Bertz
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Everything posted by Bertz
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I'm a bit worried this is because he's been beating up on guys a few years younger than him in Instructs, but still nice to see
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I think the Mets are an underrated option here. JD Davis is about as much of a 3B as Ryan Braun was, and they seem to like using McNeil in a Zobrist style super utility role.
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My wishlist for this offseason is: - Vet #3 starter - RH OFer who can at least fake CF - LH IFer - Young near MLB-ready SP who can hang at Iowa with Abbott - Young MLB-proven bat-first position player The latter two obviously come via trade, but the first three probably can be knocked out via FA. I'd say Paxton/Grossman/Wong would be my top choices respectively, but I'd be perfectly fine with something more like Minor/Pillar/Profar. With how big of a question mark payroll is though it's hard to get too attached to specific names.
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Food for thought, though I don't actually agree with this take. I actually thought Gausman getting one was a somewhat encouraging sign for this winter. If he'd done what he did over a full season, total no-brainer, but over only 60 innings that's actually somewhat aggressive. And Semien not getting one is slightly surprising, but his 2019 was very clearly juiced ball aided. And here in 2020 Statcast backs up the idea that he declined in all phases. It's not good news certainly, but I thought the QO decisions were one of the first signs the bottom isn't going to completely fall out from the market this winter.
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It's interesting how many high end pitchers were briefly Cubs before going elsewhere and blossoming. Like I saw in Sharma's latest article that Liam Hendriks was a Cub for like 10 minutes in 2014ish. Reading between the lines, this seems part of why the FO pushed so hard to go from Maddon/Bosio to Ross/Hottovy
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I lean towards this being Cleveland being Cleveland during the Pandemic. Them not being willing to pay a reliever $10 million should surprise zero people, even less as a result of the pandemic, and then when you notice he's lost alot of velocity the past two years despite relative health and the shortened 2020 it just seems like them making a tough call I think it's bigger than Cleveland. It's them coming to the conclusion that he has no/negative trade value at that dollar amount. Exactly. Thought this was interesting though. Teams might be incredibly austere early in the offseason and then open it up a bit in Jan/Feb depending on how much better things look?
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The White Sox Thread: 2022 Will Be the Last Call for TLR (P. 11)
Bertz replied to Banedon's topic in General Baseball Talk
https://twitter.com/lindseyadler/status/1321883110708051970?s=19 -
I don't think one gif is enough for this one
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This is really bad. Wong you can argue would have happened anyway because of how flooded the 2B market is going to be, plus the fact they already have Edman. And everyone else prior to this was certainly going to happen regardless. But in a normal market Hand would be due 3-5 years at 15+ a year. Hopefully this is just Cleveland being Cleveland, and this offseason is more bad than apocalyptic.
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The White Sox Thread: 2022 Will Be the Last Call for TLR (P. 11)
Bertz replied to Banedon's topic in General Baseball Talk
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I guess from a business sense, I don't get the downside here for the Cubs. You partnered with Sinclair to get your network up and running and to get carriage as wide as possible. Check and check. I believe most of the people managing the day to day operations are CSN and WGN castoffs, not people Sinclair would take with them. The carriage deals are locked in now except for Hulu and YouTube. Shouldn't the Cubs be ecstatic to kick Sinclair to the curb at this point?
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This article is almost comically vague, but a few things stand out - They're not spending a ton of money this winter, it sounds like it may even be a dollar in/dollar out kind of situation - The team seems to be very confident in the pitching infrastructure. Expect most of the pitching changes to be either from playing waiver wire roulette like last winter or from development of the cache of power arms they now finally have in the minors - They seem to be setting us up for running back mostly the same horsefeathering offense. Probably see one high profile guy sent out (KB?), and a handful of lower profile names brought in - The team sees some Tommy Hottovy in Chris Valaika. They're hoping that as a young, smart, recent major leaguer he can work up to doing similar things on the offensive side
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Cowardly as hell
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Probably the wildest playoff game since the Dodgers/Astros game where both teams hit like half a dozen dongs and there were like 8 lead changes (game 3 or 4 I think?)
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OH MY HORSEFEATHERING GOD
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So Chris Archer is likely going to be a FA. He hasn't been mentioned much, because the Pirates hold an option on him that was likely still a no brainer pre-pandemic. But I would LOVE to get him in the lab with Hottovy. His velo was down a bit in 2019, but still well above average. And even if the ship has sailed on him as a good starter, with good velocity and a killer slider he'd likely make a fantastic reliever. In lieu of one higher end guy, I'd probably prefer bringing in two veteran guys like this, like say Archer and Mike Minor.
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Like Brett, I think I'm coming around on this. Something modest probably, like mandating two infielders on each side of 2B. (Though there is the sticky question of when they're allowed to cross) But little things we can do to help encourage balls in play should all at least be on the table.
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Not a ton here, which is normal for Mooney but disappointing for Sharma. I think the only thing that seems fairly clear is that everyone sees Hoyer as the guy after Theo leaves. I imagine he steps up, they bring in a #2 from outside the org, and everything else stays largely in place. Payroll's also coming down, and they're meeting this week to figure out by how much. Sounds like the expectation is they'll have enough to tinker, but not do anything of substance without moving salary out. It's still possible that it's worse than that though, and they have to move out more money than they bring in. Personally, if it's that bad just burn it down. Don't bother pretending to compete with a $150M payroll.
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Good fluff piece on the Cubs catching situation, And doesn't even really get into the Hearn/Quintero/Altuve trio in the low minors. I think you have to trade one of the upper level guys this winter. Though who I think depends on how you want to weight 2021 in your planning. Contreras is probably the most valuable trade chip the team has, so if you're okay not giving 100% this year he's the obvious choice. Otherwise, I think given that Contreras and Caratini each have a few more years of control and the trio at the lower levels Amaya is safe to deal. Vic would be the half measure, which probably means that's exactly what Theo's going to do. He's too good to be a backup, but not so good that he's particularly valuable. Dealing him for a B- prospect and signing like Alex Avila would have a real ring of the La Stella/Descalso swap.
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Week 6: Bears at Panthers, Sunday at noon on Fox
Bertz replied to jersey cubs fan's topic in Other Sports
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When did Joc Pederson get fat?
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Good stuff. Yeah if the Cubs managed to have an above average staff with what they put out there, I’m not too concerned about next year either. Focus most of your attention on fixing the offense. How much of the pitching impact is due to Contreras’s framing? Is that a repeatable skill? Several guys who were really bad and took a big leap forward have kept those gains. Realmuto is the main example that comes to mind, but Jason Castro and others have too. He's probably not the best in the league like he was this year, but he's probably legitimately good now. And even if he ends up getting shipped out, Vic has shown to be good, and it sounds like Amaya is as well.