sweetpeteman

Others are saying it's a minor league deal that could pay him $750000 if he makes the majors.

All I'm taking from this: Old XFL: THERE ARE NO RULES! New XFL: OBEY.

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Using the Playoff Machine, I've found that: The 3 good NFC South teams could all end with 11-5 records. All 4 of the non-bye teams in the NFC could be 11-5. Alternatively, 4 teams could end up with 10-6 records (Det, 2 of Car/NO/ATL, and 1 of SEA/DAL), of which 2 would make the playoffs. It is possible for 7 AFC team and 5 NFC teams to end with 8-8 records, in the AFC 3 would be in the playoffs: Final Standings AFC EAST New England 12-4 Miami 8-8 Buffalo 8-8 NY Jets 6-10 AFC WEST Kansas City 8-8 Oakland 8-8 Los Angeles 8-8 Denver 6-10 AFC NORTH Pittsburgh 13-3* Baltimore 8-8 Cincinnati 7-9 Cleveland 1-15 AFC SOUTH Jacksonville 12-4 Tennessee 8-8 Indianapolis 5-11 Houston 4-12 NFC EAST Philadelphia 12-4 Dallas 10-6 Washington 8-8 NY Giants 2-14 NFC WEST Los Angeles 11-5 Seattle 8-8 Arizona 8-8 San Francisco 5-11 NFC NORTH Minnesota 13-3* Detroit 8-8 Green Bay 8-8 Chicago 4-12 NFC SOUTH Atlanta 11-5 New Orleans 11-5 Carolina 11-5 Tampa Bay 4-12 Seeding: Pitt, Jack, NE, KC, Miami, Ten Min, Phi, Atl, LA, NO, Car EDIT: And Balt winning and GB losing immediately ruins this. Oh well..

If you havent been a fan of the dl in the nl, i blame you The Dodgers are definitely fans of the dl in the nl.

No.

No. Almora AND Happ and Monty may be a start, but even that can get blown away by other teams. Two things: Yelich is better than Ozuna and has a better contract situation, The Marlins don't need to trade Yelich at this point. They'd be smart to hold out for a HUGE package for Yelich. My thought is would the Cubs be willing to give up one of Baez/Russell for Yelich? How about Russell/Baez, Almora, Montgomery, Ademan, maybe more for Yelich and Castro Yelich fills CF for the next few years, Castro gives you a more than capable back up MI

Trammell, Morris elected to HoF: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21732811/jack-morris-alan-trammell-elected-baseball-hall-fame-modern-era-committee

Eddie Butler is not a guy you worry about what to do with.

To me these moves reek of desperation. They're behind so they're trying to get together as much cash as possible to hope that it can give them an edge. But they know it's not going to help. At least that's what I want to believe.

I saw "Cubs acquire" and got briefly excited thinking that a move had been made only to be greatly disappointed that it was just this thread.

Dusty really needs something better to do in his free time Edit: oh wait Fangraphs, nevermind he has no idea what that is It's probably due to Reddit. Somebody posted this thread:Road to 267.2 WAR Which lead to somebody asking if he could come up with the lowest WAR player of all time, to which somebody responded by posting Neifi Perez.

Tillman would be ok on a minor league or very low major league deal, Miley is crap and needs to stop being suggested.

I wouldn't be surprised if Maddon had reached out to Hickey prior to Bosio being fired. This may all be window dressing for whats essentially a done deal.

The Cubs announce that they've agreed to a 5 year, $100m contract with Tomohiro Kuroki.

Is that because you think some second division team will like him as a starter and we obviously don't need him for that? Pretty much. I don't think he'll ever be an All-Star catcher or anything, but I think teams will like is potential as at-least an everyday player, especially as a switch hitter. those 2 would surprise me the least, especially Schwarber The only reason I don't expect them to trade Schwarber is because his value has dropped. If other teams still see him as a potentially very good DH, then, yes, I do see him being a trade candidate.

I don't know what this means or who Theo is talking about... Is he talking about Almora and/or Happ? Maybe even one of Schwarber, Baez or Russell? I'm most curious about this comment, but I doubt we'll get clarification on it. Maybe some rumor/info will come out at the winter meetings. I'm guessing that he's willing to trade any of those for the right trade, but I'd be very surprised if they trade Russell or Schwarber. Otherwise, I do think they re-sign Rivera. I personally think he's a better choice as a back-up catcher then using Caratini. I also think using Caratini as the back-up isn't really maximizing his potential value to the team, and is better off used in a trade.

I managed to guess right, but only through a process of elimination

NL Rank last two years: 1st wRC+ 1st OBP 1st BB% 7th K% 2nd runs scored (Rockies) Really shows how talented they are to overcome a nincompoop like John Mallee.

This doesn't surprise me, even confirming some of my thoughts on how the bullpen was being run. However, I was thinking it was less being too fine vs. them being coached to make their best pitch, even at the cost of some control, leading to more movement/nastier pitches, but having the side effect of more walks. As for the bullpen: Uehara can walk. Duensing wouldn't be a bad re-signing, but only at the right price (1 yr, $5m or less). Grimm and Rondon should be non-tendered (I don't see them tendering to Rondon, not at $6m+, I could see them tendering Grimm and then DFAing him in the spring). Personally, I wouldn't bring back Davis. I think he's on the edge of decline, maybe even significantly. The only reason I would bring him back is that, since this does seem to be a full market for relievers, he could be forced to take less than he was expecting. If they do re-sign him, it'll be a 3-4 year deal with at about $15m a season. I would target one or two from: Davis, McGee, Minor, Reed, Shaw, Nicasio, Kintzler, and maybe Holland, or Morrow, but they concern me more than the rest. And then look at guys like Cishek, Neshek, Duensing to round out the pen. One guy I would look into giving a ST invite/minor league deal/maybe even a cheap ($1-2m) MLB deal to try to convert is Ubaldo Jiminez. I know it's a small sample size, but this year in 17.1 relief innings he put up some promising numbers (10.70 k/9, 2.04 bb/9, 2.20 FIP, 2.87 xFIP, .637 OPS).

The one way I could see the Cubs snagging Yelich is by taking on Wei-Yin Chen + some cash for the next 3 years. Yelich is on an amazing contract through 2022, but Chen is owed $52m over the next 3 years ($10m, $20m, $22m). The Marlins would still have to kick in some cash in 2019 and 2020 ($10m/year). He is also facing possible Tommy John surgery, which is another issue. It's not ideal but makes it more possible.

They haven't announced that date yet, but it's about 125 days right now, assuming that they'll report around February 21st.

The ref at the bottom also starts running at the same time.

This feels like 2015 all over again. Decent pitching but the offense is completely lost.

#FireMaddon and Mallee Bosio is cool, I guess.