squally1313

Pippen always struck me as a prick in a lot of the ways Jordan was a prick (as mentioned above), but just easier to hate because you know...he wasn't Michael Jordan.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/22653874/jon-lester-chicago-cubs-trying-jordan-pippen-bounce-unorthodox-attempt-solve-throwing-problem Get ready for ESPN to go nuts over this the first time Lester hits Sunday Night Baseball.

I'm not willing to write them off just yet. It's been pretty obvious that Kane, Keith, probably Toews to a certain extent have been checked out for about a month now. They were just 24 hours removed from a third period comeback at LA where they put Kane and Toews together and they did whatever they wanted. I'll admit I have started worrying about Keith...I've accepted Seabrook's decline, but if we lose Keith as a top pairing guy too, that's probably something we can't come back from. But there are plenty of examples of 'washed up' cores making one or two more late runs. The Ducks won the Cup in 2007, and made the conference finals last year with essentially the same core. Penguins have as many miles as the Hawks do and no one is writing them off yet, even though we were pretty much even on points until Crawford went down. Kopitar looked washed up last year (52 points, -10), and now he's back to over a point per game. I'm hoping this group goes into their long offseason realizing the end of this run is very near (if not here), and gears up for one, ideally two more runs. We've got all four of them through 2023, and I don't think anyone denies that the last couple years are going to be ugly and largely just nostalgia based. But I think this team can still compete, this year just got away from them really quickly.

Hug watch?

Fun fact, Zips has Paul Blackburn, yes, that guy, as being more valuable (1.2 WAR in 138 IP) than both the Brewers fourth (Gallardo, 0.7/122) and fifth (Guerra, 0.4/99) projected starters. But yes, the rebuilding is over. Lol, I'll take that bet. Blackburn was a pretty mediocre pitching prospect, and I doubt he improves at the big league level. I'm NOT high on this worn down version of Gallardo obviously, but I like Guerra. We're talking about Junior Guerra right? He was really good in 2016, and I'm not sure what happened to him last year. Seems like he was injured most of 2017, but IF he's healthy I would take him over Blackburn all day. Haha that was definitely meant more as a shot to the Brewers (and surprise at the Blackburn projections). But worth noting Blackburn put up a (seemingly lucky) 3.22 ERA in ten starts this year. Zips seems to like his control and GB rate, despite his horrid K rates.

I still get him mixed up with the other guy we also got in the supplemental first round in 2012. Paul Blackburn? What? That guy? :-k Fun fact, Zips has Paul Blackburn, yes, that guy, as being more valuable (1.2 WAR in 138 IP) than both the Brewers fourth (Gallardo, 0.7/122) and fifth (Guerra, 0.4/99) projected starters. But yes, the rebuilding is over.

I think it's an interesting test case in the debate between running your team as a business and running your team under the goal of winning a World Series. Maybe the Mets aren't the best example, though I honestly don't see the harm in giving him 100 ABs in September over a Jay Bruce or something when they're 20 games out. But let's say he was a member of the Marlins or something. You've just traded away your entire outfield, you're going to be 20 games out by the ASB, and you're already near the bottom in attendance. Sure, I wouldn't want him taking ABs away from Lewis Brinson or Monte Harrison if they prove that they're ready by then. But JB Shuck or Scott Van Slyke? I can see an argument that the bump in attendance/attention/revenue would be worth it, especially with the built in incentive to lose anyways.

I'd say DeBrincat but the shelf life of young talent in Chicago tends to be short. That's not one of the cheap ones. Kane, Toews, Keith, or Crawford all showing NHL.com shop discounts, particularly on home uniforms. Toews is obviously the safe pick. Current skill level aside, he's accomplished enough that I expect to see his jersey at the UC for the rest of my life. As a Kane jersey guy...don't do it. For me it'd definitely be Crawford...given the way this season has gone, if he's healthy going into next year it's probably fair to say he's our best player. And that's before his two Cups.

First timers, presumably of drinking age? Have to go with bleacher seats. You should be fine on the normal sale, although the Cardinal games are the ones that are most likely going to go first. Looking over the schedule, June 7/8/9 (Phillies, Pirates x2) or August 23/24/25 (Cincy x3) would probably lead to more reasonably priced tickets, either in the regular sale or through Stubhub. Obviously the Cardinals would be the best atmosphere, but assuming the Cubs play like they're supposed to, any summer weekend game will be packed.

It's gonna be real stressful, fighting for HFA While I respect the 8 game cushion, L-O-horsefeathering-L at the Brewers outscoring our offense this year.

[tweet] [/tweet] I know this is more of a fluff thread, but I'm bored so I'm going to see if I can do this without cheating. Contreras, Jimenez Rizzo, Zobrist, Russell, Bryant, Baez, LaStella Schwarber, Almora, Happ, Heyward Q, Yu, Hendricks, Lester, Chatwood Monty, Edwards, Strop, Morrow, Cishek, Duensing, Grimm, Wilson Had to cheat for Wilson, but that's it. Seems like there are usually a few battles every year, but not this year.

i could see sending out assets to salary dump heyward and/or zobrist (assuming no big bouncebacks from either) A year away, but given what it would take to dump Heyward (paying most of his salary, prospects, etc.), I wonder if they'd consider trading Schwarber for cheap production/pitching, keep Heyward in right, and move Bryce to left.

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To be fair, he said it right in front of Darvish. Not a whole lot of alternatives there. "Well, no, of course we didn't think he was worth what he was asking at the beginning of the offseason. I mean, did you see the World Series? But once he lowered himself to basically John Lackey money...yeah sure, then we decided to start thinking about him."

This is the roughest math possible, but with those details, the Cubs have the following lined up for 2019: Locked in ($130m): 10 players Heyward, Lester, Darvish, Zobrist, Chatwood, Morrow, Rizzo, Cishek, Duensing, Smyly Options picked up: 2 players, $19m Quintana $10.5 Strop $6.3 Arbitration (guess): 9 players, $45m Bryant $16 Hendricks $8 Russell $7 Grimm $3 LaStella $1 Baez $3 Montgomery $2 Schwarber $3 Edwards $2 That's $194m for 21 spots, 3 minimums plus...$40m a year puts us around $235. Obviously Zobrist, Heyward, Smyly, etc are candidates to at least try to dump. But even with that, i don't think that number is too outrageous.

In the last four games, they've outshot opponents 157-94, are 0-4, and have gotten outscored 16-5. Obviously shot totals aren't an end all be all, but it seems clear to me that the rest of the team has realized just how bad the goaltending is, and that no amount of offense is going to be enough to claw back into the playoffs (0.9% chance at this point). There was obviously no chance I was watching last night, but go back and watch the third and fourth goal against. Just terrible goals, and the Hawks didn't do much of anything past that, other than falling apart even more.

I think the thought, besides flipping Santana for pitching, is to let Braun start at first base against every lefty and maybe even some righties. Thames was brutal against lefties last year, and really a sub-800 OPS in the second half for a first baseman isn't going to cut it either. Braun at first base would be a disaster, but it's just first base, and maybe they're hoping for increased offense with less defensive responsibility.

Let's get Monty to buy into his role at least to start the season. Give him some selective starts against teams he can do well against, and hope he puts up similar numbers to what he has before. In a few months, I could see some team needing a starter and seeing all the team control Monty has and giving up a pretty decent package for him, which is what Monty is looking for anyways. This is assuming the rotation stays relatively healthy, and Tseng/Alzolay/Smyly show they're ready to step in as the rotation depth going forward.

But the biggest hole they have is at center. I agree that Frogger (Kruger) has taken a beating and those are hard miles. But he took so much defensive pressure off of Toews' line that it has really affected scoring. No doubt, though I think Hossa's decline and then disappearance, coupled with Saad not being future-Hossa, hasn't helped Toews. On the surface, Toews actually has pretty good metrics, his shooting percentage just plummeted a few years back and has never really recovered. I get what you're saying though...during the peak, defenses had to pick between sending their best defensive line/pairing out against Toews/Hossa or Kane. Now it's a lot easier. Between Saad, DeBBrincat, and Schmaltz, you hope that going into next year you can figure out a dangerous top line and assume/hope Kane will keep being able to produce with whoever gets thrown out there. You'll need to have a reliable checking line to make that work, but I think there are cheaper ways to do that than with a $3+m 'fourth' line center.

Yuuuuuuuuuuuuu, yu got what I need! (Get it?)

This is a rough comparison, but I've always linked Kruger and Hjalmarsson, and I was a really big fan of the Hammer/Murphy trade because Hammer spent his time in Chicago taking up the hardest shifts, doing the most punishing work, blocking shots, etc. I think it's fair to say both of them have more miles than what you'd guess from just looking at their career stats. Kruger was an incredible piece for what he did at the price he was getting paid. But even at just $3.1m next year, he's too expensive given our other holes. Kampf can hopefully be 90% of Kruger at 25% of the cost.

Haha, guessing you read the same Faxes From Uncle Dale that I did. Was going to post it, but it's behind a soft paywall. The cap staying relatively flat the last few years hurt a lot. They just weren't anticipating the Kane/Toews deals to be taking up such a large percentage. Seabrook deal, I get it. He was a hero in 2015, and I don't know what the market was back then, but I'm guessing it was around what we signed him for. Bickell deal was obviously terrible, but as good as he is, Teuvo isn't bringing this team to the top of the standings. Same thing with giving up Johns with Sharp. Danault would be a nice piece, but you can't fault them too much for making a deadline trade in 2016 after how well it worked in 2015 (though i guess you could blame the disconnect between Q and Stan on who they were acquiring, as neither player contributed much of anything). At the end of the day what you're seeing is a dynasty ten years in. The current team is nowhere near a top team, but with Crawford I'd say they would have comfortably been a playoff team (Crawford: 16-9-2, Others: 8-12-6). Over an 82 game grind, it's tough to rely on Keith/Seabrook/Toews. In the playoffs, I wouldn't have counted them out. At this point, it's not worth rushing Crawford back for a, best case scenario, sprint to a 7 or 8 seed. Hope the kids keep developing...DeBrincat/Toews/Duclair has looked good, Saad/Schmaltz/Kane can be really good, figure out a Kruger-esque line around Kampf, and then find more scoring to fill out that last line. Hopefully whatever Crawford is dealing with, it clears up by the start of next season, and give it one more good run. Got to Love the timing of taking FFUD behind a paywall just as interest in the team is about to hit a 10 year low. I saw today that Kruger was put on waivers by Carolina. I wonder if they'll put in a claim. Yeah don't get me wrong, I credit the Committed Indian newsletters for a lot of what has made me such a big fan over the last ten years. But the last few years he's taken on a weird business approach of pretty much openly hating the team that he relies on for his income, not to mention as you said trying to monetize his site about three years too late. I think they're punting on this year. Any other year claiming Kruger would totally fit their standard approach of getting the gang back together, but the last 25 games or whatever is all about bringing the kids along.

Crosby>>Toews Malkin>=Kane Keith>Letang>Seabrook (Keith/Seabrook>>>>Letang). I get the argument, especially at this point, but ultimately both teams have 3 Cups over their run. As bad as our season has been this year, we're all of 7 points behind the Penguins, and that's with Crawford being hurt and us playing in a much tougher division. We'll see if either team can add one more Cup, but I don't think the Hawks are as far away as you think for the next year or two.

Haha, guessing you read the same Faxes From Uncle Dale that I did. Was going to post it, but it's behind a soft paywall. The cap staying relatively flat the last few years hurt a lot. They just weren't anticipating the Kane/Toews deals to be taking up such a large percentage. Seabrook deal, I get it. He was a hero in 2015, and I don't know what the market was back then, but I'm guessing it was around what we signed him for. Bickell deal was obviously terrible, but as good as he is, Teuvo isn't bringing this team to the top of the standings. Same thing with giving up Johns with Sharp. Danault would be a nice piece, but you can't fault them too much for making a deadline trade in 2016 after how well it worked in 2015 (though i guess you could blame the disconnect between Q and Stan on who they were acquiring, as neither player contributed much of anything). At the end of the day what you're seeing is a dynasty ten years in. The current team is nowhere near a top team, but with Crawford I'd say they would have comfortably been a playoff team (Crawford: 16-9-2, Others: 8-12-6). Over an 82 game grind, it's tough to rely on Keith/Seabrook/Toews. In the playoffs, I wouldn't have counted them out. At this point, it's not worth rushing Crawford back for a, best case scenario, sprint to a 7 or 8 seed. Hope the kids keep developing...DeBrincat/Toews/Duclair has looked good, Saad/Schmaltz/Kane can be really good, figure out a Kruger-esque line around Kampf, and then find more scoring to fill out that last line. Hopefully whatever Crawford is dealing with, it clears up by the start of next season, and give it one more good run.

I think they have one more cup in them. They kinda ate where the Penguins were 3 or 4 years ago They'll need the cap to go up a decent amount. It feels like our cap situation seriously limited what we could do this year, and we really aren't dropping much money off the team going into next year. I know it's supposed to, but I really think next year, maybe the year after is all you could really hope for. Seabrook is pretty much unplayable now, much less the next six years of his contract. Toews has shown signs of decline for a couple years now While Keith and Kane are still playing at a very high level, who knows how long that will last (Keith will be 35 this summer).