squally1313

Stop pitching brothers would be a good first start

Oh good, sogard starting at second.

Well this has been miserable so far. Get to work Theo.

Lol can you imagine this rotation with a bad Hendricks

According to this, he had symptoms and took himself out of a game but tested negative repeatedly over the next couple of days. Yeah him and Bryant I think both had cold/flu symptoms and sat out for a while but never tested positive. At least during the year. No idea about the offseason though. They shouldn't have even tested KB, he gets that once a month during the season.

They left horsefeathering advertisements on the best seats of the bleachers? PTR going to PTR.

Nats/Mets postponed for COVID. Off to a good start!

Happ Willy Rizzo KB Joc Javy Heyward Bote Kyle

I see Kyle has moved his daily optimism from the Covid thread to here. I'll take it where I can get it I guess. Might as well start out hot, and couldn't ask for a better way to do that than the Pirates at home, ignoring my Pirates over 58.5 bet. Take 4 or 5 from them the next couple weeks, split with the Brewers, and see what happens from there.

I don't think that would be the thinking at all, but rather what is a backup catcher most likely to excel at. Starting every 10 games isn't exactly the ideal situation to stay locked in at the plate nor is 16 starts at catcher making or breaking the offense. Defense is a much more stable and likely route for these guys to make a positive impact. Also also would add that if they're just carrying two catchers, defensive subbing late in games makes sense whenever possible to sneak some rest in for Contreras. We've already kinda gone through Contreras taking on extraordinary defensive workloads compared to everyone else, whatever year that was he caught like 40 games in almost as many days due to injuries and an extreme schedule, and it was ugly There's got to be some worry that giving a backup catcher job to someone with no experience at all is going to take you towards a guy who neither hits or defends Fair point on Higgins being potentially terrible behind the plate. If that's the case, whatever. Conceptually, if you're only carrying 2 catchers I think you're less likely to make late game subs there. If you sub Contreras out and then something happens to Wolters (like, say, he swings at a pitch that hits him in the balls), then you're in a tough spot. Every 10 games is probably less than what a backup should actually play, though obviously I don't want a personal catcher this year because we don't have someone of Caratini's ability level. In the 20 starts a year, I'd prefer someone who can approach competency at the plate, but ultimately it's not going to make much of a difference, and it sounds like this is just a placeholder for Romine anyways.

I’m not a big believer the backup catcher has to hit. Hell, believing the starting catcher *has* to hit is pretty fresh for me. I care most that Wolters can defend, has experience, and yeah generally prefer backups to be opposite hand hitters if available. I like Higgins as a multi-position third catcher for a ML debut, maybe he can close the season as the primary backup I can see an argument for a Nico type who can come in late provide an upgrade. We aren't making defensive substitutions if we're only carrying two catchers. There's just no logic there. Whoever it is is going to start every 10 games. There's no basis for that particular game requiring more defense over offense. If it's a net positive, then he should be starting, which he's obviously not good enough to do. If you want to carry Higgins as some incredibly dollar store version of Schwarber, then yeah, can see the value of Wolters here. The rest means nothing to me.

He's equally terrible against all pitchers, so don't particularly care about what hand he is, unless he can trick some dumb manager to make a dumb reliever choice. Would have rather just given PJ Higgins (12.1% BB rate, .895 OPS in Iowa in 2019) a shot, but....whatever.

Rizzo turns 32 in August. ESPN's Free Agent tracker goes back to 2006, and I don't see a single 1B 32 or older getting a 4+ year deal. Pujols was 31 when he signed his huge deal, and Carlos Santana and Jose Abreu got 3 years at age 32, that's the entirety of 31+ year olds getting 3+ years at the position. I always get tripped up on baseball ages, and it gets down to splitting hairs, but Goldschmidt signed a deal with one year left in March 2019 before his (per FG) age 31 season, and the 5 year deal kicked in 2020 for his age 32 season. Definitely a good point that there aren't many, but that seems to be the most obvious comp to the current situation, and it came without any of the past performance vs team friendly contract, more meatbally nostalgia/leadership/community/etc. Rizzo isn't Goldschmidt (though FG likes him better this year), but there's a huge gap between 5/130 and 5/70. Split the difference, front load it (because who else are we even going to be paying next year), and call it a day.

Almost 35 year old Carlos Santana just signed a 2 year, 17m deal after throwing up a .699 OPS last year and garbage defense since forever. Probably conflating posters around here, but all the people who wanted Nico to slug .300 every day because our pitching staff was built around ground balls has no problem dumping Rizz to pay a revolving door of fringe DH types to Roger Dorn ground balls and picks at first for the next few years. To be totally honest I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Is 3/60 or 4/80 insulting? We're talking about a guy with chronic back issues, who's on the back-9 of his career. A 3 year extension that runs through his age 35 season feels agreeable to me. Yeah it's insulting. How many 31 year olds are taking 3 year deals? Rizzo's chronic back issues have caused him to miss all of 41 games in the last 6 years. He put up the best OBP of his career in 2019 and then BABIPed .218 last year, 5th lowest in baseball, while putting up the same walk rate. If we had anybody sitting around who could hit, sure I could entertain spending a year to teach him first base. But look at the bench and the Iowa roster, we don't. So you spend half the Rizzo money for half the production, at best. I understand you're bumping up the AAV, but he's not going to want to go back on the market in a few years. Give him his 5 years, front load it and put in lofty team/performance options, and let him finish it out here.

Almost 35 year old Carlos Santana just signed a 2 year, 17m deal after throwing up a .699 OPS last year and garbage defense since forever. Probably conflating posters around here, but all the people who wanted Nico to slug .300 every day because our pitching staff was built around ground balls has no problem dumping Rizz to pay a revolving door of fringe DH types to Roger Dorn ground balls and picks at first for the next few years.

Unless I'm missing some obvious bat only dude in the minors who's ready to put up above average offensive numbers next year, pretty sure we're still going to be paying about $10m or so next year just to downgrade it anyways (Cubs projected for 3rd in fWAR at the position by FG this year, with all of it coming from Rizzo). Pay him.

Nico is better currently and in the future than Eric Sogard. In my opinion, David Bote is the best option for a starting second baseman. With him theoretically being competent defensively, there's less need for Nico to step in late game like there was last year with Kipnis. They get a day off every week for the first four weeks...I just don't see a lot of ABs for Hoerner in April if we're trying to win. If anyone in the infield gets even dinged up for a couple days, he should be on the next bus to Wrigley and into the starting line up. But getting him 100 ABs in April in Iowa is better than three or four starts and a marginal defensive replacement upgrade for a couple innings in the maybe 50% of games we'll be winning late in. I'm 100% with you here, but I will point out that Iowa is not starting before the first week of May(with rumors it could be later I think) so the reps Hoerner will be getting would be at the alt site in South Bend. Yeah good point, clicked on the wrong link that had an old schedule for Iowa. Still fine with it. Going with a four man bench makes me pretty confident that if Baez/Bryant/Bote went down for a few days they'd immediately make a move and not try to tough it out shorthanded, so think there's a good chance he's up before the 36 games or whatever the number is anyways.

It was, until that signing was Sogard and not a Wong, Hernandez, etc type. Nico’s spring and physical growth doesn’t mean nothing and when it’s him vs a horsefeathers ass player like Sogard the calculus changes. Nico is better currently and in the future than Eric Sogard. In my opinion, David Bote is the best option for a starting second baseman. With him theoretically being competent defensively, there's less need for Nico to step in late game like there was last year with Kipnis. They get a day off every week for the first four weeks...I just don't see a lot of ABs for Hoerner in April if we're trying to win. If anyone in the infield gets even dinged up for a couple days, he should be on the next bus to Wrigley and into the starting line up. But getting him 100 ABs in April in Iowa is better than three or four starts and a marginal defensive replacement upgrade for a couple innings in the maybe 50% of games we'll be winning late in.

Yeah this should be enough to keep us out of the lottery this year, so really the only way it could backfire is if the team blows up before 2022-2023 and/or the ping pong balls make that a really high pick (with a potential added wrinkle of the NBA re-allowing high school players into the draft). Carter still could develop, but don't think his ceiling is greater than Vucevic's present, so taking a shot with the current group (plus hopefully swapping Lauri for a PG) for a few years here.

Is it going too far to say that, if Azlolay wasn't granted that option, they would have attempted to put him through waivers or just cut him? Or they knew more about the ongoing Azlolay option issue and knew there was a good chance they'd get a favorable answer. It would take a miracle for Azlolay to ever be an opening day starter, or really even pitch 200 innings in a year for us. But he's definitely better than Shelby horsefeathering Miller. (and also Alec Mills sucks too, but people squint and see some version of Kyle Hendricks and he can eat up innings poorly, so...whatever).

From what I recall, he joined Team Canada late and they named him their captain. He was the only player on team with any NHL experience. You're telling me he was better served playing down in every sense of the word vs spending a training camp with Patrick Kane and a roster full of NHL players? The head coach coaches Ottawa in the OHL. I hate Colliton, but, no, he wasn't missing out on 'high level coaching he wouldn't otherwise get'. The last three points are generic at best. Guessing there are plenty of opportunities of players either choosing or not being allowed to play in this, given, again, he was the only NHL player on the roster (none on Team USA either).

"Sorry for sending you to a tournament for children, by the time you'll be back we'll be in full on desperation mode so get ready for that, but hey, at least I can blame your (totally avoidable) injury for missing the playoffs again" Sending him to the tournament was probably the right thing to do. No it wasn't.

"Sorry for sending you to a tournament for children, by the time you'll be back we'll be in full on desperation mode so get ready for that, but hey, at least I can blame your (totally avoidable) injury for missing the playoffs again"

Adbert is 26 and not likely to make the team out of spring training. Are we still wishing and hoping on this guy? We're going to have to fill a lot of innings with a group of pitchers that missed 2/3rds of a year last year, if not more. Healthy, able arms, even if marginal, are going to help a lot.

Adbert is 26 and not likely to make the team out of spring training. Are we still wishing and hoping on this guy? We're going to have to fill a lot of innings with a group of pitchers that missed 2/3rds of a year last year, if not more. Healthy, able arms, even if marginal, are going to help a lot.