like is it really better to not have these super teams that are the total package and drive intrigue with players switching teams and teaming up vs every team basically all having 1 top ~25 guy and flaws? I guess contraction could work? Condensing the talent would help and cutting out ~6 teams, but no way the players or league would agree to that.

If your budget is up to $400 go to a retailer or course with some sort of swing analysis tools/simulator/Track Man and a professional who knows their stuff. That’s a healthy budget to get you something to fit whatever the feedback says.

Howard and Davis absolutely can be Javy level. Same as that IFA kid (Hernandez, I think with the A-Rod comp). Amaya could be a well above average first division starter at catcher. There’s also a lot of other intriguing guys and at least a better infrastructure to develop them, I believe.

Every organization should have a general rule to never trade with the Rays, especially when they’re seeking a deal/selling and especially, especially should never trade for Rays pitchers

Doesn’t seem like a decision Manfred/MLB and MLBPA should be leaving in limbo with the offseason starting up. Kinda important for teams to know this with roster building decisions.