Transmogrified Tiger

Yeah, agreed. The “disaster of epic proportions” was a little much. Doesn't seem like it now but you'll see it when the draft starts and in the years following. Would be fine if the Cubs were winning because of a bunch of young guys that could be part of the future. This team isn't. They're winning because of guys who might be bad as soon as next season. You need to recalibrate quite a bit on what to expect on non-top 5 picks and how good teams are at picking the best players in those spots. Again, absent any other context you prefer to draft higher, but even with the depleted roster with many placeholders, their performance is more important to the team’s future than a couple draft spots and their pool value.

The Cubs draft spot is a rounding error in their long term trajectory. Nobodies like Schwindel being big parts of the success aren’t ideal, but no one should be at all upset about the team playing well. It means guys like Happ and Willson are hitting, the bullpen looks good, and those types of things mean more for the upcoming years than picking 7th or 10th. Contreras has done nothing. He's been hurt for most of this. The guys that are hitting are all 30+ with no future. This is a disaster of epic proportions. Even when the Cubs were really tanking in 2012-2014, they had young guys like Rizzo and Starlin helping them win games. This team has literally nothing of value on the offensive side. Sorry, nope, that’s detached from reality on all accounts.

I just can’t get into tanking for baseball. I feel like it makes sense in basketball because stars are so unbelievably important and it makes sense in football if you need a QB because they are also important. Maybe I should care more because of the extra money for draft spending but I don’t. Sure it’s better if they lost, but I’m also finding joy in watching a team play well completely unexpectedly. There's a huge difference between drafting 12th where the Cubs are likely headed now (or even higher) and drafting 6th The Cubs draft spot is a rounding error in their long term trajectory. Nobodies like Schwindel being big parts of the success aren’t ideal, but no one should be at all upset about the team playing well. It means guys like Happ and Willson are hitting, the bullpen looks good, and those types of things mean more for the upcoming years than picking 7th or 10th.

The two that come to my mind from the second half - Sargent got on the ball with space in the middle, and drove to the 18 on his left(eventually passing sideways for someone to turnover), and he never looked dangerous the entire sequence. Whether it was his left foot, general confidence, or lack of understanding of his teammates it was a really disheartening sequence - Pefok taking the ball off the center back and then getting crossed up with Aaronson on who was running where, eventually misplaying the pass for a turnover Hopefully more time and a better field give them better connectivity.

Agreed. Beyond their defensive disinterest, having Konrad and Dest on the left with Aaronson inside meant that no one was particularly interested in getting to the left touchline, and the central dribbling became real predictable. I think Dest on the left is more palatable in a 3 back, where he has more defensive cover, more license to gravitate centrally, and is more likely to have a different formation in front of him(5-3-2 or 3-4-2-1) to make that flank more dynamic. Probably should've just played Lletget over Konrad at the least to get Aaronson out of the middle. But even with the player selection and player performance being uninspiring, they got a road point, which is all they really need for the first road qualifier in front of a raucous crowd. 3 teams dropped home points yesterday, so beat Canada and take your shot against Honduras, who is not in a great competitive cycle, isn't at full strength on top of that, and will have heavier legs than the US. That will be our last chance til the final game @CR to play on the road in the 3rd match to take advantage of depth/rotation, so while 5 points would be fine, they'll definitely have missed a significant chance to breathe easier.

how do the pirates sell a single ticket all year

Tying on the road is fine, but the road games don’t really get easier and you miss the chance to pad your margin for error.

Sargent looks like a USL player with the ball at his feet today, I don’t get it

270+ minutes across concacaf and zero open play goals, seems about right

There are 4 Espinozas to go along with 17 Vizcainos in the system, are we sure it's Anderson getting promoted

I had come around on Acosta being a useful member of the national team, but now I think I love him? "You didn't even start the game, you're retired" is just incredible

This is going to be a big and ongoing thing so I'm starting the thread so bits of news and rumor can be centralized. Anyway part of MLB's proposal to the MLBPA last month was setting Free Agency eligibility by age(29.5 as of July 1) instead of service time, and boosting pre-FA salaries in the process: https://nypost.com/2021/09/01/mlb-makes-new-service-time-proposal-to-players-union-sherman/ I think I like the overton window being moved away from service time as a metric, and my guess is this gets more money to younger players which would be good. As an ownership proposal I'm sure it doesn't add up to the right amounts, but age-guaranteed FA with more money paid to pre-FA players is a loose idea I could see leading to a better result than the current system.

There's a LaHair/haters wordplay that goes here and I just can't quite make it work so pretend I did

It looks like it's: Thursday/El Salvador: CBS Sports Network, Paramount+, Universo Sunday/Canada: FS1, Unimas, TUDN Wednesday/Honduras: Paramount+, Universo So the Honduras game is behind a non-cable paywall unless you have Universo, but the other 2 have more distribution.

Probably a better situation for him than Schalke, but I would also like it if our young strikers all weren't catnip for teams fighting relegation.

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I would also add that EV and launch angle aren't exactly being calculated in laboratory conditions, for an individual swing(or comparing 2 individual swings) there's room for measurement error.

On the plus side I believe this now means Bote can throw 110 mph when he heals

did the announcer really call them the Myr-men or did I hallucinate that

It’s so much fun, mine is that Weah is the answer to “what if Zardes had Champions League pedigree” and we should be playing him at the 9

Possible, but I wouldn't count on Happ facing lefties as a LHH is going to lead to a better outcome against them. Unless the argument is he'll be significantly better against RHP by simplifying.

I will stop doing this the day it stops telling me positive things, but Happ is up to 126 wRC in August and 105 since the All-Star break. He was at a career mark of 116 prior to this season.

The summer of L Tri

Jed has been up front that the CBA is going to be a big driver in the offseason’s strategy. Given how pissed the players are and the possibility for a work stoppage or more significant changes(even non-confrontational ones like universal DH), no one should be certain how they’re playing the market and I’m extra skeptical of people who are certain of what will *not* happen with that specificity. At least until there’s some stronger tea leaves on what the next CBA looks like. Even if we accept the ‘no mega deals/long term contracts’ motto, the amount that holds them back depends on the entirety of the picture. We’ve talked about them buying young players by taking on deals of teams up against the tax like Hosmer, Myers, or Upton, maybe the new CBA makes that need so extreme that the Cubs are one of the few that can do that and it’s an immediate contributor and a prospect for taking on the deal. Maybe they save their star power for younger acquisitions. Just to use the rotation as an illustration, you can pay for likely 4+ years to add Stroman and Gray to the rotation, or you can sign Greinke and trade for Sandy Alcantara without committing long term dollars and get to a similar place. This FA class in particular is loaded with talented players who may struggle to get long term commitments due to age and the CBA environment(e.g. Baez and Rizzo), so playing in those waters is not a multi-year forfeiture. You just have to make sure it’s not the only additions you make so you don’t get on a treadmill of trying to keep pace with what you were without making further improvements. The farm can mitigate this, especially if you think of who might be contributing in 2023, but it’s still a balance you want to strike.