Tim

You forgot Otani.

Oh yeah...create a Japanese version of the Cubs TV network, too.

That's good news. With Otani, Darvish and possibly Cueto, the Cubs will have some options to replace Arrieta. Given their ages, I'd prefer Otani. Sign Darvish, have him help recruit Otani. Rotation solved.

The 49'ers are legit worse than the Bears. By far.

So... On the one hand, "Any Power 5 Champ is going to be in the Top 8 anyway". On the other hand, you're never getting the best 8 partially because of auto bids for the Power 5 champs?

Couldn't they have just exempted posted players to allow for the Japanese FA?

love love love

It could also mean that we intend on going with Javy as primary 2B, Zobrist in RF, Heyward in CF, Schwarbs in LF with Almora and Soler as bench.

On the one hand, I feel bad for people that IMB decides to troll. On the other hand, I have trouble empathizing with someone that has already been banned once (and was only allowed back on because he chose to come back with condolences for Fred) that has been semi-trolling people in the political thread. I think I'll let it ride for now and see where it goes.

lol - 4/5ths of the line down: Cutler is like, "ow, my shoulder"

it's nice to be important, but more important to be nice.

Not happy about this for a couple of reasons. First, Cecil is a damn fine reliever and I wanted him for the Cubs. Second, holy crap the market for relievers.

I would just like to say that I heartily approve of the MVP vote in each league.

Well, I doubt they'll be interested in Soler anymore. Was hoping Reddick would go elsewhere.

hmm...Those represent a couple of pretty extreme guys for comparison. I get the point that you're making. But Trumbo almost literally does nothing well but hit HR. Napoli will at least walk, but provides *very* negative value in the field and on the bases.

The stupid election cut my post-world series high short. Now I want some good news from the Cubs adding to the roster to distract me from that.

Add in signing Jansen and Cecil and that's my offseason plan.

Better?

Yeah, javascript drag and drop doesn't work nearly as well on IOS.

In this system, I'm probably higher on Zagunis than most. I think he'll hit enough to have at least some kind of a role. He could probably step in for Szczur today and do just as well with those 200 AB. I could see him as a respectable starter for a second division team, so someone that will carry at least a little trade value.

For this prospect ranking season, I'd like to use the prospect ranking page I built for the front end. I propose that we do several rounds of voting, each round lasting a week. Between each round, we can argue the merits of our choices, lobby to have people moved up or down in the rankings, etc. Each person can vote multiple times each week, but only each person's final vote each week will count in the rankings. 1) does this process sound good or should we do it in the more traditional way? 2) what changes / enhancements should be made to the rankings page and the analysis page before we get kicked off? I know I'll need to add support to the analysis page for "Ranking by week" There aren't nearly as many blue chip prospects as in years past, but there is still some good talent in the system. It should be fun!

I'm thinking that Montgomery goes to the rotation with Cecil taking over as the primary pen lefty. Paulino goes to AAA along with Wisler to further his craft. Feliz goes to the bullpen in a lower leverage role, but has the arm to take over a larger on in time.

Um, math? Weekend? Still off balance from Tuesday? Fixed it in the original post.

Okay - so I'm going to treat this as more of a "what I'd do" instead of a "what I think Theo will do" thread. Assumptions: Payroll can go up to around $180M, giving about $40M to play with. For FA contract values, I'll go with the median crowdsourced value from Fangraphs, recognizing this will probably be a bit low. Priorities: 1.) 5th starter 2.) Closer 3.) Additional Relief 4.) Starter Depth 5.) Outfield FA Signings: Kenley Jansen (5/$80M - 16, 16, 16, 16, 16) Dexter Fowler (4/$64M - 16, 16, 16, 16) Brett Cecil (3/$21M - 7, 7, 7) Trades: I still see Houston as an ideal trade partner to bring in a SP and RP in one swoop. They had an overflow of quality relief pitching last year and also have a number of young pitchers hitting the majors at the same time. They also currently have an outfield that has exactly one player with positive WAR in 2016. We match up very well. Soler + Almora + Villanueva for Michael Feliz + David Paulino We supply Houston with two starting OF's and infield depth to replace Valbuena. In return, we receive two really big arms with options available. Atlanta: Candelario for Wisler I'm not greatly enamored with Wisler, but I do want to take advantage of Candelario's big season while we can. We can stick Wisler in Iowa as an emergency starter. --------------------------- Roster: SP: Lester, Arrieta, Hendricks, Lackey, Monty, Paulino, Wisler RP: Jansen, Cecil, Rondon, Strop, Feliz, Edwards, Monty(?), Grimm, Zastryzny, Pena, Patton C: Contreras, Montero IF: Rizzo, Baez, Russell, Bryant, Zobrist, La Stella OF: Heyward, Fowler, Schwarber, Szczur

or, as SEXY DEXY actually said... there isn't anything wrong with what he said, and he certainly didn't put Dempster on some sort of pedestal Different strokes, I guess -- he doesn't belong in that sentence and it's weird af to do so. That's not a list of Cubs greats. That's a list of former players that were commonly around the team this year.