Click here to read the transcript of tonight’s live baseball chat, moderated by MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk
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Glad to see Braves fans aren’t the only ones with ridiculous trades involving shedding average players for stars like that NYM trade proposal for Lindor. Only giving up JD Davis, Rosario, Gsellman and a prospect for Lindor…not even Ronny Mauricio, Baty or Gimenez…? Convenient.
Everybody overvalued their own players…..
That chat wasn’t very tight. Sorry… I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer but the chat ended over an hour ago and I am one of the first 2 people to comment in it. That is not the symptoms of a tight chat.
Oh please…..
The chat was fine. It’s the holiday season. People are overwhelmed with family, and some have to get up and go to work tomorrow morning.
Beat me to it. Just wrapped Christmas!
Good chat!
Have a problem with the constant sarcastic references regarding the Cubs budget. Saying that it’s just a matter of a $7m luxury tax is silly. I believe the issue is this……
Depending on where I look, the Cubs had the 1st or 3rd highest MLB payroll in 2019. They finished 3rd in a so-so NLC. OK, those things can happen. But looking out a few years, the Cubs have an aging starting pitching staff being paid big bucks, an overpaid closer in the bullpen that all other MLB teams had the sense to stay away from, and the remainder of the bullpen is far from sterling. Their pitchers are aging, and when pitchers age they can fall pretty fast. Looking to the Cubs minor league system, there are few – if any – reinforcements on the way. Pitching is the name of the game. Now the Cubs FO wants yet more and more money in the budget to overpay yet again for more veteran pitchers. The owner doesn’t need a CPA study to tell him that continuing in this direction is unsustainable.
With all due respect to the luxury tax and the rumors of the cash overrun in the building of the area around Wrigley by the owner, IMO this is simply the owner putting his foot down for the 2nd off-season in a row, and seeing if his FO led by Theo Epstein is going to find a way to improve the team without wasting money (the FO didn’t do much in the past 12 months – they continued to waste money). I believe he’s looking for accountability, and if there is none – well, you can keep firing pitching coaches, then have a mutual agreement that it’s better the manager moves on, but at some point it might be time for a mutual agreement that the FO moves on.
Your mom keeps asking if the Cubs payroll will be above the tax line as well. I honestly think she wants to get paid
nice 1. what are you, 12 years old?
Pffffffft. Cubs print money.
BILLIONAIRES HATE to pay taxes of any kind…..
maybe if the family didn’t waste a ton of money trying to buy a senate seat (and more recently, a governor’s seat), maybe there’d be more money to spend.
and what geniuses, getting your kid elected to governor in a state with zero pro sports teams
I’m not sure I undetstand what your goal is here. Are the cubs running a motivational program for baseball executives?
You can’t possibly be supporting the waste of multiple years in a window of contention teaching your front office staff how to be frugal can you?
I also can’t understand the perspective not thinking we should hear the actual dollar amounts of these taxes that teams are using as excuses. I don’t have an issue with a team not spending. I have a problem when a team lies about the reason and quite frankly 7 million dollars is not a reason to make directional decisions for the entire franchise. It’s an insult to fans to pretend a 7 million dollar tax bill is any different that a 7 million dollar bad contract.
Would Riley, Waters, and Wright from the Braves be enough to get 2 years of Bryant from the cubs? Or would that be an over pay?
I think yes.
Answer yes to which question
Would like the see a deal get done but hopefully without having to include either Anderson of Pache.
I would think the Braves wouldn’t want to trade Riley for 2 years of Bryant, who will definitely end up elsewhere 2 years from now leaving the Braves with another hole at 3rd base and no one to fill it.
But yeah I think the answer is yes to both of your questions.
The Braves best chance at a World Series is probably in the next couple years. Young guys still making nothing, Freeman under contract, solid veteran bullpen. The Bryant trade makes so much sense for both teams it probably won’t happen.
I feel your thinking on the Dodgers infield is kind of backwards. If the Dodgers did trade for Lindor the player obviously freed up for trade is Lux. It makes no sense to swap out Seager for Lindor if only because Seager is at least as good offensively as Lindor if not better. Keeping both in the lineup means moving Seager to 3B (a position he has played) not to 2B (a position he hasn’t played), and also because the apparent plan is to move Turner to first. This keeps Muncy at 2B. If they fail to find a way to swap Lux for Lindor then Lux probably starts the season in the minors. There’s no place to put him, because I believe they aren’t ready to pencil him in at SS. The kid is blocked, they almost have to trade him.
Agreed but I still would not trade him, yet. We need starting pitching, not a different shortstop. Seager just came off two major operations in 2018 and still hit .270.
Start this exercise with the assumption that the Dodgers want to move Turner to 1B. This pushes Muncy to 2B. Now it’s easy to see who is the odd man out. It’s Lux. If the Dodgers signed Donaldson, same problem for Lux. No place for him to play. So my point is, the cost of Lindor should not be Seager, it should be Lux. Every scenario other than an injury out of spring training to Muncy or Seager buries him in the minors, which would not be beneficial to the player’s development or his trade value. That’s as close to a “need to trade” as you will find in baseball.
Anyway, my point was, this logic was inverted in the chat. The thinking was trading Lux creates a problem for the Dodgers infield, when in reality, it potentially solves one. It also suggests that one of the costs of Lindor could be Seager, which makes little sense if the objective is actually making the team better.
Why doesn’t it move Muncy to third? He is a better than average defensive 3B. Turner is a decent 3B also.
I don’t see a real need for Lindor. Lux is waiting for his chance to take over short. If Seager gets hurt again, Lux can step in. No sense in making a trade for a position you already consider a strength. Dodgers need to add some pitching.
Muncy playing some 3B could happen in any scenario but I don’t see him as strong enough defensively to make him the regular starter at that position. He’s really worked on his defense at 2B and it has produced results. My feeling is they’d prefer to build on that rather than shift him again. Turner is fine at 3B for now but the sense I am getting is they want to find him a position he can play beyond 2020 and this would be a good time to do it. This explains the interest in Rendon and Donaldson, and Lindor too. Lux is too good and apparently too ready to stockpile for depth. Play him or trade him for somebody who will play. Yeah they need a top starter too but they’ve whittled down their options to just the one and he will be scary expensive.
If they had to trade him they would have already. There is no “have to trade” when it comes to the #2 prospect in baseball.
I read a rumor, that the Halos are discussing a trade for Price and Betts with the Redsox. Is there any truth to these rumors? I’d have to imagine Adell would be part of that trade along with Fletcher or La Stella, depending on how much salary the Halos take on. Would be amazing to Keep Adell and give them Upton but I know the Redsox want to dump Salary.
The f would red Sox want Upton. They would take the left over opium
If it increased the prospects returning, but that’s more wishful thinking and dreaming. It’s obvious they wouldn’t want Upton.
If the angels took all of price’s 96m then betts would be the incentive for them to do it and no notable prospects would go back to boston. Having said that boston is not including betts in a salary dump.
Gaylos wouldn’t have to give up sniff for Betts if price was involved. Maybe your fourth best prospect and a couple never bees
I need this question answered. Can the Rangers go get Castellanos, Chirinos, and Donaldson? They have the budget to do so.
I hope your needs are met before it’s too late!
If we get them would we be as good as the Astro’s? I don’t know.
That Arenado trade proposal cracked me up! I what world does someone think that is even close to getting Arenado? Every chat I read the trade proposals keep getting worse and worse, one of the only reasons I read them
Who does a chat at 11pm Central Time!!?? MLB is coming up this year on debuting their 20,000th player. Is ANYONE marking the occasion?
When you look at the Hall of Very Good and think how many players have played throughout history you see how rare it is too be very good. Besides, everyone is being judged by the extreme pitching environment before 1920 and the extreme hitting environment after 1920 until 1940. An era when no African Americans were allowed to play.
Did anyone learn anything in this chat? I know these guys cant see the future, but really, what did we learn?
And these trade ideas… would everyone be laughing if someone suggested a trade of Kluber for deshields and a relief pitcher?
Favorite cartoon? Character from the office? Really?
I had the same complaints months ago and I seldom read these chats. I guess I hoped they changed a little.
And yet most of us had fun and enjoyed ourselves! Don’t like the chats don’t read them
I used to read the Chats every chance I could. Lately, I’ve been skipping them because they are cartoonish. If you enjoy cartoons, by all means, read the chats.
Like I said, what do we learn from these chats? The writer refuses to go out on a limb and give his in depth opinion…
Q:”Are the Yanks looking for a lefty bat”? A:”Apparently so…”
Q:”Market for Wil Myers”A:”Not unless they take on a another bad contract or add money”
I mean, any one of us could have answered any of these questions.
Then you have your dozen or so… “Pancakes or Waffles?”, “Boxers or Briefs?” questions.
I wonder if they get paid per answer… If they are going to do a 2 hour chat, don’t give us 88 answers with zero thought. Give us some 30 answers where you put some real thought and explanation into your answer.
For instance…
Q:”Yankees are looking for a left handed bat”
A: “I believe the Yankees will always look for any chance to improve the team. But as far as looking for a left handed bat just because they are left handed, I doubt it. They currently have a very right handed heavy lineup and they have had great success with it offensively. They may be looking for a bench player that has great success against right handed pitchers just in case the occasion arises where they need to face a specific right handed reliever, but I doubt they are looking for a full time player just because they bat left handed. Mainly because the lineup is solid at every position currently. That being said… if the opportunity was there, I could see the Yankees trying to pick up a player like Matt Carpenter, who bats lefty and has an excellent career split against right handed pitchers. He could play third, first or second and also play some in a corner outfield. Carpenter is very expensive… 3 more years at $18.5 mil a year, so the deal would be very difficult to maneuver, but it could be an option worth doing if they are really looking to improve the left side of their lineup.”
This is a rumors website, so they should encourage those rumors. Put some effort into it.
Enjoy sack lunch
Does anyone think that’s the Rangers night be interested in Longoria and Belt? What would need to happen for this to come to fruition? Fills holes for the Rangers and of the Giants pay down some of the cash might increase our chance to get better returning pieces… yeah or nah?
Seems a bit far fetched to say it would take way more than Rosario and a B level prospect(assuming the poster means a good but not elite prospect) for Gray. Gray isn’t an elite pitcher so Rosario and a Duran or Cavaco seems to be pretty fair value. If you want to argue that Rosario doesn’t make sense for the Rockies, that I would agree with but to say it would take way more than that in terms of value is absurd.
Awfully low value for Andujar?
Given the current feeding frenzy I’m not so sure thats the case. I don’t think his health problems are a significant impact on value.
I could see wanting to wait to see if he’s improved his defense at third but if you thought he had the tools for 3rd base before the injury I think he’d be really valuable given that market.
That said, I could see the Yankees wanting to wait until mid season to see if Gio can duplicate last year.
I get that a lot of fans overvalue their players but Smith and Davis from the Mets are nothing special. They haven’t proven that they can play even passable defense but they have a decent bat in a relatively small sample size. They would be ok attached to a legit prospect but on their own, not a lot of value.
Dom Smith is actually a superior defensive 1st baseman, but that spot is locked down in the Big Apple for a long time. Trouble with Dom is his bat doesn’t really profile at 1B, even if he hits for a good average (possible) his power numbers don’t really project to be even average for the position. JD Davis was brilliant last year, I never knew he’d be that good, coming up he had huge power, good overall hitter, but long swing with holes. He really did great last year. Is it true progress? Huge year coming up for him.
Yeah, but he is a butcher in the outfield.