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Deeg

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Everything posted by Deeg

  1. One KISS plan for the offseason would be to sign Akiyama, trade Schwarber for Merrifield in some sort of configuration that makes sense for both teams and re-sign Castellanos. Use Kitayama in CF and Merrifield at 2B against RHP and Merrifield in CF and Hoerner at 2B against LHP (though Akiyama is not an extreme-splits hitter). My worry there is that it leaves you a little light from the left side with only Shogo, Rizzo and Heyward. But it could be a much more balanced lineup in other respects. And Caratini will get some run against RHP if he isn't traded.
  2. The BN article mentioned he has a 3/21 (or 23) offer on the table from his current team and there’s another team over there who may offer him something. So yeah I’m guessing it would take 4-5 years in the $30-40 mil range to get him over here. Who knows where the budget will be with so much Ricketts money tied up in the Trump re-election campaign, but in a vacuum something like 4/30 for Akiyama would be a great gambIe. If you want to focus on situational hitting and defense, sign Japanese players because it’s drilled into them from the time they’re tiny kids. Akiyama is a significant talent - I’d expect his power numbers to slide and his age is a concern, but he’s so good defensively in CF that even if he lost a step he’d still be above average. I’d put the over-under on his offensive numbers in MLB at something like .275/345/425.
  3. Akiyama is a FA and his own team plus at least one more here want to keep him, so figure he'll get a domestic offer in the $6-7M per year range, 4-5 years. If you want him that's the minimum it will take. Very solid ballplayer. Good fit for us.
  4. I think you’d have to take Colorado’s entire payroll to get them to agree to that deal.
  5. He could have had his pick of a couple of jobs last winter but chose to wait out the Cubs. I'm undecided on who my personal choice is but part of my wants to see Girardi hired just for the apoplexy factor with certain people.
  6. That seems a bit harsh to me given that Girardi is still only 54. He started out young, but he should be in his prime as a manager. Maybe one who can take something away from what got him in trouble in NY and be a better manager for it.
  7. I like Ibanez, but I know the least about him in terms of managing philosophy. Is he a players' coach or more of a disciplinarian? I know he has a good reputation inside baseball. Until someone has actually managed I think it’s hard to know where they come down on the hardass-players’ manager spectrum. Based on his rep I’d expect Ibanez to be somewhere in the middle, and to lean towards the sabermetric-friendly side of that scale.
  8. It's not going to be Loretta. They have to give him the courtesy of an interview - that's all this is. Ibanez could be a sleeper candidate. He has a very good reputation and he's a helluva smart dude.
  9. I love this idea but the Royals ask will be huge, they also probably think they can win with him. He probably cost multiple of Nico, Amaya, Marquez, Davis too. I’d absolutely love to add him though. The thing about Merrifield is that despite his contract status he's already an older guy. That potentially lowers the cost a little, and would make the Royals wonder if they could be competitive while he's at peak performance. A deal built around Schwarber would have a chance, I think.
  10. I'd pretty much penciled in Joe for the Pads job but the Angels are certainly an attractive proposition in many ways. If they're willing to Renteria their manager to make this happen you know Maddon would seriously consider it.
  11. Merrifield makes so much sense for this team in so many ways. Pencil him in as the CF, but he's a hedge at 2B if Nico can't cut it (at least yet). Does the cost for Merrifield make sense? That's unfortunately a different question.
  12. Repeated - don't sleep on Farrell...
  13. Don't sleep on John Farrell. He'll be in the mix.
  14. I don’t think that’s totally impossible, if he finishes in the same manner as he’s been pitching the past two months. He’s been utterly dominant.
  15. He technically struck out Yelich, he got hit on the hand but swung at it. Pitch deflected onto umps knee so he was too disoriented to call for an appeal or anything. Got a boardline call on a high curve to Perez. His one hit was to Gamel which no Cub pitcher can retire, so no fault there. Already leaped Holland on the lefty pecking order. Low bar there.
  16. Did Hultzen look as good as his line would indicate?
  17. I mean, obviously you're not going to consider it unless it's a huge haul - Contreras is one of the elite hitting catchers in the game, and has 3 more years of team control. But a real overhaul would necessitate someone from the core being moved, and I can't see it being Baez or Rizzo. And while different clubs value it differently, it's looking as if Contreras is always going to be among the worst framers in the game.
  18. I can see a case for trading Contreras and keeping Bryant. Caratini has made remarkable progress as a receiver (he's ranked 18th of 104 catchers in framing this season - Willson is 97th). Darvish is a notoriously difficult guy to catch, and he's obviously developed a rapport with slick Vic. Caratini will never be Contreras when it comes to throwing out base stealers, and probably never with the bat either. But I think the body of evidence is he'll be an above-average hitter for the position, and possibly above-average overall defensively. Amaya has star potential, albeit 2-3 years down the road. If you could get a big enough haul for Contreras and decide to do a major remaking of the roster, you'd have to consider it.
  19. The rationale for trading Bryant is simple. If you want a major shakeup, you can't do it without trading someone who's part of the core. Almora, Happ and Russell have little to no trade value. Schwarber is LH Rob Deer at this point - you could get an asset for him but not anyone really impactful. Sure you can trade Quintana, but he's not going to bring back a major haul with a year left on his deal as a MORP. So that leaves the core. Baez? The face of the franchise and likely to sign an extension. Contreras? Maybe, but while Amaya could be a star he's minimum 2 years away. Rizzo is on a team-friendly deal. So who does that leave? If the Cubs truly believe the team is broken (which I think they do) and have the balls to try and fix it (which I'm not sure they do) then it's hard to see a path without trading Bryant. Otherwise it's just more incremental change.
  20. He's trading walks for homers Not today he wasn’t.
  21. Last 8 starts: 2 walks, 63 strikeouts.
  22. 89.2 exit velocity off 40 MPH entrance velocity.
  23. He seems to bat lefty in BP quite a bit I know, and he is a natural lefty. But it's different in a game. Though, truth be told, I guarantee the BP is much faster than Farmer's ephus pitch.
  24. Not that crazy to see Javy risk injury using muscles he normally wouldn't use, but that was pretty funny.
  25. LOL, dude behind home plate shamed into putting his shirt back on.
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