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Cora clearly agrees since Duran has not DH'd since March. Maybe playing every day helps Duran, but his funk started very early this year and he’s been their worst offensive outfielder all season. At what point do you prioritize putting your best lineup on the field over trying to get certain hitters going?

Keep Ceddane on CF. Call up Ward for 2b and leadoff. Move Bello to the bullpen. Cut/return Watson.

Jim Hendry? Is that you? The Cubs have won 9 games in a row headlined by mediocre pitching, timely hitting and immaculate defense. They just took 4 from Philly, who played sloppy defense and had extremely weak situational hitting. Don’t sleep on defense. If you do, you put even more pressure on your offense.

This past offseason? Probably that they didn’t want to go with Arias, as he only had 10 games above A ball on his resume. Also they were probably hesitant to deal Mayer and preferred to move Duran, given that OF was their depth and INF wasn’t. And speaking of Duran, where is he in this scenario? And I really doubt Cora wanted to move Story to a weak side DH role, especially after the disaster of trying to move Devers around. Is Harrison replacing Suarez?

Sixth in tax payroll by the same site. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/tax

I am no Watson fan either, but apparently the team feels differently. If their goal is hard flyballs, they’re failing miserably, sign or not. Maybe I gave them too much credit…

Actually it seems like Cora does prioritize player morale, or at least he acted that way in all the stories surrounding his (un)involvement with Devers. And very likely why Story is still at shortstop, The Rivera thing is a non-issue. Every team does things like that because they demote the player with options. Rivera had an exciting debut, and he will be back. But no team is DFAing an MLB pitcher in April to hold on to a rookie who had one good appearance. That can backfire quickly, badly and frequently. And it rarely leads to public issues, with Tommy La Stella remaining the lone exception (and that was much later in the year involving a non-pitcher). The Sox hitting approach looks like they want to avoid flyballs, which are the high risk/high reward outcome from a batter. Nearly every hitter has a good line drive rate, with the line drive being the safest type of batted ball. But the issue is failing to hit a line drive usually results in a groundball or pop up, and nearly every Sox hitter is high in both of those as well. The lone exception actually hitting flyballs is Mayer. And he doesn’t play everyday. Not every hitter has or wants or is comfortable with a line drive swing. No idea which Sox hitters are or aren’t but it looks like their teams use approach to hitting is “hit as many line drives as possible and hope it works out.” And I doubt every hitter on this team is comfortable with that approach. Bregman stories are all around about his influence as a batting coach. No idea how much truth in them; it’s never been brought up in Chicago, where the Cubs offense is clicking on all cylinders anyway.

Contreras has spent plenty of time showing he is nothing more than emergency catcher. And also that he is the catcher most likely to create an emergency…

Just 3 more games for a win!

1. Nothing will change until they fire Cora. The reason they still have Pete Fatse? Clearly- because Cora wants him. So Cora must go, too. 2. Alonso and Bregman were just free agency for the sake of free agency. No one WANTED Polar Bear Pete. But he was available, so he got way more love than his one-dimensional ass deserved. Spending for the sake of spending is how bad teams get built. 3. Durbin failed to excite me from Day One. I want him to prove me wrong. But so far, nope.

So you think Miami goes for that deal despite turning down better offers involving minimum wage prospects? I’m sure Campbell and especially Bello are tradable, but not so sure for Alcantara. They probably should have at least dealt Duran first and INF that could hit. That was really all they needed to do. Or for Dalton Rushing, which made sense except for their whole “Kyle Tucker Plan.” Well, that and add a RP. And move Story to 2b..

1. He couldn’t field. This much is true. It is. No need to ignore it anymore. 2. I trash him because he wouldn’t help out his team when a teammate got injured. I guess I don’t think his RBI totals or whatever supersede that. 3. Devers is hitting .237 with a .604 OPS. If you’re going to defend him based on his hitting abilities, maybe wait a bit.

Being a critic from day one is bashing. What exactly were you criticizing on day one?

What he meant to say was “Devers was razzed by 5 GoldGloves in Boston” but the meaning got lost along the way…

Wood is basically Roman Anthony. But with less plate discipline…

I am assuming more details were exchanged in actual conversations…

The first thing that leaps out at me is - Breslow did definitely try to cleanup his outfield glut. Duran’s name was thrown around all off-season. But I don’t recall any decent offers for him. And trading Duran for the sake of trading Duran felt like a bad idea…

Probably should have thought of that before he dropped $67mill on a journeyman reliever and a middle-aged catcher. And then his thrice-released cleanup hitter flopped? He has recently summoned a human-Kodiak Bear hybrid named Felix Reyes who might satiate his bloodlust for offense for a bit…

I’m ok with that assessment. If you have him batting 2-3,it’s not good. But in the 5-6 range? Ideal. Having him bat fourth just raises questions about your lineup. Especially given the current usage of the 4th spot around MLB…

Is Bregman an A/A+ player? Should I say, is he still one? He certainly was one a few years ago, and he’s still good. If he isn’t one, who is on the Cubs? The Phillies have three in Harper, Schwarber and Turner. They’re also the worst offense in MLB to date. You might grade Contreras higher than I would, but he is giving you reason to right now…

If you like a brief sysnopsis of your post, I would say it’s that you claim it’s not about spending as much money as possible, but from there on it was straight up about spending as much money as possible. Especially the part where you ask why keep Bello, Mayer, Tolle types if you think they are not going to be All Stars. The reason is - you need cheaper talent to be able to afford All Stars. Look at the Mets. They have the expensive All Star part down quite well. And no good talent surrounding it…

As well as the next two, if that obvious pattern stays intact…

Roman was a 3 bWAR guy last year. Only 2.7 fWAR, but, hey. 71 games, right? The last guy was more about himself than his team.

Roman, Arias, Witherspoon and Valera for Woods? Or just the latter three? Either way, one side isn’t making that trade…

I don’t care if he’s the face of the franchise or not. They’re had someone else filling that void, but he was more about himself than the team. He’s a good player- likely their best - who receives unfair criticisms …