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XZero771679666304

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Everything posted by XZero771679666304

  1. XZero771679666304
    Yeah, the Cubs didn't "pass" on Cespedes or Darvish. They lost a blind bid for Darvish and made a competitive offer for Cespedes. Theo/Jed passed on Fielder and Pujols, but you can't say the same for the aforementioned pair. Even if we did "pass" on Fielder and Pujols, it didn't make any sense for us to give Fielder a 9 year deal and Pujols a 10 year deal. I wasn't suggesting otherwise, just making a distinction.
  2. XZero771679666304
    Yeah, the Cubs didn't "pass" on Cespedes or Darvish. They lost a blind bid for Darvish and made a competitive offer for Cespedes. Theo/Jed passed on Fielder and Pujols, but you can't say the same for the aforementioned pair.
  3. XZero771679666304
    I doubt it. Even if he wanted to, the Illini are stocked with talent on the wings, with two (possibly three) more four star guards on the way after next season. What we need are post players. I'm under the impression he's leaving Drake to get more exposure, so I'm not sure Illinois would be the best fit, but who knows. I read somewhere he like Northwestern, but I don't know how concrete that is.
  4. XZero771679666304
    I'm disappointed that 2012 is being punted, but I can't look at the contracts given out to Pujols, Fieder, etc. and honestly say "Gee, I wish the Cubs had gotten in on that" (with the possible exception of Darvish). I'm on record as saying I wouldn't have signed Pujols/Fielder to the deals they got, not necessarily because of the money, but because I feel the simply won't be great for much longer. Realistically, adding 1-2 of those guys wasn't going to turn the Cubs into a 95-100 win team in 2012. The instant gratification isn't there, but I can't find egregious fault with the direction this year has taken. If Theo wants to spend this year stockpiling assets and taking a more aggressive approach in the next couple offseasons (which I think is what will happen), I can live with that. I definitely wouldn't call BS on the "parallel fronts" claim just because the year one offseason didn't play out that way. If we see a repeat next offseason, there will be more cause for concern.
  5. XZero771679666304
    I'm expecting a better record next year. If Groce favors an uptempo,slashing, guard-centric style, we'll be in very good shape to run it with the current roster. There's plenty of talent still left. It was just buried and misused.
  6. XZero771679666304
    Well there's no denying the first three were fun. I actually defended Bruce up until recently, but he was decidedly mediocre once he ran out of Self's kids.
  7. XZero771679666304
    I'm thinking a case of addition by subtraction, Leonard is a much bigger lose. Well that's obvious. But Leonard leaving was expected. BP leaving would be a pleasant surprise.
  8. XZero771679666304
    i'm not high on alonso. but that's a reasonable position given the prospects they could have fetched for votto. i dunno, the fielder one is pretty crazy. he's already heavy, plays lousy defense and is a lousy baserunner. in a few years he's going to be a really damn expensive DH. The Fielder contract will likely be a poorer value, but he was given that one on the open market, by a desperate, large market club. Votto had two years left on his current deal and he got the very high end of open market value. The Reds just handed all pre-FA players a lot of leverage when negotiating extensions.
  9. XZero771679666304
  10. XZero771679666304
    The Reds would have been better served to have traded Votto and installed Alonso at 1B, imo. When people look back and the contracts handed out this offseason and pick the one that really shifted the market, it'll be this one.
  11. XZero771679666304
    My thoughts exactly.
  12. XZero771679666304
    Who got decade long deals other than Pujols, Prince, Braun, and Votto? Two of those players are clearly elite (Pujols and Braun), another has posted two elite seasons and has 2-4 years left of his prime (Votto), and Prince is not elite but he does have an elite skill (offensive production). I could be forgetting one or two, but with 4 decade long contracts given out and 3 of them having a really good case for being elite, I don't see the problem. Truffle insinuated that if you wanted elite players that weren't old, these kinds of contracts were what you had to give out. If that were the case, we'd have seen more. And A-Rod has gotten two decade long deals, the second of which would be a killer to anyone other than the Yankees. Prince doesn't get that deal if VMart doesn't get hurt. Being that Votto was two years from free agency and Cincy isn't a big market team, this deal was excessive, even by current market standards.
  13. XZero771679666304
    Then it's a bad deal outright, imo. That's 10 years at 20MM+ tacked on to the tail end of his prime. Votto's great, but not that great. Over the past two seasons, Votto has averaged a 7.1 fWAR. Pujols was right around an 8 WAR player. If Votto continues what he's done the past couple years, then he's one of the top 2-3 players in the game today and up there with some of the greatest players ever. If Votto and Pujols aren't worth this type of contract, then I really have no idea who is. And if nobody is ever worth this type of contract, then you're simply not going to have elite players. Votto is not Pujols. Even if Votto replicates his best season in each of the next two (which is quite optimistic, and taking him up to when his extension kicks in), his performance record will still pale in comparison to Albert's when he signed his 10-year deal. And that's not even taking into account Albert is far more of a fan draw. Votto would not have gotten what Albert got, much less anything north of that.
  14. XZero771679666304
    Votto will be in his 30/31 season when this kicks in, and he's no Albert Pujols, in terms of performance or stature. I don't think he'd get anywhere near 10/300 on the open market.
  15. XZero771679666304
    yes, but he's a good athlete and plays the least defensively challenging position on the diamond. obviously there's some risk, but take a look around mlb. elite position players generally aren't getting 5 to 7 year deals when they hit free agency in their late 20s. obviously you're giving that contract with the assumption that he'll be worth more than $22m/year in the first few years, and not worth that money by the time the contract is about up. the alternative that would still have gotten a deal done is probably something like 6/170m. hoping that he would do 5-7 years at an AAV of $22.5m is an unrealistic pipe dream. Then you let him go, especially if you're a mid-market club. And really when did it become SOP to hand out decade long deals to players, regardless of whether or not they are elite? How many have we seen?
  16. XZero771679666304
    Then it's a bad deal outright, imo. That's 10 years at 20MM+ tacked on to the tail end of his prime. Votto's great, but not that great.
  17. XZero771679666304
    I don't think I'd characterize any 10 year, 200MM+ deal with a full NTC as being reasonable, especially for a mid-market team. He'll turn 29 in September and has been worth 7.3 and 6.9 WAR the past two years. Relatively speaking, paying $22 million AAV for that production is reasonable. It's not the AAV I find offensive, it's the years (his mid-late 30's, to be precise). For a big market club, that's not a huge risk. For Cincy, it is (IMO). In general, I think going beyond 5-7 years for 99% of players isn't a reasonable thing to do.
  18. XZero771679666304
    Is anyone besides Gail Fischer talking about this, because she's less connected than I am. Not that I'm aware of. I'm just hoping it's true.
  19. XZero771679666304
    there's no way I don't know, if his off court judgement is as piss poor as in on court judgement, he might just do it.
  20. XZero771679666304
    That would help Illinois. I agree.
  21. XZero771679666304
    I don't think I'd characterize any 10 year, 200MM+ deal with a full NTC as being reasonable, especially for a mid-market team.
  22. XZero771679666304
    And allegedly Paul is going to declare. Good luck with that, Brandon.
  23. XZero771679666304
    Welp, I can't fault Leonard for declaring. I just hope he ends up with a team I don't hate.
  24. XZero771679666304
    That board is a den of morons, Weber/RG apologists and joke moderators. I'm embarrassed that most of them are Illini fans. Is there a better alternative that you're aware of?
  25. XZero771679666304
    AL West: Angels AL East: Yankees AL Central: Tigers AL WC: Rangers, Rays NL West: DBacks NL East: Phillies NL Central: Cardinals NL WC: Brewers, Nationals AL Champs: Angels NL Champs: Phillies WS Champs: Angels AL MVP: Cabrera NL MVP: Upton AL CY: Weaver NL CY: Lincecum
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