Transmogrified Tiger

I don't know how you can be bored with all of the Cubs' activity. We traded Theo for Hoyer, Venable for Harris, Kasper for an announcer to be named later, we dumped our starting LF and closer for nothing, etc. while those other silly teams are working on their rosters. I know I just know this, but who was our closer we lost? Jeffress

Dallas would be challenging for trophies all the time if their scouting was half as good as their academy and youth development. Can't get an actually good DP to save their lives. I agree that Ferreira is probably a tweener and feels more like a guy with a successful MLS career. Pomykal though, reading between the lines he might be in Germany already if not for his injuries. Those remain a concern but I think his quality is there.

Coulda been Bayern Munich, aint nobody stoppin Cash Mueller

They're the notre dame of soccer - always over-rated. They should have lost this game by 3 or 4. ManUs first goal was about the weakest penalty I have ever seen. At halftime the ref must have seen Ronaldo's penalty and challenged himself to out-do it.

Jon Greenberg has a suggestion: https://theathletic.com/2239770/2020/12/04/len-kasper-cubs-white-sox/

He'll be partnered with Darrin Jackson.

He was okay with doing it to Andy Masur, so there's clearly a line that can be crossed even if he may not have done it for Pat. this is a ridiculous comparison, andy masur is a nobody who started doing radio for the sox in 2018. i don't care for pat hughes but his status is on a completely different level. The point I'm making is that especially at the MLB level, broadcast jobs are in short supply and in order to get your dream gig you'll likely need to be cutthroat to some degree. I don't know that Len would have taken the Cubs radio job this year under these circumstances, but I find the 'Pat is a legend, he would NEVER' to be short of 100% convincing.

If by "subset", you mean "majority", sure. I find it hard to believe that they'd let a more popular broadcaster who wanted to do radio leave rather than just fire the less popular radio guy and replace him with Len. you think len would have watched them fire pat and then taken his job? He was okay with doing it to Andy Masur, so there's clearly a line that can be crossed even if he may not have done it for Pat.

My hottest in the moment take is that if Len wanted to do radio so badly then they should've put Pat(who has very much lost his fastball) out to pasture. i don't disagree, but they'd never do that (and len would probably want nothing to do with forcing him out) aren't you my anti-vin scully buddy too? Vin Scully was doing the Brennamen meme for years unironically and people thought it was folksy because he was lucid in the 50s.

My hottest in the moment take is that if Len wanted to do radio so badly then they should've put Pat(who has very much lost his fastball) out to pasture.

Getting closer to not bothering to redeem free MLB.tv from T-Mobile next year. Everything related to MLB and the Cubs is just openly spiteful at every turn.

Last year aside, he’s largely been a league-average regular. With the DH in the NL, that’s a bat worth keeping around. Given his extreme bumslayer status when he did hit well i don’t think you can assume last year is an aberration. But even if not, you’re basically describing Schwarber, which tells us the people bemoaning trading Torres have an inflated sense of his worth.

I see the Schwarber news has generated another round of Gleyber Torres discourse from people who still haven't realized that he isn't good.

Am I being too contrarian by not being overly excited about Alvarez? Like not in the way that I kinda recoiled in disgust at seeing Djordje on the roster, but in the sense that even if you limit yourself to say, attackers not old enough to drink, I don't know that he's more advanced or exciting than Pomykal, Bassett, Aaronson or even Amaya, to say nothing of the legion of Euros we just got at least a brief look at, more positionless guys like Busio or Ferreira, etc. Certainly not a bad thing he's involved though, need as many lotto tickets as you can get. On a different note, it's a little weird there isn't much of a 6 in this roster at all. Some of that might be fixed after the two western conference games(one of Busio/Dotson will be available, and one of Tessman/Roldan) but even in that group there's no obvious fit.

Boy that is an aimless mess of bad moves

Dallas sold Reggie Cannon a few months ago and they may just sell his replacement to Juventus, the market for young US players is moving fast.

Is there really that much they can do about competitive balance? The best players are worth so much more in basketball than in other sports so that if there’s a dominant team/player, that team is always going to be good. The Spurs and Lakers won the West all but one year from 1999-2010 and won 9 of the 12 titles. It was Jordan before them. And the Lakers/Celtics before that. I agree that there are desirable markets that players are always going to want to go to (i.e. LA). GS looks good now but they were largely a joke of the league for 40 years. Cleveland made two ECF in 36 years and no finals before 06-07. SA has always been good (39 playoff appearances in 45 seasons) but nobody would call them a destination. And even being a place people might want to play (New York) means nothing if your franchise is a disaster. I’m just not sure what can be done in basketball other than restricting player movement to get players to not bolt all the time. You don’t have to go to MLB style rules of player control to get to make an impact, it’s ultimately about incentives. For example, let’s say every team has one uncapped roster spot, you now can give Anthony Davis(and Durant before him, etc) before him) a real decision to make. In the current setup there’s precious little difference in options aside from markets and teammates which becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.

Addressing some of the incentives around three point shooting(and we've discussed them before) would be helpful, but I'm curious if they've worked out the competitive balance issues that have plagued the league since LeBron's prime and the rise of Golden State. This is compounded by the fact that player power is at an all time high(not a bad thing), which makes it particularly futile as a fan of an individual team if you aren't a chosen spot and/or get particularly lucky with a couple lottery picks.

I haven't thought deeply about this, but I think it's worth considering that there's a spectrum involved with the approach to the next 1-3 years. Yes, the last time the Cubs had a regime change they were very bad for several years in order to get the talent that propelled them to success. They also had a functionally barren farm system, no modern front office infrastructure, and were playing in a competitive environment with a reasonably tight correlation between spending and success. To compare, the Cubs have a new person in charge but a lot of front office continuity, a farm system that isn't at the top but is already further along in terms of supplying talent(especially depth), the new CBA and broader trends have loosened the correlation between spending and success, the modern game has rewarded roster depth more than it has in the past(though you still must have stars), and we've got pandemic league finances that make the current market a complete unknown in terms of the cost of players and their value in trade. They do have to make some opinionated decisions given the current roster, but they don't have to blow everything up if they aren't convinced the current group is going to be what gets them over the top.

On another note, MLS playoffs have been extremely bonkers in the most MLS way. Here’s a brief series of events from yesterday’s Orlando/NYCFC shootout. - Orlando leads 4-3 heading to the 5th round - Orlando’s keeper saves the PK, celebration ensues, including Orlando’s coach sprinting into the tunnel to celebrate with a player who got a red card - VAR catches the keeper being off his line, calls for a re-kick - MLS is on last year’s IFAB rules so this is an automatic yellow, the 2nd yellow for the keeper who is now sent off - Orlando(after their coach gets told to come back from the locker room) tries to insert their backup keeper, but can’t since they don’t have a sub, so they put a midfielder in goal - NYCFC predictably makes the kick, then Nani’s PK is saved to tie it after 5 rounds - In the 7th round the midfielder saves a penalty and as you might guess goes nuts celebrating. The ref inexplicably blows the whistle to end the game even though Orlando needs to make their PK still - After sorting that out Orlando makes their 7th round PK and wins the game to advance This isn’t so brief, but the entire shootout took around 20 minutes given all the different moments of chaos.

The homer in me is starting to think it’s not gonna matter that Liverpool lost their CB pairing. I mean today they had no Salah, Henderson, Thiago, TAA, Gomez, or Van Dijk and they manhandled Leicester. In practice they’ll probably have a dip in form or the fixture condition will add up, but at least at the moment they’re in pole position. Chelsea v. Spurs next week will be really interesting, since I think those 2 are the other best bets among the contenders. Chelsea it’ll be good to see how they look against another contender now that they’re more fully operational, and Spurs I keep thinking will have a failure in the back but it hasn’t happened yet.

I like Weah, but he has 1000 professional minutes, 7 pro starts, and 1 goal/0 assists outside the scottish premiership. He doesn't belong in a tier with Champions League regulars and a nailed on Bundesliga starter. Heck by new years Musah will be past him in pro minutes and starts.

I'm actually less worried than I've ever been about Pulisic given the development of other talent in the pool and how much of it is at its best in his spot anyway. Yes I want a 70 million dollar winger playing for the US, but the gap in quality between #1 and #3-4 at that position is shrinking as the weeks and months go by. The striker thing for me comes down to club form. I thought Giaocchini looked good and Soto made the most of his time with some fine finishing(and that is a hallmark of his), but ultimately they're both playing in sub-MLS competitive environments so unless they were ripping up Wales it's difficult to extrapolate much to a future tournament lineup. Glad they played well and think they have promise, now let's get them(and Vassilev) replicating that and playing first division soccer and get the other domestic strikers in form(Toye, Ferreira) and making the next step(Akinola, Dike, Ebobisse) so one or two of these guys can push for 2022 competitive minutes alongside the Jozy/Sargent/Zardes trio.

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