Deeg

Yeah, I'd prefer the guy with more power who is 4 years younger. At this rate, Tomas will probably get $70-80 million. That's way, way low. Based on Castillo's signing Tomas should break the $100 million mark. I think it's pretty funny that people are declaring this a horrendous overpay without seeing Castillo playing an inning of pro ball. How the hell does anyone know what he's capable of? The ones who can make the best guess are the scouts, and they're the ones who advised Boston to make this offer. They had competition, and they aren't a stupid bunch. I'm not devastated to lose out, but I'm not remotely convinced Boston made a mistake. I disagree with those saying offense shouldn't be a priority, because it's very likely all of our young hitters will take at least a couple of seasons before they emerge as plus offensive players, if they do at all, and it's absolutely essential the Cubs add a veteran everyday player who can should some of the offensive burden. It's fine to approach every FA situation by saying "I'm going to set a value at what I think the guy is worth, and not a penny more" until you get to the fact that you'll never end up signing a desirable FA that way. Sounds great as a rah-rah statement - in practice, it gets you nowhere. The market dictates what a player is worth, not one GMs abstract judgment. What needs to happen is for the FO to decide not what they think every FAs value is and not budge, but to decide which FAs are worth overpaying for and resolve not to miss out on them. It doesn't have to be a lot or the most expensive of them, but at some point it has to be somebody and until it is, you're a small-market team.

I was completely with the Giants on this, but asking for a forfeit? Suck it on that one.

Pipped.

Certainly it's fair, though it'd be interesting to see how MLB justifies it considering there seems to be be no rule that would do so.

Retweeted by ChicagoCubsOnline Gordon Wittenmyer ‏@GDubCub 5m Source: Giants prevail in protest of tarp-snafu game. Game to be resumed at 4 pm Thursday before reg scheduled games. To start B5. Cubs 2-0.

Complete game shutout!

The Giants have every right to be seriously pissed about this.

Ho-hum, another great start for Wada.

Truthfully, Bryant has little to prove in the last month of the season. He's not getting called up, and he's accomplished everything he needed to accomplish this year and more. If he's shut down and everyone is spared the constant barrage of commentary about whether he should be called up or not, that isn't the worst thing in the world.

Irrespective of whether you try and salvage Jackson as a starter in 2015, it makes no sense to burn starts on him now when you have three guys the organization really needs to get a look at as SP.

I had a chat with Bruce Miles about this yesterday. He said Wada is definitely under team control, and he sounded pretty convinced he was a serious factor in the rotation thinking for next season.

Well, Wood this year is what his peripherals for the last two years said he was, basically. These things have a tendency to equalize given enough time.

No he's not. Hendricks is a pitch to contact guy who keeps the ball down in the zone, and doesn't get much swing and miss. Wada is basically a strikeout pitcher without an overpowering fastball. Wada will have more Ks, a higher fly-ball rate and (obviously) more HRs. Effectiveness-wise they may end up being pretty close, but their approach is completely different.

I'm not sure why there's be an assumption he's smoke and mirrors when he was one of the best SP in Japan, and we've seen so many Japanese SP have success in MLB. TJS isn't a death a sentence in this day and age. Wada throws 89-91 and his fastball plays faster because of his delivery. He has a good mix of breaking pitches, changes speeds, and doesn't walk guys. He can get Ks on his fastball and his curve. He's going to give up some HRs because he likes to challenge guys up, but he has plenty to be a good #4-5 type guy, and maybe even a mid-rotation starter. He's 33 - so what? He's cheap and under team control, so there's no reason he can't be a contributor for 2-3 seasons at least.

???? Is there much? I never see anybody talking about him, even during and after a strong start. I realize he's not a sexy prospect but a 33 year-old Japanese import coming off TJS, but he could potentially be a very valuable piece if he can hold down a #4 or #5 spot in the rotation cheap.

Wada continues to pitch great, and get very little discussion here or anywhere. I'll be fascinated to see what the Cubs do with him.

I think he's got a bunch of family and his gf sitting around there Does he remember their names?

He could see the AZL next year. He's already had his TJS. Even if there's a year long recovery, he'd be there by now. If its a quick recovery, he could get most of that season in. That said, it's plausible we take it slow with him obviously. But I'd expect him to get some innings in, barring setbacks. I don't recall seeing any official word that he'd already had the surgery. Where was that reported?

Lester's contract just went up about $30-40 million. You have to appreciate that Beane is going all-in this season, but I think people are underselling what Cespedes will do with the change from Oakland to Boston - he should be a very good hitter for them.

That's what you get when you have a CBA crafted explicitly to reward teams that value cost-control over winning. And it was shrewd for Selig to push for so much on the draft and IFA side of the ledger, because the MLBPA is made up of MLB players - and they're always going to be willing to give concessions out of the pockets of guys who aren't members yet rather than the guys who are.

The Schwarbler also pitching in to cement Bryant's #1 overall prospect status by gunning down Buxton stealing.

Wow, didn't know that. Compulsory in Japan - everyone does it.

Wada started learning English in middle school and he's lived in the US for three years. You really think he couldn't understand if Baker was speaking to him?

We're really splitting hairs here - but I think he was just saying he'd like a veteran catcher to call the game instead of Castillo. I dunno. I doubt it matters that much, not like Wada is a rookie. I think it's pretty well accepted that Castillo is one of the worst catchers in baseball at framing pitches. And I know people rip on CERA, but I think it can be illustrative. This season Baker is almost a run-and-a-half lower, and Castillo has consistently trailed behind the overall team number in that statistic. At some point large discrepancies and consistent patterns suggest more than a coincidence.

You know, I thought that for a split second myself earlier. I wonder how much it does matter. A lot, IMHO. And especially in a case here when you know Baker's catching one game anyway, why not?