squally1313

Can we just turn this into a Schwarber gif fest?

Just remove the individual salary cap. Then the biggest stars would make enough that secondary stars couldn't get paid on the same team. The issue is that those big stars could accept less if they can get secondary stars, which is kind of what happens now just not to the extent being suggested. Like Giannis could sign for 2 years 200Mil, not win and then agree to get another superstar there and extend for 3 years, 60Mil, because he's already got more money than he'll ever need and no ring. That's certainly possible, but I don't know how you make a counter proposal that doesn't come off as extremely pro-owner. Basketball players (and people) are competitive and greedy. Players are going to want to be the highest paid player in the league. We don't see a whole lot of baseball stars taking $10m/year deals so that ownership has more money to spread around.

Good contributions to the NBA thread guys.

I would find a five-year rebuild to be unacceptable. I've always said I haven't had any issue with what the Cubs owners had for a payroll in the recent past even when people wanted them to spend more........but the Cubs should be in the top 5 in MLB consistently. And they shouldn't need five years to build a good team with that type of advantage. But, yes, I do realize it appears they might not be willing to have a top 5 payroll. Mostly agree, and they don’t have to spend like the Dodgers to be the Dodgers of the NL central. Having the 5th highest payroll in baseball should put them comfortably ahead of every other team in the division. Get the development on track and there’s no way it should take a 5 year total rebuild to get yourself in position for sustained success.

Loved the touch of them showing the Cubs with Obama but not Trump. Saving that footage for the PTR Director’s Cut Nah, saving it for the ‘Thank you President Trump’ video going out January 20th.

lol I’d love to see that If you’ve been around a while and want to PM me your number, I can forward along, assuming you guys will keep it mostly to yourselves (has a bunch of last names of his friends so feel weird just sending it off to the internet world).

My brothers fantasy football league paid Blago like $75 to reveal their draft order, gave him like 30 seconds of a script, and he went on for like 4 minutes about how he did nothing wrong, how the great president trump saved his family, etc. Just totally off the rails.

Best GM in team history, by a long shot. Was a hell of a run.

Good amount of low scores with the soft conditions this morning, but says something about his skill level that after that start and generally struggling through the round, he's still at -1 through 17.

Is that a free service? CBSSN is a cable channel, but I think more people have it than they realize, since they don't carry much besides the odd college basketball/football game. I have it through YouTubeTV, for instance. Yep, buried on YoutubeTV for me. Awesome....this should provide a much, much needed distraction for a couple hours.

Is that a free service?

Yeah I mean, it's a really cool gesture done at a really bad time. Still love him, even though if he knew how Instagram works he would most likely pull a Cutler here in the next few days.

Yeah while we'll never know exactly how much of a team's revenue is based on ticket sales/in stadium revenue, it's obviously a healthy piece of the pie and front offices are going to lean on that to keep costs down until there's more certainty.

This is really bad. Wong you can argue would have happened anyway because of how flooded the 2B market is going to be, plus the fact they already have Edman. And everyone else prior to this was certainly going to happen regardless. But in a normal market Hand would be due 3-5 years at 15+ a year. Hopefully this is just Cleveland being Cleveland, and this offseason is more bad than apocalyptic. I lean towards this being Cleveland being Cleveland during the Pandemic. Them not being willing to pay a reliever $10 million should surprise zero people, even less as a result of the pandemic, and then when you notice he's lost alot of velocity the past two years despite relative health and the shortened 2020 it just seems like them making a tough call I think it's bigger than Cleveland. It's them coming to the conclusion that he has no/negative trade value at that dollar amount.

I feel bad for this country the White Sox, but this is tremendous content.

I don't know your course and don't want to get you in trouble, but my guess on a short track like that, no one would have any issue with you bouncing around to open holes to avoid getting stuck behind groups like that. Especially playing by yourself. Get the first hole in so you aren't screwing up anyone's tee time and the starter sees you go off, but no one should care besides that. Alternatively, if you've got that much time...play two balls. Or play a scramble with yourself...taking those second shots from the same spot of the fairway/rough/bunker could be really helpful to try and correct whatever just went wrong. Use it as time to work on your lag putting. Etc.

Continue to give me the under on $20m a year for Stroman, but also I'll take the under on our payroll getting anywhere near that number, so it probably washes out.

A Cubs team that is trying to win in 2020 should be very interested in Kolten Wong on a short term deal. Hoerner didn't do nearly enough to win the job.

Agreed, but to the bolded point, I think television coverage needs to do a much better job of making the viewers aware of at least the general alignment before the ball gets put into play. The only times I get frustrated with the shift is when I think the Cubs have a base hit up the middle or through the hole or whatever and then the camera switches and there's a guy right there. Shouldn't take up too much room on the screen to show a little diamond, and you don't really have to include the outfield.

Check with each course. Some will let you tee off on the back 9 before the 18 hole golfers get to the 10th hole. If you go early enough, you should be able to blow right through those holes pretty quickly. I saw a couple of courses around here do that, but I have a very specific window of time and I can’t quite get there early enough. Every course I've played in the Chicago area will let you play 9 and pay a reduced amount. It usually isn't half, but the cheaper courses are like $30 for 18, $20 for 9. Keep going with the posts. Great reading.

'Abandon' isn't the right word, but it was more convenient than 'very clearly half-assing it'. Not showing Theo's presser at the end of the year, coming up with the bare minimum of coverage/analysis around the games, etc. To be fair, I haven't even thought about pulling it up since September, but get the strong impression I'm not missing anything.

Spending years putting together a network and then essentially abandoning it as soon as you accomplish that goal and get everyone on the hook for $6/month seems like a pretty solid metaphor for the rest of this organization.

In terms of the Stroman discussion, I believe he's better (ie, will produce more WAR over the next 3-5 years, especially with his profile and the Cubs infield defense) than any pitcher mentioned above. He's not twice as good as all those guys, and so if he's actually getting a contract that doubles everyone else, it's a different story. For Happ, it all depends on your goals for the team, and the decisions you make elsewhere. If you want to make another couple runs here with whatevers left of the old core, I doubt you can get someone who will produce more in 2021/2022 than Happ, and I'd rather just find someone who can hit lefties to protect him (throw a nobody prospect at the White Sox for Leury Garcia, for example). If this is more of a rebuild (which would imply present and future cost constraints), then yeah, could probably find someone/someones who could reset the service clock and give you more value down the road.

I think he sucks relative to contract he’s going to get (estimate are 5+ years and $100+ million from what I’ve seen) and think there’s a decent amount of downside and limited upside and just prefer alternative routes for the money. The leg injury history is a thing at this point. Knee, hamstring and calf now. He had elbow issues in 2018 as well. The GB rate is great but his stuff/velo isn’t special. He doesn’t strike guys out and his walk rates are just kinda okay and not great (64th of 132 qualified pitchers in BB% since 2017 and for a guy with his lack of stuff/velo that’s a little troubling to me). As he ages in to his 30s and his stuff/velo slips due to age he doesn’t have a ton of margin, imo. Again, this is all through the point of view he’s getting 5+ and 100+. I don’t want anything to do with him at that and think there’s red flags. I just don’t see how he’s really worth it to us on a 1 year prove it deal or long term deal with the other needs we have and spending restrictions to whatever degree. I don't know all the background on his injuries, but as mentioned above, it hasn't hurt him yet in terms of innings pitched. Walk rate isn't overly impressive, but GB rate is elite, as is (relatedly) his home run rate. If it's really 5+ years, then sure, we can pass, but can't see him getting something like that.

- What about Quintana suggests more innings? Stroman threw more innings in 2019, almost 10% more actually, in their last full season - Who would be the two guys that can reasonably expected to do that and for cheap? If it's a certainty thing, I agree it should be as much as possilbe, and the choices are guy who opted out after a calf injury, guy who got hurt and threw 10 innings after a weak 2019, and ?? then I mean....guy with the calf injury pretty easily Q has gone 170+ innings every year since 2013 and has the overall cleaner injury history in recent years. He at least pitched some this year while Stroman was completely shut down, Stroman also has a history of leg injuries and had a shoulder issue in 2018 plus he recently has a year where he barely topped 100 IP. Q is just the safer bet to me to meet the ~165IP and ~4.25 ERA threshold I’m looking for as the mid rotation starter add (again I think covering innings pitching even mediocre is gonna be a premium in 2021) and think he’ll be cheaper than Stroman (since Stroman is younger and think is just thought of more highly). I just don’t see the upside in Stroman (injury history and profile) that it’s worth paying him. I’d rather go another way. Other guys who I prefer for a fraction of Stroman and you can take 2-3 chances on for Stroman’s money does include Q but also (and these guys carry risk, but again give me 2-3 of them over Stroman) Desclafani, Minor, Nova, Odorizzi, and Richards off the top of my head (haven’t looked at a FA list recently). Give me Q and one of names mentioned for the amount Stroman goes for. Or save some money for building out the offense. Again this is more I just don’t like Stroman for the likely money thing so take a few shots on other guys for the same money or less than me liking any of these guys more than him. Desclafani, Minor, and Nova suck in a non-debatable way. Just resign Lester if you want to throw someone out there to give up 4 runs in 6 innings once a week. Richards has pitched about 200 innings in the last 5 years total. Odorizzi put up a 2.6 fWAR in 2018 and then a 4.3 in 2019, and then only pitched 13 innings in 2020, so not sure why you'd think he's getting significantly less than Stroman.