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champaignchris

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Everything posted by champaignchris

  1. champaignchris
    I believe he has a NTC through 2018. No NTC for the final year of his contract in 2019. I assume at some point they are going to pay someone to take him off their hands. I also assume that will be after the 2018 season.
  2. champaignchris
    Cardinals are very deep in SP options in the upper minors. Weaver, Reyes and Flaherty could all be studs, but none have ever pitched more than 150 professional innings in a season and Reyes is coming off TJS and will undoubtedly be on an innings limit. Wainright can't be counted on for anything and they shouldn't have too much confidence in Wacha being anything more than ok. Even if the kids pitch well and neither Wacha nor Martinez gets hurt, they still look like they need someone to pick up 150-ish innings. Maybe they think whomever they pick up (plus the $ they send to Seattle) will be cheaper or better than Leake. I can see them getting someone cheaper or someone better, but not both.
  3. champaignchris
    A weird trade. Even if Weaver and Reyes are lights out next year, they'll still probably have to sign a Leake-ish player to fill out their starting rotation.
  4. champaignchris
    Rank the free agent starters: 1. Arrieta 2. Darvish 3. Tanaka 4. Lynn 5. Cobb 6. Cashner 7. Vargas 8. Chatwood 9. Tillman 10. Estrada I'm probably undervaluing Vargas' good year, but he's going to be 35 next year. Anyway, when you combine health, age and recent performance, Jake is pretty much head and shoulders above the rest of the class.
  5. champaignchris
    There's going to be some fascinating qualifying offer calls made after the season. Hosmer, Moustakas and Cain at KC. Cozart in Cincy. Cashner in Texas. Chacin in SD. Cobb in TB. Maybe the Cubs with Wade Davis, too, considering the recent price of FA closers. More than a couple cases where the team is going to make the offer and hope the player doesn't take it. Cozart maybe the prime example.
  6. champaignchris
    How awful must his life be? A baseball announcer who apparently hates baseball.
  7. champaignchris
    Puerto Ricans are a pretty specific mix of Spanish, African and Taino Indians.
  8. champaignchris
    I hope no one is holding up hockey's end of game solution as any sort of example as to how it should be done. Unless someone thinks deciding the winner of about 20% of the season with an end-of-game home run derby is a good idea. That's about 7%. I think it's reasonable to still hate the idea, but the number is nowhere near 20%. In hockey it's about 12-15% games go to shootout. I was overstating with 20%. My point was that radically changing the rules on how games end for a huge chunk of the schedule the way hockey does is not a good idea. Not that baseball is even considering such a thing, but that no one should be holding hockey up as a good example.
  9. champaignchris
    I hope no one is holding up hockey's end of game solution as any sort of example as to how it should be done. Unless someone thinks deciding the winner of about 20% of the season with an end-of-game home run derby is a good idea.
  10. champaignchris
    Baylor is kind of forgettable as the manager of he Cubs because Sammy Sosa was so much the most dominant personality on that team. By far. Those were completely Sosa's teams. Amazingly, Sosa posted a .312/.415/.655 slash over those three years. A 175 OPS+ and a total of 165 home runs. And the team still finished 11th, 7th and 11th in the NL in runs scored those three years. Sosa basically had no help at all. The pitching staffs were brutal, too, except in 2001 when the starters stayed healthy and the bullpen didn't suck. I think his firing had more to do with MacPhail out and Hendry in than with his actual managing.
  11. champaignchris
    Can we please address the elephant in the room here? Willson has two 'L's in his name and Welington Castillo only has one. What is being done by the League and the Federal government to correctly apportion 'L's among MLB catchers?
  12. champaignchris
    To the extent that Bartman deserved any blame at all, it should have been absolved the moment Alex Gonzalez decided to play soccer instead of field that double play ball. The fact that the press staked out his house - or that we even know his name, for that matter - is inexcusable. Why did they freaking publish his name? What did that serve? While the press deserves the lion's share of the blame for what happened to the guy, had the Cubs pulled their heads out of their asses and pulled off a win in game 6 or even game 7, Bartman's name would have been forgotten and all would have been fine. I figure that the WS ring is as good an apology for the Cubs' part in the matter as you could expect.
  13. champaignchris
    He is signed through next year. So, this is the Mets gearing up to go for it next year when all their pitchers are healthy.
  14. champaignchris
    An aside on Molina... I'm going to find his HoF candidacy fascinating. He's without question one of the top 5 or 6 defensive catchers of all time. The guys in that group that are in the Hall (Bench, Rodriguez, Carter) all hit much better than Molina did. The guys in that group that aren't in the Hall (Sundberg, Boone) all hit far worse than Molina did. Molina is a great defensive player who was a dead average offensive player... OPS+ 98, with a career WAR in the 30s, which doesn't even put him in the top 25 among catchers all time. Does that get you in the Hall? When you take the whole package into account, he's probably not the best catcher in Cardinals history (Ted Simmon, not in the Hall), nor the best catcher of his generation (Joe Mauer and Russell Martin both have solid arguments, and if you consider the 5-years younger Buster Posey to be in the same generation, forget about it).
  15. champaignchris
    What else could it be? Don't think the Yanks are looking for more bullpen help. Carlos Gomez and Mike Napoli are both free agents at the end of the year, should come cheap, and could help shore up the Yanks' lineup a bit. Cashner is also a free agent next year and is arguably having the best year of his career. Although that 4.50 FIP would scare the Hell out of me.
  16. champaignchris
    Didn't Soriano actually turn himself into a pretty decent fielder after Sveum and co came in and actually, you know, started coaching him to play the position?
  17. champaignchris
    He still had a better season than he did last year.
  18. champaignchris
    Are we supposed to be disappointed if Kyle Schwarber "only" has a 14 year career and hits 460-something home runs? Dunn had a 7 or 8 year period where he was a really, really good offensive player. Seems like people only remember his time with the White Sox.
  19. champaignchris
    Trevor Cahill (and others) just got traded for Travis Wood (and others). http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20148748/royals-get-starter-trevor-cahill-relievers-brandon-maurer-ryan-buchter-san-diego
  20. champaignchris
    This is why God made DVRs.
  21. champaignchris
    I like Rachel McAdams.
  22. champaignchris
    With only 8 plate appearances in the month of July, I was assuming it would be La Stella.
  23. champaignchris
    Morrissey... Because this deal also somehow made them worse this year? Because there's another pitcher out there the Cubs could have gotten that would have made them better this year? What did he want the team to do? Am I actually going to have to read that article to find out? I just don't.... understand.
  24. champaignchris
    There's a pretty good chance the Cubs just got the best pitcher to switch teams via free agency or trade or otherwise between now and trade deadline 2018. Barring a complete surprise, Darvish and Archer are the only two contenders, right? Or maybe you think Sonny Gray is on the same level as Quintana. Who else is there? Cueto? Teahran, if you trust him. And when you take the contract into account, all qualification goes out the window. And the Cubs didn't have to give up a player off their MLB roster. And the ~$15 million a year they save from '18-'20 because they don't have to spend that on a top-flight FA pitcher should allow them to sign free agents that will more than offset the prospects they had to give up. I just don't see how anyone can't be thrilled with this trade.
  25. champaignchris
    Kershaw's peripherals in the playoffs aren't as good as they are in the regular season, but they're still very good, and far better than what you'd expect from the results. He looks like small sample size bad luck to me. David Price has just gotten shelled in the playoffs. If Kershaw is a playoff choker, Price is some level beyond that.
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