Bobson Dugnutt

Man, this would be such a depressing outcome. Upside is one year of potentially backing into a WC spot. The approach certainly has some problems, but I wouldn't view it as a one year thing. Quite the opposite really, it's kicking the can down the road again on doing something super fun in the name of sustainability. The main appeal is that you've kept the majority of your powder dry. You've signed no QO free agents, you've traded no prospects, and you've added less in multi-year FA contracts than you have rolling off the books a year from now. If Stroman indeed ends up opting out, you open next offseason $100M+ under the Luxury Tax. Given the prospects currently in the upper minors, plus that we'd essentially be swapping Heyward/Hendricks for Swanson/Taillon, we'd be starting next offseason at a baseline of closer to 85 wins than the 75ish they started this winter at. At that point $100M can do some real horsefeathering damage. But like the FO hasn't brought in a Star since Darvish right before horsefeathering ST 2018. That sucks. It’s better than nothing and makes them more watchable I guess (by nature of having fewer black holes), but I don’t see a whole lot in next year’s FA class worth keeping the powder dry for. Ohtani, Devers, Machado and…stuff. And this FO and ownership group hasn’t proven they’re willing to pony up for that level of player anyway. So if they sign a bunch of 35 year old mid-rotation and complementary lineup pieces for this year, I’m not going to be brimming with confidence that next year is the year they change course after 5 years of operating like a middle market franchise. A couple moves that address roster spots for the next several seasons rather than banking on the Ricketts being the ones willing to give Ohtani $400 million+ is much more preferable IMO. Besides, if they do want to play in those waters (and they should) it shouldn’t preclude them from anything this off-season.

If Jed's willing to blow past the LT, even with the caveat that it's predominantly with 1 year deals, he can make a very good team even with Swanson as the crown jewel. For example, something like Swanson Vazquez Corey Kluber Michael Brantley Adam Ottavino Taylor Rogers That plugs every hole on the roster with a legitimately good player. The defense would be fantastic and the offense would be good, though sorely lacking a "the guy." The pitching staff would be similar, I'd probably feel good with every pitcher we have on the mound except Hendricks (which there's no getting around). Probably about half the opening day Iowa staff too. Again though lacking a guy you'd throw out there in game one, or hell maybe even game two, of a playoff series. Is it the team you're gonna pick up to use in MLB the Show? Absolutely not. Is it going to win a lot of games? I really think so. It's not sexy, but loading up on depth and grinding opposing teams down really works (at least I'm the regular season...). But you've gotta spend. If you're punting on adding a star, you've gotta be buttoned up absolutely everywhere. Every horsefeathering inning and every horsefeathering plate appear needs to be taken by a guy you're happy to have on the roster. Otherwise you've gotta hope to get an unexpected superstar performance from internal options, or hope that the Cardinals faceplant. Neither is a smart thing to count on. Man, this would be such a depressing outcome. Upside is one year of potentially backing into a WC spot.

If I had to guess, I feel like the Giants land Correa with the money they would’ve given Judge and then Swanson is our consolation prize. There’s really nothing about Swanson to excite me about locking him up for 8+ years, but he’s a clear improvement. If that’s how the SS situation plays out, are they going to try to sell Swanson/Bellinger/Taillon as fulfilling the supposed “do whatever it takes to turn the team around” mandate? Or, hopefully, are they still looking for impact elsewhere? I think (short of Correa), it’d take Senga+Murphy for this off-season to generate any sort of excitement for me.

I’m clinging to the hope that the Bulls pick lands in the top 4 and the Blazers fall back down to earth, but not too far that the pick doesn’t convey.

Ooof Illinois looks pathetic today.

Yea I think trenches on both sides will be the FA focus and very likely R1 focus. I'm sure Miami will resign Chubb who woulda been the biggest edge name. Davenport next biggest edge name possible after him. Lots of OT possible to hit market. I'd put money on that spot being one of their big signings. They'll need to sign some bodies at LB with Morrow being a FA. But hopefully not a $20M LB like Smith. Edmunds is the biggest LB on market. Spotrac who's valuations I don't necessarily trust put him at 4/57. He might be closer to Vander Esch probably another LB in that $10M type range among LB FA. Should be some nice options on The DLine: [tweet] [/tweet] Daron Payne and David Onyemata interest me at DT. Marcus Davenport and Yannick Ngakoue on the edge. For OT, are Brown, Wynn, and Jenkins the biggest names out there? I know pretty little about the current OL landscape but at a glance these three seemed like the best combinations of age + talent.

Looking forward to the off-season, who are the OL FA to keep an eye on? I’m assuming the focus in free agency is going to be on both sides of the line.

Who are you considering the 3rd?

I keep hearing about the pass totals being low because the run game was so successful. It worked on two drives. The rest of the game it was bad. If the run game were so successful, then they would not have had four 3 and outs. It seemed like they just moved away from it from the 2nd quarter until maybe mid 3rd. When they were leaning on it, it was working. 160 yards on 19 carries between Montgomery and Herbert is not “bad.”

I believe on one of the CHGO pods Corey Wootton said the first TD to Pettis was on his 4th read.

Interesting. It's the website that was created in the fallout of Joe Ricketts burning DNAinfo to the ground, so I'm happy to promote them whenever possible. I think they took the paywall off at the start of Covid and apparently never reimplemented it. But yeah, love Block Club. You can also support them by buying this magnificent tshirt like I did: https://blockclubchi.weebly.com/store/p27/chicagostyleispartycutshortsleeve.html

Damn, only 6-10 snaps? Isn't the 2nd preseason game basically the 3rd preseason game in the past? I don't expect to see the starters in the 3rd game (but maybe I'll be wrong). With a new offensive system, tons of new players, young QB etc. I would have expected more than 3-4 drives from the 1st team offense all preseason. That's less than even Nagy gave them (albeit he had 1 more game to play with) I think they said it’s because of the short turnaround between games. Still, 6-10 does seem low.

Generally agree but a bit odd of a lineup for a "showcase game" that theoretically is going to be watched by many nationwide. No Contreras, Wisdom or Morel. Contreras and Wisdom are literally on the advertising for the game: Edit: nevermind, you posted yesterday's lineup. Today's lineup has not been released yet as far as I can tell. Lol that advertisement is pretty bleak in the first place. Fast forward to today and 38 year-old Joey Votto is the only one of the four playing in the game. Edit: Nevermind. Missed your edit.

Extend Willy.

Wow.

Maybe? But that begs further questions because no team is going to give value for Hosmer, and you're already giving so much value in the Nats deal you almost run low on reasonable options to convince someone to take Hosmer's deal. Plus their history so far has been not very willing to pay much of a prospect price to unload him, hence why he's still there. Combining the messages of these two tweets, it sounds like they might finally be willing to move off that position. Sounds like a monster package would be going to Washington to acquire Soto/Bell and unload one of Hosmer/Myers.

Would Bell’s inclusion in some of these rumors indicate that Hosmer is on the move? Maybe? But that begs further questions because no team is going to give value for Hosmer, and you're already giving so much value in the Nats deal you almost run low on reasonable options to convince someone to take Hosmer's deal. Plus their history so far has been not very willing to pay much of a prospect price to unload him, hence why he's still there. Combining the messages of these two tweets, it sounds like they might finally be willing to move off that position. Sounds like a monster package would be going to Washington to acquire Soto/Bell and unload one of Hosmer/Myers.

Would Bell’s inclusion in some of these rumors indicate that Hosmer is on the move?

The timeline is moving a mile a minute right now so I don't know where I saw it, but apparently Breslow was Wesnenski's pitching coach when he was still in the Yankees org. He's definitely got ideas in mind for him, and I'm very interested to see what they are. Is this what you’re thinking of? https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2022/08/01/what-the-cubs-are-trading-scott-effross-to-the-yankees/

I think it’s highly unlikely that it actually happens, but Rosenthal mentioned that the Padres have discussed trading for all three of Contreras, Happ, Robertson. Just for fun, what does the return look like from the Padres should we send them all three?

Other than Gallo, these guys didn’t have quite the swing-and-miss that Vientos does. As a an ancillary piece in a deal with the Mets, sure, fine. As a headliner in a trade for any of Willy, Happ, or Robertson? No thanks. They did, you have to remember that K rates have jumped up in recent years. AAA K rates now are nearly 5% higher this year than they were 5 years ago. What does a 30.9% AAA K-rate translate to in the majors? There’s only 4 qualified players in the bigs with a rate that high this season, one of them, incidentally, being Patrick Wisdom. The others: Brandon Marsh, Eugenio Suarez, Luke Voit. All useful players, so he can be successful, but it seems like a very narrow path. And, personal preference coming into play here but, aesthetically, even if he hits his best case scenario, a guy that Ks in a third of his PAs is just not the type of hitter I’d want anchoring 1B or DH. I know contact+power is a rare commodity but I’d just as soon spend our most useful assets in what I hope is our last deadline as sellers elsewhere.

Spot checking some leaderboards: Matt Chapman, Aaron Judge, Fernando Tatis Jr., Ian Happ, Joey Gallo Other than Gallo, these guys didn’t have quite the swing-and-miss that Vientos does. As a an ancillary piece in a deal with the Mets, sure, fine. As a headliner in a trade for any of Willy, Happ, or Robertson? No thanks.

Yeah I want nothing to do with Vientos and his 30+ k-rate/bad glove. I’ll take Mervis’ profile over his all day.