Transmogrified Tiger

You would put "Kris Bryant loves Impractical Jokers" in a satire, he is so impossibly earnest

What's the best way to get that from the internet to my Roku/TV? Enough experience getting it on a computer to know how to find them on reddit. i'm honestly not sure i also heard some guy call the score this morning and he said something about installing kodi on roku. i know very little about it but i'm sure the info is readily available. If you're not familiar with Kodi, it's probably just as well to find a stream on a phone/tablet/laptop and learn the way to cast it to your TV. I don't do much of that but I think Rokus in particular have made some recent improvements so it's a less sketchy process. Chromecasts/Android TV are the gold standard here thanks to Google's clout.

For whatever it's worth, I'm finding that most of the shows I save to be DVR'd by YouTube TV are also available on normal Hulu since I got it with the ESPN/Disney+ bundle, so you might not lose as much as you think. Agree that YTTV is a better overall product though.

Sergio Ramos getting dunked on for a goal and then getting sent off is extremely my aesthetic

you hate to see it

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So apparently the 'hope the Rockies get brain poisoning' plan for the offseason is still alive? https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2020/02/13/cubs-reportedly-are-absolutely-motivated-to-try-to-acquire-nolan-arenado/

Why is it that teams and players try to knock out extensions around this time? D'backs and Ahmed, and I think there was another one recently. Cubs and Bote happened around this time last year. It would've made the offseason a lot better if they got this Baez extension done sooner... Extensions almost always happen after the team has their roster for the year set, so they don’t cost themselves flexibility they would need if plans had to change.

Extremely, six anonymous '17 Astros talked for this one and it made it sound like several players were a little leery of this scheme and Beltran basically ignored them and eventually everyone else followed like sheep because he's a 'respected veteran' or whatever. I’m judging this based solely on your summary, but it sounds like players trying to cover their own asses by throwing Beltran under the bus. Yeah, I'm a wee bit skeptical of the narrative of 'oh yeah the guy who doesn't work here anymore was totally the ringleader, we didn't even wanna do it but he's the veteran so what could we do'

[tweet] [/tweet] 1) Good. 2) THEN WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL WINTER Just the dumbest possible timeline in every way.

I am predisposed to like Kipnis, which is good because I'm not sure how good a fit he is otherwise. He can't defend much, isn't enough of a LH bat to deserve any 1B or DH at bats over the alternatives, and even by 2B standards is a significant question mark. If there's a profile that might have a dead cat bounce in the right circumstances, it's his though. Similar to Edmonds in the high pedigree, control the zone type of bat, plus there's no reason for him ever to see a lefty with all the options available so he'll be put in the right spot to succeed.

I was ready to hate this, but with the right specifics I think there are some things to like. In particular, since all the wild card games are at the higher seed, you could do the 3 game series with a double header one day and a Game 3 the next day/day after. That'd help preserve some of the current wild card's stakes, and optimize scheduling. It also paves the way for an 8 division setup if they decide to expand to 32, and preserves the importance of division winners gunning for the best record they can. The issue with the DH header idea is that the only way anyone would agree to that would be if it fell on the weekend, and then you'd have an round of playoffs going up against football, and there's no way anyone would agree to that. I don't think it being on a weekend would be a hard requirement, there's plenty of day games in the divisional series. Doing it Friday would fairly effectively split the difference too. All that said, this is me making the best of what is out there, I don't know that I think it's the best way forward.

I was ready to hate this, but with the right specifics I think there are some things to like. In particular, since all the wild card games are at the higher seed, you could do the 3 game series with a double header one day and a Game 3 the next day/day after. That'd help preserve some of the current wild card's stakes, and optimize scheduling. It also paves the way for an 8 division setup if they decide to expand to 32, and preserves the importance of division winners gunning for the best record they can.

Is there a strong R/L correlation w/r/t lucky/unlucky? Off the top of my head, it would make sense to me for the lefties to lag , because even if they're fast, if they're hitting it hard they're hitting it to the pull side where there's a shorter throw.

Walker is a weird case. He was very highly regarded as a prospect, and was a slight disappointment in 'only' being an averageish starter who more often than not beat his FIP. Then he had TJS in 2018 and a shoulder injury during his 2019 recovery so he has 14 pro IP the last 2 years combined. He's only a few service days from free agency, and considering there's zero chance he can handle a starter's workload in 2020, the reasonable Cubs options are to give him the Dempster/Graveman get-right + option deal, or they're adding him to the bullpen pile. Can't say that either of those is particularly exciting to me, but I might be missing something.

The theory is they may have the availability to trade Chatwood's full contract if the right combination of circumstances strike during ST. The Bryant stuff has never made any coherent sense to begin with, everyone in the org should be ashamed at how this winter has transpired, regardless of what restrictions they have.

I think that's fair, but part of the assumption here is that teams are making a deal out of more desperation than the average FA, as they have a hole open up due to injury and few teams are willing to trade and the FA market is tapped out. I don't think even in that hypothetical you get "real value" for Chatwood, but someone sweetening a deal on top of taking his contract isn't completely impossible.

if you need me I’ll be in the angrydome

Yup. I think as of today between the Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals and Reds someone finishes in the 76-80 range, 2 finish in the 84-87 range and 1 gets to 90+. Whatever way you want to order the 4 I think has a fair argument. Stacking up wins vs the Pirates is going to be important. To put a finer point on it, I would go as far to say that the Reds and Brewers will both be in the 78-82 range, and one of the Cubs/Cards will be 85-88 and the other will be 90+. I'm probably unjustifiably skeptical of both the Reds and Brewers though.

We'll have to wait and see what the actual numbers look like, but if I were to ballpark it I'd guess the current Cubs come out about 4 wins ahead on the position players, 1-2 ahead on SP, and probably 2 down on RP. I didn't get the specifics, but on aggregate it's about right, the Cubs projections are just under 5 wins better. [tweet] [/tweet]

I'm gonna need a citation on Roederer and Andy Weber(?!?) getting a benefit of the doubt that Ademan does not. If Roederer is ahead of Ademan it's a matter of him being on the same path but earlier in his career so there is theoretically time to turn the corner. If that's what benefit of the doubt means, that he's not yet accrued 850+ PA of being unable to hit in full season ball, then I guess that's true.

absolutely not clicking that

Ah, I'm saying the CBT burden if they pick it up is 25 and 0 if they don't. That's why Rizzo's burden is 16.5 this year and not 14.5. Gotchya. You might be right, Cole Hamels' contract was pretty analogous and the full value of his option counted against the tax. I thought there was some weird thing where that only happened because we traded for him though, and the Rangers would have been on the hook for less. But we're definitely getting into the weirder more esoteric parts of the CBA at this point. If Jon does count $25M against the CBT next year no way that option is picked up. It's a bit weird because buyouts end up double counting when options are picked up to a degree, but I think that may be intentional to avoid teams getting too creative with shenanigans to lower their tax burden.

I wouldn't bet my life on it, but I don't think they have any CBT responsibility for Lester if they don't exercise the option. That 10 million has been part of the 155 million guaranteed, and why his CBT number this year(and the 5 years prior) is 25.8 million and not less than that. Right, I believe if they pick up his option, it's a 1/15 deal for LT purposes. So I have the team about $10M under if they pick it up, and $25M under if they dont. I used fairly rough arb numbers though so it's purely directional. Ah, I'm saying the CBT burden if they pick it up is 25 and 0 if they don't. That's why Rizzo's burden is 16.5 this year and not 14.5.

If you assume you need to cover 10 million you didn't before, then you have Lester, Quintana, and Chatwood freeing up close to 50 million in CBT payroll. You can probably fill those spots for a fair amount less than 40 million. You can also finally pull the trigger on trading Schwarber or Contreras for further breathing room against arb increases(though those 2 and Baez are the only significant increases). With rough arb numbers, I have the team about $10M below the tax next year if they pick up Lester's option, $25M if they don't. Knock both of those down ~$5M going from KB's fourth year of arb to Arenado. I think there's enough upper level pitching in the farm that you can reasonably count on it to fill one of the empty rotation spots. But then yeah you probably deal Contreras to fill one of the others. That in turn opens up another 7-8 mil, so you've got at least $10M to fill out the margins of the roster regardless of the Lester decision. If PTR is fine resetting the penalties next year (which honestly I doubt) next offseason is a much cleaner one for getting under. I wouldn't bet my life on it, but I don't think they have any CBT responsibility for Lester if they don't exercise the option. That 10 million has been part of the 155 million guaranteed, and why his CBT number this year(and the 5 years prior) is 25.8 million and not less than that.