Transmogrified Tiger

Gleyber Torres was just scratched from the Myrtle Beach lineup.. EDIT: Rian Watt isn't really a news-breaker, but he also had this earlier today: [tweet]https://twitter.com/rianwatt/status/757278945746321408[/tweet]

gotta do something to get some more loft out of Heyward

If it had to be Soler, Torres, and Happ for Archer and Colome as principals, I'd be okay with that even if it meant sending some money for Soler. I'd try to swap Almora in for Happ if I could, but I would not consider those 3 to be a prohibitive price when the return is an elite reliever and a likely TOR starter both under control for 3-5 years.

I don't think 4 deals is really a plausible outcome, especially Miller and Paxton, and especially Miller and Paxton if Colome is added. There's only so many roster spots. For me, a best case scenario is trading for Archer and Colome without surrendering Baez, and preferably without trading Happ or Jimenez. If Soler is in the deal (probable), and especially if Almora is too (possible), then snagging a LH OF rental(Reddick, Jay, Bruce, etc) is also alright if the price is right and/or you really don't trust Coghlan or Montero.

All you have to do is copy/paste the URL of the tweet. Using the [tweet] tag is better but it'll still embed in your post without it.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/757272348319965185[/tweet] I am a biased homer, but I would say that Edwards a bit more valuable than Glover, and Torres a fair bit more valuable than Fedde, to put this in perspective.

For the former, I don't even really know. Almora, Edwards, and someone in low levels like Clifton? Almora, EJM, Pierce Johnson? For the latter, trading away any of Baez, Soler, Torres, Happ, or Jimenez would be a bummer. Not necessarily because they're all so great, but that it'd be such a poor way of spending that currency. Like buying that really expensive and fun but impractical souvenir when you're on vacation. It doesn't ruin your life, but you should probably be smart enough to know that you're signing up for buyer's remorse.

I'm definitely a name on the front guy instead of the back, so I'd eventually be fine with it, but Chapman would be conflicting. On one hand, baseball has done a really poor job of welcoming women as fans, and Chapman skating on a domestic violence charge is another reminder to all of them that they matter a little bit less. At the same time, Chapman was put through the legal system(unlike, say, Castro) and served a suspension, so there has to be a point of equilibrium. You can't blackball every player you don't like as a person or Mojo's MLB would only have 15 active players. Plus from the Cubs perspective, odds are this is only a short-lived phenomenon. As far as the costs go, I'm probably going to be bummed at what the Cubs would give up. Not necessarily because it's bad value, because Chapman is truly an inning incinerator you can use about 30 times plus as many playoff games as you want. But because it's for short term assets, and short term reliever assets, and that's counter to how I would like the team to be run, and counter to how Theo/Jed have built this team to be what it is.

Baez is the best tagger in baseball and it's not close

Oh, it was the collared throwbacks. 100% justified

Lackey is gonna force some difficult decisions come October. On one hand, he might not be the best choice for the postseason roster. On the other hand, without a purpose he might single handedly decimate the city's squirrel population with disastrous ecological effects. Tough call.

lol, if you insist

tweet this so i can retweet it without being a thief. All yours, my friend.

It's good to be reminded every now and then that Sale is Jon Lester's talent and John Lackey's personality stuffed into the body of slender man.

[tweet] [/tweet] I assume this means Richard getting DFA'd.

I am ignoring any contrary evidence to prop up the fantasy that Archer is the target we're after. - He's past the injury nexus and has proven to be durable, but he still has 3-5 years of team control - His performance this year should suppress his value a bit(or cause the Rays to doubt enough to pull the trigger on dealing him) but it's still plenty logical to see him as a TOR guy moving forward - Soler being a main piece makes sense given their OF situation and also explains the Reddick/Bruce rental rumors - The Dodgers' interest could be manufactured(they'll trade prospects when they're cold and dead from TJS thank you very much) to try and drive up the price - Tampa wouldn't shy away from taking better prospects at lower levels, so Torres could be another main piece

This thread is such a fitting tribute to Vogelbach being traded.

Against a RHP, Montero is a better hitter than Baez.

He was traveling to Milwaukee? He's there now so that's the likely reason.

I am very ready to be a Mekkes fanboy. Agreed, let's get him to full-season ball ASAP.

Jennings makes sense if Almora is going to Tampa or in some other deal*, otherwise I'm not overly interested. *I would not be surprised if this was the logic behind any interest in Reddick, having a contingency if you trade Soler for a SP or Miller.

I don't even necessarily think 'yes I would trade this player for Miller today', but I don't think any of those guys is an unreasonable ask for the Yankees to make. Asking for Schwarber is a nonserious starting point, asking for any of those other guys listed is a point from where reasonable minds can disagree.

I think the question is 'for what' instead of 'when'. I'd trade Schwarber today in a deal for any number of players, it just so happens about 0.0% of them are relievers. That's the particularly maddening part about the backlash to Cubs fans hating the rumors, it's much more about 'don't give up big assets for relievers' than 'we can't ever trade Schwarber'. Change the name and I'm far more agreeable, Soler, Almora, Torres, Happ, Jimenez, maybe Baez? Not taking any of them off the table for a player of Miller's caliber. The moonshot masher who's a pretty safe bet to put up 15 WAR in the rest of his team control? No.

Though it was real messed up when TT ran out and punched Clark right in front of him. oh sure they can show that but they don't show me screaming 'WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?' in his face, this is character assassination

Cameron has the annoying tendency to overreact in the opposite direction when he gets a bunch of homers berating him about a certain opinion, Law is also prone to this. Schwarber is not going to be an elite player unless he becomes a better OF defender(not probable but possible given his lack of time there) or sticks as at least a part time catcher(unlikely given his knee injury and current abilities). Schwarber's contact rate/K rate is something to keep an eye on, as is his BABIP from shifts. None of the criticisms of Schwarber are inherently wrong. Where he goes off the rails is in his comparisons to other players, and in translating that to Schwarber's value. Number one, look at that table of low contact guys and think about how many are actually comparable to Schwarber, especially when you consider their minor league history since Schwarber only has 300 MLB PA. Junior Lake? Avisail Garcia? Oswaldo Arcia? Get out of here. I'm not going to take the time to filter that table on those who had a MiLB wOBA over .400(Schwarber's is about .450) and also a K rate under 20%, I bet it's a whole lot closer to Kris Bryant and the rest of the guys with 120+ wRC+'s. Secondly, the whole exercise implies that Schwarber's offense has to stay at 2015 levels for him to be good enough to shrug off a deal for Miller. Schwarber is not going to be a regular 4+ win MLBer unless there's an unexpected change, but he can regress a fair bit and still be a 3 win hitter under team control for 5 years. That's still worth more than Andrew Miller! And it's not terribly close. Add in any optimism you might have on his ability to maintain 2015 production, be able to catch some, or improve as an OF defender, and the math tilts even further that direction. tl;dr Cubs fans at large overrate Schwarber, which annoyed Cameron so much that he tried to find a way to use Schwarber's true limitations to justify a Schwarber/Miller deal. He failed.