Bobson Dugnutt

I’m shy of 2,000 even if/when my missing posts come back but I’ve been bumming around this site for 20 years so I hope I get to stick around the social forum after those parameters are implemented.

Can I be an old timer?

lol I totally forgot about that

The Dre’Mont deal seems really reasonable.

Dre’Mont Jones to Seattle. Zach Allen to Denver. Davenport to Minnesota. DL market thinning out.

I know you are doing guesswork here with not a full set of data but is 3 signings accounting for potential extensions for 1-2 guys? Also I'm assuming something like re-signing Monty would be considered a big-ish signing? Wasn't including extensions. Like one $5-7M guy, one $10-12 guy and one $15-17 guy would be a very conservative minimum to hit the cash numbers. That's with a lot of gut math. Flexibility to do more than that for sure. And if he does less... I don't know. Edit - just double checked my gut math and I'll stick with those ranges. If Poles does less than that, feels like extensions need to come in really high or contract structures are gonna be extra goofy (not bad per se, but GOOFY) to work out the minimum cash needs they have. Are you saying the Bears need to commit ~$33 million for 2023 to hit the cap minimum?

Damn it. Really wanted him. 3/18 is what he got. Is poles aware he has money? Yeah, incredibly reasonable deal.

Damn it. Really wanted him.

I tend to agree. He should be shoring up inside OL too though. If they go into draft with Whitehair-Patrick-Jenkins as the plan, it's not enough. Yep. I’m fine if they want to address T in the draft, but if that’s the case, IMO, neither Whitehair nor Patrick should be starting for the Bears next year.

The best part of that is him keeping it in the back seat of his car. the totality of the post gets me every time. the weird Wakefield signature, the avatar, “resipy”

“NSB fka NSBB” or “NSB née NSBB” if anything. we shouldn’t deny our past

NSB just feels incomplete.

Less than two pages per signing though

I wonder who he’s gonna sign with next.

There was a whole failure and redemption arc before injuries came into play. He got bit by the injury bug 4.5 years into his contract, at around age 33. The contract was considered a disaster well before that. He spent two years tossing batting practice in Colorado before being traded for Ryan Baker and Tim Spooneybarger.

The Hampton contract was a disaster because he was bad, not injured.

Meatballing a little here, but what drives me nuts about Zach is he seemingly can be a plus defensive player if he only gave a horsefeathers. He did show some flashes last year, but that was mostly when when Lonzo and Caruso were locking up primary scorers. But he’s certainly long/athletic/strong enough to be a factor.

Play Morel at 2B every day to start the season. If Madrigal shows up with a reworked body and performs in the minor leagues, then you can perhaps readjust depending on how Morel is doing. Nico Hoerner exists

The two SS off-season is still in play!

I still think Denver can stumble into a win one of these next two weeks, but certainly not counting on it. They’re just so bad. Does the #3 pick make trading down unlikely? Two QB draft with two QB needy teams ahead of them (assuming Seattle isn’t going to run it back with Geno). Still a great spot to be in, with the opportunity to have the first non-QB selection of the draft.

I believe he is, yeah.

Oh man I totally forgot about Tom Loxas. That dude has been pretending to be an insider for over a decade!

Denver has Cardinals at home and @Rams left on their schedule. Hoping they can stumble into a win one of these two games.

A little bit of that, and also that the most important number is the 17 million. Players aren't going to be looking up the individual OPS or WAR of all their new potential teammates, but if they've got an offer from the Cubs who are saying "we're going to be in the playoffs next year" it is more clearly demonstrated that Jed isn't blowing smoke when he drops 35 million AAV on 2 players and says there's more coming. Fair enough. I suppose I get the logic to a degree. I’m still very leery as to how meaningful it is to other players. But what do I know…maybe the do give more of a look to a roster with a name like Bellinger instead of a 5-headed monster of Ortega/Hermosillo/Valazquez/Heyward/Morel even if the actual level of production isn’t all that different. 2019 just feels like ancient history. I tend to think the “Cubs are open to signing TWO shortstops” and “Ricketts has mandated that Hoyer spend whatever it takes to turn the team around” leaks were crafted to signal that intent to spend. But if the Taillon/Bellinger signings add to that perception, all the better.

Yeah Bellinger was not brought in with the intention of playing 1st. Is the flexibility nice, sure. There are certainly scenarios where Bellinger and Davis are both crushing it and that's a way to get them both into the lineup. But Bellinger's been one of the worst hitters in the league the last two years but has played monster enough defense to mostly compensate for it. They're planning on the latter continuing while trying to mitigate the former. Even setting aside the 1B part of it, any team that paid 17 million for Bellinger did so with belief he'd be a better hitter than recent form, otherwise they'd find a far cheaper option for bad bat CF defense. With that in mind, I don't think Plan A is Bellinger at 1B, but I think that option as a contingency could very well be part of it. That contingency could be Davis going nuts to start the year like you said, or it could be Mervis falling on his face while Velazquez looks good. Or it could be that the plan is to sign Swanson but if it falls through they don't want to lose the option to pay Nimmo or trade for one of Arizona's outfielders. I also think for a team in the Cubs' position, banking a signing like Bellinger(and Taillon) even if you aren't 100% sure how he'll be used is something that's done as a signal of intent to other players they may be working with that may be hesitant about the team's competitive intent. His positional flexibility just keeps more potential options open that can be bigger upgrades than the post-prime crowd or buy low bounceback guys. I keep seeing this type of sentiment surrounding Bellinger. Even acknowledging the positional versatility and strong defense, as well as the Cubs’ own belief that they can fix the bat, why should signing a guys who’s OPS’ed .648 over has past ~1100 PAs signal anything beyond, “we needed someone to play CF” to any other FA. Not trying to be snide by any means, genuinely curious. Feels like they’d have to do quite the sell job to any other FA that they can be the ones to do what the Dodgers couldn’t for this signing to carry any meaning. Does his name and track record from 2019 and prior carry that much weight? For the record, I’m not even against the signing, because, again, someone has to play CF. Might as well be him, assuming it doesn’t preclude other more meaningful moves.