squally1313

Yeah, I remember his 'smartest guy in the room' shtick wearing thin during the middle of winning 108 games and the World Series, much less now. At this point he just needs to shut up, or go away, or both.

Essentially calling someone like Contreras, one of probably your top 5 important players this year, mentally weak is a bold play for the Player's Manager.

I’m starting to talk myself in to Chatwood being a reasonably valuable thing out of the bullpen so let’s get nuts. Chatwood will turn in to the best multi inning reliever in MLB going ~100 innings out of the pen to get to his 4 WAR. Any particular reason why on this? It wasn't like he was better the first time through the order? Seems like a disaster bringing him in and counting on him for multiple innings when there's a 50/50(?) chance he just won't be able to throw a strike from the get go.

You live in a dark, dark world. The fact that this comes from CubinNY, who has been confidently predicting the Trump downfall for like, over a year now, makes it especially amazing.

Did that thread actually exist? Because if so we need to find it.

No.

Thanks, JudasIscariotTheBird.

Wait, he has a Harry Caray impression??

This Hawks team gives up 45 shots a night. No goalie can stand up to that for very long. The playoffs, if they somehow got there, don't really matter. Nobody is giving up a 1st for Crawford. With everything that he's gone through, I'm not sure he's still the same player he was and I'm not sure he's any better than what they have now. It's much more likely that a team may want Ward as insurance/ a better back up than what they have. As for next season, I'd be surprised if Crawford is the number 1 goalie for the Hawks. Either Delia will have laid claim to that job or played himself into a backup role, in which case they will sign someone else or make a trade for another goalie. I'm a big Crawford fan and I hope he either proves me wrong and is fine or that he retires and lives a happy life with better health. To your last point, I want Crawford to live a long and healthy life and his struggles with head injuries are incredibly concerning. I'm not a doctor, and he said this week he's given no thoughts of retirement. So based on the assumption that he's healthy, and freely wants to play, we either hope some team gives us a dumb offer for a multiple Stanley Cup winning goalie, or he's our starter for next year. Delia isn't going to prove anything this year based on his skill set/track record and your first point...this defense is miserable, he's not going to be throwing shut outs regardless. You've got one more year of Crawford at $6m, which is 8th in the league for goalies this year. Delia has 70 games of professional experience, Crawford had 255 games in the AHL before he got the starting job. He's our starter next year assuming he's on the roster, and if he's not I'm hoping it's because someone gave up too much for him, because he's better than Delia and whoever else we would trade for given our cap situation and other needs.

Well Bryce Harper would certainly be relieving to my anxiety about the current roster, so... (yes, stolen from twitter)

If Crawford wants to come back next week and throw up three shutouts before March 1 while some top team's goalie blows an ACL, then sure, grab a first round pick for him and let him get back to the playoffs. Other than that, he's the best goalie we're going to have next year (and this year if we make the playoffs), and we're going to need a good goalie, not just a passable one, behind this defense.

I think no matter what the Crawford era is done. Either he doesn't come back from this latest concussion or the Hawks find a way to unload him and save some salary. More likely the former than the latter. If he's not healthy, or he's not comfortable coming back, or whatever else related to his head, then thank him for his service, and wish him well. If he comes back this season or next and wants to give it a go, why not. He's got one year left on his deal at a fairly reasonable price, and I don't think anyone is sold on Delia unless he drags this team to the playoffs (which is far from likely). As long as Toews/Kane/Keith are around, this team has to go into the season trying to win now, and a healthy Crawford gives you the best chance going into next year.

Milton Bradley was perfect for my dumb fandom at the time because I was still incredibly naive and/or had blinders to player's personal lives, but also thought I was a genius sabermetric fan who just discovered walk rates and assumed every hitter was basically a .270 hitter who just had good or bad BABIP luck. Between him and Fukudome I thought we were set.

Mostly this, yeah. In an era where a team can have 3-4 bullpen pitchers more effective than the starter in a one inning stint, having one of those relievers guaranteed to face the other teams best sequence of hitters in the first is another benefit for me.

Thread title change?

The next ten games or so look really favorable (or at least relatively favorable, as the Hawks are still statistically worse than most of these teams). 7 of the next 9 at home, with only Boston (7th in the east), Columbus (8th in the east), and Dallas (6th in the west) as playoff teams. That stretch takes them right to the trading deadline (March 25), which works out perfectly. While it's clear Toews and Kane have been bringing it all year, I'm hoping that there's another gear for Keith (top pairing defenseman) and Seabrook (playable defenseman) that they can get to for a home stretch. If the stretch doesn't go well, pack it up, hand the keys to Cam Ward, and see how far you can fall.

Relative to the last four years? No. Given everything else that the start of the Cubs season represents (spring, sunlight, something to watch/follow every day, two less months of Trump, etc.)? Yes. The second outweighs the first.

Considering making a new account just so I can like that again.

Awesome...now lets see the projected WAR from returning players. I assume Cole Hamels gives you $20m worth By the calculation that uses total money spent on free agents as the denominator, and usually gets to about $8-$9m per win, he does. But my new way of looking at it, where $20m to Cole Hamels is infinitely better than $20m to Tom Ricketts or some Republican PAC, he definitely does.

Bryant in 2018: 2.3 Baez in 2018: 5.3 So a relatively healthy Bryant gains 3.7 fWAR, making up for the 1.3 fWAR Baez loses almost three times over. It seems you and Tim agree.

Hedges is fine, but we should really at least be keeping tabs on Realmuto before the Dodgers get him for pennies on the dollar. Flip Contreras for whatever upgrade elsewhere.

https://lifestyle.clickhole.com/heartbreaking-the-worst-person-you-know-just-made-a-gr-1825121606

David if it helps I also don't want the girl on the team.

No Lester, no Rizzo. Guess they're just punting the convention along with the rest of the offseason.

Kyle Hendricks, per Fangraphs, has been worth $120m in his career (and that's not even including throwing the best start in Cubs postseason history and starting the greatest game in Cubs history). He has been paid less than $13.5m thus far.