Cubswin11

Would this be allowed to skirt the LT..... Lester has a LT hit of $25 million currently. He’s owed $20 million this year and has a $10 mil buyout/$25 mil option next year. Could we sign him to like 2/35 so his LT hit comes down ~$8 million?

4 made threes regardless, are we sure Zion really has all that great of an ability to shoot? The shot is still ugly, it’s flat as hell and he was WIDE open. He was low 30s% in college from 3and in the low 60s% from the line. The league still wasn’t in a spot with the 3 point shooting proliferation when Blake came in, especially with big guys. But once he started shooting them he’s been in the 30% every year. horsefeathers he was at 36% with 7 attempts a game last year. yeah lets give it more than one game. his shot looked exactly the same as it did in college and if he shows any proficiency from a spot outside the 3 point line, teams are going to game plan him away from there. that being said, lots of players are moving to a weird flat-footed three point shot. SGA and Ja Morant are examples. I can't imagine being taught to shoot that way but these shooting coaches are smarter than me obviously Yeah the form makes no sense to me, but maybe it is taught and by design for unknown reasons. His shot still looks bad, like you said, if he continues to hit them without a guy within 5 feet it will start to be guarded. Let’s see what happens then once he has to shoot off the dribble or is contended. This year, at least, he probably doesn’t have the ball skills/quickness to get around guys all that much if it’s guarded and he puts the ball on the ground unless he gets a more traditional center/5 on him (like a Lopez brother or Dwight or something, but I’m guessing teams go small ball 5 when he’s playing the 5).

4 made threes regardless, are we sure Zion really has all that great of an ability to shoot? The shot is still ugly, it’s flat as hell and he was WIDE open. He was low 30s% in college from 3and in the low 60s% from the line. The league still wasn’t in a spot with the 3 point shooting proliferation when Blake came in, especially with big guys. But once he started shooting them he’s been in the 30% every year. horsefeathers he was at 36% with 7 attempts a game last year.

A lot of these guys seem to have high spin curves. With the success last year we heard about having guys switch to/learn the knuckle curve with Wick, Wieck and Yu I wonder if that’s the angle with the high spin guys.

What an incredibly average team

The article mentioned the Padres checked in on Bryant. KB and Q roughly equal Mookie’s salary this year. Assuming the LT is more important than actual cash outlay (Myers is owed ~$70 mil next 3 years with an LT hit of ~$13) a KB and Q for Myers + a prospect haul makes some sense and gets us under the LT.

Blake was always in better shape and is also 4-5 inches taller. Losing some athleticism due to injury/age probably wasn’t as big of a deal for him to stay relatively effective as much as it would be for a 6’5” Zion. Regardless he’s super intriguing and fun and I hope he stays healthy. I don’t think he ever gets to the point of superstar type that he’s best player on a title team/you win by default with him on the roster. Like Blake needed a top PG/top ~12 player in the league with Paul to really start winning.

Yup. He might just be finished but the knee/hamstring injury I think really affected him last year. The slider still rated out well. Hope he gets his legs right and the velo and control come back a bit and it should really only be a $1-4 million commitment/gamble.

Bring him back, assholes

Man, Zion is horsefeathering fat. He’s also only like 6’5” it seems up against NBA guys.

I still think they're in on Bryant. They added a 110 OPS+ bat in Ozuna, but lost a 132 in Donaldson. They need to do more. Didn’t they upgrade offensively at catcher?

horsefeathers, well glad he didn’t go back to the Cardinals on that. Castellanos shouldn’t get more than that on an AAV basis. Does Castellanos take more than 3/30-40 right now? Ozuna has had higher highs and is only 1.5 years older.

They’re at ~$180 million right now for this year. I’d imagine that’s about as much as they’ve ever spent. Again we know they can spend more, but likely won’t. It wasn’t hard to see them not spending much more until some of the horsefeathers fell off the roster. OK? Again, they offered him the money: how does it make any sense to think that the player and his agent should counter asking for less as opposed to thinking the team is going to find a way to dump excess salary, or maybe be willing to actually spend? This keeps coming back to, "the player and their agent should know better and take the high road." I’m not saying he’s wrong for taking the money (the Rockies may be dumb for offering if they’re spent in to a corner of their own constraints). Nowhere in anything I said suggested Arenado should counter asking for less or players should do that, that’s ridiculous. My whole premise is if winning/being competitive is so important maybe he should’ve just gone to FA and found a better situation to end up in, instead of taking this deal if being competitive is so important. No horsefeathers a team who’s spending about as much as they ever have (which again we know the can spend more but likely won’t) with a bunch of bad players on bad deals isn’t a competitive situation currently. It’s a bad roster of bad players that somehow costs $180+ million and it shouldn’t have been hard for him to see this a year ago and instead take his record setting arbitration number and then leave in FA this current offseason, again, if being in a competitive situation is so important to him. And good for him for trying to leverage them in to making moves publicly. Because they should and he’s right. But we know how teams generally work and they won’t. I have no issue with him taking their offer and I have no issue with the Rockies giving it, the problem seems to be there was no real plan to build off it or be competitive and to be surprised they’re not competitive after doing the deal seems a bit odd to me.

They’re at ~$180 million right now for this year. I’d imagine that’s about as much as they’ve ever spent. Again we know they can spend more, but likely won’t. It wasn’t hard to see them not spending much more until some of the horsefeathers fell off the roster.

The 40-man is full now with this move. I could certainly see them trying to sneak Pelham through waivers soon and hope you get him back to the minors and off the 40-man. And yeah Underwood probably gets the first crack but also needs to do well or else he’s gonna be one of the first to go.

Sure, but they’re also one of the most poorly run team in all of sports.

Machado, Bryce, and Corbin all got 9 figure deals. Eovaldi, Kikuchi, McCutchen, Pollock, Britton, Miller, etc. all got big contracts. The big contracts didn’t dry up, they took forever to sign but they still were there in the end. A player of his caliber was never in danger of not getting paid short of a catastrophic injury (which good for him to take that risk out by extending early and that’s all part of the equation to taking the deal he did.) I also have no problem with him using the leverage he has to try and get them to spend and build a better team. The owners and GM deserve that pressure criticism for not doing it. It still is partially on him to realize the situation he signed up for might not lead to the most competitive scenario though, which again if that’s so important to him it is something him and his agents should’ve evaluated. It’s negligent on their side not to if it’s such a want of his.

You hear guys talking all the time about picking a spot to sign as a FA because they thought it gave them the best chance to win. It’s clearly something they consider. If winning is still this important to a player after getting a mega deal then yeah, I think they should second guess it or at least evaluate if it’s the best place to sign if they want to win. I’m not saying he should’ve gone back to the Rockies and offered to take less. That’s ridiculous and I never said he or other players should do it. But if winning/being competitive was the most important thing to him he probably shouldn’t have signed that extension. It wasn’t hard to evaluate the position the Rockies were in when he signed that extension that they maybe wouldn’t be all that competitive or spending a ton more. Understanding the situation you’re getting in to when signing such a deal with any team should be part of the assessment on the player side if anything other than getting paid top dollar is important.

Not saying he should’ve taken less or it’s on players to take less to win. But when signing a deal of that size, if winning is still a very important thing, I think the player should do (or agents on their behalf) some basic due diligence to asses if the team they’re signing with really can compete or add as much or as soon as they want to be whatever they think “competitive” is. It’s not hard to see “oh they’re paying these bad players almost $60 million this year, a declining Charlie Blackmon is also owed $70+ million over the next 4 years (and $60+ in next 3), Trevor Strory is a pending FA so maybe they’re holding out money to re-sign him. If I sign up for almost $40 million a year maybe they won’t spend a lot more over the next few years and if competing at a high level is still important to me maybe I should go to FA and see where else I can go to be in a better spot to do that. Where I’ll still have a 9 figure contact available to me.”

Players really ought not to have to choose between being paid what they're worth and having any hope of being on a competitive team ever. If winning/being somewhere competitive was the most important thing to him he didn’t need to sign the extension last offseason. He could’ve been a FA this year and gone somewhere different that gave him a better chance to win. He still would’ve been paid what he was worth. They’re also paying almost $60 million this year to Wade Davis, Ian Desmond, Jake McGee, Brian Shaw and Daniel Murphy. That’s a lot of dead weight, he could’ve seen they might wait a year or two to spend again as that horsefeathers comes off the books. They also gave Blackmon a dumb extension last year too. They’ve spent money to try and compete (I mean they made the playoffs in 2018), they’ve largely spent it poorly. No doubt they could be doing more but when they have spent its been mostly horrible decisions. There’s also the whole thing where it’s hard to get decent pitchers to go to Coors.

I think that's a false choice. It's not Almora vs the only centerfield option out there (if that's even true). It's also Almora vs a back up 3B/2B, or a corner outfield guy who maybe hits lefties really well. There are at least two, probably three guys on the roster who can spell Happ in center. I'll expand my point then. If we've only got a couple million to spend, I'd prioritize the bullpen instead of the bench at this point. Obviously, if we've got more to spend, then let's go nuts. Who is or was a bullpen arm to spend on that would’ve made you feel good? This FA bullpen class sucked. I’m fine going with the cheap, volume approach and still maybe bringing Strop or some cheap vet in closer to ST.

Lol, wow. Rarely see players make public comments like that towards their GM/FO. Don’t know exactly how he feels crossed or disrespected, since he’s apparently okay with the trade rumors. Maybe he was promised he’d be moved or was told a trade was happening and it didn’t.