Transmogrified Tiger

I had my doubts that there was a 5th OF job at all before yesterday, now I'm pretty positive it'll be an 8 man pen. With that in mind, I imagine that Victorino is a hedge against ST injury and Szczur not clearing waivers come April.

Lol we got Fowler? Nevermind then

My concern is more for pinch hitting/matchup purposes than worrying the starting lineup doesn't have enough LH hitters on a given day.

i'm not sure that weakness is a weakness this team realistically has to worry about I don't think it's an Achilles heel, but I didn't feel that way about CF defense either. La Stella as the only LH bat on the bench isn't ideal, and I'm probably TLS's biggest fan.

Even taking into account that relievers are so hard to predict (see Strop, Pedro), that's an underwhelming return. If they bring back Jackson this is fine, although it's shuffling from one weakness (backup CF/CF defense) to another (LH bench bat/power).

Gonna be a whole lot of bewildered people when cespedes goes back to bring a 2.x WAR guy this year.

While the lists in the tiers aren't in order, Vogelbach and Edwards were the last additions to their respective tiers. I can definitely see more pessimism for them than I have. I'm a long standing Underwood skeptic, which while maybe unfair given my placement of Cease, is why I have him that low. I need him to strike out more guys than the Williamses and Markeys of the world before I consider him a candidate to capitalize on his stuff.

I'm not really good for these types of evaluations, but peak Howard was probably close to that point, right? Bit of a different situation as keeper though.

I guess tiering is the easiest way to go about it for me. Cease, EJM, Jimenez, De La Cruz, Edwards McKinney, Williams, Candelario, Steele, Vogelbach Underwood, Caratini, Sands, Markey Jeez this is not easy. I guess Eloy gets my vote here.

lol how did Hannemann sneak on there already, I thought I was his biggest fan I legitimately have no idea who to pick here.

A few other assorted thoughts - This needs to be included in the thread itself. [vine] [/vine] - Morris looked pretty good, real good considering quality of opponent. He wasn't much in the air and has zero left foot, but he'll be dangerous in MLS. Even more so come summer when he's doing more reacting and less thinking. - Sounders are going to have problems chasing the game. Without Martins they're in a weird spot where their Top 4 attackers are probably all starters, but none of them should regularly be playing 90 and their reserves are all completely unproven. Maybe when they get Torres back and Evans moves to midfield they'll be able to give guys a rest without needing to turn to Aaron Kovar. - *dons homer hat* What a shameful bit of hackery that was by Club America. As a Liga MX team I was prepared for all the delaying and time wasting silliness, but for large chunks of the game their only means to stop possession was just to chop people that were stepping by. Just a garbage brand of soccer given what they're obviously capable of otherwise. Of course, given that the ref refused to give a yellow for anything less than an assassination on the field, that was probably a savvy strategy. 2 minutes stoppage at the end(2 goals+1 card+1 injury+much time wasting = 2?), carding Alonso for standing in the way of a free kick that CA did a dozen times, carding Ivanschitz instead of giving a rightful card when Alonso got horsecollared in stoppage. I didn't realize getting CONCACAF'd extended to MLS home matches. *removes homer hat*

I'm at Century Link. Clint Dempsey is a bad man. Giving up that away goal suuucks.

There aren't a whole lot of teams at the intersection of 'can afford to pay Votto's contract' and 'need a 1B (especially one w/ Votto's contract)'. Look at the 1B depth chart: http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=1B All those teams below 2 WAR are a combination of rebuilding teams, teams with no money to afford Votto, and teams where you can squint to see a fit but they have other 1B considerations that make trading for a 1B unlikely. Maybe as the season progresses if somebody goes down it'd be a better fit.

Bob Huggins and his coaching tree pioneered Murderball, please show it respect and call it by its proper name

This trade amuses me if only for the optics that the Angels, a team with a truly historically empty farm system, are only being included to supply the necessary prospects.

Argentina/Panama and a US match is pretty good, even if Jamaica/Venezuela is a bust. Up here we have Haiti/Peru and Argentina/Bolivia

Using ZiPS, the Cubs have the top 3 hitters and 7 of the top 9. That's fun.

[tweet] [/tweet] [tweet]https://twitter.com/jatayler/status/700794199764033536[/tweet]

Rizzo Bryant Heyward Schwarber Zobrist Montero Soler Russell Baez

Nice, hopefully post surgery he can get back to striking guys out like he did earlier in his career and maybe a different org can give him a little better control or make him a little less hittable and he'd be a fine relief option. I'm going to be optimistic about it since I had a couple college classes with him.

http://chicagocubsonline.com/archives/2016/02/theo-epstein-talks-cubs-and-rotisserie-baseball-on-siriusxm-fantasy-baseball.php I am such a sucker for spring training optimism. Also DJ Lemahieu was a league average player last year as a +0 2B, so if that bat goes to CF with plus defense...well look at Kevin Pillar's 2015. And that is if we're putting a ceiling of a ~90 wRC on Almora, which while a possible outcome seems more than a little silly as a hard cap, given his pedigree and small sample uptick post-Team USA. When Almora is right he hits everything, so peak years of .300/.350/.450 are not out of the question(or in other words, above his ceiling). With plus D that puts you in poor man's Lorenzo Cain territory, or yes, near Mookie Betts's 2015.

I laughed out when I got to the Lackey poster, what a let down after the other names

Grant Brisbee is just the best. Be sure to read that whole article for the part on the Mariners.

Yeah, his numbers in South Bend scare me a lot. Looking at his Eugene stats: 17.7% BB%, 21.5% K%. OK, I can deal with a >20% K-rate if you are walking that damn much. You could even attribute the K-rate to him just being uber-patient at the plate. Looking at the South Bend stats, though: 10.3% BB% and 23.6% K%. Well, you moved up to full-season ball. The K's are about the same, a little up. To be expected. The walks are down quite a bit, though. Still a fine walk rate, but it isn't exceptional. It's certainly not enough to make up for an astronomical strikeout rate from a college bat in A-ball. Granted, these are both incredibly small sample sizes, so it doesn't mean much -- especially when comparing them against each other. But, one thing is for certain: from his time in both places, it is pretty obvious that he is going to strikeout a fair amount. If he walks like he did in Eugene, I'm all in, K's be damned (unless it gets up near 30%). But, if that gulf between K% and BB% remains about where it was at South Bend -- or, gasp, even widens -- then I'm out on him. He just doesn't have enough other positives for me to be OK with him striking out like that, especially considering what level he is in. I could even be talked into the K rate given the IsoP, I can be a K rate apologist so 10% BB rate and .200 Iso are pretty good cover for a K rate in progress. It's the lack of average on top of that that's the killer. It's only 165 PA so I don't want to overreact too much, but hitting .241 as a college draftee at that level doesn't portend that well. Plenty of time to make me look stupid, but he's not coming close to cracking my Top 3 in a system that has a lot of players who can make a claim at that level.

I wonder how much of that reaction is 'TWO opt outs!?!?!' v. the actual duration/AAV.