Pancake Bear

...Why?

Not a chance. It’s called risk management. They’re already spending more than they likely feel comfortable with. No way they add a 7 year contract to a pitcher. Its a few years old, but the maxim still stands: 5 year or longer contracts to pitchers are a bad idea. You only break that rule when you’re desperate. Winning the WS is the opposite of desperate. They have a stacked farm system, they don’t need to spend. Smart play for the long term is keep your inexpensive assets and let someone else pay Cole and give you a nice draft pick to do it. They will not make a serious effort to keep him.

Yes. There is no chance he goes back to Houston. Zero. Zip. Nada.

Why exactly aren’t you a Dodgers fan? (I’ll bet you’re a Pats fan, too.)

Chapman and Osuna are both shitbags. Altuve is awesome.

SMH. Should’ve brought Cole in to pitch the 9th.

F*ck.

Roughly 9 WAR the first five years, -2.5 the next three. Two left. Even using WAR’s $ value quite liberally, he’s been essentially a total bust. If you argue that his experience and clubhouse presence is worth something, it still falls far short. Hamilton somehow managed 2.5 WAR in 2 years, which is more than I remembered. Wells got about .5 WAR total in two seasons. That was an absolute disaster. GM Jr actually ended up negative in value over his three years here.

I think if Arte had confidence that those guys would be the difference makers, he would be much more likely to go all in. Missing on Pujols and Hamilton hasn’t given him a lot of confidence. Spending that much money can put the team in a really tough position for years if the contract goes south.

I would’ve assumed between the two series or after the WS, but maybe they don’t want other stories distracting from the WS on the day or two leading into it? Mid series seems an odd time to me...

Someone may offer him 8, but I’m pretty confident it won’t be the White Sox.

Ozuna is younger and has been a bit better than Kole in his career. His highs have been better and he hasn’t had nearly the career lows that Kole has.

Sympathy.

Will Maddon’s presser be between the ALCS and the WS or after? Assuming soon? Wonder if they’ll announce any other staff at the time.

Isn’t most talk radio garbage?

Honestly, Lodge, annoying as he is, is better than that dipshit, Trent Rush. Dude is ridiculously anti-analytics and takes every opportunity to talk up old school baseball. Lodge’s problem is he says very little of substance. It’s mostly just ‘rah rah Angels’. Rush just has bad opinions and makes the listener dumber for listening to him than Lodge does.

Errors is less of a concern. Fans get obsessed about errors and fielding percentage, but the flaws with both are well documented. Fangraphs rate the Cubs team defense at 12th last year, and 5th the previous two seasons. Honestly, without comparing personnel across the board, it would be difficult to know whether Maddon has a problem there, but the overall numbers suggest he doesn’t. But even there, raw error totals tell us jack about defensive strategy, etc. That is what is actually relevant. Base running, per Fangraphs, had the Cubs mid league the last two seasons, and above the Angels this season and behind them the year before. Outs on the basepath could mean they had really aggressive base runners or base coaches. Hard to know with the bare data. Still, in both areas, I think he’s at least as good as Ausmus and probably better.

That was years ago when the payroll and luxury tax were close. That no longer applies (at least to the tax). That he would be willing to spend at the right time is the chief point.

There are certainly indications that that might be the case. I haven’t gotten the impression that on that point Fletcher knows more than we do. I think we’re all just looking at the situation and repenting firings and hirings, and connecting the dots.

Anyone here who has followed Fletch can tell you the opposite. From inside the organization, he was told to ignore the luxury tax. All Arte cares about is the payroll. He hasn’t come near the luxury tax because the luxury tax has steadily risen. The payroll has stayed relatively firm. Arte has a set amount from year to year he’s willing to spend based on how much the franchise brings in. Could he spend more? Sure. But the reason he won’t (again, per a source insight the front office to Fletcher) has nothing to do with the luxury tax. That’s a fan narrative that is divorced from the reality.

This comment makes me nauseous. The Astros are likable. The Yankees are the Patriots of baseball. F*ck them both.

The Yanks have a tough road if they want to win. A tough comeback and two legitimate aces. They’re screwed.

The hell was this call?!

Idiot Hinch playing Chirinos for his bat instead of Maldonado. Chirinos has no business being in this series.

That’s who Maddon is, and it’s a good thing.