BFirebird

I get that Schilling is a bit of a bag and I probably would not get along with him personally, but he is a HOF pitcher. Not voting for him makes no sense in my opinion.

McHugh would be my choice. My guess is he is holding on to the thought of starting and will probably hold out until everyone says no. I think both Castellanos and McHugh could be guys you sign later if their market craters to short deals. McHugh you can sell on you are our long guy and first one up when someone needs a spot start or fails.

He will need to adjust to become elite, just like everyone else. We don’t obviously know any of these guys, but I don’t see anything that Moncada & Eloy have done that shows they aren’t willing to and won’t adjust to what pitchers are doing to them and based on his MILB track record I am sure La Pantera is the same way. Having guys like Grandal and EE around will only help development IMO.

The 55 is from last year I believe before the adjustments. He will probably be a 60 FG says this year. Fangraphs article on the signing: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/white-sox-and-luis-robert-agree-on-50-million-extension/

WAR is a good way to see how teams stack up, the Fangraphs depth charts WAR chart looks like it is pretty accurate power ranking of teams, the problem the article has is he didn't accurately do math. The Twins and Sox are a LOT closer than he portrays. They had a ton of career years last year that outperformed their predictions, everyone doing all that again is not likely.

That's a good question...I didn't even notice that. He hasn't posted that low of a WAR since 2014.

I can go with this plan on RP. I am not a huge Puig fan, but depending on his price and willingness to platoon I am good with bringing him aboard.

I don't get this article. If they are using WAR as the premise to NOT be afraid of the White Sox, then their argument doesn't make much sense to me. White Sox currently are 2.7 Wins behind the Twins according to Fangraphs (https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Team). I am willing to guess they were far greater than 2.7 wins behind the Twins at this point last year. I know the offseason isn't over and the Twins will probably sign 1-2 more guys at least, but the Sox may sign some more as well (RP and possibly another RF).

He will find a way...lets not kid ourselves. That brings up the question, with the accelerated rebuild here...can Rick handle this and should they have been looking for a replacement there too this offseason?

Furthermore, Mazara would probably rarely ever play against LHP. If Castellanos hit LH I would be more concerned with having Mazara and BDN on the roster together.

Not if you think you can unlock something with him. I wouldn't think of it as we acquired him to be a 4th OFer, but getting someone else like Castellanos or whoever is just depth and insurance in case Mazara really can't make adjustments like the Rangers think. I think the opposite...if we planned on Mazara to play regular RF that would be a mistake.

That really isn't that out whack of a theory IMO. It is easy to just plant some stories.

It is a really bad look, but it isn't like they don't have a top 5 MLB payroll...they just don't want to go into the luxury tax. They are just being killed by the bad contracts of Heyward and Chatwood. Lester is a bad contract now, but I wouldn't consider that a bad deal. And that Kimbrel one is going to turn out to be horrible I think too. Too many BIG swings and misses hurting them.

Would Cubs need to work on multiple deals with teams depending on how the grievance works out? They are getting quite screwed by this because I am sure teams want to see how long they would keep Bryant. And I wonder who the market still is for him other than Braves. Phillies still?

100% this. It will just create depth as long as they don't give some ridiculous contract, which based on the Grandal and Keuchel deals they are not going beyond 3-4 years.