Pancake Bear

Ok, I did not see the Nats bats coming out so hot. Especially against Cole. Either he’s off or they did a remarkable job staying hungry with a week off. Kudos to them.

Don’t want Cole anymore. He can go back to the Astros.

Drug situation. What did you think I was talking about?

I'm not sure if it's as much on here, but I've seen it on twitter and reddit a fair bit. Dombrowski is not a good GM. He isn't Dipoto bad, but he isn't great. Of course, it might also be an ownership thing. Illitch pushed some of their worst contracts. I'm not sure what his mandate in Boston was, but the team doesn't seem to me to be in a great position going forward. I assume that's why he was let go.

...and go to another PR disaster like Anaheim.

Cole going to Houstan, Japan would royally suck.

Why would the Sox trade Giolito? Aren't they planning to contend? I don't know why they would make that trade.

The Angels are the Clippers to the Lakers’ Dodgers.

Then why has no one else hired them? Hiring the old boys club is one of the dumbest narratives that way too many fans want. Personally, I want to win. You do that by hiring the best people. I've seen no indication that any of those guys have the ability to be talented coaches in mlb just because they were former star players.

That doesn’t mean bring back a bunch of people with connections to the 02 team.

Yeah, no. It’s a fan thing. Fans are stupid. Arte is a billionaire. He’s not stupid.

Who gives a crap whether they have ties to the 02 team? Nostalgia? That doesn’t win games.

In his post game interview on Saturday, Cole just mentioned Trout in his answer without prompting. Today, in a pregame interview for tonight, he did it again. Somebody's got Mike Trout on the brain.

I like Zobrist. I've always liked Zobrist. There's a lot to like about his game. He seems to bring a great clubhouse presence also, apparently. Him and Maddon get on well. So there are certainly pluses to that scenario. But he cost 12m last year, I don't see him getting much less. Also, we already have a ton of depth. So I'm not really seeing how he fits unless you're trading people (certainly possible) and he comes for 5m or less (a stretch). My initial feeling is that this is unlikely.

He’s better than a lot of guys, but he’s nowhere close to perfect.

Just comparisons to last offseason. Corbin signed relatively early for 6/140. That’s obviously quite a bit less than what Cole will get. Cole is the same age but has a much better track record than Corbin. I can’t see him getting much more than the record (and I doubt that’s a sure thing) - 7y, 210. The market seems to have run off a bit. I would imagine Boras looks for 7 years, 245m as a starter (although, it being Boras, who knows). Teams may want to counter with 6 years, but it seems clear to me it’ll take 7 to get the deal done. I suppose Boras may push for 8, but that seems unlikely to me. I don’t think Cole’s track record is quite at that level that anyone would want to go 8. 7 years is risky enough. 180m seems like the floor. I can’t see anyone offering less as a serious offer. Obviously that’s a wide gap between 180 and 245, but my prediction was 7/224. Maybe I’m high, or maybe I’m low. I don’t have all the info. But I don’t feel like there’s a much variance in how Cole is valued as there was with Harper and Machado. I could easily be wrong. You’re more in the know than I am.

Bingo. I figured BK misspoke or was incorrect. No one else was talking about it, so Monday seemed unlikely.

It’s possible, but I think Arte sees Maddon as a big acquisition, Ausmus not so much. I think they could definitely make a little bit bigger deal with Maddon.

Ok, so Gubi said on Twitter it’s Thursday. Baseball Tonight, Brian K said Monday. Assuming he was incorrect and it is Thursday?

Guys sign late when they aren’t getting the offers they expect. Boras tends to overvalue his clients. Machado and Harper signed late because their market was slower than expected. Corbin signed earlier. I think Cole’s market value is pretty well set. I’m dubious that Boras asks for 8 years 35m aav, but I could be wrong. I think he signs at latest in early January. Most likely in December. I think the Winter Meetings is possible, but could also be a bit after that.

Dude, get over it. Just because you would spend Monopoly money and wheel and deal like MLB The Show, it doesn’t work that way.

No.

Nats have been sitting too long. It’s like the All Star Break. The Astros are ready to go. Astros hitting is historically good and their pitching can match the Nats across the board. Unkess a miracle happens, the Astros will win. My prediction is conservative, 6 games, but I could easily see it as less. Only reason I give the Nats that much is their pitching.

And yet people are begging Arte to hire him as Eppler's boss.

Yup. People keep saying this. Isn’t going to happen. Cole may or may no sign with the Angels, but in order of least likely places he’ll sign with, the Astros are high on the list. They can’t afford him.