offseason 2015-16

well it appears that Walker and Cabrera are both below-avg defenders, so no paradigm shift after all

@joe_sheehan
Asdrubal Cabrera and Michael Cuddyer will make almost $20 million in 2016. #mets

walker's not that bad a defender. and anecdotally he makes better decisions than murph, which isn't saying much but still

Tanner of the Bad News Bears made better decisions than DM

‏@Ken_Rosenthal 28m
Source: Sipp with #Astros is three years, $18M.

padres made two rule 5 picks, then traded for two others. strange

cardinals signed jonathan broxton to a two-year deal . . . with a full no-trade clause

...

but why

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CV5HT8aWUAAhHUj.png

lol

hehe

The Orioles have pulled back their free-agent offer to Chris Davis for nearly $150 million as the team tries to go about its business, with or without the slugger, a source told ESPN.

i don't think i see headlines like that nearly enough: "Team says 'Fuck it.'"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CV9rDScUYAA05kq.jpg

yesssssss

sounds like J-Hey is a Small Bear

my lord, the Cards fans moaning on twitter.

it's like they're introducing their new creation just before they activate it

lol. Greink-bot is now ready for your voice activated queries.

this was posted on the cardinals SB blog the other day, imagining the worst-case scenario of heyward joining the cubs:

http://i.imgur.com/R0Qg19w.png

good lord

http://twiki.org/p/pub/TWiki/SmiliesPlugin/love.gif

it is an impressive line-up. great time to be a cubs fan

@BestFansStLouis running wild

Jon Morosi ‏@jonmorosi 8m8 minutes ago

#Cubs have agreed to terms with Jason Heyward, multiple sources say, and are not done yet. They are trying to trade for a starting pitcher.

cld still be fun in store for small bears

Baseball's Best Fans Retweeted

Zachary ‏@zachEdwards10
Heyward is a trader

The Good Beard Haver ‏@HarrisNye 13m13 minutes ago
Smh Jason heyward another classless trader who values money over winning

i'll feel better when we get the Cubbies picks... and then they get taken away for the hacking.

Cards need to sign Cueto now

no thanks

he's the one player where personal things (like him ending a player's career and not really giving a shit about it) get in the way of the practical.

I'm just in it for the Twitter

the Best Fans thing continues to annoy me because, i mean, just listen to any sports radio call-in show, anywhere. but yeah the moaning on various messageboards and twitter and elsewhere is nauseating right now. "heyward betrayed us" waaaaaaaah

people keep tossing out a 6 yr/190 million figure (who knows the source of this) as the cubs winning offer, and taking this as evidence that heyward took less money to play for the cubs than the cardinals offered (assuming cardinals offered 200+). if that figure is true, it's $31.6 million/yr, and puts him in line to enter free agency again in his age 31 year. and it's likely that the teams that offered 200 or more (nationals, probably the cardinals, maybe others) offered 200 over 8 or 9 years.

i believe the phrase is "heyward betraded us"

http://sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Cardinals-fan.jpg

oh yeah, fans are just as bad everywhere. but those fans aren't Best.

sounds like he took slightly less than the cards/nats offered. and why not, as the cubs are fucking loaded and winning for the first time in a century would make him a folk hero

Zobrist - Heyward - Bryant - Rizzo - Schwarber is a O_O top of a lineup

Jason Heyward is an upgrade on Fowler and there is that potential that Heyward could take his power to that next level, but it is more with the glove than the bat. The thing is that with the glove, Heyward hasn't played all that much CF. He's played some, but they always say it's a different beast than the corners, so perhaps that dWAR advantage might even out a bit especially with Schwarber being a black hole in left field (unless he really improves).

The Cards could probably break even talent wise and ahead money wise by getting Fowler and another starting pitcher with the money they were going to put at Heyward.

Cards have had some good fortune at finding players later in the free agent trade window before spring training.

as a fan of neither team, it's kind of amusing to see these cardinal free agents go to the archenemy

yeah, the applause (occasional standing ovation) that traditionally takes place when the cardinals face a former teammate for the first time will be a little different this year when the Cardinals face Heyward and Lackey.

@neal_kendrick
The Cubs should keep Heyward in AAA for 2 weeks to start the season. Try and get that 9th year our of him.

word is 8/180, though sure to have an opt-out or two

8/184*, rather

two opt-outs!

Karl, what do you think the Cardinals are going to do at first base? Cards could stand pat with Piscotty and Adams but I think those guys could be chips to use to trade too.

I figure Grichuk moves into RF on a regular basis. Not sure what the Cards are going to do in CF with Jay and Bourjos moving on.

it's really tough to predict because they could go a bunch of different ways. i really hope they don't overcompensate for losing heyward by giving a guy like chris davis a ton of money, but you never know.

assuming no big free agent purchases, i think they'll go with a mathenymess at 1B with adams, piscotty, and moss all being used in a baffling manner, all depending on how each of them has done over the past 2 games, and how well they "matchup" against a pitcher they've faced probably only 4 or 5 times.

i'd assume most days they'll be going with Piscotty in RF and Grichuk in CF. i think they like Tommy Pham quite a bit (so do i), so assuming he manages to avoid injury he'd be in the mix as well.

the cardinal fan moaning is annoying because they're still a good team, even without Heyward. they'll probably still win 90 or so. but given that the cubs have the potential to just have a bonkers-good season, i guess it'll be the wild card for us.

Barves send Christian Bethancourt to SD for RHP Casey Kelly and C Ricardo Rodriguez. Bethancourt was horrible last year, Atl's well rid of him. The rocket arm doesn't count for much when he can't frame pitches, receive the baseball, or agree with pitchers on what to throw next. Middling bat, too.

I think the Braves should trade Freddie Freeman if they can get good value for him. I'm not convinced his right wrist is ever going to be 100% ready to go, and his obliques can't seem to withstand the torque of his swing.

also, lol @ cards fans

i think freeman could be the barves' david wright? atlanta suddenly has an insane group of pitching prospects -- with any luck some of them will turn into degrom or matz or syndergaard -- and swanson should move fairly quickly. freeman isn't ~cheap~, but he's a known cost, still young, and the youth of everyone else means they can afford him.

that said, i don't know anything about his health issues, but in 118 games last year he was still worth the forthcoming fat part of his contract

Hmm yeah, I like that Wright/Mets comparison.

chris davis gives me ryan howard chills, i think any team giving him a long contract is going to have to deal with the last half of his contract averaging out .230/.320/.410 per year or something close to that.