Balta1701

I mean, the honest answer is Verlander won't pitch this year, Springer is gone now, and seemingly 1/2 of their roster is gone next year. They won't, and this league not being willing to do normal deals for expensive players will be important, but adding in extra talent right now to make a run in 2022 would be the right move if they could get stuff back for Correa, McCullers, Greinke, Bregman, etc.

The basic problem is...as a team expecting to compete, after turning huge profits in 2018-2019, with perhaps the best potential for revenue growth with a winning team of any team in all of MLB, in the 3rd largest city in the US, and on top of that a Cubs team no longer expected to compete...a payroll approaching the numbers you say shouldn't be outrageous. But given our experience with this organization, we have to assume those numbers are outrageous, and the pandemic has made it worse.

If he was coming off another strong year, and it was a normal market, even with a surplus of SS I'd imagine someone would go 3/$60 or more. This year? I'd rather go make a bet on the election results being overturned than on any number I could come up with.

Had the white Sox not traded him, a Semien, Tatis, Anderson infield could have dominated 2019 and 2020. Too late for that, and now he’s a terrible fit for us. I have no idea whatsoever what he’s worth this offseason. Between a bad 8 week 2020 season and the revenue drop, he seems in a spot to be massively hurt this year. If owners are being honest about their losses he will get a 1 year deal, but if he is still a 5 win shortstop and you sign him for a couple years he’s a potential huge bargain. But it may be no one has the money for that gamble.

One year deal, place to be healthy and hit lots of HR, fit well in the lineup, play a position of need, with a defensive platoon player already there, figure out the next deal post pandemic and lockout? Makes some sense to me.

“How do the Bulls become the Nets.”Professional staff up and down the list, develop a solid young roster with good coaching and cap space. This is a big city. It can be done.

Tbh I would count out the Yankees, they are in the tax already and offer Arb to Sanchez. I don’t think the Rangers believe they can compete. The Astros need a catcher but they don’t have money for a multi year upgrade. Phillies sure! But they haven’t gotten it done yet, they’re an ideal place for a 1 year $20 million deal. Jays maybe, but they’re in on everything right?

Who else has money to spend, is close to competitive, and needs a catcher? Serious Q I don’t know who else would be in.

From someone smarter than me: ”Being president doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are.” She continues being right.

High dollar 1 year deal from someone?

I don’t know how no one suggested this over the last 2 hours but the obvious answer is 5/150 with an opt out after 2 or 3 years (by a professional organization that offers contracts like that). Gets him back to FA after the virus and lockout messes.

I have no other Chicago based reference points for a president of baseball operations and a general manager both being experienced baseball people. Can you give examples of two ways that might work and what would happen if the owner overruled them to hire his drinking buddy?

Do the right thing yourself, encourage all of your family to do the right thing. Don’t go to any restaurants or gatherings for the next 2 months this is a disaster. Just act like he doesn’t matter, either find a way to laugh at it or just drink. Keep yourself safe and try to encourage (politely) the same of those you know. It’s the best anyone can do now. If you focus on him it will eat you alive.

“And what’s worse is you’re using blind luck to justify your playing god” -Admiral Pike to Captain Kirk, Kelvin Timeline, Star Trek Into Darkness.

We coulda had James McCann for 3 more years or so and Kole Calhoun out in RF for like $20 million less than Grandal.

I mean, do the Cardinals still have John Rooney?

I will admit that the world has slightly changed since 2019, but the scouting reports on his fielding weren't awful in 2019. Generally several places seem to rate his fielding at a 50 on the normal draft scale. https://www.soxmachine.com/2019/04/25/mlb-draft-profile-andrew-vaughn/

Where did that come from? I was under the impression that Vaughn should be a significant improvement in 1b fielding compared to Abreu.

You're parsing numbers here a lot. Yes he's been a negative defensive UZR in 3 of the last 5 years - in two of those years, he was -0.3 and -0.1, and that's also while counting time that he spent playing CF for 200 and then 50 innings in each of those years.

People were thinking his numbers would improve when he moved to a better hitters park. He had a few more HR, but all his other numbers plummeted. Are we looking at a bad luck situation last year for him or are we looking at a legit dropoff?

I mean, I’m not calibrated enough on NBA contracts and this cap to put numbers on things, but even if you do still think he has something left, I would want to see him stay reasonably healthy for most of a season first unless the contract was impressively low. If the cap has to drop substantially, I think I can confidently say that range is far higher than I’d pay with what he has shown me so far.

That level seems like a very unreasonable gamble by the Bulls on a player who hasn't impressed. And if the Cap has to drop by 10% a year for the next couple years to make up for this year? If you're thinking about him getting anything close to that money, let him play out the year, he becomes an RFA next year when maybe you know better what your revenue numbers/long term cap numbers will look like, and you've got the option to match anything he's offered or let him walk to play the FA market.

It wouldn't be the first time the "analytics" position was used that way. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2014/11/18/ed-lewis-a-former-veterinarian-is-the-diamondbacks-new-director-of-analytics/19229543/

Considering that last year was easily his best career season, regression is possible for Abreu. But who is going to make up for that? Luis Robert. He's gone through a set of struggles now and seen what that's like...now the opposing pitchers are really in trouble.