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Flash
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For grins, am contemplating what a combination of Sox-Cubs might look like in 2021 if we could pick the best positional player from either team. Sox win the pitching matchups hands down but, If I'm being honest, there are several positions that aren't completely obvious. For instance...Abreu vs. Rizzo?; Moncada vs. Bryant?; Anderson vs. Baez?; Grandal vs. Contreres? Eaton/Engel vs. Heyward? Thoughts?

   

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1 hour ago, Flash said:

For grins, am contemplating what a combination of Sox-Cubs might look like in 2021 if we could pick the best positional player from either team. Sox win the pitching matchups hands down but, If I'm being honest, there are several positions that aren't completely obvious. For instance...Abreu vs. Rizzo?; Moncada vs. Bryant?; Anderson vs. Baez?; Grandal vs. Contreres? Eaton/Engel vs. Heyward? Thoughts?

   

I’d take the Sox at every position but RF and even there an Adam/Adam platoon has the potential to be better than Heyward.

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Based on projections from the two most commonly known online baseball projection websites, most positions have a clear advantage of one player over another. PS - Don't shoot the messenger about First Base.

Projections: fWAR = Fan Graphs presented first vs. warp = Baseball Prospectus presented second

Consensus Picks in Bold: (Both sites project one player over another)

  • Catcher Yasmani Grandal (4.1 / 4.7) over Wilson Contreras (1.9 / 2.9)
  • First Base Anthony Rizzo (3.0 / 4.7) over Jose Abreu (1.8 / 2.9)
  • Second Base Nick Madrigal (2.3 / 2.7) over Nico Hoerner (1.0 / 1.3)
  • Shortstop Tim Anderson (2.6 / 2.0) over Javier Baez (2.6 / 1.9) => (fWAR tied, BP with slight edge to Anderson - basically a coin flip)
  • Third Base Kirk Bryant (2.9 / 2.8) over Yoan Moncada (3.1 / 2.3) => (slight advantage to Bryant based on larger BP difference of 0.5 vs. Moncada's 0.2 fWAR advantage)
  • Right Field Jason Heyward (1.7 / 1.8) over Adam Eaton (1.3 / 1.9) => (slight advantage to Heyward based on larger fWAR difference of 0.4 vs. Eaton's 0.1 BP advantage)
  • Center Field Luis Robert (3.4 / 3.2) over Ian Happ (2.4 / 1.5)
  • Left Field Eloy Jimenez (3.2 / 2.6) over Joc Pederson 2.0 / 2.2)
  • Starting Pitcher 1 Lucas Giolito (4.2 / 2.9) over Kyle Hendricks (2.7 / 2.6)
  • Starting Pitcher 2 Lance Lynn (3.0 / 2.0) over Zach Davies (1.4 / 1.1)
  • Starting Pitcher 3 Dallas Keuchel (2.5 / 1.4) over Alec Mills (0.8 / 1.4) => (BP tied, fWAR with large edge to Keuchel)
  • Starting Pitcher 4 Dylan Cease (1.5 / 0.4) over Adbert Alzolay (0.8 / 0.8) => (slight advantage to Cease based on larger fWAR difference of 0.7 vs. Alzolay's 0.4 BP advantage)
  • Starting Pitcher 5 Michael Kopech (1.0 / 0.9) over Trevor Williams (0.7 / 0.1)
  • Closer Liam Hendriks (1.9 / 1.3) over Craig Kimbrel (0.8 / 0.7)
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Amazing how quickly they’ve fallen. The Cubs still have some players you might pick because of their name and past but thats a team that could finish 3rd or 4th in the worst division in baseball. 
 

If we learn nothing else from the Cubs it should be that you can’t sustain success without good, young pitching. If they developed good relievers then they wouldn’t need to pay a few of them $5m every year to fill out the staff. They wouldn’t have been desperate to trade for Aroldis or sign Kimbrel. And of course the amount of money they had to spend for their rotation.

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I like the Sox at every position but the  Cubs still have an intact core of Bryant Rizzo Contreras, Baez, Heyward  and now  Joc Pedersen.

Maybe they will be better than we think. Schwarber was a good non-tender and Joc could hit 30+ HR, especially in Wrigley.

They needed a TOR starter or two which is why the Ricketts  probably  should have been in on Bauer. Not sure what the plan is over there.

 

 

 

Edited by tray
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For me, I'd take Rizzo at 1B (sorry). Its close to a coin flip at SS w/ever so slight advantage to TA. I think both Moncada and Bryant will both bounce back but Bryant has a higher historical performance level to return to than Yoan. Gotta go with Sox at every other position.

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c ) Yax vs. Wilson is toss up. Wilson is 4 years younger, so for a team you give the edge to Wilson. For next year? Probably Yasmani. 

1b) Tough one, but I go Abreu. 

2b) Cheating aand going with Javy Baez here. But otherwise, Nick Madrigal.

SS ) Tim Anderson over Baez, but I'd play Baez at 2b so this is a moot point.

3b) I'd play Moncada at third and Bryant in OF. But if I had to choose... I think I'd go Moncada, but extremely close. 

LF) Eloy
CF) Roberts
RF) Bryant or Heyward if I had to choose

DH: Rizzo or Vaughn

SP: Gio, Lynn, Hendriks, Keuchel, Mills with Cease/Kopech awaiting

 

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