UMFan83

For some reason watching the draw was more fun 4 years ago

DAMN! His troll game is on point

Sickels previews his Cubs list https://www.minorleagueball.com/2017/11/30/16721232/chicago-cubs-preliminary-prospect-grade-breakdown

Jake returning to the Cubs confirmed

Now 1-9 with Indiana/Duke, Nebraska/BC and Minnesota/Miami left to go

Any good stories of player interaction? I saw this on reddit from last night:

http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/shohei-ohtani-theo-epsteins-white-whale-japan-jed-hoyer-mlb Oh, LOL Kaplan wrote this...have the Marlins hired Jim Hendry yet? I know, I noticed that afterwards

Well we do know he has the ability to sack Garoppolo at least.

As expected, Theo really wants this dude badly: http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/shohei-ohtani-theo-epsteins-white-whale-japan-jed-hoyer-mlb

Soooo B1G is 1-6 so far in the ACC Challenge so far

https://twitter.com/goldenknights/status/935708126786940929

Through halftime tonight, Lauri’s last 5 shooting games: 1-9 (tonight) 4-10 4-16 1-9 4-17 Total: 14-61 (22.9%). Yikes

Hate to say it, but he was probably right about Cutler. Maybe, but his choices to replace Cutler were Matt Cassel and Kyle Orton so not sure he should get credit for that.

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/27400/mcd-fist-pump-o.gif

Too easy

Is someone we should be so sure is choosing between New York, Chicago, and LA. There's a very good chance that this is a guy who would easily play in a third-tier city like San Diego or Milwaukee if they checked enough of his other boxes. Perfect, KB and Ohtani can hang out and be sober together and then talk about how sober they were when they are sitting out next afternoon's game. Then when Bryce comes they have a legit trio of sober bros.

I haven’t even seen the reports or am reading them very differently if we are reading the same stuff. Most of the perceived value in geography based on the speculation seems to be the Japanese population in a given city but there is not a single quote from Ohtani or a rep over years and years where this is or will be a factor. How is it a factor to him? He wants to be on the west coast/closer to Japan? Or he just wants to be on either coast? Or just wants to live somewhere with a significant Japanese population? Can't do anything about living on the coast, but Chicago has 6 different airlines that run direct flights to Tokyo so its not out of reach for him. In terms of Japanese population, California holds a huge advantage over any other state. Outside of California, you are looking at about 38k Japanese Americans in NY (state) and 34k in Washington (state) and 17k in Illinois, virtually all within the Chicago area. A little over double the population in NY but NYC metro has nearly 3x as many people

I forgot about Maeda, so you're probably right that I'd consider the Dodgers' odds a bit better. Basically: Competitive: Cubs and Dodgers are head of the class here, with the Yankees and Red Sox still strong Playing time: AL teams can give him DH time that NL teams won't be able to Japanese influence: Yankees and Dodgers have a rotation mate that can speak the language, this could be a downside if Otani really wants to distinguish himself as his own guy. Which leads to.. Head of the rotation: Cubs and Yankees have the most opportunity here, Otani will be second fiddle to Kershaw or Sale in LA/Boston I also give the Cubs the benefit of the doubt given Theo's success in signing players from Japan and in winning negotiations where he isn't simply dropping the highest dollar amount(Lester, Heyward). Other front offices are good at what they do, but there's more of a track record to go on for him. I know this has been talked about to death but with regards to playing time, I think the AL poses unique challenges for him. If he is not cutting it at DH, the Yankees or whoever else will not hesitate to keep him out of the lineup and use another DH. Even if he does cut it, on days he pitches there is a slight disadvantage to having him hit for himself because when he leaves the game they will have to play NL baseball the rest of the game, so there's a decent chance that if he doesn't hit above replacement level or he needs more time adjusting to MLB pitching, he might not end up getting many ABs at all. In the NL, he will be guaranteed to get ABs every 5th day regardless of how well he hits. And if he hits well, he will get PH appearances just as he would in the AL. The downside is that if he hits really well he will need to learn to play OF to get everyday ABs. There are advantages to each league and I'm sure Ohtani is confident about his hitting ability translating to MLB, but just looking at it rationally I can't see the AL being that much better for him...but you would probably know better than I how well his hitting will adjust. I see him being better than a good hitting pitcher but not quite everyday regular type of guy.

There are rumors that Iglesias is being shopped around. I'm guessing the price will be too high and the Reds might not even want to trade in the division but I would definitely love to have him closing for the next 3 years.

Just taking a look at it. Since Ichiro, players that have had any sort of impact as a major leaguer, excluding guys that came over after 35: Mariners - 4 (Ichiro, Johjima, Kawasaki, Iwakuma) Yankees - 3 (H. Matsui, Igawa, Tanaka) Red Sox - 3 (Okajima, D. Matsuzaka, Tazawa) Cubs - 3 (Fukudome, Fujikawa, Wada) Dodgers - 2 (Maeda, Kuroda) White Sox - 2 (Iguchi, Takatsu) Teams with 1 - Rangers (Darvish), Brewers (Aoki), Twins (Nishioka), Orioles (Uehara), Rays (Iwamura), Padres (Otsuka), Mets (K. Matsui), Cardinals (Taguchi) I probably missed a few so feel free to call them out. Also I realize that the Dodgers (Nomo) and Yankees (Irabu) both had success pre-2001, I just sort of see the Ichiro signing as the opening of the Asian floodgates. Of the ones I listed, there are only a few that I remember as being big deals where a number of teams were bidding heavily. They are: Tanaka (Yankees), Matsui (Yankees), Maeda (Dodgers), Matsuzaka (Red Sox), Ichiro (Mariners), Darvish (Rangers), I guess sort of Kaz Matsui (Mets) and Fukudome (Cubs). So I don't know I see it as more spaced out then just 2 teams getting everyone. But I can obviously see the reasons why Ohtani would lean towards NY and LA. Edit: [expletive], 2 people already posted well crafted responses basically saying the same thing as I was creating mine) I definitely think of Nomo as the start of it. Yeah maybe you're right, at least for pitchers. I remember when Ichiro was coming over there was a lot of doubts that Japanese hitters could succeed in MLB during the home run era (later known as steroid era).

Have they now? Just taking a look at it. Since Ichiro, players that have had any sort of impact as a major leaguer, excluding guys that came over after 35: Mariners - 4 (Ichiro, Johjima, Kawasaki, Iwakuma) Yankees - 3 (H. Matsui, Igawa, Tanaka) Red Sox - 3 (Okajima, D. Matsuzaka, Tazawa) Cubs - 3 (Fukudome, Fujikawa, Wada) Dodgers - 2 (Maeda, Kuroda) White Sox - 2 (Iguchi, Takatsu) Teams with 1 - Rangers (Darvish), Brewers (Aoki), Twins (Nishioka), Orioles (Uehara), Rays (Iwamura), Padres (Otsuka), Mets (K. Matsui), Cardinals (Taguchi) I probably missed a few so feel free to call them out. Also I realize that the Dodgers (Nomo) and Yankees (Irabu) both had success pre-2001, I just sort of see the Ichiro signing as the opening of the Asian floodgates. Of the ones I listed, there are only a few that I remember as being big deals where a number of teams were bidding heavily. They are: Tanaka (Yankees), Matsui (Yankees), Maeda (Dodgers), Matsuzaka (Red Sox), Ichiro (Mariners), Darvish (Rangers), I guess sort of Kaz Matsui (Mets) and Fukudome (Cubs). So I don't know I see it as more spaced out then just 2 teams getting everyone. But I can obviously see the reasons why Ohtani would lean towards NY and LA. Edit: [expletive], 2 people already posted well crafted responses basically saying the same thing as I was creating mine)

lol, I was reading a Fangraphs chat, and someone mentioned the idea of keeping Ohtani in Triple-A for 2 weeks to get an extra year of control out of him. That would be hilarious.

If that happens, its kind of justified, isn't it? If Garoppolo IS a good QB and could have been had for a 2nd, versus a 1st and a 3rd for Trubisky, it seems reasonable to me, to question things. He's older, likelier to be ready quicker, and the team could conceivably had a quicker path to success under him. I'm not saying he WILL be good or that Mitch won't be either. But, IF Garappolo does wind up good, its not a great look for Pace and this super slow rebuild. Especially when its not certain Mitch does wind up good, even if I think he'll get there in a year or two. Oh yeah totally. I guess you could assume that if the Pats held onto him into the current season, that they would either have to trade Jimmy for a lesser amount (because of his FA status) or tag him to be the backup QB. In that case the value would certainly drop unless a number of teams were willing to bid for him mid-season. I think it was Bill Simmons that speculated that Belichick rationalized that Brady could play at a high level for 2-4 more years and that at 65 currently, he would just retire at the top whenever Brady is done, so he doesn't care about the long term QB situation.