javy knows my name

There's no way the Cubs would acquire Machado without first moving Russell/Baez, right? It would tank their trade value

Isn't that what Twitter has turned "sports journalism" into? Just ... don't talk about twitter anymore I dunno about yu, but I want jersey to keep going

What did the HIPAA-violating tweet say? It's gone now

Oh wow; I hate this person a lot

wowowow this is exciting

Hows abouts “EEEEEVAN LAGOOOORRIIIIAAAAAAA 1 2 3 4” Damn genius THIS IS GOING IN THE THREAD

Can you and Minny just have a separate thread where you say weird things to each other?

They don't deserve Machado or any other good players or things

And this guy knows a thing or two about casting wide nets

Technically he's their CEO (they don't have a GM yet!). I don't even know what CEO means in baseball front office terms. Though, they're not being run like a baseball team right now. It's purely a business right now down there in Miami. It's like Gordon Gekko bought the team and is breaking it up and selling pieces of it off to make a profit. What a total departure from the way they've been running it for 20 years!

That article is awesome, mainly because now I'm picturing Ohtani starting in left, coming in to throw gas in the 8th and staying in to bat/field in the 9th.

No, the Cubs Way was an unwritten discipline that they developed that Verducci shared insight into in a book he called The Cubs Way. pretty sure it was actually written The point stands that Verducci's book is incomplete information from a second-hand source

Isnt "the cubs way" the book that the FO put together themselves when they first got here to basically standardize the organizational philosophy? I thought this joke was gonna be about how dumb it would be to distribute that book to somebody who was likely to sign with a direct competitor. No, the Cubs Way was an unwritten discipline that they developed that Verducci shared insight into in a book he called The Cubs Way.

chicago and seattle are right with LA in cost of living. San Fran is higher Chicago is now significantly cheaper than Seattle. It goes LA Seattle Chicago https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/compare/seattle-vs-chicago

Where in the horsefeathers have you been? Our president literally insults every person he meets. If youre thinking or expecting anything at all you are doing it wrong Literally nothing you have said in the last 5 years has made any sense.

So this is the closest I can find as far as an explanation of what the braves actually did. Did they basically just spend a ton more money than they were allowed under the CBA? What are some of the similar things that teams like the Cubs have likely done to circumvent the rules, but less "brazenly?" The stuff that's illegal that all teams actually trying down there do.....They'll make agreements with 14 and 15 year olds. They'll even package players together, to help pay the buscone(that's the players trainer) and to get a guy or two at a lesser price that fits your budget. I'm sure they'll give additional " gifts" too, houses and cars, etc, that are untraceable. If you're going to package players together though...its ridiculous to expect it to slide, when you're getting guys worthy of 500k to a million dollar type of bonuses......For the 300k max, by funneling money thru the lesser players or buscone. Especially, when you're trying to package guys that aren't even in the same draft class. Or start packaging guys that are still two years out from signing. They were taking too much advantage. Its one thing to get a player or two into your class every once in a while, that's kind of shady. Its another thing to do it as often as possible, which is basically what the Braves were doing. And they weren't even good at hiding it. Honestly, I think most teams can still get away with these things. Because they're not insanely greedy about how often they go to that well...... Thanks, that makes a lot more sense! That whole packaging players thing just sounds like amateur hour. Our FO can cheat way better than that.

Eh, I'm honestly not that sure about that. This is MLB coming down super hard on a team being super stupid. Coppolella and the gang were really stupid and brazen. Trying to package guys from different classes, including a year you're under the penalty? I think there's a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to how things get done in that market, but the Braves went a bit too far, plus they were stupid with hiding things. And trying to do a package deal with a 14 year old? They were just too brazen and too dumb. On top of that, Coppolella was hated by the rest of the league. If it were someone else, I honestly doubt the penalty would have been as harsh. He just pissed everyone off, by being greedy. And then by being stupid. I think all this does is helps get rid of the buscones and makes teams cover their tracks a bit better. So this is the closest I can find as far as an explanation of what the braves actually did. Did they basically just spend a ton more money than they were allowed under the CBA? What are some of the similar things that teams like the Cubs have likely done to circumvent the rules, but less "brazenly?"

Joe Morgan's threat that these sanctimonious HoF greenie takers will boycott induction ceremonies is more like a best case scenario for baseball

I would super appreciate some evidence of said budding friendship

Hendricks appears to be solo. [creep alert on myself] Hendricks' gf/fiance/maybe wife now? is posed with Travis Wood, whose wife I believe is behind Grimm. F yeah Hendricks

Stupid question: if we assume breakeven defense for Schwarber in left, that would make him more valuable there than as a DH elsewhere, correct?

I don't know where you get Schwarber being near 4 WAR because baseball reference has him at 0 for 2017 and 1.1 for his career. I agree that Almora can be a 3+ CF. You might be right about Happ being a 2-3 player and being as good as it gets. I just don't understand posters willing to be patient with the youth offensive flaws of Russell, Schwarber, etc., but aren't willing to see what Happ can do. The potential of a 30+ HR, switch-hitting, fast, versatile 23year old is not something to quickly dismiss. I feel like you missed this

Yeah, I'm thinking for one of those two, it'd take two of Happ/Almora/Schwarber and prospects (or just Russell plus some prospects?). The alternative would be the Happ-for-closer type trade that was being discussed here a few days ago, and then one of the other two for a mid/back of the rotation controllable starter (ideally a younger pitcher with upside). I'd go for Schwarber and Russell instead of Happ or Almora. Schwarber needs to be in the AL because he was born to DH. Russell can be replaced by moving Baez to SS with Happ/Zobrist playing 2B & LF. Almora has shown me enough to be a solid CF and Happ has the power, speed, and versatility to be a valuable member of the team for the next decade. You keep saying this and it's not getting any less ridiculous. That's a gigantic downgrade defensively and just an outrageous kneejerk undersell of a pre-prime cost-controlled Russell.

It was horsefeathering pancreatic cancer. A 17 year old had late-stage pancreatic cancer. That horsefeathers should be reserved for 70 year old alcoholics who drank their lives away, not 17 year olds. Just terrible. Ugh oh my god I want to throw up

Yeah what the hell. I would almost say that it's impossible for someone who did the things this person is accused of to be legitimately sorry. Yeah this is psychopath behavior. There's no "getting better" when you're capable of such deep and harmful deception in the first place.