Tim

Didn't we just make a trade like this with Morel for Paredes?

I'll give a serious response here. On the first part - you very confidently claimed that NOBODY ever said it. I found you and Eeyore after three minutes of searching. I'm very sure B2B said it, as well. Possibly others. On the second part, it's not just money. I know you will continue to refuse to believe me here, but I don't care much about the money in this case. In my mind, there's no reason to use fairly significant assets to acquire a player who has major red flags in his strikeout rate taking a big jump for the second year in a row, and who isn't playing the CF he used to. Plus, we already have a player who plays a better CF, runs the bases better, and is showing a greatly improved bat recently. And he's 4-5 years younger so should have a longer period of peak contribution to the team. Before you say it in response, yes, I'm aware that Robert has played a very good CF in the past. And he's run well in the past. Has he traded that speed and contact for power? Is he striking out so much because he's selling out on his swing? Will that continue to get worse? The 36% k rate already puts him at the edge of unplayable, much like Wisdom. This doesn't even touch on his injury history, which seems extensive given his number of missed games. In summary, he's been a below average player this year with major red flags, but his current team wants multiple premium assets to acquire him. There are a whole bunch of reasons that I don't want to trade for Robert and salary is not really on that list.

So you're going to ignore the parts of what I've posted that explained I wasn't even talking about you with the trade part of what I posted. Fine. You're not going to admit you were wrong and that multiple people (including you) talked about trading PCA for Robert. Fine. But you continuing to insist that Robert would have helped this team in 2024 when he has pretty much sucked out loud continues to blow my mind. He has been a below average player this year whether you want to go with fWAR or bWAR. It's not about the money. He's just not that good right now.

I probably wouldn't either, but I do wish it could have been straight up or used additional position player depth. We just don't have quite as much on the pitching side in the minors. Since the trade, Ty Johnson has been quite good. 46.2% k, 7.7% bb, 0.66 era, 1.15 fip

I wouldn't mind having Bigge and Ty Johnson back.

YOU said this: "I saw one trade proposal online that was PCA and Shaw for Robert. I'd do that in a heartbeat. I'd even sweeten that with another non-pitcher." So yes, Tom, people on here have suggested trading PCA for Robert. And adding in Shaw. And adding another prospect on top of those two.

First off, I was more making fun of B2B and some others (maybe?) for suggesting that trade. For you, it was mainly your unending insistence all year long that we needed to fix this team by putting Robert in center over PCA. A two minute search didn't turn up a 1-1 swap, but I did find a couple pages worth of you talking about how Robert would fix this team. Your suggestions on what we'd pay were almost always generic "top prospects". You did make the following suggestions: Getting Robert and a toolsy ML arm for like Alcantara, Ballesteros, Vazquez, Sanders, and Hodge would be dreamy Cubs trade for: Luis Robert CF, Michael Kopech RHP; White Sox trade for: Pete Crow-Armstrong CF, Luis Vazquez, and Cristian Hernandez IF Yeah, I’d swap out Crow-Armstrong for Robert Jr. rn if possible.

Definitely B2B, possibly others, as well. I'm pretty sure that if we looked for it, you made the suggestion to do the trade at least straight up, possibly adding more to PCA to get it done.

After today: PCA: 1.5 fWAR Robert: 0.8 fWAR I'm so glad that those of you who wanted to include PCA with other players to acquire Robert aren't in charge.

Yeah, but only one per game. Slacker.

Start of day comparison: PCA: 1.2 fWAR Luis Robert jr: 0.8 fWAR And PCA has added a HR, double, walk, HBP to his totals today.

There must be some sort of therapy for always seeing dark clouds in sunny skies.

PCA has caught up to Dansby in OPS

Seiya! x 2!!!

Cots is really useful, but that's an estimate. Apparently, benefits players receive in their contracts count against the cap, too. One of the articles about this I read says that things like comped plane rides and such all count.

Lopez career ERA by year: 2015: 5.40 2017: 4.50 2018: 5.03 2019: 6.33 2020: 6.69 2021: 6.07 2022: 2.54 2023: 5.95 2024: 2.44 This year on the whole, he has a below average k% and above average bb%. This is the fifth time he's split a season across multiple teams. He got DFA'd because of attitude issues earlier this season. Even if he's nails down the stretch, do we really think he's going to command a big contract? (also, I'd think about giving the save opps to Porter to keep the cost down on Lopez)

It's a bit less impressive when you back to 2006 (first data FG has at that level in the filter) There are a few misses in there, a few more that were okay players, and then a bunch of studs. Still great company to be in, just not as impressive as the last 10 years.

Unexpected...and yay!

If you average out that pitcher and Mo, they come out to an average sized athlete

They may already have the personnel for it! 😃

Impressive to give up two hits and a run, strike out a guy...but still only throw 10 pitches.

Shohei

I would think it reduces the likelihood

This explains why he hasn't been sent to a full-season team yet https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2024/08/15/chicago-cubs-second-round-pick-cole-mathis-undergoes-tommy-john-surgery/

I'll get this on record now... I'd be fine with that if it is paired with a bigger move. I have much more confidence in Amaya than most at this point. He has a track record of hitting at an okay level and his been stellar since his swing change. Over the past 30 days, he's at a 9.1 / 12.7% BB/K rate; .319/.385/.489 slash line; .380 wOBA and 147 wRC+ Now, I don't think he's that good. But I don't think he's going to kill a lineup going forward, either.