Aaron Kennelly

She's done something no one else in a Cardinals hat has done before: kept her car between the lines.

Even ISIS wouldn't eat provel cheese.

If you don't want to see such a thing, it might be a good time for a piss break when he comes to bat.

Fowler adds something the Cards are sorely missing: a proven winner that knows what it takes to get a ring.

This is a sad development. But it will be satisfying to know that he will never have more success individually or as part of a team than he did with us. Go get paid, Dex. Thanks for the last two years. He was such a great fit.

I've spent most of my life being jealous when other teams make good moves, especially the teams I don't like. Now, I don't care. Not even a little. Everyone else is trying to catch up to us. And we are still better and will continue to be better. And we are World Champs. Life is good.

This guy having to come over and sign a one-year contract and then entering into free agency is about to the dumbest thing ever. The international cap is really bad. There is so much shady stuff that I can foresee happening.

The Mets fans didn't see it.

I think there's some logic there, but to get to that point requires some pessimism about their current level of spending. 2016: 170 million payroll upped to 180 midseason 2017: By adding Davis and subtracting Soler, they're basically at 160 with a full roster only needing a SP to bump Zastryzny off and Montgomery to the bullpen. They also added 300k fans and won a world series 2018: 63 million in FA departures, including 2 SP, Strop, and a bunch of lesser parts(Jay, Duensing, Montero). Bryant and Russell hit arbitration. Otani maybe available but current news says no. 2019: Only Rondon leaves in FA, Schwarber, Baez, and Montgomery hit arbitration, Harper, Machado, maybe Otani available 2020: New TV Deal, Zobrist and Grimm FAs, Otani definitely available In other words, with the world series win and uptick in attendance, there should be some payroll growth that you can probably set aside to make sure the core's pre-FA increases are taken care of. That might get a little tricky in 2019 but that's also 3 years from now, who knows what the roster will look like. If you make that assumption, then you've got lots of cash and basically only 2 rotation spots to fill(and I guess CF if Almora fails), along with ensuring the bullpen is strong. Yeah, the saving money idea makes perfect sense to me. There are some really good players that will become available soon. And we'll have the money to go after them. It's not necessarily that we are saving money now. It's that we don't want tied down with guys we don't want/need three years from now. For that reason the Jay-for-Fowler swap makes a lot more sense. We've already got the rest of the lineup locked up. We might have an alternative in Almora that can ride his defense to being worth holding onto. If that's the case, we might be looking back a year or two from now and wondering why the hell we signed Fowler. There are some concerns with Fowler, after all. He's into his 30s and has been a bad defender for most of his career before coming here. And if the Jay/Almora thing doesn't work out, we can still fix it by giving up even more of these assets that are there to be used. I don't think I'd ever look back and wonder why we have this stud closer on the roster, though. We certainly can afford it. Now and in the future. And now is the perfect time to strike, since, you know, there's one (several, actually) available.

I wish, but that's so not what is gonna happen. We're just gonna pocket the new money and see what we can buy next year or the year after. Obviously, they won't. But it'd be great to see them over buy once. Then trade from a strength. You could sign Kenley and trade Strop and/or Rondon(even with minimal return) Adding Davis and Kenley only costs us 12-13 mill total from starting point. Its not how we operate, but it'd be awesome to see. It's kinda how we made the Zobrist move. I could see it. And I'd love to see it. Really, all that I've wanted is Jansen. I'm fine with this move by itself. I'd rather just sign Jansen, but whatever.

I should clarify a little. It's not that I don't think those things are important. Rather, I think, "Yeah, those things are currently holding him back from being a superstar." I don't think they are fatal flaws. And I think there is hope that he can fix them. But, even if he doesn't fix them, I still love what he adds to this team and think he's a fine ballplayer.

The Javy platoon splits mean little to mean for several reasons. For one, he's amazing with his glove. Sure, maybe his versatility isn't needed as much with a healthy Schwarber in the outfield. But, if he is playing mostly at second, he'd still have to be really bad with the bat to not have some value at second. Continually harping on his splits against righties is ignoring a couple of things: the fact that he mashes lefties, that he still gets to play defense when he is playing against righties, that he is a fantastic base runner, that he was able to run a high BABIP because he can do things like bunting for hits and beating out infield hits, that he was 23 last year, that he's already changed himself to improve as a ballplayer, that he has always had a ton of potential and was always known to be a work in progress. The list goes on and on. I'm rolling the dice with Javy. I still think the sky is the limit with him. There's obviously some ugly stuff there. You'd have to be blind not to see it. But that ugly stuff didn't keep him from being a 3-win player that was a big part of this team last year. I can't wait to see what he'll do next year.

Chapman's character issues aside, I was and am fine with the move that was made. I would not be a fan of trading for one year of a closer as an annual strategy, though. I'd just as soon offer a bit more for assets with more control. That said, my primary concern here is Davis' health. Pretty much this. I can get over Gleyber because they were going after the first world series. Now 6 months later we're doing the same thing and give up yet another young talented piece. What are we going to do in 2018 when we need a closer again? Try to win a third consecutive World Series?

http://www.csnchicago.com/video/javier-baez-cubs-winning-world-series-im-so-proud

[tweet] [/tweet]

For the record, all of the replies on that tweet from Cubs fans are like, "Yeah, I'd take that." Also:

I hope everyone at NSBB had a good Thanksgiving. While I may think a good percentage of my extended family are knuckle-dragging troglodytes, it was quite a sight to see four generations of my family decked out in Cubs World Championship gear. I hope everyone else had a good time with their loved ones, as well.

Oh man, that's fantastic.

Also add a post-it above the computer screen with "Eckstein123."

Someone add the Hendricks picture.

Yeah, it's pretty neat. His baseline Cubs bio is: MVP, World Champion. And we are guaranteed of at least five more years with him (and most of the rest of the team, too).

Remember that poster who thought these guys were "gutless, choking dogs?" Ah, fun times.

Yeah, keep this thing going. Time to be dick-swinging Theo. Pay that man his money. Let's go Round 2 with the whole crew.

Well, that's one of the dumbest things I've ever seen.

The more I look at it, the more I love it. We are already the class of the league. And nobody else is catching up by splurging on free agents this year. Keep everything just as it was last year, with a little re-tooling here and there.