Hairyducked Idiot

lol the conspiracy theories are never gonna let this one go

If the Blackhawks end up 4th/5th, they should think hard about Michkov. He's considered an uber-talent, possibly at the same level as Bedard (although that's not unanimous), but you have to wait 3 years for his KHL contract to be up and there's always the risk that something weird happens with Russian politics. But it's worth noting that pretty much every Russian player drafted to date who is worth bringing over has come over.. There's four A-tier talents in this draft, and despite some late helium for that Smith kid, I think there's a big dropoff between the 4th and 5th best talent. If you can take one of the other three (Bedard/Fantilli/Carlsson) then do it, but I'd rather see them wait/risk on Michkov than drop down to the next tier of prospect. Bedard is obviously the main prize. I've seen some people say he's at McDavid/Crosby level as a prospect, but a lot of people have him a tier lower. He's a little on the small side and he's not an unbelievable skater. In terms of status as a prospect, he's better than Kane was when he was drafted (widely considered a weak-ish No. 1 overall). Fantilli is just a textbook two-way center with size, speed, grit and skill. He'd definitely be a first overall pick in many years. Comps to someone like MacKinnon or Eichel. Carlsson is even a little bigger than Fantilli, but not as physical. More of a playmaking center but not a defensive liability. Draws a lot of Kopitar comps, and I hate to say it but he reminds me a bit of a young Toews.

Going into today, the Cubs were hitting .279 with RISP and .270 overall. That would make the 8th season out of the last 20 in which they hit higher with RISP than overall, against 10 where they hit lower and two where they hit the same.

The 2016 Cubs hit .256 overall and .254 with RISP.

You don't. The inability to sequence offensive events in a strategic way has always been one of the sport's biggest sources of variance.

Mervis is the most generic NPC-looking dude ever. He looks like the guy you'd get in a 2000s video game to take a scab player's spot.

I agree with what TT implied, that maybe people are being a bit slow to update their expectations for this team. You don't wanna throw out pre-season projections after 35 games, but if the performances you're seeing a noticeably divergent from them, you should start shading them in that direction. A median projection for this team should proably be closer to 78-80 wins than the 75ish it was at the beginning of the season.

He's an interesting prospect. Sometimes B prospects turn out really good. That's why I hate the concept of "ceiling." Sammy Sosa was a toosly B prospect who never hit more than 11 home runs in a minor league season, and he became the first guy to have multiple 60 HR seasons. Everyone's ceiling is off the charts, everyone's floor is being hit by a bus tomorrow. It's just a matter of how thin you wanna slice the probabilities.

I was going to avoid bringing up my "I hate the concept of ceiling" thing but I decided to let it go.

I think they've played enough games now that the peripherals should be telling us that they are better than their pre-season projections of mid-70s wins.

Steele is turning into the kind of pitcher that should probably change your projection of a team.

I just think he's an interesting B-tier prospect who is getting a lot of attention/hype because he's the only near-ready B-tier prospect we have. But B-tier isn't bad.

We used to have this argument, I think about Soler but it might have been someone else. Even if there's a really good reason a guy missed key development years, he still missed them. I definitely think he could be a useful player, but there's probably a reason he was outside most top-100 lists and barely cracked the ones he did make.

How many of them were 25 when they put up those seasons?

I really thought that was it this time.

The season is 100% tied to Fields now. He's got enough to work with. If he's the guy people keep insisting he is, this roster wins 9+ games.

I did not expect 3 secondary guys and zero DEs

Waiting for cuts never helps. Our DEs are going to suck and we will sink or swim on that

But losing those guys wasn't part of this offseason

Offensive line is significantly better I don't know what "urgency to improve" looks like if it's not bringing in 6-8 new starters better than what we already had.

I don't remotely see the comparison between last offseason and this one. 2022: Biggest free agent signing: Justin Jones at 2 years, 6m per year,. Major trade acquisitions: None Picks in the top 4 rounds: 3 2023: Biggest free agent signings: 4 new starters ranging from $21m to $72m in total contracts Major trade acquistion: DJ Moore Picks in the top 4 rounds: 5 Last year was a complete bottoming out of the team's talent level. This year they've brought in literally half a dozen guys better than anyone they brought in last offseason. You can criticize the decision to bottom out last year. You can criticize their priorities in how they spent their money. You can criticize their draft decisions. But I don't see how you can say this offseason resembles last in terms of lack of effort.

I think this team is way way better on paper than it was at this time last year. If they're not at worst flirting with a playoff spot going into the last week, then either Poles or Fields isn't the guy, depending on how we got there

I think it's the last one. We're betting heavily on coverage.

We have under contract or draft control: Jones/Jenkins/Whitehair/Davis/Wright Borom/Patrick/Kramer/Leatherwood/a couple of random dudes from late last year and UDFA I'd never turn down another one, but I don't think that's unreasonable to head into camp with. Edge on the other hand is pretty miserable.

Two for two.