Lol @ Shelby Miller not being over .500 this year.

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If he was part of a larger deal, maybe. I would rather they use Soler for pitching.

If Soler is going for an arm in a package with Baez and some garbage..better off waiting til July and see what A's want for Gray.

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that leaves the opportunity to expose both Baez and Soler

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Or time for the Cubs and the league to realize both are going to have great careers. Both will have several .800 OPS seasons.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

of course

I meant expose how great they are resulting in trading both of them for such a mild return as Sonny Gray to be ridiculous

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Wholeheartedly agree!

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Baez yeah..he's not good..but Soler is legit and will only be exposed as a hell of a hitter with a great arm in RF. The hope for me is Soler stays... You can't hide baez ..he's just not good.

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Do you not believe in the mathematics behind statistical analysis? Obviously there are a lot of phonies out there (like Dan Bernstein) who don't understand the statistics, and I won't claim to be an expert myself having only taken one undergraduate course in the subject, but it is definitely possible to prove this. I'll see if I can dig up an original source for this study, but clearly large statistical evidence it out there as to correlation between run support and W/L record. Any anecdotal evidence to the contrary is not scientifically relevant.

From http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2081 ... misleading:

It would also be possible to look at year-to-year correlations between the same pitcher from year to year and see which is more stable, W/L record, ERA, or any other advanced metric of your choosing. I don't have the expertise to do this, but I know enough to know it can be done to prove or disprove your unsupported (except by anecdote) assertions.

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Look over there! A dry ice factory. A good place to get some thinking done.
Did I forget to mention, forget to mention Memphis? Home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks.

Here's a really nice tool that provides evidence for the relative lack of control a pitcher has over W/L compared to ERA:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/tool-bas ... rrelation/

When you plug year 1 W/L percentage vs year 2 W/L percentage, you get only at 0.075 correlation at 95% confidence. But if you plug ERA in to the same calculation, you get a 0.311 correlation. What this means, as far as I understand (and I am not an expert, so this may be a misinterpretation) is that a pitcher's ERA is much more predictive of that same pitcher's ERA the next year than the current W/L record is as a predictor of next year's W/L record.

So if W/L record is truly the measure of quality, then pitchers are all over the board from year to year. In any case, it's not useful as a predictive tool.

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Look over there! A dry ice factory. A good place to get some thinking done.
Did I forget to mention, forget to mention Memphis? Home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks.

You used math to discuss baseball. BAD MOVE!

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I hate being that guy....but why hasn't Theo signed that extension yet?

Is he setting things up for McLeod to take over? (I say McLeod because he signed a deal already but Hoyer has not.) Is he looking for a way out or just simply holding out for a deal that tops Friedman's out in LA?

I'm a little nervous.

Theo isn't leaving yet. His HOF bid requires the championship.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Buehrle threw 198 innings with an above average ERA, in what universe does this suck?

He was very good for a few months and then fell off a cliff at the end of the year and he's old. Im guessing that wasn't just a bump in the road. Maybe it was a mysterious injury.

Let me amend

He was fucking terrible for the last two months of the season.

Royals postseason rotation was Cueto, Volquez, Ventura, and Chris Young. They had a 4.68 ERA in the 2015 postseason.

Cubs' rotation is fine.

If you go by 2015 postseason results, Arrieta, Lester, Lackey and Hendricks would be fine. 4.13 ERA. Not amazing, but should be serviceable enough for what we hope the Cubs offense will produce.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Rickett's was on air last week or so and this was addressed. He sounded pretty confident about getting Theo's new deal done. I believe He'll sign another 5 year deal.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

nice.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

It's not a trade, but perhaps a development worth noting. Baez is playing CF in winter ball and doing well at the position so far. It is highly unlikely they would go into the season with Baez in CF, but if Baez gets extended time in spring training in CF and looks good there, it could mean they have a good option should Soler have another injury that sidelines him, with Heyward moving back to RF. I like Baez and believe he will be a good player, if not for the Cubs, for some team. Good speed, plus power and versatility in the field. He showed he could hit for a higher average last year, with more contact than in 2014. If that continues to trend, he can be a star player.

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Go Cubs!!!!

He's also light-skinned.

released Brendan Ryan

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Signed Brandon Gomes to minor league deal and claimed Olmos, again, from the Orioles.

yeah,that's 1 mil shot in the ass....Thanks Theo!

Last week the Yankees traded Brendan Ryan to the Cubs as the player to be named later in the Starlin Castro-for-Adam Warren swap and today they released the veteran infielder.

Ryan already exercised his $1 million player option for 2016, so the Cubs will be on the hook for that and presumably his inclusion in the trade was simply intended to balance the salaries a bit given Castro’s much larger contract.

Ryan has long been one of the majors’ best defensive shortstops, but he’s a career .234 hitter with a paltry .610 OPS and basically matched those numbers for the Yankees in 2015. He should be able to find another gig as a utility infielder, but may have to do so on a minor-league contract.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Now this is a guy the Sox should go dumpster diving for. Forget about Olt, Turner and those other shit buckets. This guy can help them in a position of need.

I know Theo is all about the lumber but a quality glove guy is good to keep in reserve.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

oh jimmy dont ever change

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

That's me!


(Meatball,not a Turd!)

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I think that his release was always intended. I believe you are right, in that the Cubs took Ryan in the deal to offset somewhat, the fact the Yankees were taking on Castro's salary entirely. I am 100% in favor of this move, as there was no space on the roster for Ryan. He's just too weak a hitter.

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Go Cubs!!!!

Baez.can do what Ryan does defensively and hit way better.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.