squally1313

No, it's fine. At least we are discussing something interesting, instead of whining about the offense or whatever. But, to get back on track... that was very fun. Keep doing that, fellas. Agreed. Ideal game thread is discussions like that (maybe more focused on the game, but whatever) interspersed every few innings with 6-8 people posting some variation of 'DONGGGS'.

Why would they view it like that? They also probably don't want to just pay him that money and lose him. It absolutely doesn't matter. That money is basically just money that is deferred from this year. They have to pay it either way. It won't factor into their thinking at all. But I figure it goes into their 2017 roster budget and so it has to be part of the money we can spend next year. Or no? Who knows how it's budgeted, but it shouldn't affect their specific decision on Fowler any more than any other roster decision they make. Just call it overhead, pretend it's a part of Rizzo's contract, whatever. It's gone.

God it's weird how I like pretty much everyone still posting in this thread right now, ie all the idiots are strangely MIA. We're rocking Sale tomorrow.

The buyout is happening either way, though. It doesn't make a qualifying offer any more difficult. Right but I didn't know if they'd want to invest another 16 on top of the 9 they are already out. Sunk cost, but doubt someone in at that point of their career coming off a career year signs a one year deal.

If Dex finishes the season strong I doubt he takes the QO.

I'm late on this, but this is the first time this season we can say 'horsefeathers the closer' and absolutely mean it.

Surely Baez must bat 8th, batting him 5th, nah. Montero was, is, and remains better than Baez at hitting RHP. Did you not see that last at bat though??? #FireMadden

FA? Felon Acquisition?

ok, umfan I see some of the same handful are still here complaining about others pointing out the cold hard facts, that they apparently don't want to see/hear or acknowledge. Eating their own and telling them how they should conduct their fandom. Now THAT's annoying. WAY more annoying than those venting their justified frustration over this (what is it 2 months worth now..?) garbage and Joe's "maddoningly" idiotic "I'm smarter than the game" routine. There's a reason they're far behind their pythag record...need look no further than the dugout and the clown shoe act coaching the bases for the most part...but hey, they throws a hell of a pajama party. smfh "This team right now is very capable of not winning 90 games" is like barely a fact, it's just a pessimistic sentence in response to a run of frustration (not to pick on Kyle since he's typically one of the better posters here). Being a fan of the team with the best record in baseball, especially one that's endured as much terrible baseball in the last 6 or 7 or 100 years as we have, and opening the thread of a game we're down 3 measly runs and seeing post after post of this misplaced anger and overblown panic is annoying. Oh no if we lose tonight we'll only be 90% favorites to win the division! Unreal. If you can honestly say you think Joe isn't one of, if not the best, manager in the game. Go ahead. Won't have much support there, even amongst the Rondon Fan's of the world. And then you conclude by implying that, in the face of all past evidence, we're going to...continue to underperform our pythag? Solid post.

Reached 19 games over at 27-8. About to still be there 64 games later. This team right now is very capable of not winning 90 games. Sure, if we play entirely below any sort of metric or statistic that predicts future performance. Why stop at 90? Cardinals are projected to win 87.6 wins and are losing tonight.

Following on gamecast but I don't care if that 2-0 pitch to Saladino was literally walked from the mound and set on a freaking tee, that's inexcusable not to take another pitch there.

No you guys, ignore the last 6 of Shield's starts. He's the worst pitcher in baseball, which makes us the worst offense in baseball. Trade them all, build around Chapman, he's shown a lot of growth or some horsefeathers so he'll be a good leader.

Given my expectations for Heyward's offensive output are basically rock bottom, there is basically nothing that can happen in the next two months that would change my opinion before Game 1 that we're going to dong all over everyone's faces. Because we're going to.

Wait....NOW he's a scumbag? THIS changed your opinion?

Yeah that was not the "first" impression people were hoping for. Reaction seems to be pretty negative across all the Cubs beat followers.

no growing up in poverty doesn't excuse physical abuse and intimidation via gunshots i dont think it does, but I worry more about how he has progressed from it then the fact he did it. That's a weird way to look at the timing of all of this. It didn't happen like, weeks after getting to America. He's been here since 2010 and it happened 9 months ago.

The problem is he's not apologizing at all for his actions, but for his lack of better judgement (and for that, and that alone, is he truly sorry) I realize that I've brought this upon myself, but the separation you're making between his 'judgment' and his 'actions' is perplexing. They're inextricable. But I'll leave it with again reiterating that any apology is not going to come across as 100% sincere, one because it probably isn't, and two because even if it was it can't be in this medium. No statement, statement, statement with different words, it's going to be criticized as insincere no matter what. Given that curve, it avoided some of the worst problems that come with these apologies, so it's pretty good for what it is. Chapman was and remains not a good person, and people remain justified in not liking his acquisition. This may be a totally unfair thought process, but when I see judgment vs action, I see the equivalent of someone apologizing for getting too drunk before driving home and not apologizing for running someone over. It just reads like he's apologizing for getting angry vs what he actually did. That may just be me though.

FWIW [tweet] [/tweet]

I get it, but people are saying he beats women (plural) and should be in prison and basically not given a second chance. I don't agree with that. Are any of you employers? Would you not hire someone who has served their sentence? Well the prison thing is a whole different discussion. Him accepting the 30 suspension without much argument seems pretty telling, but I haven't done a deep dive of the evidence. Yeah, you're right...you can't blackball everyone who's committed a crime. But I generally prefer likable people to play for the teams I like. I hated this dude when Rizzo went after him a couple years ago, and that was nothing compared to (at best) going into garage and firing his gun into the wall multiple times during an argument with his girlfriend. Sure, serve your sentence, and come back if someone wants to hire you. I'd just (strongly) prefer it wasn't here.

I'd be very shocked if they only ever use in him the 9th inning/save situations. Especially in the playoffs I said this earlier but I think Chapman should be the defacto closer but used situationally in high leverage situations against LHB as needed. In those situations Rondon switches to closer. This isn't just because I'm against the trade, but is this strategy something that's way easier to pull off in theory vs reality? Obviously you want Chapman pitching the most important at bat of every game, but those moments sometimes tend to develop pretty quickly. Maddon is the best in the game and I'm happy it's him trying to figure out the best way to use him, but you can't just have him throwing on the side for the last 4 innings of every close game.

Stop. Just seriously, think about what you're doing right now. Is that where you want to end up on this? Edit: Didn't want to quote his post, but hopefully it's clear who I'm responding to.

Very true, but large gif Either that, or I'm just not always wrong, which seems to be the popular opinion here. I'm probably doing this wrong, but based on this link I'm not sure you said what you thought you said. http://www.northsidebaseball.com/archive/search.php?keywords=chapman&terms=all&author=cubbie+swagger&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search Edit: Alright the most damning post looks like it was actually a quote from Sofa, but the maybe one post you could point to came in September before two rounds of playoff series in which Chapman would have made absolutely zero difference one way or another.

I hope the World Series clinching game is such a full on dong assault that David Ross pitches the last inning so I don't have to see Chapman's stupid d-bag face be the one everyone converges on.

Jesus Christ.

Would making one trade that included Archer and Colome count as one move? i guess it comes down to that either A.) wasn't an option or B.) the front office determined those two werent worth the asking price. im ok with either Yeah, at the end of the day, Theo is incredibly good at his job, and that's basically the trump card in any argument on this. But I think everyone here realizes the answer to Tim's original question is that it doesn't move the needle much at all, nor would any realistic trade, for this year's World Series. And assuming this trade doesn't come with an extension, there's no way it makes us better from 2017 on, so it just strikes me as contradictory to Theo's stated goal of 'making the playoffs as many times as possible'. Obviously he thought the slight uptick this year was worth any potential sacrifice down the road. We'll see how it goes. And, as others have said, this is before all the personal horsefeathers.