StarlinOnYou

DeGrom is incredible. In the betting world, every time he is pitching it is called “DeGrom day” You simply take the under first 5 innings in the game he’s pitching in. The last 29 starts the record for that bet is 25-3-1. Think about how good Vegas is at what they do, yet they literally get punished every time he throws bc he doesn’t give up runs. It also helps that the Mets don’t really hit either.

Lee was an incredible athlete coming out of HS. Maybe he still has a chance.

I wish. These bets typically have like $500-1000 limits.

Quintana sucks man. What a terrible trade.

Yeah, I keep going back and thinking about how Verlander more or less stated openly he wanted to play here. Assuming we didn’t have to give up Eloy for him - this teams pitching staff would look entirely different with Verlander and not Q.

I’d disagree on the simple notion that at least Harden was viewed as an elite starting pitcher for a while. Quintana was never viewed as an ace. Donaldson was also a catchercoming up and never considered an elite prospect like Eloy is. This trade has obviously been terrible. Along with the Darvish signing & Chatwood signing. Just a brutal run on pitching acquisitions lately. I don’t know what else to say about the pitching staff.

He’s been downright awful.. 5.20 FIP. How has he bounced back this season? His road numbers are encouraging, but there is absolutely no way I would say he’s had a bounce back season. I’m not saying this is a bad deal since we didn’t give up much and Chatwood is terrible. But, Hamels needs to pitch a lot better in a Cubs uniform.

Prime Lincecum was amazing, definitely rooting for him. I do find it quite shocking they plan on making him the closer. He didn’t even pitch last season and was god awful the last anyone saw of him.

Morrow looked great last season. Would be a great addition assuming his health checks out.

It’s too bad it doesn’t matter I think Ohtani is going to Seattle.

I envision Baez at around .270/325/465 right around 800 OPS. I think many people underrate him bc many thought he would be a superstar. But, I think he settles around those numbers with a versatile glove. And I think he's a very valuable part of the future. Let's put this a different way. Baez has a 4% BB% and a 23% K%. In the last 5 years, there have been 11 qualified seasons with < 5% BB% and > 20% K%. No one did it more than once, and only 5 of those seasons were above average offensively. Baez needs to make an adjustment in some direction. His recent performance is encouraging, but there are additional steps to take. EDIT: If you want a mental image to associate with a positive outcome for Baez, think of something like a Mark Trumbo/Starling Marte combo. That type of player fits in perfectly with the Cubs(I'd say a Rizzo/Bryant/Schwarber/Baez sequence could be pretty great), but it's easy to see the downside too from that example. Trumbo has had some down years, and Baez isn't going to carry BABIPs like Marte to keep his production as high. Baez finishes with .273/.317/480 Will Baez slug like that next season?

I feel like we’re going to have to trade for another arm looking at the options available. I don’t see anyway around it. That class is BAD. Is Chris Archer still maybe available? I would offer some of the farm for him. Archer/Lester/Quintana/Hendricks/Montgomery is strong. If we go the cheaper route via trade someone w/ upside coming off a down season makes sense for this front office.. maybe Daniel* Norris types?

If he does that then of course it does not matter. The issue is the approach tends to cause players capable of doing great things to not actually do great things. If he somehow manages to flail at a ton of stuff outside the zone but still produce, good on him. The concern is that things even out. I envision Baez at around .270/325/465 right around 800 OPS. I think many people underrate him bc many thought he would be a superstar. But, I think he settles around those numbers with a versatile glove. And I think he's a very valuable part of the future.

It's absurd to assume he's a .800+ ops player no questions asked with his profile. All it takes is some bad BABIP luck and his K rate to spike a bit and you are looking at maybe a .600 OPS player. I refuse to believe .600 being possible. Not with the way he slugs and he's only going to get better. If we were talking about Almora & his lack of power, sure.

I understand the concern about his plate discipline, but does it truly matter? He plays awesome defense all over the diamond and is going to OPS 800+ .. Other than Cano & Altuve what 2B is going to give you that OPS? I forgot Kinsler. Maybe I am a lot higher on Baez than most, but I think he's going to hit just as well as Kinsler as he improves and Kinsler is a pretty damn nice player.