Tim

I want the Rockies in the LDS. So I want them to win enough to pass the cards, but not enough to pass the dodgers. Then braves over LA to set up the NLCS.

In other words..."Who?"

:flythew:

So we're going to be three up in the loss column with eight to play.

Holy crap is he fast

Brewers lose

Chavez has been the man for the Cubs.

JavyBB

Good *enough* Carl

Good Carl, plz

Ye of little faith.

lololol

Ninnies

I guess Schwarbs is still at DH to protect his back? Because the defense would be better with him in the OF and Zo at 2nd.

Murphy really does suck as much as advertised on defense.

Phew, thank goodness you've got your eyes on the prize here, Tim. He's also an atrocious human being, which is obviously more important.

Outside of the past month, Russell has not been a "crappy player"

I want him off the team, but I'd be okay with suspending him for now and trading him in the offseason.

If he finishes the year strong, why wouldn't he get more on the open market? If he doesn't finish the year strong, why would we want to do it?

The Cubs will want to stay under the max penalty for the luxury tax. If they're signing Harper, it will take some very creative juggling to make that work if they are paying Hamels $20M. We also have the following starters under contract/control for next year: Hendricks Lester Quintana Darvish Chatwood Montgomery Smyly With a backlog building at Iowa of guys who have either plus stuff or performance track records. The $20M on Hamels is a *luxury* that the team probably can't afford if they want Harper unless they find a way to dump some other salary.

Also, I recognize that the smart thing to do would be to avoid paying Kimbrel for past performance. But I want a true bullpen of doom, dammit.

Okay, this would be a much more fun approach (minus Eovaldi this time): Exercise options on: - Quintana - Strop Trade: - Duensing, Kintzler for whatever savings can be had (assume we can save $2M while paying the rest) for lottery tickets - LaStella for relief prospect? - Russell for the best pre-arb reliever that can be had (should be pretty good). For the sake of argument, since Philly has really struggled getting Crawford to produce, I'll go with Seranthony Dominguez. This also saves $4-5M Sign: - Bryce Harper - Craig Kimbrel - Justin Wilson Lineup: Contreras / Rizzo / Zobrist / Baez / Bryant / Schwarber / Heyward / Harper Bench: Happ / Almora / Caratini / Bote Rotation: Darvish / Lester / Hendricks / Quintana / Smyly Swing: Monty / Chatwood Bullpen: Kimbrel / Morrow / Strop / Dominguez / Edwards / Cishek / Wilson Shuttle: Maples / Mekkes / Webster / Rosario / Norwood / Alzolay / etc Okay, so let's talk about the SP first - while I really appreciate what we've gotten from Hamels, I am not sure about committing $20M to him next year. And even though it shouldn't really matter, I feel like we have too many similar pitchers in Lester, Hamels & Quintana. We'll have a three way competition in spring training between Smyly, Monty and Chatwood for the final rotation spot. I'll go with Smyly actually being healthy out of ST and winning the job to start the year. The other two give us solid backup plans along with the parade of depth guys we're building in AA & AAA. Harper is a no brainer, of course. When you have a chance to add a generational talent, you do it. Trading Russell isn't as much about not believing in him as it is maximizing value. I strongly believe that he is who has shown himself to be - a 3-4 win player on an annual basis. However, after signing Harper we really need to trade one of the young guys and I think Russell makes sense. For the return, I have finally bought into the value of shut down relievers and I want one that has proven himself in MLB, but is still well pre-arb. Just for the idea of a return, I threw Seranthony Dominguez out there. JP Crawford has really struggled in the bigs so far and is nowhere near as good defensively as Russell. Philly has money to spend, so Russell's increasing costs shouldn't bother them that much and they'll still get three years of control. Meanwhile Dominguez has broken into the majors in a big way in 2018 and still has six years of control remaining. On a side note, we may need to also sign a backup SS. If only Short had made a bit more contact and hit for a bit more average this year I'd be more willing to roll with him at Iowa and an occasional call-up to give Javy a blow. To complete the team, we overload the pen. Kimbrel will be expensive as hell, but he's been incredibly durable, hasn't shown many signs of decline and is a force at the end of games. Let's stop messing around with it and just sign him to be the man. Wilson has shown himself to be reliable in the second half of this year and provides some left handed heat from the pen. The list above looks light on lefties, but is bolstered by Monty / Smyly. Not to mention that there's a bunch of guys on that list that are tough on both lefties and righties. I'll just count on Morrow spending a lot of time on the DL during the year and we rotate other guys through there to keep guys rested as we go. I trust the front office to fit 15+ pitchers onto the 25 man roster somehow. OF defense is questionable (at best) and there's some collapse potential in the rotation, even with the multiple backup options. But the super pen should allow the team to shorten the game and keep the starters from seeing the heart of the order too many times in the same game. With the multiple options available in Tenn & Iowa next year, we should be able to use a few phantom DL stints to get guys some rest, too.

I was probably overthinking it on Eovaldi. Honestly, we're fine with a three man competition between Monty, Smyly and Chatwood for the final rotation spot. If Chatwood can figure it out, he really brings a heck of a lot to the table. Monty has proven this season that he's a perfectly capable rotation option. Smyly is rarely healthy, but pretty effective when he is. We should have some decent backup plans available at Iowa this coming year, too. Save the money on paying Eovaldi and we should be able to stay under the max tax.

-- this post has been replaced by one later in the thread with less Eovaldi --

Supposedly the Clippers, Knicks, and Nets. Three dumpster fires. https://670thescore.radio.com/jimmy-butler-requests-trade-minnesota-timberwolves-tom-thibodeau So...LA and NY? Shocking.