Tim

Out of today's non-tenders, I'd be interested in: Taijuan Walker \ Kevin Gausman - Any of them that will sign a one year pillow contract (or friendly contract) to re-establish value Blake Treinen / Cesar Hernandez - compete for the second base job / play solid bench role James Hoyt - I think he'd be a great minor league signing. He's old but has been pretty reliable when given chances Ryan Buchter - a solid lefty option for the pen Jimmy Nelson - he sucked when he came back last year, but could be worth a spot Steven Souza - sure, why not Kevin Pillar - probably not with Almora still around

Holy crap

Still, it's interesting that they brought in the guy that helped JTR, though. Not sure if that says anything about their intentions with Willson or not.

How do Fangraphs and BP calculate theirs? A quick glance at the BP framing page didn't offer much insight. https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/25514/moving-beyond-wowy-a-mixed-approach-to-measuring-catcher-framing/ https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-pitch-framing/ Thanks - that helped a lot. There's a lot more sophistication in the fangraphs and bp approaches, but that doesn't necessarily make them more accurate. WOWY, in particular, is subject to small sample impacts no matter how much it is downplayed in the bp article. They're also making big assumptions of linearity in their modeling for things that do not intuitively (to me, at least) seem linear. I'm still not sure how good the systems are since there's so much inconsistency in year to year results for individual catchers.

How do Fangraphs and BP calculate theirs? A quick glance at the BP framing page didn't offer much insight.

Is it really that bad? I know that BP has him rated awfully. But by Statcorner he's...good in 2019. The methods for evaluation vary wildly, but Statcorner's is actually fairly straightforward. Here are the factors: - number of pitches called balls that statcast says are strikes (strikes gained) - number of pitches called strikes that statcast says are balls (strikes lost) Compare those to the expected performance with an average catcher and figure out the net strikes gained or lost. It is a fairly objective method for rating framing. Willson was pretty good in 2016; he was absolutely awful in 2017; he was improved but still bad in 2018. Last year he was well above average, though still well short of elite. ------------------------ I bring this up because while Willson has been up and down by this measure. JT Realmuto was consistently dreadful - until last year. And the Cubs just hired the guy given credit for transforming JTR from probably the worst (consistently) performing catcher into one well above average. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/12/cubs-to-hire-craig-driver-as-first-basecatching-coach.html ------------------------- Perhaps the Cubs would have done this anyway. But it could also signal that they're not getting the offers they're hoping for in return for Contreras and want to give him the best chance to succeed.

Did you read my post?

No thanks. If he has a .310 BABIP instead of .350, he's a below average player. I don't believe that as he progresses into his thirties he'll be able to maintain that kind of rate on balls in play. His speed is already a bit in decline, he doesn't make *that* much contact, and he's still going to cost a lot to acquire. I'd much rather take a spin on Gennett playing healthy this year (assuming a pillow-type contract for him to re-establish value).

say wut What's your question? That's a pretty elite duo.

From the sound of it, I'm glad I turned the game off after the second fg miss

Holy crap, hawks

Changed the thread title to reflect the loss of vaunted status.

They seem to very much be trying something(s) and someone(s) new going back ~2 years now with the changes made internally. Especially with the moves this and last offseason. And here's hoping it actually pays off, because they're hosed if it doesn't. But declaring everything fixed when it's still a pretty damn big question mark as to when, where and who the Cubs will be able to upgrade their pitching Who has said that it's fixed? I've seen "progress", "improved", "better", etc. But I don't recall anyone saying "fixed"

I don't think the strategy to just pile up arms in rounds 2-10 is a bad one. I think the incredibly conservative profile they used to do it for the first x years was the bigger issue.

taking other people's scraps and getting some quality innings out of them is not developing your own prospects. Well, there were like 10-11 innings from Underwood, too. :D

Are we giving no credit to the Cubs for all the bullpen finds from 2019? They've taken guys that had (at best) iffy results elsewhere and developed them into solid contributors: Rowan Wick Kyle Ryan Alec Mills Brad Wieck Not to mention that Underwood actually looks like he maybe perhaps could finally be a solid piece out there, as well. While the overall track record is pretty miserable, I do think it is fair to say that the results are improving.

Really? I think he still believes the Bears have an elite running game. speaking of which, he still owes me $20

I also feel like they should just go hurry up all the time instead of giving him time to think.

Are you looking for the Cubs to corner the market on #5’s? Seems like they have enough. They can't afford a #1-4 and don't have a #5 sure thing right now. Can you point to a team with a "#5 sure thing" at this point in the offseason?

Carl going to see dinosaurs instead was awesome

They basically can't properly value him for trade until his service time dispute is resolved. They can't wait for that to happen to decide what to do this off-season. That makes it highly unlikely that he's traded.

Shut up and be cival, morans!

cival

Agreed. Plus between trade cost, his age, the length of his contract, and trade cost he just doesn't seem like an ideal target. Much prefer Bradley Jr. or Margot among guys rumored to be available this offseason through trade The only disadvantage is the trade cost. He is a much better hitter than either Margot or Bradley and his splits aren't any worse than theirs. The length of his contract pretty much lines up with the window for the core of the Cubs. When the trade cost is the best hiring catcher in baseball, it is a significant disadvantage

Rizzo might have benefited from a couple opposite field shots that would have been warning track in previous years.