Hairyducked Idiot

Stupid Dodgers. They could have had Soler for that money.

Ewww.

http://www.rlyw.net/index.php/RLYW/comments/the_2013_mlb_projection_blowout From March 2013, an average standings of five major projection systems (ZIPS, Marcel, CAIRO, Steamer, Oliver) The only two teams with consensus 90-win projections (Angels, Nationals) are both under .500 and a combined 18 games out of the playoffs. The two best records in baseball (Red Sox, Pirates) were each projected to finish in 4th place.

I like the fact that there are two starters today who are interesting and that doesn't feel surprising.

Maybe I phrased that poorly, but I meant guys for whom a normal promotion schedule wouldn't put them in line for the MLB in 2014, but are relievers so they could skip up quickly. That would include Rosscup.

Derp, yeah, he was supposed to be in that section

I'm super intrigued and curious by what we might see from the bullpen in 2014. This year it's yet again been historically awful, but organizationally it seems as if we are stockpiling interesting relief arms for 2014. By fWAR, we're 28th in MLB at -0.6 and 3 wins behind league average. By net WPA, which I think does a better job of measuring the impact of bullpen performance, the Cubs are at -4.97, dead 30th and 7 wins behind the league average. If we had a league average bullpen, we'd be 3 games out of a playoff spot. (The Pirates are No. 1 at +8.61, meaning that bullpen performance makes up 13.5 of the 16 games that separate the Cubs from the best record in baseball). Thanks to a combination of trading, international signings and emergence, I think for 2014 we might finally be hitting that critical mass of pitching that we've been missing. Besides the usual complement of fringey guys who are trying to escape Iowa on more than an emergency basis, we've got: Guys who are probably useful MLB pitchers and already here- Russell, Strop, Villanueva Guys who will need to be split between the MLB rotation, Iowa rotation and MLB bullpen- Arrieta, Hendricks, Cabrera, Rusin, Grimm, possibly Neil Ramirez. Guys whose health is in question for 2014 but might be good- Lim, Vizcaino Live arms in the lower minors who could conceivably shoot up quickly: Rivero, Rosscup How many good relief pitchers would we need to target in the offseason before we could comfortably project a decent bullpen? Two? One? Zero? Or am I just getting too intrigued by another collection of future Bowdens and Zychs and Camps?

Armando Rivero is still beasting.

I guess I'll stop arguing against Junior Lake for awhile. I'll still be thinking it, though. I really don't want to see us carry a rule 5 pitcher next year.

We're doing that thing where we can only hit solo HRs again.

With him being out of options, he basically has to win a rotation job in the spring next year if he's going to start at all. They can't send him down to Iowa to stretch him out.

I don't think even Szczur's first half projected to a 2nd-tier starting outfielder in the major leagues.

I remember that as being one of those bored reporter traps. The two were slumping, and the reporters start to ask if, theoretically, they could ever be sent down if they slumped for long enough. No matter how Sveum answers, they have a nice headline for the next day. "SVEUM SAYS CUBS YOUNG STARS BEYOND ACCOUNTABILITY!" or "SVEUM THREATENS TO SEND DOWN CUBS YOUNG STARS"

Yep. Here I go again, making threads about me.

I guess technically it's being played before tonight's Cubs game, so "The Cubs are gonna win today" at least makes some sense.

Voted yes in the first two. Now ask me how I feel about Ricketts.

Baez finishes 1-for-4 with a single, a ROE, no Ks. Scored the walk-of run on a bases-loaded infield single. Inexplicably, Tennessee plays "Go Cubs Go."

I do miss Meph.

None of them think it's *likely*, and neither do I, but I don't think it's completely written in stone that he can't yet.

Matt Szczur isn't a thing anymore. Very reasonable target for clearing up a 40-man spot this offseason, if we need to.

It doesn't really matter if he can only play 1B or corner OF. It matters a little bit, and he's not off of 3b completely yet.

Someone always has to be the Screech to be a target for the posters who need to feel better about themselves. Ban me, and you'd find that someone else is the most annoying, and the people who are the types to do so will pile on to him. The cycle would continue until there was only one left, the ultimate sports douchebag Highlander.

Baez is doing all this with a .200 BABIP going into today.

Keep in mind that the Cubs' amateur portion of the budget should be significantly down next year. With a worse draft pick and apparently IFA restrictions, it could be down around $10m. There's a lot of money there to be spent this offseason if they want to.

Yeah. If you filled out the roster with just what you have now and maybe a league-minimum FA or two, that should get you to around $75m. It'd be something like: Lake/DeJesus/Schierholtz (Bogusevic, Borbon) Valbuena/Castro/Barney/Rizzo (Watkins, Vitters) Castillo (minimum FA backup catcher) Samardzija/Jackson/Wood/Arrieta/Hendricks Strop/Russell/Villanueva/Cabrera/Grimm/Parker/Bowden That should come in at right around $75m, maybe a tiny bit less, and eyeballing I'd say it wins like 72-74 games. It's bad, but not completely devoid of talent.