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champaignchris

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Everything posted by champaignchris

  1. champaignchris
    I have yet to hear a compelling reason why a team in the Cubs’ position (young, primed to compete for the next 4+ years) would trade 3 1/2 years of a 3 WAR a year player for 1/2 a year of a 5.5 WAR a year player that plays the exact same position. Why add a tiny bit to your chances this year while subtracting quite a bit from your chances the next three when you should be competitive in each of those three? The only way that would make sense is if they think 24-year-old Addison Russell is irretrievably toast. Which would be a bizarre conclusion. Even with the hitting struggles, he’s on a 3.0 bWAR pace.
  2. champaignchris
    With all their other free agents and Zimmerman, Strasburg and Scherzer combining to make about $95M, will the Nats be able to sign Harper for $40+M per year and put a WS caliber team around him? I’m sure he doesn’t want to be National League Mike Trout.
  3. champaignchris
    I was figuring since Forsythe and Turner were also hurt, they’d be looking for whatever cheap, not necessarily horrible infielders on bad teams they could find. I thought about adding Starlin to my list, but at $14M, he’s probably too expensive for them. They could still send Kemp and basically their entire farm system to the Orioles for Machado.
  4. champaignchris
    https://twitter.com/chadmoriyama/status/990462619990437888?s=21 Scooter Ginnett, Whit Merrifield, Freddy Galvis?
  5. champaignchris
    Don’t you guys dare put me in a position where I have to defend how good a Cardinal is!!! He isn’t even the best Cardinal catcher not currently in the Hall. (Ted Simmons.)
  6. champaignchris
    I don’t think there’s any question that Molina is one of the top 6 defensive catchers of all time. The thing is, of the others on the same defensive level as him, the ones in the Hall - Bench, Carter, Pudge - were significantly better hitters than him. The ones that are not in the Hall - Boone, Sundberg - were significantly worse hitters than Molina. Molina has been a just below average MLB hitter (98 OPS+) for his career. Does that get you in the Hall? He’s a great defensive player, but he’s not on another level the way that Ozzie Smith was at shortstop. Posey, Russell Martin, and Mauer (even when only counting his years as primarily a catcher) have all been more valuable than Molina.
  7. champaignchris
    Insert Cartman licking tears gif >here<.
  8. champaignchris
    AKA how Rizzo describes a normal face. AKA a “Lackey.”
  9. champaignchris
    Puerto Rico is fantastic. After they get their place put back together from the hurricane, I'd highly recommend it as a vacation spot. It's just a slightly different flavor of USA. Walgreens and food courts and cable television and all. Just more palm trees, rum, and salsa music. It's like a Latino version of the Florida panhandle. Beautiful beaches, beautiful people and excellent fried food.
  10. champaignchris
    Shenanigan... or chicanery?
  11. champaignchris
    Can’t say Price had much to work with. And pretty much the entire team is hurt this year. It’s wild to think that after 2013 they’d won 90 games three out of four years and had a decent core of young players. And that franchise just fell apart. Arroyo, Phillips and Ludwick got old. Bruce’s production completely fell off. Bailey, Latos, and Mesaroco all got hurt and never were good again. Cingrani never panned out. And they traded Leake, Frazier, Cueto and Chapman before they hit free agency and got very little back in return - Duvall, Schebler (hurt) and Finnegan (hurt).
  12. champaignchris
    Edit: re putting an MLB team in PR. I expect MLB to take a really long hard look at Latin America on the next expansion go around. Manfred has all but admitted that baseball will be expanding after Oakland and Tampa get their stadium issues worked out. One of the expansion teams will go to Montreal, but there’s a real question of where the second one should go. It’s not like the 90s when Miami, Denver and Phoenix didn’t have teams. There’s a real question as to why anyone would want to pay the franchise fee to put a team in Charlotte, San Antonio, Portland, etc. Basically signing up to be another Cincinnati or Kansas City.
  13. champaignchris
    I know you're asking about draft picks, but why doesn't anyone seem to want to give Thoyer credit for development of Hendricks and Edwards? Acquired as 22 and 21 year old A-ball pitchers, respectively, neither a top-100 prospect (although Edwards became one later). People claim Thoyer haven't developed any pitchers since coming to the Cubs, and I'm wondering what farm system they think Hendricks played in.
  14. champaignchris
    He pushed the ump out of his way and only gets one game?
  15. champaignchris
    I'm ashamed to admit that I read that five times, thinking there weren't enough names there to fill up the line up card.
  16. champaignchris
    Compromise and just play double headers. Every day. 365 days a year. Perpetual baseball.
  17. champaignchris
    Rusty Staub passed away. He was one of my favorite non-Cubs when I was a kid. Bright red hair. Smooth lefty swing. Played for the Tigers some, which was my grandpa’s team. The guy lived a pretty amazing life off the field too, summed up well in this nice obit from ESPN: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/22953337/long-new-york-mets-hitter-rusty-staub-dies-73
  18. champaignchris
    Looking at the Nats’ situation, they’re really in a tough spot in 2019. Strasburg, Scherzer and Zimmerman will be combining to make about $96M. All told, in terms of guaranteed contracts and arbitration estimates, with no options picked up, the Nats will be on the hook for about $145M for 12 players. It’s tough to see how they can afford to bring Harper back and put any sort of team around him without going way, way, way over the LT. If they don’t make the WS this year, it’s tough to argue why they should spend so much money to try again with basically the same cast of characters (minus Gio Gonzalez, Murphy, and pretty much their entire bullpen).
  19. champaignchris
    I’ve read “late May” as target date for his return. I was being bold.
  20. champaignchris
    Kyle Hendricks goes “next level” and becomes generally recognized as the ace of the Cubs staff and one of the elite pitchers in the game. Heyward is out of the regular starting lineup by July. Some Cubs A-ball prospect has a bust out year and “suddenly” the Cubs have a farm system again. Immediately members of the media demand the Cubs trade said prospect for whatever relief pitcher has a hot trade market at the time. The members of the media conveniently forget they demanded the same of Kyle Schwarber as he hits 45 HRs and posts a 4.5 WAR season. Zach Britton is pitching for the Orioles by June and for the Cubs by the non-waiver deadline. Victor Caratini is involved in the trade.
  21. champaignchris
    Ian Happ hits 54 HR.
  22. champaignchris
    Cubs handed out guaranteed contracts totaling $216.45M. The Phillies paid out the second most at $169.25M. The Pirates get all that competitive balance money and didn’t spend a dime in free agency.
  23. champaignchris
    Odd observation. Every team could spend more in theory. It’s not like there’s a salary cap. But weren’t the Cubs by far the biggest spenders in free agency this year?
  24. champaignchris
    Why the hell would the Brewers want Ubaldo Jimenez pitching for them? He's not an upgrade over the crap they are already throwing out there. Can’t tell if you’re joking about not getting the joke or don’t actually get the joke. It’s sarcasm inception! I’m trapped! How many levels away from reality am I?!?!?
  25. champaignchris
    This market has played out perfectly for the Brewers. Ubaldo Jimenez is going to have no choice but to take pennies on the dollar to pitch for the Brewers.
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