Transmogrified Tiger

koji wyd

No Burks in the Top 10? Really?

Something is very odd about those projections. Either they project the Cubs to finish at 88 wins and finish 5 games ahead of the Brewers, or they project the Cubs to play at an 88 win pace and tie the Brewers at 86 wins. Either option makes their divisional series odds for the Cubs(22%) and Brewers(64%) insane.

Cool, now put those running mitts on please. I was trying to come up with a reason to the question you asked. And I couldn't come up with one. The best I could do is that players either think they don't look cool or that it makes them uncomfortable because they aren't used to them. Either one is a lame reason. So, yes, put them on. It probably takes practice with them to not be worse at grabbing/staying on the base.

La Stella has to be the best 26th man of all time

I do work for one inning and Bryant lost a finger? Who do I send angry gifs for this?

Probably a lot less than prospect types would have you believe.

I'm setting KB at 12, Addy and Hendricks at 5 each. We'll see what happens, but I think I'm actually slightly UNDER selling what those 3 get. If I remember correctly, David Price holds the record for arb price at 20M and that was an arb 4 after winning CY. So something like 12M,16M,20M,24M over Bryant's arb years looks right. Price got 4.3 million as a super two. That was 5 years ago, but the point is it doesn't scale linearly.

stolen from another Twitter user [tweet] [/tweet] [tweet] [/tweet]

If Bryant had hit that groundball he would have been halfway to 2nd by the time Almora hit first.

I thought there was no way that was getting out with the sound it made, did he crack his bat?

good shift dum dums

The delay is because Ian has to go catch them with his bare hands first. Happ and Lackey on the same roster is some Alien v Predator stuff.

If they don't start soon this is going to cut into Lackey's 4th meal the 4th meal is raccoons

That's a fake Rosenthal

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Cubs twitter just said 7:15 Central

30M was what I was saying for Darvish alone, Q and Teheran are locked in at 8.85 and 8 respectively. Bryant + Russell + Hendricks are all arb 1, Bryant is the only one with a chance at 7 million. This year's payroll isn't a hard ceiling either. I'm not saying they'd fit it in with 15 million to spare, but by your own calculations they could fit a big addition in. They might have to sacrifice a platoon bat on the bench or maybe the quality of one reliever spot, but that's the tradeoff you make for a Lester/Darvish/Quintana/Hendricks/Teheran super-rotation.

They didn't give Montgomery, Butler, Kelly, etc a rotation spot this spring, and if they kick Montgomery out of the rotation for Hendricks, then their best bet from the internal options won't be likely to go a full SP's workload. Quintana and Teheran combined cost about as much as Lackey+Anderson, so it's not a matter of finances that would hold them back either. That said, if you have Lester/Q/Hendricks/Teheran, another SP isn't a huge need, but there isn't a whole lot else to spend on either. I think it can add up fairly quickly. Let's say you buy a guy in FA, instead of adding Teheran.....That's probably an extra 5-10 mill in payroll. Darvish being the biggest target, that would cost more..... You're going to need 3-4 bullpen arms, that's going to add up. Maybe 25-30 mill? More, if you keep Davis or trade for Britton..... And you've at least got to look at a possibility of adding a CF. Quintana + Teheran + Darvish at 30M + 25-30M towards the bullpen is basically the same payroll as this year's team. Maybe you can't get a Jay replacement, but those bullpen estimates are probably high(Montgomery is in the pen in this scenario) and you've got several CF lying around(Happ, Almora, Heyward, maybe Burks) without dropping Jay-money on one. Is that the path I think they'll go? No, but it's not all that elaborate a contortion either. Trading for Teheran wouldn't close any doors, unless there's a similar valued pitcher you like better that you can't trade for with a more depleted system.

They didn't give Montgomery, Butler, Kelly, etc a rotation spot this spring, and if they kick Montgomery out of the rotation for Hendricks, then their best bet from the internal options won't be likely to go a full SP's workload. Quintana and Teheran combined cost about as much as Lackey+Anderson, so it's not a matter of finances that would hold them back either. That said, if you have Lester/Q/Hendricks/Teheran, another SP isn't a huge need, but there isn't a whole lot else to spend on either.

Yeah, I think the correct call should've been a HR, but for some reason they didn't see it. No excuse for Granderson not noticing that Blackmon was booking it around the bases and giving at least 10% effort, but Blackmon didn't *need* to book it around the bases.

Unless they think he's hurt or his arm is about to explode, I'm not a big fan of this logic, since it applies nearly equally to every team and player that could be traded.

Rodriguez manages to swing and miss at a pitch in the strike zone and get ball 4 out of the deal. Remarkable.

gonna save this one for later [tweet] [/tweet]

Happ made sure he got got