Aaron_Kennelly

July games in Cincy... They might as well have the Reds bat first.

I'm in.

Javy might end up being the best of them, but not until Willson is for a year, and then Addi is for a year, and then Almora is for a year, oh and Schwarber is that one year he hits 78 homers.

If you believe ZiPS, about 75. I think we could squeeze a little more out. For one ZiPS, like most projections systems is usually a little conservative on defensive projections -- with good reason, especially for young guys with little defensive data. So I bet we pick up a little there. And with worse pitching, I bet the defense has more opportunities to shine. More balls in play, more guys on base, more chances to save runs for all of our elite defenders. I bet our defense and pitch framing could make some horrible pitchers look more pedestrian than horrible by traditional metrics. And, depending on the parameters of this exercise, I bet we could pick up a few more wins. For instance, are we allowed to keep cycling through guys? Can we keep choosing different replacement level-guys until we find one that sticks? And there's got to be a guy or two in the minors that could be a little better than replacement-level -- if even only worth half-a-win. Maybe Eddie Butler is worth a win. Maybe some hard throwers do alright out of the pen. It might take awhile to find them, but we could cobble something together. And then putting that together with what I said above, maybe we can find a guy -- like, say, Clayton Richard two years ago -- that fits well with our studly infield defense: lots of ground balls, not so many home runs, sucks more because he can't strike anyone out, but that's not as much of a problem with our position players.

divided by 3 that's just .248 each. yikes That post wasn't put together very well. Almora also will be hitting 9th. Wrong on all counts, Duke.

If we released all of our pitchers and had to choose between our own minor league pitching prospects and any AAA pitchers on minor league deals in other systems (so not actual prospects) to form our pitching staff, how many games would we win?

Yeah, yeah, Spring Training stats don't matter. But our probable 5, 6, and 8 hitters -- who are all 24 or younger -- have slugged for a combined .745 this spring.

We are going to win 130 games.

They would be SOOOO much better off playing Kelly and using that $18M/yr towards, say, paying half of Machado's annual salary once he hits FA. There is a potentially historic FA class coming up and they'll be paying $18M towards Molina each year. Yep. Sticking with the status quo isn't going to get them very far, especially considering that their team is rather old. Even their young guys, like Grichuk, Piscotty, and Diaz aren't really young in baseball terms, as they're all like 26. They need guys not currently on their roster to help them get better. I suppose Alex Reyes could get healthy and turn into Pedro Martinez or something. And Reyes, Carlos Martinez, and Luke Weaver could lead them back to the promised land. But their lineup, as currently constructed, is kinda tapped out on potential.

The important thing here is that a decision on extending a 45-year-old catcher is important to the Cardinals. They have miles of ground that they have to gain to catch up with us, and this is what's important for them. It doesn't matter so much if he is fully worth the $60 million or whatever they pay for him. It's just that they have to pay it at all. How are they ever going to catch us?

Do we just operate with a 26-man roster all year, swapping guys on and off the 10-day DL as need be? Bullpen a little worn out? Keep the extra reliever. A stretch against a couple teams with a bunch of lefty pitchers upcoming? Time for LaStella to find the DL. Same thing for righties? Sorry, Szczur. Oh this reliever hasn't been given a week off in awhile? Time for your DL stint.

That's basically the Cubs version of this:

http://i.imgur.com/VcHtF6Z.gif

Let me correct myself. I meant to say "position player."

Rizzo is going to be our 8th best player this year. And that's with him OPS'ing 1.000.

This is amazing. I'm loving that bukie has been doing this. I've consumed as much Cubs World Series content as humanly possible. And it's never enough. My main gripe is that I love every moment that happened last season, and I don't get enough from the regular season and everything leading up to Game 7. So bukie doing this has been perfect. I'll be watching these videos so often.

Perfect! So a pole for 1907,1908,2016. I assume the 4th will be the 2016 NL Pennant? They went ahead and put up 2017, too, since it would be easier to get them both up at the same time.

In my country, they'd go crazy for these two: This one... ... not so much.

Theo would never allow that to happen.

But then they'd get rid of Matheny. True. But it would be quite fun to watch their patchwork rotation completely unravel, leaving them only with a lineup of the same identity as last year -- replete with bad defense, horrible base running and only able to score via the long ball -- except with less pop this time around.

I have doubts that the Cards finish above .500.

Now we must shoot for 30 against them in a regular season game.

Here's our 20-run game.

would the cubs even roster him? The Iowa Cubs would.