Bertz
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Everything posted by Bertz
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There was some point relatively late in the year where he was actually hitting .303 and I remember there being some funny interactions around that.
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If Roki chooses the Cubs he will take up their entire pool and these guys who have a handshake agreement will go back out onto the market. Instead of signing these guys on 1/15 like the team traditionally would, this year they will hold off a week or so until Roki has made his decision. Every team in the Roki sweepstakes will operate this way. The Dodgers have very little money committed to this period, I'm guessing because they presume Roki will choose them. If Roki goes to another team though, expect the Dodgers to more or less inherit that other team's IFA class.
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They're simply going to wait a week to put pen to paper. Everyone understands the situation.
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I would generally only expect one reliever from here. No one is making enough money that you can't easily cut bait on them, but there's only one spot that truly feels open. I'd expect the remaining reliever to be a closer caliber arm though. Likely more in the Yates/Robertson/Jansen neighborhood than Scott.
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This feels a bit silly. You just spent the better part of a year trying to find a good deal for Jonathan India, and now you acquire a similar player? Did Matt Mclain suffer an offseason injury?
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Kind of shocking that Iowa ranked that high. I think it has normally been hitter friendly but not particularly so. Especially with some of those PCL monstrosities like Oklahoma City. Generally the takeaway from these numbers when released is you have to further mentally adjust wRC+ numbers you see. Fangraphs adjusts wRC+ in the minors by league, but not by park. So give someone like Jefferson Rojas a bit of a boost and give all the Iowa hitters a bit of a pump of the brakes.
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If that's the case doesn't that undercut any doomerism about teams moving away from traditional scouts? I also don't agree that both lists look comparable. That second one generally has more success in the realm of young talent. Now it can be hard to disentangle scouting and PD, but still it raises my eyebrows and IMO not in the way intended.
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I uhhhh, don't think these lists tell the story the scouts want them to tell.
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I'm having a tough time reconciling the fact that there's a very finite amount of money each team can offer him, and thus no reason to do protracted negotiations, with the fact that he already knows it is going to take another two weeks to decide. My guess is any team that gets to the stage of an in person meeting will not know they're out of it until he's made his final decision.
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Arbitration deadline is apparently this Thursday. Probably safe to assume if anything happens the next few days it'll be pretty small, like a Moncada.
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I didn't realize until just now how long he's been off of 2B. I wonder if he'd be viewed as a 3B/1B and someone else would be looked at as the backup MIF (Workman?).
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Means we will not see Ohtani as a SP this season unless it's in the playoffs
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This is notably worse than the Cubs even with a very generous innings projection for Brandon Woodruff.
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For the third time in less than a week the Cubs are being tied to a left handed (or switch hitting) 3rd baseman. This time it's former White Sox Yoan Moncada. Moncada is entering his age 30 season and looking to rebuild value after a few years marred by injury. The Cubs meanwhile appear to be looking for someone who can plausibly handle full time 3rd base duties if Matt Shaw proves not yet ready for primetime. Given that Moncada, Josh Rojas, and Hyeseong Kim can all bat from the left side, it appears that having that platoon compliment to Matt Shaw, Dansby Swanson, and Nico Hoerner is also being viewed as a desirable trait. View full rumor
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For the third time in less than a week the Cubs are being tied to a left handed (or switch hitting) 3rd baseman. This time it's former White Sox Yoan Moncada. Moncada is entering his age 30 season and looking to rebuild value after a few years marred by injury. The Cubs meanwhile appear to be looking for someone who can plausibly handle full time 3rd base duties if Matt Shaw proves not yet ready for primetime. Given that Moncada, Josh Rojas, and Hyeseong Kim can all bat from the left side, it appears that having that platoon compliment to Matt Shaw, Dansby Swanson, and Nico Hoerner is also being viewed as a desirable trait. -
Essentially every free agent SP has exceeded projections this winter, and there are still several teams out there looking to spend some money (Tigers, Giants, Mets, Cubs, Blue Jays). I won't say no chance to Flaherty's market collapsing because there were some rumors about a shoulder injury around the deadline, but you should still expect something in the vicinity of $100M for him.
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Cubs reportedly one of five teams to offer Kim Hye-seong
Bertz replied to Jason Ross's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
We don't need to overthink this. The Dodgers lineup is great but it's a bit of a mess defensively and so they wanted a defensive oriented bench player. Miguel Rojas is one, but he's old and doesn't help in CF. -
Cubs fans are bad about overrating finesse guys because of Maddux and Hendricks, but Connor Noland being the team's ~11th starter is still a good sign of a healthy roster.
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Cartaya would be worth trading something minor for to stash at Iowa.
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I saw Juan Yepez get mentioned on Fangraphs earlier today. He'd be a decent option for that 1B platoon-mate with Busch. The Nats now have Lowe and Bell at 1B/DH so he's squeezed out of a firm role in DC. He's still making league minimum, would be cheap to acquire (someone like Kilian?), and has one more minor league options left so could be stashed at Iowa.
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The Athletic guys mentioned him a few weeks back as someone Jed might circle back to if his market lingered.
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Cubs reportedly one of five teams to offer Kim Hye-seong
Bertz replied to Jason Ross's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
Chris Taylor probably needs to get in touch with a realtor. I wouldn't hate him after he gets to FA, he's not good anymore but he's probably better than Brujan. -
I'm cleaning out unread tabs in Chrome and came across this story from a few weeks ago The tl;dr is that Rosen used consistency of release point to attempt to measure command rather than pitch results, and the results largely make intuitive sense. Towards the bottom of the article there's a Top 20 and a Bottom 20. Shota and Steele both rank in the Top 5, and Taillon’s 11. Certainly feels like Jed has a type. Makes me wonder if Jed could trade for another top "command" guy on this list. A few that feel plausible: - Chris Paddack on the Twins is in his walk year and the Twins are trying to cut salary. I believe we got linked to him a while back when he was a Padre as well? - Kutter Crawford appears to be the Red Sox #6 starter. Could we do a young player swap to nab him in exchange for some players Breslow liked over here? - Jon Gray's still got velo, is there something easily fixable to get him back to missing bats? Rangers are right up against the LT and might like to repurpose his money - Rays are probably not actively looking to move SPs after the Springs trade, but they're always open for business so I bet Baz or Littell could be had
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International Free Agency Thread, 1/15/2025 Class
Bertz replied to CaliforniaRaisin's topic in Cubs Minor League Talk
So we're going to be able to back into who's still legitimately in the Sasaki sweepstakes by who doesn't post a bunch of kid signing pics on 1/15 right?
