Eric Clipperton

It absolutely shouldn't matter, from a fan's perspective, of course. But now I can't help wonder about it, as well. Strange. :) I always assumed that Lugo gets paid by Boston for whatever amount they are picking up, and the new team pays anything they owe to the player separately? This would be easier, provided that direct deposit was properly set up for everyone. Since taxes can be quite complex due to the differing portions of time worked in various states each with their own tax rates and laws, I assume that payroll is somewhat modernized, but who knows? I now can't help wondering about this as well...

The Cubs remarks about how Colvin played his way onto the roster do not give me a whole lot of confidence that they have learned anything about evaluating players. He ran ridiculously hot for 70 AB, which tells us approximately nothing about his actual ability level improving from his so-so numbers in the minors. Zero walks is also not very encouraging. Hopefully Tyler ends up having decent luck this year once the real games start, or else he is not going to get a whole lot of playing time before eventually heading back to the minors. Perhaps his torrid stretch actually was due to some incredible improvement in his game, but I don't think it would be particularly wise to expect that to be the case. Sucks that Sam Fuld had a bad spring for all that tiny sample matters, hope he is solid again in AAA so if Colvin ends up heading back down, he can bring that glove (which you have to guess is >>> Colvin's D) back up as 5th OF.

I don't quite get their reasoning for splitting these articles into three parts, I saw a few days ago they appeared to begin doing this? The first couple teams were in a single article unless I just missed the extra articles on Current/Future parts. Fangraphs is by no means infalliable but generally if they are off the commenters will eventually provide arguments correcting any false biases or analyses; I more or less agree with their sentiments, although if a smart GM were to take over I would expect the Cubs stock to rise in a hurry due to the revenue generated by the Cubs brand and strong positioning to remain one of the teams with a true competitive advantage due to the amount of monetary and other resources which can be generated by the popularity and national pull of the Cubs and Wrigley.

hahahaha someone you hate. Quin Snyder was a terrible, terrible coach. I remember when Missouri had a talented and hyped team and Davidson went in and beat them several years ago (pre-Curry, Davidson had a good team but should have not been able to beat Missouri that year) and the following year slaughtered the Tigers at Davidson in the return game, they just looked clueless and had no gameplan or fundamentals; Davidson made them look horrible yet didn't do much against the rest of their non-conference opponents that year. (i went to Davidson and remember how hilarious the game in question was, and the hair jokes which were made throughout the amusing blowout in Davidson's tiny gym) I would love to see him go to Duke, which will never happen but is a fate the Blue Devils are deserving of having occur post-Rat Coach K.

Marlon Byrd is probably the last person I'd suspect to do coke. HE IS SO HUGE. Big people don't do coke? Not as much, or else they would eventually get smaller.

Tell me why they didn't sign him then? Because of steroids and the possibility of jail time? That's partially correct. Whether or not you or I believe in the effect of "chemistry" effecting a team, Bonds has been known as a complete [expletive] his entire career, and it certainly didn't aid him in getting teams to line up to sign him. And that was my point. And my point is (still) that teams are idiots if that is why they didn't sign him. I have a hard time believing that all 30 teams are run by drooling morons Yeah- only about 15-20 of them are. :? Since his value to an AL team greatly exceeds his value to an NL team at this point, that limits the options some. I'm guessing that Seattle would have signed him if they were as good going into last year as they are this year; BOS/NYY don't really have a spot, CLE are not looking like contenders, TEX has enough bad-D bashers. OAK might have considered him but in that park he'd be limited somewhat and they also have Cust/Fox filling that role; DET also has tons of old slow guys already. Angels seem like the type of team that cares a lot about chemistry, and wouldn't want him. MIN potentially also (MN people seem to care about personality of athletes more than usual), and they need infielders more than anything. CHW loves grit and speed. KAN is definitely run primarily by drooling morons. TOR/BAL were not really contending and had several DH-types already. Not sure why TAM wouldn't want him. But as you can see the real "hey, we need him- why not?" contenders were few and far between- although there might have also been some collusion involved...

Marlon Byrd is probably the last person I'd suspect to do coke. HE IS SO HUGE. It keeps blowing my mind every time i see him on TV, when anyone mentions him I think about "6' 245" and how absurd it is that he can play a decent CF while being so ridiculously huge. I can't really think of another non-football athlete of that size, and there are few football players that size anyway because 6-0 is pretty short for a guy that weight. Some FB/LBs, I guess, but most are going to be a couple inches taller to be pushing 250. Marlon Byrd is a guy I am really rooting for this season just because he is so hilariously shaped and seems humorous. As to Ron W.- I love his answer when asked if he did illegal drugs any other times last year- "the drug we're talking about, no" I've lived in Dallas and believe me, you gotta have some weed to make it through a summer in that sprawling suburban oven.

Yeah, I really like this as well. I think it might just be that it cements the recent trend of locking up true franchise players; after the explosive sports inflation and corresponding spate of player moves over the last 10-15 years, it is really nice to see that teams are starting to place importance on building around a core group of guys, whether or not it is a bit more expensive to do so in the short run. I follow baseball and hockey really closely, and in both sports this seems to be a definite trend over the past couple years (in hockey: Hawks' big three, Kesler, Zetterburg/Franzen, Kopitar, Penguins, Caps could be said to all be following this mold off the top of my head). Probably not a coincidence that fan interest seems to be on the rise, while the NBA seems to be losing fans as it heads into possible labor doom with its more movement-prone CBA.

Interesting- thanks, Jake. My friend who is a Pirates fan was ranting about Hart sucking in ST the other day, and I told him I was not in any way surprised because I never saw why he was viewed as anything more than an average middle-reliever and possible fill-in starter at the MLB level. Was definitely not sad to see him traded, as he just seemed to keep making Cubs prospect lists in the back end of the top-10 even though his numbers were never terribly enthralling. Although if the Cubs could have him back and never have received Grabow and the 7.5 million liability that is Grabow's current contract, then of course I'd welcome him back to Iowa in a second. You have to think that Hendry would have been all over Grabow in FA whether or not he was traded to the Cubs last year, though....ahhh (end Grabow rant) best of luck to Hart in the minors- How's Josh Harrison doing with the Pirates, Jake- heard anything on him?

There's no "draw" with any manager really. They don't add anything to the team. Joe Torre didn't make the Yankees better than Showalter could have, it was the cast of superstars all emerging at once that turned a good team into a great one. Trammel could just fill a hole a little better than somebody like Sandberg who might feel the need to come and put his imprint all over the team by "making things happen", which mostly just leads to trouble. This. Managers can't help much, but they can hurt a whole lot. Less is generally more, because "crafty old-time baseball" plays are generally negative expectation strategies. I stand by the statement that NSBB consensus would be easily one of the best managers/GMs in the major leagues. Especially with the level of information which would be available to one in such a position of power.

Have to think the chances Seattle ever trades for Theriot are basically zero. Some other team will value his grit so highly that Seattle would never even think about matching their trade offer for Theriot, so unless Hendry punishes Theriot for breaking his arb-free streak by sending him to Seattle for little return value, that dream seems to be little more than an amusing hypothetical.

Didn't notice this because I don't look at BP, but wow that is a pretty horrible series of projections. PECOTA was better than most of BP's "stats", but IMO it still was not as good as what is now available for free at Fangraphs etc. Plus Kahrl makes my eyes bleed with that unholy combo of horrible-metaphor packed "writing" and of course the other part which could be considered literally unholy.

I've got plent of awful things to say about the guy who developed UZR haha, I'm right with you on this, MGL is terrible. He makes a ton of mistakes for being so arrogant, in addition to being horribly repetitive yet somehow unclear in his writing. He makes me mad about 1 in every 3 posts, I think.

Go for it! With Maddux, should be a good chance that Sheets could return to become a solid top of the rotation starter, while there's the usual injury risk I doubt the Cubs will have a chance at adding any better starting pitcher so hey, go for it?!! I think he will be a rehab bargain.

False, especially regarding Brendan Ryan. Skip is pretty average, but Fangraph's had him valued at $5.4 last year, with a salary of $0.8. He's getting a raise this year in arbitration, but I'd expect his value to still be a bit more than what the Cards are paying him. Ryan, on the other hand, was worth $14.2, making just $0.4, making him an excellent value based mostly on his stellar defense. hooray for more fangraphs figures. i don't believe that brendan ryan was worth 14 million dollars last season. also, that same formula had him as worthless before last season. so is he 2009 brendan ryan? i just don't like how it's now commonplace to look at a fangraphs value figure and say "_____ was worth ______ dollars last season" like it's a fact oh well, maybe saying they suck was a bit strong. my popint was just that i don't think you can look at brendan ryan and skip schumaker and say "well, we're tying up a ton of money elsewhere, but we're set at these positions for a while" The problem with Fangraphs value numbers is that they include so much variance (mainly due to UZR fluttering about wildly year to year), which should not be interpreted as the player's actual value in anything except hindsight. He probably benefitted from a lucky distribution in fielding this year, looking at his slightly above average numbers in 07 and 08 (each being about half as much playing time as 09). BABIP was a little high last year as well, so if you normalized his numbers to account for what appears to be positive luck in both fielding and hitting as measured by the underlying metrics on Fangraphs, Ryan would then be worth something more like $7MM as a slightly below average hitter and good fielder at SS, in terms of a hypothetical metric to measure this "true talent value". Also you have to subtract $10MM in value because of his annoying swing and the horrible mustache he subjected any viewers of the playoffs to seeing. I loved watching his misery as the Cards got exactly the fate Ryan was asking for by growing the sort of mustache that cannot really be grown so much as it is earned. You didn't earn it, Brendan. A True Cardinal.

Scherzer couldn't really add to his minor league numbers last year when he was pitching 170 IP in the majors with a 9.19 K/9 and 3.33 BB/9 leading to a 3.87 FIP and 4.12 ERA, but I guess I can see where Kennedy's minor league numbers could be thought of as better, although I think I might consider the two equal. The type of extremely low HR numbers Kennedy put up in the minors seem like they are somewhat lucky, unless he really has a very low HR/FB rate (since Kennedy definitely doesn't seem to be a GB pitcher).

why? I was mainly referring to their position in the Granderson deal, in which they got reamed as the third team in a three-teamer. Howry move may not be bad on the surface, but it just seems extremely pointless to sign a guy like him when your team completely sucks.

Also, Reed Johnson isn't really a great defensive CF. Fuld, maybe, but Reed is more of an average to slightly below-average CF, or a good corner OF. And letting Piniella divide up the starts is a recipe for disaster. If that happens, get ready for Reed vs RHP until he suffers some head injury diving into a wall, then bouncing between Fuld, Adduci, and any other AAAA guy we can find. (not saying Fuld is AAAA, I think he's a definite MLB 4th/5th OF...tilting more towards 5th though)

Yeah, they're idiots.

I really dislike Theriot after his reaction here, which is almost as immature as anything Bradley has done.

My uncensored thoughts on the trade posted here: http://blamemiltonbradley.com censored version: I hate you, Hendry.

I wish people would stop mentioning Jaramillo like he is the secret ingredient for certain players and that he should in any way influence the Cubs' offseason acquisitions.

Ellsbury's baserunning was worth about 5.6 runs last year, total. 7.5 runs year before last. His total offensive contributions (batting and baserunning) are in Kosuke territory, given about the same amount of PA. And last year at least, UZR had him as one of the worst defensive CF in baseball (along with Kosuke, Fowler, and Wells) How many of our top prospects would you give up for another Kosuke? Ellsbury is exactly the type of player I expect the Cubs to way, way overpay for.

Let me guess... because you heard Rob say that earlier in this thread? In fact I believe those were his exact words. or maybe he just formed this opinion on his own. jeez. Although if one was looking to just blindly copy the opinions of another NSBB poster rather than forming opinions of their own, Rob would be right at the top of the list, provided you like to be correct as often as possible (i.e. you are not a troll or attempting to troll). As to 2/15.5, definitely a good deal for Cameron- I wouldn't think twice if I could sign him to the Cubs for 2/18, that's for sure.

This is the type of thing a good coach would do.