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TheDude

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Everything posted by TheDude

  1. TheDude
    Ok, those swings look solid and on point. Needed to see that.
  2. TheDude
    Mother of god puss puss!
  3. TheDude
    I called Baez early for the first two series, but for the WS it feels Arrieta needs to remind everyone he's the reigning Cy Young and pull down the MVP.
  4. TheDude
    It's the next day and it's still real!
  5. TheDude
    I'm going with Baez either pulling off a Jeter-esque defensive save that wows or one of his Phelps slides in a Dave Roberts turning point moment.
  6. TheDude
    Baez is going to finish the year as a 2 WAR 23 year old on part time duty whose ceiling is potentially much higher. Maybe he is only a 2 WAR player even at full time duty. His plate game is his only problem area, otherwise he brings very solid all-around game. Is it really a stretch for a team to give that guy a shot at a starting job? Certainly most organizations would as nobody but the Cubs has this insane depth to work with. I'm assuming Fowler gets priced out of range and the Cubs allocate available FA dollars to the closer/bullpen. Which means the choices for Fowler replacement (with position shifting) comes down to Soler, Baez, Almora internally or a cheaper FA than Fowler. To me Baez is the best choice of those options. But again, I wouldn't be disappointed with Soler or even Almora or a rotation of the three. I would be disappointed with a FA other than Fowler, as the in-house options deserve a shot.
  7. TheDude
    I think Soler and Fowler are the odd men out, with Baez pushing Bryant to LF. The OF defense of Bryant-Heyward-Schwarber is more or less average maybe slightly above average, but the infield defense of Baez-Russell-Zobrist-Rizzo is elite. Given that the Cubs pitching staff is ground-ball heavy (and Soler could be moved for a young controlled ground ball starter to further build that profile), you want to emphasize that IF defense and can live with Schwarber in RF. It's absurd how amazing the possibilities are here, there is not a wrong answer.
  8. TheDude
    Can't help but feel bad for Castro. Endured all those shitty years and gets traded on the cusp of a dominant run. At least it wasn't to a non-contender.
  9. TheDude
    Trading Castro to sign anyone other than Heyward is dumb at this point. To sign Zobrist is a complete head-scratcher.
  10. TheDude
    Angels are showcasing some serious highlight reel defense up the middle with Simmons, Featherston and Trout. Too bad Featherston and Simmons can't hit the baseball.
  11. TheDude
    I do not want to face Kershaw and Greinke with these expanded playoff strike zones.
  12. TheDude
    You can link your mlb.tv subscription to your cable login to be able to stream the TBS feed through mlb.tv. Although oddly, it worked on my ipad but not on my apple tv or playstation. Those were still blacked out even with the linking.
  13. TheDude
    For me the biggest surprise is the number of hits versus misses on the 5 big name prospects. The mantra was repeated so many times in prospect discussions: if we're lucky half of the prospects will pan out just as MLB regulars. Rarer still would be one or more of those half hitting the prospect ceiling as all-star or better players. Time and again fans have been cautioned not to plug in all these rookies and expect success. Yet that is exactly what happened. Soler is still an open question, but his second half plate discipline turn-around gives promise. He deserves extra leeway as well knowing he was one of most abused victims of bad umpiring in the first half. Fowler was similarly victimized and the effect on him was just as dramatic. Giving up on Soler is a mistake at this point. Baez is still an open question but looks damn good right now and trending toward to success. Bryant, Schwarber and Russell all look like successes. I think most would agree that hitting on 3/5 on the big names at or above ceiling rookie production is a huge surprise. And having those other 2/5 still as potential MLB regulars is icing.
  14. TheDude
    Is today's uni sold anywhere?
  15. TheDude
    Enough of the dumping Castro nonsense.
  16. TheDude
    The previous article linked in that article is about Dexter Fowler getting jobbed on the Strike Zone. 19 called Strike Outs on balls outside the zone is crazy high, that's 23% of his total Strike Outs. This year's zone on the eye-ball test has been maybe the worst I can ever recall in 33 years of watching games. The at bat weeks back where Soler was called out on strikes without swinging the bat once and without a single pitch being in the zone was the single worst umpiring at home I have ever seen.
  17. TheDude
    Have we taken talent from the Brewers? Probably a Loften/Ramirez reference from 12 years ago, which was a trade that is fairly characterized as a 'take'. Lofton and Ramirez were Pirates... My mistake. I somehow transposed two really crappy teams from that era in my mind.
  18. TheDude
    Have we taken talent from the Brewers? Probably a Loften/Ramirez reference from 12 years ago, which was a trade that is fairly characterized as a 'take'.
  19. TheDude
    Love both picks but I'm partial to strong hit tools with advanced plate discipline.
  20. TheDude
    Of all the scouting reports I have read online Happ seems the ideal target at 9 for this front office.
  21. TheDude

    Castro

    TheDude replied to Tim's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk

    .730 OPS from a short stop each year is good enough to place in top 10 SS offensively, top 5 in last two years with the dip in offense across the sport. I'll take a top 5 or top 10 offensive SS to compliment a line-up that has elite 1B and 3B every day of the week.
  22. TheDude

    Baez

    TheDude replied to sontensei's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk

    Yeah no kidding that's top 5 MLB production out of a 2B. Highest 2B OPS in 2014 was .836 from Cano. I'm not seeing how this would be anything other than an awesome line from Baez.
  23. TheDude
    I'll take Rickey
  24. TheDude
    I would not trade Castro primarily for the reasons TT has stated many times over the last year. I also would add that I think there is legitimate problem in trying to assess his trade value. For me, both sides of the debate on his trade value have merit: what he has accomplished through age 25 and his remaining contract are fantastic and have great value that often gets overlooked, but there is a also potential that Castro's remaining production on that contract yields league average WAR/$ as a light hitting, mediocre defensive SS (with a worst case of one or more replacement years). It's easy to see two savvy GMs unable to able to ever truly settle on agreeable value.
  25. TheDude
    The Soler one is also connected to his extreme splits on pitch type. He is murdering fastballs with the best in MLB (top 5 OPS on FBs among all hitters) and also demonstrating very high velocity on batted balls, especially FBs. The metrics support the anecdotal commentary we hear with Soler all the time (especially with JD): he hits the ball really damn hard. Conversely he is one of the worst in MLB with OPS on non-FBs. If I'm a pitcher/catcher/coach and paying any attention to advanced metrics, there's virtually no chance I throw a FB to Soler in the zone.
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