Tim

I find this to be among the least shocking news ever.

Damn. Was really excited about my team this offseason, too. Bryant, Carpenter, Correa, Trout, Schwarber + Price, Sanchez, Smyly, Norris, Cotton, Guerra comes out to 1933.75 points. Bryant, Correa, Trout, Schwarber + Kluber, Price, Sanchez, Norris, Cotton, Guerra comes out to 1803.25 points Then whatever I could get in trade for Cruz, Bradley, Kluber/Carpenter, Strasburg, Duffy, Carrasco. How the hell did I not win last year?

i'd say if we're trying to determine who the best hitter was, wRC+ would be the way to go. uh, yeah. that.

Whatever floats your boat, I guess. I'd go wRC+.

Completely disregarding defense, baserunning and position, who will be the best hitter on the Cubs in 2017?

ohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboy

Stanton hit a 504' hr last year.

Just to give an idea of how many moments there were overall, just for the NLCS in my notes, I had 70. When this is all done, I'd love to have you publish your notes.

Which Cub do you think will have the biggest dong of the year? We're not going for the most here. We are looking for who will hit the single biggest, most majestic dong of 2017.

[tweet] [/tweet]holy crap that's bad defense.

Nice.

hahahahaha Someone wake me up when the Bulls have a clue.

lol - still 63 better moments to go. Than a no hitter. I love this team.

On a different note, Rollins finally passed through waivers and will be an NRI.

Personally, I'm loving the moves of the past month or so to add depth. Adding Anderson, Butler and Mills as options 5, 7 & 8 in the rotation at the cost of a cheap contract, Farris and Dewees is pretty damn solid.

Nice article by Levine covering the farm system with McLeod. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/02/06/levine-jason-mcleod-hopes-cubs-pitching-depth-is-close/

God, I love these.

Let's see.... - Contreras is a monster both in his numbers and how much his energy irritates opposing fans - Rizzo continues to get better and better - Bryant further reduces his strikeout rate to the upper teens, hits even more home runs and pitchers start to fear him even more - Russell hits 25+ HR and improves his average - Schwarber is a monster at the plate, good enough in left field and is behind the plate for a few games by the end of the year - Almora is exactly as expected - decent average, adequate power and great defense. Jay is okay out there, but Almora ends up grabbing most of the playing time due to his defensive value - Zobrist gets plenty of time off to keep him sharp, but he does what he does: gets on base and drives the ball enough to keep pitchers honest - Baez takes another big step forward at the plate and forces more and more playing time by the end of the year - Heyward gets fixed at the plate, giving the Cubs seven position players with 5+ WAR - Arrieta has his command come in and out all year long, ending the year with a string of god mode starts that lasts through the playoffs - Lester finds that he likes pitching to Contreras just fine, thank you very much - Hendricks is not quite as good as last year, but is still outstanding - Lackey is slightly less good than last year, but still a perfectly adequate number 4 - Andersen stays healthy for 180+ innings and we love him - Montgomery never gets much of a chance to join the rotation because of Andersen staying healthy and... - Butler finds his old changeup and combines it with his improved slider and becomes a legit front line starter - Davis stays healthy all year and enjoys playing with the Cubs so much he takes a discount to stick around for future years - Rondon is healthy and pitches like first half Rondon all year long - Montgomery is outstanding out of the pen from the left side - Uehara is great in short stints when he gets enough rest between outings - Strop is very strop-y and contributes at least a couple of great video moments on walk off celebrations - CJ improves his command enough and becomes the guy the Cubs turn to for multiple innings at a time - Grimm is the best seventh reliever in baseball The Cubs win 118 games and roll to another title in the playoffs.

One (?) day after Fangraphs did a "Don't give up on Byung Ho Park" piece.

Rather than a full length article, it's just been referenced in a couple of fangraphs pieces over the offseason. Can't remember which ones in particular, though. Any players that you remember? I just went back 3 years and the only SP I could find was Nicasio. They mentioned Friedrich, though his stats don't really look much better with SD. Pomeranz was definitely highlighted. I think it went back far enough to include Hammel. But I don't remember whom else.

Is there an article that's talked about this? Curious to read more. Rather than a full length article, it's just been referenced in a couple of fangraphs pieces over the offseason. Can't remember which ones in particular, though.

Well, Butler's arm is still attached, so there's upside beyond Turner. Like I said in another thread, I've seen some analysis here and there recently about how Rockies pitchers have been having a great deal of success in their next stops recently. Let's hope that trend continues.

I just realized that every time I see a new post in this thread I'm going to assume he's hurt.

Just saw that. I wasn't ever a huge believer in his at the level of hype that he had. But there has been a spate of Rockies pitchers leaving coors and doing good things lately. If he's low cost, I'd like to see a flyer on him.