We Got The Whole 9

He carries a 1.17 OPS in 400 oppo batted balls. I bet he's salivating at that 300 ft RF.

I know odorizzis name had come up here a few times and most people were against the idea, but if I recall it was mostly because they didn't want to give up what they assumed Tampa would want for him, which was probably way more than what he was worth. But I don't think anything here would've been opposed to acquiring him for one prospect at the back end of our top 30. Yeah they basically just traded him for Zach Short, right? I remember like a year ago there were thoughts the Rays wanted an Almora or Cease. Maybe the bitterness over Maddon is real?

Really risky given his up and down career. For his last 5 years he's 0 war one year and 3+ the next and has kept that pattern.

Athletic, young, familiar with the system, our TEs suck.

and also this: Piscotty came into June with an 8 point advantage in wRC+. After that, he never came within 20 points of matching his April which was 14 points worse than his May. I only wish I could read his whacked ruminations thereafter as KB horsefeathering trounced him and the rest of the league.

Zero. I was pretty young though. The first Cubs acquisition I remember being excited over was Delino Deshields in 2001 (lol wtf- I think i just thought it was a cool name). Anyways Nomo went on to average almost 3 war/yr over the next 5 years, so lol cobs. I was pretty stoked about picking up Jason Bere's twilight years

Apparently Chris Archer said Honeywell talks a lot and he should know his place until he actually takes the mound in an MLB game. Honeywell responded by saying he wants the ace to impress him. Trouble in Tampa. Honeywell sounds like a pain, send him to the North side of Chicago.

It's gonna be real stressful, fighting for HFA

They were only $400,000 apart $6.5 vs $6.9 million, why not just settle and give him the $6.9 and be nice about it? He's the only cornerstone building block they have, why do something so nominal to piss him off and have a malcontent on the team all year and in future negotiations/dealings? No doubt, totally stupid. I'd be rather irate if we dragged one of our core players through the mud of that process as well. Between the 2 hearings they were 700k apart total. Buck up and pay your horsefeathering ace. They probably felt that he got one over on them last year and this was only fair or something moronic.

lol - he's going to suck. How do you have a K/9 of 4 when you throw mid 90s and have decent secondary stuff? That seems impossible for a number of reasons, especially with the current strikeout heavy environment. I mean Uehara had a K/9 of 10 throwing 78 MPH fastballs last year. Reminds me of TSP Marquis

However his penchant for gaudy tats has not

Cashner gets 2/16 from the O's

May explain why he pitches out of the stretch now though. Several pitchers are going stretch exclusive because they feel it's easier to repeat their mechanics but you would think if more teams realize that the success rate against a particular pitcher is so high that the volume would go up as a result

Stroman went on Twitter to blast the Blue Jays for how things went down at his arbitration hearing that he lost. Last year he went on Twitter after he won and exclaimed how much he enjoyed the process and the professionalism of the Blue Jays.

Just random articles that focus on raw SBs allowed without context Why are you reading crap content I try to read everything I can get my hands on during the off-season

Just random articles that focus on raw SBs allowed without context. I've read countless articles this off-season so I can't exactly cite exactly where I read it but I've also seen writers mention his low CS% as something that he "needs to improve".

For context Darvish has allowed 43 SB in 431 innings since 2014 (so about every 10 innings) Jon Lester has allowed 107 SB in about 807 innings since 2014 (every 7.5 innings) Arrieta has allowed 93 SB in about 750 innings since 2014 (every 8.1 innings) Hendricks has allowed 43 in 590 innings since 2014 (every 13 innings) Quintana has allowed 36 in about 1000 innings in that same span (every 27 innings - much better, perhaps like you'd expect from a lefty who is quick to the plate and can actually throw to first) Obviously, none of that corrects for who is behind the plate, but the raw total doesn't seem all that alarming compared to what we've seen. Hadn't compared how he measured up against the rest of the staff that way. But 1.7 could be a bugaboo and something that teams will look to exploit more. You're really horsefeathering your catcher being that slow to the plate - 1.4 is the average for RHP. A scout mentioned that his side step is weak AF and even below average runners can take advantage because of his high leg kick. Like I said, just something to monitor, not necessarily to worry about. It also bugs me how Contreras is looked at in a little bit of a negative light as far as controlling base runners go because his total allowed was so high, mostly due to pitcher indifference IMO.

Someone posted on PSD that Darvish has allowed 43/45 on stolen base attempts since 2014, which is the highest success clip in MLB and has a time of 1.7 seconds to home, which is just bad. Just probably something to keep an eye on.

Yeah... that number is taken already

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-01-10/sports/ct-greg-maddux-frank-thomas-haugh-spt-0110-20140110_1_larry-himes-cubs-fans-maddux-decision Sidenote: I actually ran into Frank Thomas at the Cosmo when I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago. I'm never that guy, but I kinda gave him a wave and a "big hurt!" and he acknowledged me politely. Well... at least Myers made a run at the single season saves record... or something

Maddux said Himes told him during the 92 ASB that he hadn't yet won 20 games or a CY so therefore he would not be paid commensurate to what he felt he was worth. Maddux then went on a rampage and ran away with the CY. I'm having a tough time finding details on a last ditch effort by either party.

Solid work Mr. Gimenez

It's obviously something Anthony's already thought about somewhat: and Fortunately for the Cubs, he seems like the least likely person to be bitter, as long as he is respected and loved by the team and fans. It's a good idea for the front office to be tactful when speaking up about cost controlled players. For reference, here's the article I took those quotes from: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-anthony-rizzo-contract-sullivan-20180205-story.html It'll be interesting to see what happens with Rizzo if he hits the market after his deal is up. He will be going into his age 32 season and teams aren't exactly falling over themselves to sign guys at his age and position to big deals. If his performance is steady for the next 4 years then he will get some decent offers, I would think. But if he has any injury or drop in performance in that time he will get severely low-balled. I'm not even sure he would get the supposed 5/125 deal that Martinez (who is 30) is allegedly upset with even if he holds steady from this point. Do the Cubs tear up the current deal after 2019 and attempt to lock him in as a Cub for the remainder of his career? Let him walk after 2021 and see what the market will bear for him? It goes (seemingly, to me, at least) against our core principles of not paying for past performance and investing big $ in players past their prime at non-premium positions... But he's such a massive part of the team that I don't think anybody would complain if we did extend him a lifetime contract, so to speak. He could be in for a rude awakening in FA, though. Seems like he would be getting 3 or at the most 4 year offers at around 20 per. Might want to rein in those dreams just a little, Anthony, as much as it pains me to say.

I watched that special on mlbn about the 90s Braves. They talked about the deal they had for Bonds before the 92 season. The players going to Pittsburgh were Alejandro Pena, Keith Mitchell, PBTNL. Imagine if they were able to complete that deal and then extend him and sign Maddux the following off-season. Some articles suggest that it was an either/or scenario and they only had money for one of them but it's easy to see that they could have traded Gant (he was no longer capable at CF and one of the corner OF had to go, Justice was in pre-arb ) for a nice package to open up 3m and Pena made 2.5 himself, so there's Maddux's money (signed for 5/25) right there. Locking them both in would have been feasible. I feel pretty confident that if they had they would have won more than one title. It cannot be stated enough that Larry Himes was erroneously spared the firing squad. However it's interesting that Maddux turned down 10m more from the Yankees. If he had signed there then maybe the Braves don't even win once in the decade and the Yankees are the undisputed team of the 90s. Also, would Maddux have turned down 5/35 from the Cubs? It's quite possible he would have because the roster was abysmal beyond Ryno, Grace, and a couple SP in Morgan and Castillo. Looking at the numbers they probably saw Castillo as a guy about to ascend to Maddux's status. He had just completed his age 23 season and gave them 35 starts with a 3.45 ERA so I can see that as something that they foresaw being somewhat plausible.

Insane to think that we got 450 IP and 13 bwar out of two 22 year olds in 2003