Balta1701

Do they still play Thunderstruck before home games? Can they make that his walkout music or something like that?

If you're planning to be an uber driver make sure you check your state's rules. I believe some states have limits for how old those cars can be, Texas for example I think there's a 10 year limit.

An unnamed Senior Official in the Trump Administration has just published an article in the New York Times saying sure the President is f***ing insane and yes we keep documents from him to keep him from destroying the world but TAX CUTS ARE AWESOME AND THATS MORE IMPORTANT.

So we have a bullpen ringer for the WS playoffs? I guess that's useful.

I always thought Uribe had excellent range. I can think of one specific play where he covered a helluva lot of ground and caught a ball just before it entered the stands. There was 1 out in that inning at the time, I believe it was the 9th inning of a game. There's a decent chance the date was October 26. Anyway, that's just one example - Uribe moved rapidly to go get balls when he was out there as well. For whatever its worth, Uribe had a good solid "Range Factor" as we calculated things back in those old days.

There's been some luck in this stretch as they're over .500 for this stretch and right now they're not a >.500 team, but just as I disagree with the idea that they were unlucky in the first half, I seriously disagree with your last statement. This roster has absolutely gone from a 100 loss roster to a 90 loss roster during this year. We've seen legit improvement from Giolito and Lopez, including on the peripheral numbers that are the things they needed to improve on. We've replaced Santiago and Covey in the rotation with Kopech and Rodon. The only real decent piece we traded the whole year was Soria, and we've called up some bullpen talent. And in the field, we've seen some growth from Anderson, and we've seen the emergence of Palka and Narvaez into at least quality bats during the year. Where they are right now, they're probably about a 90 loss team, and with improvement from the guys already here, they could easily be at the level of an 85 loss team next year before any additions. And then the thing in the OF will come up.

But that's not bad luck, that's not even close to a fluke or a worst case scenario, that's a team where a number of guys pushed up to the big leagues struggled and put up poor numbers.

They had a lot of injuries in the minors yes but they were still somewhat above average in terms of big league health. That number of injuries is what a team should expect that they need to overcome - it's only by comparison with the unbelievable health they had in 2015 and 2016 that this team looked like it had a lot of injuries.

But...but...but....the difference between what the White Sox would probably have in a corner OF spot (Delmonico/Garcia) and Brantley seems to be way smaller than the difference between Engel and a decent starting CF.

Depends on what "it" is. If we're talking about a 2 year/$30 million deal, I think he has a shot at being worth that, and adding a decent veteran presence to a spot where we have a legit hole, and holding that spot for 1-2 years while we wait for big talent to work its way up. If we're talking 3/$60 as was floated a little while ago, then I seriously doubt he's worth that.

I probably wouldn't be the sort who goes 3 years with Pollock for exactly that reason. If some team wants to go wild and outbid us for him, I can live with that, but he's basically a tolerable fielder out there who as of right now plays 1/2 to 2/3 of a normal season. If Engel is on the bench, or we think Leury can take some ABs, Pollack is a decent fit. I still think guys saying 3/$60 are wildly overshooting for him. Last 3 years 0.5 WAR, 2.2 WAR, 1.9 WAR so far. Yeah he had an MVP caliber season 4 years ago but that's long since gone.

No but they could John Dean this President if they wanted to. Mike Pompeo gets to testify before Congress all the time. The Secretary of State saying that the President of the United States should not serve in that office would at least get some attention. Haldeman was called to testify before Congress, so the Chief of Staff can get a seat there if needed. They're willing to overlook that for their other priorities.

With where the FA market went last season I could actually see guys at his level just accepting those offers if given.

Far more interesting to me because of the CF slot being open for us.

I would guess that Brantley gets a better offer than that, but after last offseason's FA market fell apart at the end who knows? But then again, we're literally already talking about how we don't really have at bats available at corner OF spots without cutting several guys loose...unless people want to tell me they think he can play CF, I don't see a corner OF being a good use of our funds.

Is he really going to jump to $5 million next year? Coming off 1-2 WAR seasons in 2015 and 2016 Eduardo Escobar jumped to $2.1 and then $2.6 million over 2016 and 2017. He only got to $4.6 million this year, his final arbitration season.

I could certainly be convinced to sign a second tier CF to a 1-2 year deal even for good money given Engel's performance the last 2 years.

If they sign a starting quality 3b, then Davidson is an obvious odd man out as well (unless they were willing to make a move on Abreu).

I don't have the same Fangraphs drawn trendlines for Lopez, but his numbers in August do look genuinely different. First half: 6.6 SO/9, 1.73 SO/BB (Both about as bad as anyone else in the league and down there with Giolito) August: 8.0 SO/9, 2.73 SO/BB. That's not Chris Sale, but now both of those would be in the middle of the pack for starters around the league, so it's heading in a positive direction based on August.

At least for Luca$, you can draw solid trendlines where the things that go into FIP - strikeouts, walks, and heck while we're at it even velocity, he's getting better on them as the year goes on. His total season numbers are dominated by time where he wasn't the pitcher he hopefully is turning into right now

Have people pointed out that was terrible in August (IIRC there was some talk by Hahn or someone a few weeks ago about his knee still hurting?) 1.048 OPS in July, .571 OPS in August.

Are arbitration contracts still not guaranteed until the start of the season? Everyone remember what happened to Viciedo - they signed him to a nonguaranteed deal, then went out and signed Cabrera, held Viciedo through Spring Training, but they were able to cut him at the end of Spring Training for something like $25k. I very much agree we have to do something to relieve this clog up of DHs and OFs before the big monster arrives. I don't know what it will be, but that's one more possibility.

With the way the cap works, Trubisky not breaking out for 3 or 4 years could certainly hurt you're right, I guess one thing I thought of in response though is last year's Jags. They were a good, solid, tough team, gave the Patriots a legit run for it in the AFC championship game, and they were there because of their defense and in spite of their QB play. With Mack in the fold can the Bears outdo that?

So if the Bears had 2 top 5 draft picks and picked up the option on one of them, they'd be spending $60 million + over 5 years on those 2 players.