Balta1701

That's the case with basically every move we made this offseason save 1. We've probably wasted about $15-20 million more than we needed depending on how you count Machado's friends. But at some point, this team has plenty of money, and unless that $15 million is what it would take to get Machado to sign right now, it doesn't change the long term plans all that much. I still dislike the player we gave away in one of those trades more than any of the money we took on.

Back in 2015 I jumped through hoop after hoop to convince myself of why we would be so much better than those projections, and then it turned out PECOTA was absolutely right on. What PECOTA is doing is it is saying "Here's a rough middle ground. Some young guys perform, some young guys struggle, as is normal for young guys with limited track records". It's also saying "there will be some injuries that affect performance" and "There will be some things you don't expect". It is absolutely possible to outperform it, but that means you are doing something right - getting better player development than expected or players are healthier than expected. It is also possible to underperform it if you do the opposite. If you think you're going to be dramatically better than it, the answer can't be something it would take into account - like the "our bullpen is really good" lines above, unless the bullpen is really good because of guys who arrive and light the world on fire.

#buildthewall

The Lakers are treating Ball as a valuable asset in the NOLA proposed moves, so what valuable asset are the Bulls swapping to the Lakers for him? Markannen? WCJ? First round draft pick? All those seem like unworkable concepts. I have no disagreement on the other two.

Their chances of Zion really don't change that much even if they win a couple more games. There are currently 6 wins between the #4 team and the #5 team, so it's virtually impossible for the Bulls to fall to #5. Their current odds are 12.5%, each of the teams currently worse than them has a 14% chance.

What's the setup with this part? Is there another cap spike coming or something?

The Bulls get a slightly better player out of it, and make sure they're not below the minimum salary penalties next season. Although Otto is overpaid, so was Parker, and Portis was up for an extension that would raise his price.

Couldn't figure out why the Wiz would give up a decent player until I looked at the $60 million+ over 2.5 years remaining on his contract. I guess if no one will ever want your cap space you might as well do moves like that until you get out of the hole.

I don't hate them for it, I do wonder why one team that is consistently in the 10-15 range in payroll receives compensatory draft picks for being a small market team while others (White Sox) aren't afforded the same luxury.

Does anyone else feel like "Rewarding small market teams who are competitive" would just be another way to funnel unexplained draft picks to St. Louis?

And we'll have the benefit of training the pitching staff not to let the ball be hit to the outfield, as they'll learn rapidly that it will never be caught.

"Aye, and if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon."

41 baseball related final jeopardy questions/answers as a single sporacle quiz: https://www.sporcle.com/games/jfrank9/baseball-on-final-jeopardy

Then they better not sign a guy with an opt out after year 2.

"If we keep playing like this we'll be right there at the end" - Rick Hahn, early July, 2015.

Does that guy just not like Goff?

Alternatively I think they could go with a much higher minimum salary. If everyone in the big leagues was making $3 million - suddenly I'm much more willing to pay $4 million for Jay, because why not? Add in some extra money for the minor leagues, and you've done something else - effectively establishing a leaguewide minimum payroll.

February 20th would be a Wednesday...

I believe the necessary apostrophe in the thread title has cloned itself and run amok and it must be stopped.

I believe the thread title is missing an apostrophe.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25925457/indians-acquire-right-hander-nick-wittgren-trade-marlins

With Rutherford wasn't it how much weight he gained?

When Collins is no longer in the MLB pipeline top 10 catchers, I don't think you can call on "the professionals" to give us hope.

The Padres having more payroll flexibility is questionable. They also have Will Myers with a ballooning deal, which will pay $22 million next year. They don't have a lot of contract commits, but neither do we. Right now Baseball-Reference puts them at $72 million committed this year and us at $81 million, before the guys needed to fill out the roster. Next year the White Sox have $33 million committed while the Padres have $41 million, but they have 14 guys who will be arb-eligible in 2020 so theirs will balloon if they even keep most of them. If both teams picked up all options and arb for everyone, they would have $110 million on the books, we would have $60 million. The Padres have also never had a payroll as high as the White Sox's peak years.

I don't think that Moncada can improve his game much without improving the strikeout part.