Balta1701

Fair.

I like Mookies health chances better as of now, Springer only has minor things but does seem to have a little nick every year and those add up.

Well this is a guy where dropping some speed for control and movement would make sense.

In all seriousness I’d love to be in the market for either of them if Adolfo and company continue on the path to out of baseball that they’re all currently on.

I’m at the Cincinnati airport right now and every time I see them on ESPN or in the paper their opponent is like 6-14.

This is referencing that bulls weak schedule.

Are there any teams in this league above .500? Watching Bulls results I feel as though there are none.

Remember that the Cubs did not start spending money in 2016, they jumped on Lester in 2015, made a huge jump that was earlier than most people thought, won 96 games, knocked out Pittsburgh in the Wild Card with a surprise Cy Young winner on the mound, and were perhaps an insane stretch by Daniel Murphy away from a World Series appearance. imagine if the rest of that stuff had happened but they hadn’t signed Lester. They miss the playoffs. They had a legit shot at winning a title and won the next one. you only get a couple chances before guys get hurt or hit free agency and that’s where the Cubs are now, so when your chances come you can’t squander them. Have a plan for 2021, leave yourself money to spend, but have a roster that can make a run if things go right. Maybe you get a short playoff run, that translates into a season ticket and ad sale boom, and now you have an extra $15 million to spend on payroll next year to get that final reliever.

If you win the AL Central you have as good of a chance as anyone of winning the world series, because there's a good chance you're playing better than other teams at the end of the year, you're coming from a division with strong teams, and you would have a team that has at least a couple of good starting pitchers. One of the reasons why we need 2 starters is to manage Kopech's innings early in the season so that you can decide how to use him down the stretch. I don't care if our rookies aren't used to full seasons; if that argument was worth anything then it would predict that Rookies never contribute in the playoffs which isn't true, and which also can be managed if you're giving a guy appropriate days off. Robert played 122 games last year, is 150 going to somehow be his doom? And honestly, if we make the playoffs next year and don't win...CONGRATULATIONS THE WHITE SOX BROKE ONE OF THE LONGEST STREAKS OF NO POSTSEASON APPEARANCES IN BASEBALL. That's an accomplishment on its own.

As others have pointed out, fixing the DH and RF positions alone with average players at least pushes this team into the mid-70s in wins. What I would say after that is...I don't know how next season will go, but I can give you a route where next season goes well. A couple guys like Cease, Kopech, Robert, and Eloy have good years, 1 or 2 actually break out as all-stars (totally possible), or Giolito or Moncada step up even more to top of the league level players, and all of a sudden we're a mid 80s or even 90 win team. I cannot guarantee it will happen but I can no longer rule it out. But, if we go $100 million payroll this offseason and bring in two cheap starting pitchers, we could be sabotaging this season before things even have a chance to go right, leaving us far enough behind the Twins or Indians that we just can't catch up, even using the trade market. So here's the real trick this season. Make ourselves good enough that if a whole lot of stuff goes right this season - we're sitting there atop the division at the end of the year. But at the same time...if stuff goes wrong this season, we need to have money available in 2021 to be able to fix those problems.

And yet all of those teams were in the playoffs during the terrible parts of those contracts and half of them won titles during them.

If he doesn’t improve? He’s in Teheran territory currently, bottom of the barrel.

But he’s not worth his contract even in this market.

based on this current market that’s probably 10-20% lower than numbers Boras is already getting for those guys. Stras met with Yankees yesterday.

I’d very much expect a higher total amount than that based on these first pitcher signings. Maybe not a ton more than that but whatever your ceiling is, contracts are blowing past it by 20%.

5/$120 is not being paid like an elite pitcher. An elite pitcher will probably make 2x that this offseason. Youve got to recalibrate your contract expectations. Elite pitchers were getting $120 million 15 years ago, comparable contracts today would push $300 million.

So the Price and Benintendi for scraps idea seems a bit more reasonable now?

With nothing of value to trade, spending money to spend money seems like a fair option.

If we aren’t going to make the good gamble (strascole) the choice between a bad gamble and not even playing the game I guess you take the bad gamble.

I removed the specific Bumgarner note from the title as I’ve got to admit wondering what the need for 2 threads was myself.

No but I go and put a higher offer in on a better starting pitcher and there are 2 of those available. I thought I could get adequate performance here at a discount but the discount evaporated, so now I have no choice but to go pay full price.

If true, it says that they have the same problem as last season - they have no idea how much a free agent player is actually worth, their market valuations are stuck in 2012, and they would rather lose ballgames than fix that.

I will allow the Cubs to undo all of their free agent bad contracts as long as they give back that world series trophy. That's how you do it - if you sign no major free agents, you have no bad free agent contracts, and the Cubs were sorta helped by at least some of their free agent signings. So, trophy for no albatross contracts. Cub fans will take that deal right?

The way to phrase it is not "For Cole Hamels of all people", it is "For virtually all people including Cole Hamels". This is the equivalent of a 1 year, $10 million contract a decade ago.

Only if you can tell me how he's going to simultaneously play DH and RF. Playing 300 games during a 162 game season seems difficult for one person.