gusguyman

Actually, on a more serious note, MLB losing revenue from 25+% of games this year could give the players a TON more negotiating power. Can MLB owners afford to have two partial seasons back to back?

IMO we will be lucky to have opening day by June 1st if we don't make drastic changes soon. Since we won't have baseball for a while anyway, MLBPA should just go ahead and start negotiating the new CBA now. They can pretend to be on strike.

Beating the Cubs in ST doesn't matter, but that doesn't mean it's not fun AF. Because it is. It is fun AF.

After the last 4 years it is going to feel like easy mode. Just mute all alerts and sim for 3 years before you need to touch a thing.

If anything I think the extra height would help him on defense, I have no height-based concerns regarding his offense

People who want Robert to lead off please explain this to me, and then stop it.

Why is everyone asserting he can't learn control in the minors? Sure, he won't be punished for mistakes near as much. But the reason Kopech went from a pipe-dream to a top 25 prospect is because in the 2nd half of 2018, he suddenly learned control..... in the minors. I agree there is a limit to what he can improve upon there, but if he needs to knock off game rust and get back into the 5-day routine, it is much safer to do that in an environment where winning is much less important. (Which is why actual MLB pitchers also have rehab stints in the minors)

Well, looks like its going to be Braves vs White Sox in the WS, you heard it here first folks

If only the Rangers had too

Woah, Cubs get a bye and "Best Fans in Baseball" Cardinals were a 3 seed and 1st round exit? St. Louis gonna riot.

On opening day? I am definitely not putting Robert or Madrigal top 6 until we see a couple months of MLB stats from them. They should be there eventually, but these guys are still rookies, and even super talented rookies usually struggle. Robert is amazing, but if Vlad Jr. and Eloy needed to make adjustments, it seems way too optimistic to assume Robert won't have to as well.

Oh, I have one! Why do so many people talk about Luis Robert as a "future leadoff man." Just because he is fast?!? He doesn't walk much and strikes out a lot. He definitely shouldn't be leadoff early in his career until he shows he can hit breaking balls, but even final form Robert makes no sense at leadoff. His OBP won't be ideal unless he is hitting well over .300, and if he is doing that he is going to be smashing 40 home runs a season. Even if you don't care about walks, Tim Anderson is also fast as hell AND he already proved he can get on base with BA alone by winning the batting crown this year. He isn't my choice (I want Grandal) but I think TA is at least a logical choice to lead off. Putting Robert there is just a waste.

I think this is only BIG NEWS if you think RH is incompetent, or that the WS are going to continue their rebuild habits of giving bad players a million chances to break out (understandable PTSD from the latter). Obviously RH doesn't think a guy who hasn't even cracked 2 WAR for a year in 4 seasons isn't a "long term answer" in RF. He definitely thinks he has a chance still to break out and become that player though.

Wow, first I saw of this too. I'd say it deserves it's own thread so we don't derail the soxfest one, but I'm sure that'd be a shitshow. FWIW, there is enough here (timely police report, some convincing evidence, large amount of friends testifying that there was a consistent story/consequences, etc) that this can not be easily dismissed at all.

We already have a poor defender in RF, and a lot of scouts/writers are saying NC got better enough at RF this year to move from "worst in the league" to merely "below-average" which probably puts him in the same range as Mazara. If someone believes that, what I said above still applies. If someone doesn't believe in the defensive improvement, I think the result is they just don't sign NC no matter who we had in RF, because Eloy in LF plus the worst defensive RF in the game is likely untenable. Which is a valid argument, but Mazara is pretty irrelevant to it. Injuries WILL happen, and I really don't want to be in contention in July and then realize we are about to see if Adam can put up 2 good months as an everyday starter while Eloy recovers from an ankle injury. If someone thought at the start of the offseason that NC would be a good fit for our RF, I think they should still support NC on a cheap deal, even with Mazara.