Transmogrified Tiger

Really? Doesn’t it count as $20 mil towards the tax if the Cubs pick up the option? We had this conversation back during his hot streak in a thread I can't remember, but essentially, since his 6 million buyout is guaranteed, it has counted towards the luxury tax throughout his contract. So if they pick up the option, that 6 million has already been accounted for prior to this year. My phrasing above oversells my confidence in this interpretation, but it is more logical than that 6 million counting twice.

For as thin as the bullpen was stretched last year, do you really want to give two 'bullpen' spots to guys who are locked in to only pitching every 5 days? You can have Smyly/Chatwood throw ~4 innings a week at once or you can have them or a replacement do it scattered across several games. Shouldn't make a difference in workload, and if anything makes planning the pen slightly more predictable.

Thinking this through made me realize that there's a bit of a roster crunch with pitchers too. Lester, Hendricks, Q, Darvish, Chatwood, Montgomery, Smyly, Edwards, Strop, Morrow, Cishek, Duensing, Kintzler is a full pitching staff before any additions. Sure you can tell Duensing and Kintzler to get lost any time you want and that group will almost certainly have someone on the DL most of the time, but adding 3 pitchers(say, Hamels, Chavez, TBA) requires a tough choice. Smyly and Edwards are optionable, the former going to Iowa get stretched out seems like the likely choice in that scenario.

Some scattered ideas that don't necessarily fit together: - Sign Harper - Bring back Hamels(remember, the option is really 14 million for purposes that matter), and the moment it's not damaging to the relationship(maybe in spring training after performances dictate), tell Smyly he's a reliever. - Don't add a starter but piggyback Darvish/Smyly and Montgomery/Chatwood - Find a second baseman who can take over the Zobrist mantle, Zobrist's presence means this can be a more speculative move(especially if you add Harper), but with Baez a permanent SS now there's a hole there that can't really wait or be planned as Hoerner's spot(though that is a possibility as early as summer 2020). So instead of feeling like you have to pay Jed Lowrie, you can try to find the next Joey Wendle. - Asdrubal Cabrera fits the roster pretty well on a short deal - Need to make sure the backup C is used more often next year. Whether that's finding another Ross or hitting Joe in the head til he plays Caratini, I don't have super strong feelings. Maldonado and Mathis are both plus framers that are FA, even if neither can hit. - If you can add to the top of the pen, the depth with new guy, Morrow, Strop, Edwards, Cishek would be very strong. David Robertson has some decline coming, but he's been pretty underrated over the years despite having made 50 million in his career. I'm fine with Chavez coming back too although ideally not as the best addition. It'd be interesting to see the trade targets the FO can come up with too. - Sign Harper, in case you've forgotten.

Anyone want to guess who that was? Someone in the dugout but not on the roster? Edwards? Freeman? Morrow?

Things Joe did well this year: - Maximized the production they got out of Bote - Did not fall into the Matheny trap of going all out to win every single game and burn out the pen - IMO did a nice job of managing SP workloads and when they were pulled(leaned on Lester when needed, gave Hendricks more leash) - Guided a bipolar offense and a battered pitching staff to 95 wins and best record in the NL in a division with 4 teams above .500 Things Joe did that were clearly bad this year: - wore Contreras into the ground - treated Murphy as an automatic every day starter when he should’ve been a platoon player that gets defensively replaced - deprived Schwarber of some at bats by thinking he is radioactive defensively and/or against LHP - lineup ordering became increasingly nonsensical, although this doesn’t really matter much - foot in mouth about Russell’s domestic violence Things Joe took too much heat for: - imperfect bullpen decisions, considering 1) no one bats 1.000 on these 2) he was dealt a terrible hand with Morrow/Edwards’ limitations/injuries plus Strop getting hurt and Montgomery moving to the rotation - playing Almora too much, all 3 CF options were terrible in the second half(plus Bryant’s injury and Russell’s injury plus performance couldn’t push Zobrist to the OF much) and Almora at least had defense going for him. Once Murphy was added he was played more appropriately given a slew of poor performing options.

Raise your hand if you assumed gore was a lh hitter until right now

Uh, Murphy has done pretty well today on defense. That play was really smart, either they get the out at 1st because Baez can make that throw or they get the double play. I took a nap between the ball being hit and murphy fielding the ball, then another from then until he threw it

How many posters here are better second basemen than Murphy, has to be pushing double digits right

He was facing a righty who couldn’t throw strikes and there were no extra consequences for a K. I’m pretty sure Heyward hit because they needed to put a new defensive OF in, which pisses me off

Is it me or has this game already taken 5 hours

Yep, that was a huge mistake in my opinion. You probably burn him for today if you send him back out there, but then again, you’re possibly not playing today if you leave him in and can score a run. I have no idea who’s closing in that scenario though. in retrospect didn't it pay off? We only scored one run. Unless he developed a way to somehow hold milwaukee to negative runs, we would have burned him for today and still lost. Im aware this is a results over process situation but I'm glad chavez can pitch today so I'm confused why it's even a process question. Yes there were 2 outs and no one on, but it's a tie game that you have 7 outs to win, punting one of them to give Chavez a chance to face Arcia, Shaw, Cain, Yelich doesn't seem like a particularly great idea.

I have an inkling that it'll be Happ instead of Bote given Freeland's repertoire, but maybe he feels Bote is the better 3B today and wants that defense optimized with Lester on the mound?

Their opponents probably need to know where they're going the next day prior to 10 PM.

curious to see if it'll be the righty who looks just like Counsell, or the other righty who looks just like Counsell

even if he finishes this inning 1-2-3, he’s at 12 ER in his last 18.2 IP

they’re down by 2 runs after 5 innings in the first game of the series, have you weirdos ever watched baseball before

That’s the backup announcers, since their primary pbp and color guys got suspended for trying to strangle each other

gonna need an explanation on why he gets 3rd, he was 2 steps from 1st and if we apply the 'when the throw was made' he certainly wasn't at 2nd then either

none of those pitches to Bote(save the obvious 3-0 one) were actually strikes. 2 were borderline but not in the zone

I had a mediocre defensive day at slow pitch last night and now feel pretty good about my chances to play SS for the Cardinals next year

Jordan Hicks throwing a wet baseball what could go wrong

maybe not a popular take but Bote has to get a glove to that at least

gosh Martinez is such a spaz

You didn't let Hendricks face a lineup 3 times for so long, and now you're going to give him a 4th go round against the hitters who hit rockets at/past Bote last time? With 6 outs to get?