Aaron_Kennelly

I meant "make the rotation if there is an injury and they are forced into action." Basically, I am happy with Hammel and Warren as 5 & 6. After that, they all kinda suck as starters. But I don't see the need for three kinda-shitty-as-starters swing men, who are decent in the pen. If we have to use Clayton Richard or Trevor Cahill as a starter, we will have much bigger problems than Travis Wood no longer being on the roster.

I picked both pitchers, just to make Kyle mad. In reality, I think Wood is an easy choice. We still have plenty of rotation depth with Hammel, and now Warren, Cahill, and Ricahrd. I don't see why we would need 9 guys that could make the rotation. That's superfluous. If it gets past Cahill, then we would be in pretty big trouble anyway. And, still, at that point, we could make a trade in-season for a placeholder, or go all-out and make a trade for a legitimate rotation piece.

We are going to take so many [expletive] walks next year. I can't wait. Just get me Heyward, too. I want to see if we can go the whole season without an opposing starting pitcher seeing the sixth inning.

You're forgetting that we also addressed one of the most glaring needs -- rotation depth -- with this swap also.

Well, the fact that we would still have Rizzo, Bryant, Russell and Schwarber is kinda big in this scenario. If we trade Castro and Soler, then they are simply trading the two worst guys of our "core," depending on if you consider Javy a part of the core. They aren't trading away the cheap, young stars. In fact, Starlin isn't really any of those things. His salary isn't really cheap anymore. It's not prohibitive or expensive really. But, he isn't pre-arb, like those other guys. And he is what he is now. He's just a guy that happens to be kinda young and under contract for awhile. Trading a guy like Soler might bite us. But, he's like our fourth or fifth best pre-arb guy, anyway. And he hasn't done anything to prove that he is anywhere near the level of the guys we are actually keeping. That's not how it works though. Zobrist isn't that much better than good Castro. He's not that much better than bad Castro and Baez (who would presumably take over for bad Castro at 2B), that you pay him 19Mil more over the next 4 years with 10 years of age on his side. And there's no law that you can only have 4 good pre-arb players. And if I'm trading a good pre-arb player, I want a similarly good pre-arb player at a bigger position of need. It's swapping out Starlin for Zobrist for $15 million more over the next four years + whatever we get back in a Starlin trade. I think it is brilliant. Depends on what they get for Castro. Also, gotta figure Baez into this somehow. Unless he really takes to CF, then the collateral damage of Zobrist at 2B is not only Castro being traded, but likely Baez being traded. Zobrist has too big of a contract and leash to put Baez in there everyday if he's struggling. Zobrist is already your super-utility guy. Going to be hard to get Javy ABs in the lineup as constructed, and that's before the Cubs have a CF. Javy is no more likely to be traded now than he was yesterday. We simply swapped Zobrist for Castro. In fact, Javy is probably more likely to stick around, because Zobrist can play the outfield, as well. Maddon has much more opportunity to find Javy at bats, by moving Zobrist around, now.

Yep, we added a guy who is old and might fall off of a cliff. But, he is only making like $4 million more than Starlin over the course of the next four years. And Zobrist has pretty much always been a really good player. Granted, with him being old, this might not be the case. But, Starlin was so unpredictable the last few years. Hell, he was almost completely worthless, as you mention, in August last year. Get out of that roller coaster and replace him with a more stable guy, who happens to fit our philosophy much better. Now, everyone takes walks, dongs, plays multiple positions. Starlin just wasn't a good fit. And, we hardly had to waste much money to -- hopefully - upgrade.

Well, the fact that we would still have Rizzo, Bryant, Russell and Schwarber is kinda big in this scenario. If we trade Castro and Soler, then they are simply trading the two worst guys of our "core," depending on if you consider Javy a part of the core. They aren't trading away the cheap, young stars. In fact, Starlin isn't really any of those things. His salary isn't really cheap anymore. It's not prohibitive or expensive really. But, he isn't pre-arb, like those other guys. And he is what he is now. He's just a guy that happens to be kinda young and under contract for awhile. Trading a guy like Soler might bite us. But, he's like our fourth or fifth best pre-arb guy, anyway. And he hasn't done anything to prove that he is anywhere near the level of the guys we are actually keeping. That's not how it works though. Zobrist isn't that much better than good Castro. He's not that much better than bad Castro and Baez (who would presumably take over for bad Castro at 2B), that you pay him 19Mil more over the next 4 years with 10 years of age on his side. And there's no law that you can only have 4 good pre-arb players. And if I'm trading a good pre-arb player, I want a similarly good pre-arb player at a bigger position of need. It's swapping out Starlin for Zobrist for $15 million more over the next four years + whatever we get back in a Starlin trade. I think it is brilliant.

Well, the fact that we would still have Rizzo, Bryant, Russell and Schwarber is kinda big in this scenario. If we trade Castro and Soler, then they are simply trading the two worst guys of our "core," depending on if you consider Javy a part of the core. They aren't trading away the cheap, young stars. In fact, Starlin isn't really any of those things. His salary isn't really cheap anymore. It's not prohibitive or expensive really. But, he isn't pre-arb, like those other guys. And he is what he is now. He's just a guy that happens to be kinda young and under contract for awhile. Trading a guy like Soler might bite us. But, he's like our fourth or fifth best pre-arb guy, anyway. And he hasn't done anything to prove that he is anywhere near the level of the guys we are actually keeping.

I've got to say, I wasn't huge on the idea of adding Zobrist, assuming it meant that we would then be out on Heyward. And, I would still love to have both. Add both of them and I'm just gaga over this offense. My preference is clearly and unequivocally to throw all of our money at Heyward, though. And, Zobrist scares me on a four-year deal. However, when taken as a whole -- signing Zobrist and trading Castro for young guys or pitching depth -- you are essentially throwing money around to upgrade from Starlin to a guy who fits our organizational philosophy much more (versatile, takes walks) and adding depth in one way or another, with our return for Starlin. It makes sense and might just be the best use of our resources. This takes care of a couple of things in one fell swoop.

Gary Sanchez and Jason Heyward? Gato, right now:

his good buddy jon is also a cancer surviver, just saying Yeah, I know, but that doesn't make my hypothetical story seem as awkward.

*On the first day of Spring Training* "OK, John, here we have Kris, our star young third baseman. Over there are Jon and David, who you already know, of course. Here's Javier, our young, slugging "hacker," as you so eloquently put it. Oh, and here is our All-Star first baseman, Anthony, who is a cancer survivor and spends a large amount of his spare time visiting sick kids in the hospital."

Any word on Cahill? Is he looking for a place where he can start? I would think that ship may have sailed. But, maybe someone will give him that opportunity. I would love to have him back in the pen, if it doesn't cost too much. If he maintains the stuff he showed for us, he could be pretty nasty as a pen arm.

Having both Samardzija and Hammel on the roster + Russell (and McKinney in the minors) would be pretty funny. And to top it off, we would have Samardzija for less than what he turned down from us when we tried extending him before the trade. I know Hammel is a possible/likely trade candidate. But, it's still pretty funny to me that we got a free Addison Russell for loaning those two out for a bit.

This is gonna be hard for me to just act like I didn't talk a bunch of [expletive] about how Samardzija is such a douchebag.

You can say that again!

I want Price. We have the money. We need more pitching. We could trade for it -- which I would be fine with doing. But, I'd also rather not part with any of our young bats. I'm confident we'll get one or two of the young bats to step up next year: Baez, Russell, or Soler. Plus, we'll have a full year of Schwarber. And Heyward would be great; don't get me wrong. But I just see a glaring hole waiting to be filled by David Price. We've been seeing it for two years now. And I really only want him. Get him and the off-season is a success. Granted, we need a few more moves than that, but I'm sure he won't preclude us from rounding out the roster. And, sure, the off-season could also be a success if we don't add him... or even more of a success, depending on the other moves. But, I really just want David Price. Do that and the rest is gravy for me.

I didn't realize Wilson had that kind of an arm. I guess I can't really think of another outfielder we have that has a huge arm. I know Rademacher has a strong arm. Eloy has a pretty good one, too. Still, that's interesting to see Wilson at the top -- as I thought his arm was supposed to be just average-ish. I really liked when we drafted him. He's an interesting guy with his speed, defense, and contact abilities.

Chesny Young had a .066 ISO as a 23-year-old in high-A and A-ball. He has no hope of adding power, and he can't play shortstop. That's about all that needs to be said about his prospect status. It's nice that he has done well. And maybe he ends up as, like, a 6th-infielder, 25th-man-on-a-roster type. But, that's his best hope.

Castro just lined a ball 110 mph right at a defender while you were typing this.

Willson Contreras had 2 doubles and a homer yesterday. Candelario hit another homer on Tuesday and didn't play yesterday. So far in AZL Fall League play: Candelario is 10/15 with 4 doubles and 3 homers. Contreras is 7/19 with 2 doubles, 2 homers, and 4 walks. Mark Zagunis is only 1/8, but he also has 7 walks.

Ugh. The way we went out sucked. It's probably better for my sanity that it wasn't some kind of stupid loss in a Game 7 or something. But, after being so high a week ago, the slow, inevitable burn just... well, it was the first time I've felt that way all year. The team let me down in some of those early Cards series. But, since then, it's been nothing but smiles.

Yeah, you're right. I'll probably just spend my time jerking off the next few weeks.

Watch the World Series. It's baseball. It's still the greatest sport. [expletive] that noise.

What am I supposed to do the next few months? I want to get next year started right now.