XZero771679666304

This is true. Whether that would have swung things is unclear.

You forgot Anibal Sanchez, Liriano & Puig. Heck, just replace Jackson with Sanchez, Baker with Liriano and Soler with Puig. There's less than $10M additional cash outlay, no additional impact from a prospect/organization perspective and the team is significantly better. Add a competent bullpen and that team is very, very competitive. To be fair, who the hell saw Liriano's 2013 coming? Or even anything close? And I'd be surprised if even the Dodgers anticipated what Puig has done. Certainly nobody here would have preferred Puig to Soler a year ago. And who would have predicted Jackson would be as much worse than Sanchez as he has been? This is a very "hindsight is 20/20" post, predicated on improbable things that happened.

Does Mooney watch this team/know the roster? Rizzo/Valbuena/Dejesus/Scheirholtz/Sweeney. Nearly have of our position players/everyday starters are lefthanded. Seriously. But other than Ellsbury, Choo and possibly McCann, I don't see anyone I'd really want to sign. Well, unless Cano wants to sign for 6-7 years or less. The best offensive players on the market just happen to be left handed.

I wouldn't say it's the end of free agency, but the end of league wide wanton FA spending, at least for a while. Even if the "extend them young" movement fully catches on, there will always be a few players who will accept the risk and gamble that they will be good enough (and stay healthy enough) to hit the FA jackpot. And some GMs are going to extend a young talent and get burned when they don't become the player it seemed they would, and that will dissuade them from employing the same tactic in the future. That said, I think most of the best young players will be extended at a young age, and up to and through their primes. This would of course reduce the number of 150M+ contracts being offered. Bit even as things currently stand, such contracts rarely work out well. Manny and the first ARod deal did to some degree, but more often than not those deals are given to players already at or nearing the end of their peak. Gambling on potential future production is invariably a smarter play than paying through the nose for past production that isn't likely to be repeated, and smart GMs realize this. Players will still hit FA, but far fewer of the best ones will, at least until they are in or nearing their decline phase. This may prove to be wrong, but imo the young, smart GMs who are extending their young talent are likely the vanguard of a industry wide movement that will take hold for at least some period of time. And really, it's not something that the players and the union should be opposed to.

Hits his SL leading 35th double. plus defense, plus makeup, leading the league in doubles and extra base hits at age 22. who is with me on the bandwagon?!? I've been following him closely since he was acquired. I don't think he has a future at 3B with the big club (one of Olt/Baez/Bryant will end up there), but his bat could play well at 2B if Alcantara doesn't work out (or is traded). I know he's a plus defender at 3B, and he doesn't have a big body, so maybe it's feasible.

3-3, 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI tonight. On fire.

Depends on whether it agrees with what I believed or not. In your mind, sure. It's hard to tell what is really going on behind the scenes, but I'd be surprised if some portion of the "crying poor" isn't political gamesmanship. Most likely it's a combination of that and actually hedging until some of these revenue streams become more certain, perhaps with a dash of being miserly due to debt issues thrown in. And as far as the "we're can't throw around hundreds of millions" quote, I don't think that's a big deal. As you pointed out, the days of the free agent megadeal are likely over (at the very least such deals will come much, much less frequently), at least for the foreseeable future. All the best players will have been locked up early, or will be too old to justify such expenditures. It's not just the Cubs, but all teams that will find fewer and fewer answers available on the FA market.

Villanueva with a HR.

I honestly don't think they'll flinch, even if it takes 10/250 to sign him. The George-less Yankees are going to take a permanent backseat to the Dodgers, in my opinion. Yeah, they can do it, but they'd better win in the very near future if they do.

Cano is awesome, but he's going to want an ARod type deal, and he's going to be 31 (meaning his best years will likely be behind him). I'd pass regardless, but the Yankees are probably going to take him off the market before anyone else can make a bid anyway. I put Cano 3rd, although I think he's tge longest shot of anyone. That said, if the Yanks were going to sign him longterm prior to him hitting FA, it'd have been done already. Cano winds up a Dodger, if I'm placing bets. I wouldn't cry if the Cubs signed him, but I'd prioritize the others ahead of him. But you could be right, and the Yankees might be apprehensive to hand out any (more) mega deals to players in the second halves of their careers. Either way I'm not sure he has too many 7 WAR seasons left in him, if any.

Cano is awesome, but he's going to want an ARod type deal, and he's going to be 31 (meaning his best years will likely be behind him). I'd pass regardless, but the Yankees are probably going to take him off the market before anyone else can make a bid anyway.

Unfortunately that can be enough to curtail a career. And unless I am mistaken, most pitchers who lose velo, especially when they're not particularly young anymore, don't get it back.

Of course he said that. The Cubs said variations of the same sentiment before this season and the last one. That means they're going to compete for the 1st draft choice. Which would be better for the than pretending they can compete. I hope they actually do try, it'll just mean they're going to suck for a longer period of time.

Unless nearly all of the Cubs' top positional prospects flame out, power production isn't going to be a problem for the big league team for quite a while.

I honestly have no idea why people even look at the comments sections of stories or on FB. You know what you're going to see, and it's the kind of crap we come here to avoid.

It would be, but he doesn't have a .295 wOBA. As was discussed earlier, normalizing his numbers under the assumption that this is all just bad luck would be presumptuous. His approach hasn't simply not advanced, it has regressed.

I'm not sure anyone was saying he isn't a capable player, but luck aside, his offensive game has regressed this year. I am not offended by his presence in the everyday lineup, but I'd also jettison/bench him the second a better option (Alcantara, etc.) is available. His defense prowess is an asset, but it's not a free pass. If it had been up to me, I'd have traded him prior to the season, because I think chances are 2012 was as good as he was going to get (and I think someone would have overpaid).

That's not the reason. It's probably because he's hitting more fly balls, fewer line drives and swinging at more pitches outside of the strike zone (and making a lot of contact with those pitches). That's also not the reason. Those may be reasons he'd have a lower than average BABIP, but it's not the reason he has a completely abysmal one. He's not a .228 BABIP guy long-term. No, it's certainly not the sole reason, but his bad approach getting worse has certainly had a hand in it. It's lazy to just write off all of a babip variance on luck.

That's not the reason. It's probably because he's hitting more fly balls, fewer line drives and swinging at more pitches outside of the strike zone (and making a lot of contact with those pitches).

I find the notion that you care more about what people think of your school's football program than what they think of you absolutely fascinating. I mean it's hardly a unique phenomenon (most common among soccer hooligans and southerners), but it's just so bizarre.

No, you just clearly care very, very, very much about what people think of your school (to an almost obsessive degree), even as you profess not to care at all. Say anything even the slightest bit that is unflattering to A&M and Old Style bursts into the discussion, foaming at the mouth, guns blazing, doing whatever intellectual contortions he has to to defend or rationalize away. This, of course, makes people want to hate on A&M more, which clearly bugs the [expletive] out of you. That you say you don't care just makes it funny. There's defending your school, and there's being the one man A&M Homer Defense Force.

http://i.imgur.com/GxGxhhC.jpg Lmao that gif is perfect I had a roommate who watched that movie every freaking day (or damned close).

Hey, he got a few of us to completely waste our time, so he probably chalks it up as a win.

Yup. But to be fair, I think Freeman's LD% is like 10 points higher as well.

Putting together those sorts of alternative histories is a frustratingly pointless endeavor. It requires a lot of work and making a ton of debatable assumptions. As is debating anything with you, yet here we are.