Cubswin11

Win the division with 36 wins and win the WS

I grew up playing baseball only in summers, think I took one golf lesson when I was like 10. Started playing a little in college and after but still played softball mostly in summers until I was ~25 (32 now). Started taking golf serious about 5 years ago and basically taught myself from scratch using YouTube, going to the range a lot, and read a lot/follow golf social media to learn and I would be lucky to stay under 100 on a good day early on. Last 2-3 years I’ve really turned a corner and am down to a 6 handicap, still have my blowup rounds but it’s such a fun sport when you can get to being a consistent sub ~85 golfer. Unless you have a coach or friend who knows their horsefeathers, use YouTube. They have everything you need to basically get started and have lessons. I played whistling straits 2 weeks ago (have had pga championships and was suppose to have the Ryder cup this year) and I shot a 75, including 2 under on the back. It was a really rewarding feeling.

Under control to the point of having full stadiums of fans by April, no clue. I think it will be under control enough/understood even better that they can have a full season starting in April though.

He would’ve broke anyways, but horsefeathering Joe using him against the rules they allegedly set is still infuriating. He was horsefeathering awesome for his ~30 innings or whatever. He was worth almost 1 WAR for us. If you have to set special 'please don't break' usage rules for a player, you probably shouldn't sign him, and you definitely shouldn't pay him $10M per year. If pitching one inning on a third day in a row was enough to kill him for 2.5 years, then it was never going to work. Eh, I’m sure there’s a lot of pitchers that teams generally try to put some rules on for them not to break. Joe broke those explicit rules. But regardless, to me, it was the worth the risk and the cost to get him reflected it. He was one of the best relief pitchers in MLB the half season we had him healthy.

Getting some later career Lackey vibes with the motion/stuff, which isn’t a bad thing.

He would’ve broke anyways, but horsefeathering Joe using him against the rules they allegedly set is still infuriating. He was horsefeathering awesome for his ~30 innings or whatever. He was worth almost 1 WAR for us.

This puts us at 51. Would prefer Perez makes the active, expanded, roster over Descalso.

He kinda started throwing this new 2-seam/sinker/split/change pitch last year late in the year when he was rolling, iirc. His split use % was at an all time high last year (which I think is what the track man data classifies this new pitch as) and his FB was at a low. Think he’s been working with this pitch for awhile.

Eh, for an NFL QB of his level/age/accomplishment he’s going to have to suffer some significant injury or career altering incident for them to ever cut him. Other NFL positions, sure, but as long as he’s a top 12 or so QB under the deal he isn’t getting cut. If he's not cut one of those scenarios is where he is criminally underpaid. Or he becomes too expensive and is cut because the cap flattens and he never sees huge portions of the unguaranteed money. The structure and total guarantees matter A LOT. I’m just not going to fault a guy or call it a dumb move when the most likely outcome of a decision is ~$500 million and the least likely outcomes are ~$125 mil if he horsefeathering sucks/his leg falls off or ~$700 mil if he plays it perfectly right.

The rumors are it’s going to approach $500 mil and they’ll tie it to him getting a % of the cap (I’ve seen 16-18%) so he gets the team/league revenue benefit, why is it dumb to not lock that in? The downside is appreciably higher, imo, going short term and risking injury or whatever and costing yourself $100+ mil than it is to try and pick up a little more money every 3-4 years to maybe make a couple $10 mil more a year over 10 years. I wasn't aware of the ability to lock in a specific % of the cap. If that exists, that obviously helps with any downside. Per a few posts after this, guarantees matter a ton as well. If not a lot is guaranteed, he's potentially in a position where they just have endless team options (in effect). Been pretty busy the past few days, but I'll be interested to dig into details. Still, long term contracts are bad if not accompanied with significant guarantees. Eh, for an NFL QB of his level/age/accomplishment he’s going to have to suffer some significant injury or career altering incident for them to ever cut him. Other NFL positions, sure, but as long as he’s a top 12 or so QB under the deal he isn’t getting cut.

Manfred and the owners started LLCs to be testing companies to scam some PPP loans with the intent of them never being functioning. Change my mind

So weird because he was a somewhat serviceable hitter circa 2017 and legit raked against LHPs. I remember in Game 3 of the NLDS vs the Nats, he PH in a key spot against a LHP and I felt confident in the matchup and he came through. But since July 18 he’s been an abomination and legitimately terrible against lefties. 2017: RHP - .711 OPS in 198 PA LHP - .898 OPS in 125 PA 2019: RHP - .707 OPS in 249 PA LHP - .532 OPS in 114 PA 114-125 PA is still a smallish sample size but I’d guess the batted ball numbers and all that would confirm how bad he was. Anyways while I don’t have much hope in him, the little I do have is rooted in the fact he came up to the majors as a guy who could hit lefties, then showed it in his first 2 seasons before falling off a cliff randomly. Hopefully he can fix this and become a passable MLB hitter The answer probably lies in the middle somewhere of those two OPS years vs LHP (which isn't great). I think the BABIP/batted ball profile and generally bad approach caught up to him and the league also adjusted to getting him out more by taking advantage of his poor approach and he hasn't changed much. In short burst I think he can have success vs lefties but I don't see him ever being a dependable lefty masher. There's also the fact his defense has fallen off greatly that you can't ride him out there vs lefties by default knowing you at least get the defense. He's also not some super athlete where you could have faith he figures it out or gets better (maybe embracing more shifting would help though).

Theo willing, he is the 4th after Sosa, Lindor, and Baez Javy’s only topped 30 HRs once and only got to over 20 SBs (21) once. You think he’s gonna be able to do that as a 29+ year old (since he won’t get there this year)?

Already seeing some “Almora made a swing change and looks good” and “hopefully Almora finally gets consistent playing time to reach his potential” tweets since the start back up. How many more years is he gonna be able to pull this horsefeathers on people?!???? Since July 2018-2019 he has the worst wRC+ in MLB and second lowest WAR and he has the 8th most PAs since 2017 and 7th most PAs since 2018 on the team. He’s also, allegedly, made swing and approaches changes and looked good in ST scenarios in the past. My kingdom for Theo to Matusz/Montero him during the year this year. Note, since this season is already going to be weird as hell, I’m hoping Almora BABIPs his ass off like he has for short bursts in the past (despite ugly underlying data) and hits like .380 in a shortened season.

That seems likely dumb on his part, but we'll see. The rumors are it’s going to approach $500 mil and they’ll tie it to him getting a % of the cap (I’ve seen 16-18%) so he gets the team/league revenue benefit, why is it dumb to not lock that in? The downside is appreciably higher, imo, going short term and risking injury or whatever and costing yourself $100+ mil than it is to try and pick up a little more money every 3-4 years to maybe make a couple $10 mil more a year over 10 years.

I don’t blame him for not doing an extension at this point but I also think between this mess we’re in and 2022 looking in more trouble I don’t see KB getting $200+ mil either on an extension/new FA deal (well maybe a little over $200 if it includes this/next year arb years). I’d guess he’s in the $160-190 mil range in new money on his next deal.

Let Marquez start, horsefeathers it

As of last Friday you could make trades/signings too, probably is smart to keep a few spots open in case someone intriguing is cut or can be traded for. But also yeah what Bertz says, leave some spots open in case of injury/getting the virus and having to add more MLB ready guys vs bringing in guys more for development.

It was buried in a Sharma article last week, he’s not playing this year. He’s a type 1 diabetic and is probably being safe about potentially exposing himself to the virus seems to be the reason.