MLB hot stove discussion 2018/19 off season

[wadesworld]

Bye Addison Russell, scumbag.

The Cubs are taking the tough road and keeping him around to ensure he gets the help he really needs.

[🏀]

The Cubs are taking the tough road and keeping him around to ensure he gets the help he really needs.

I believe that direction will change, I hope at least.

[TallTitan34]

Just going to leave this here and go so I don't get in a six page battle with wadesworld.

https://www.docdroid.net/b4Kkd6i/melisa-reidy-is-speaking-out-its-time-for-everyone-to-listen-kw.pdf

Addy has to be gone.

If he takes the stage at the Cubs Convention next month, the crowd response is going to be ugly.

[Pakuni]

I believe that direction will change, I hope at least.

Serious question ... why?
They were willing to keep him as an allegedly abusive spouse, but finding out he's been an absentee dad  - hardly unique among professional athletes - is too much for the organization?
Seems like an odd choice for the character flaw the Cubs choose to put their foot down over.

[🏀]

Serious question ... why?
They were willing to keep him as an allegedly abusive spouse, but finding out he's been an absentee dad  - hardly unique among professional athletes - is too much for the organization?
Seems like an odd choice for the character flaw the Cubs choose to put their foot down over.

I wouldn't have tendered him to begin with. Now the girlfriend is coming out with additional details, I think? I don't know if this was told to the MLB originally or not. I would think the MLB would have been a bit more severe given the details that she is providing now.

[Pakuni]

I wouldn't have tendered him to begin with. Now the girlfriend is coming out with additional details, I think? I don't know if this was told to the MLB originally or not. I would think the MLB would have been a bit more severe given the details that she is providing now.

From what I read, the girlfriend basically is complaining he's a sh*tty father who wants to pay as little child support as he can get away with legally.
While that, if true, makes him a bad guy, it hardly seems a suspend-able offense or one that would get a guy cut. He's not in rare company when it comes to be a professional athlete who's a less-than-doting father.

[🏀]

From what I read, the girlfriend basically is complaining he's a sh*tty father who wants to pay as little child support as he can get away with legally.
While that, if true, makes him a bad guy, it hardly seems a suspend-able offense or one that would get a guy cut. He's not in rare company when it comes to be a professional athlete who's a less-than-doting father.

Check out TT34's link.

[Pakuni]

Check out TT34's link.

Oh, OK. That's his wife. When you said girlfriend, I thought you meant the baby mama written about on Deadspin today.

That said, I'm not convinced anything there is new to the Cubs or MLB. She spoke with MLB investigators in September. If there's something in that link that she didn't share with MLB, that's on her, not the league or the Cubs.

[buckchuckler]

Machado very good player, bad example setter at times.  I appreciate my stars busting ass all the time.  Mike Trout, best player in baseball and busts it every damn time.  It pays off with infield singles, infielders panicking and committing an error, etc.  It was how I was raised, in the Pete Rose era.....bust it out every time.   No doubt MM makes any team likely better as he is a pure upgrade, but there is baggage there that some other super stats managed not to bring with them, including the basics of how to properly play the game.

Feel free to attack on the grounds I am stuck in another era.  I proudly wear the label.

It has nothing to do with era.  I think most people would prefer that players bust their asses each and every play.  I know I certainly would.  I would also prefer my team have a guy that doesn't kill himself on a routine groundout and is an 80 grade talent, that a guy that busts his butt and is a 50 grade player. 

Yolmer Sanchez busts his butt all the time.  Good player, seems super likable, best game winning celebrations around.  But you replace him with Manny in a heartbeat and you don't think about it.  Yolmer is better served as a utility guy, and Manny as a middle of the order bat that plays elite defense at 3B. 

I have no doubt Mike Trout would love to have Manny on his team. 

[Pakuni]

Machado very good player, bad example setter at times.  I appreciate my stars busting ass all the time.  Mike Trout, best player in baseball and busts it every damn time.  It pays off with infield singles, infielders panicking and committing an error, etc.  It was how I was raised, in the Pete Rose era.....bust it out every time.   No doubt MM makes any team likely better as he is a pure upgrade, but there is baggage there that some other super stats managed not to bring with them, including the basics of how to properly play the game.

Feel free to attack on the grounds I am stuck in another era.  I proudly wear the label.

The Pete Rose era, when players did tons of coke (not to mention greenies) and started using steroids.
But Manny Machado sets a bad example.

[DegenerateDish]

I think Machado and Harper don't sign with someone until the first week of January. Both their agents notoriously don't like each other, and each is waiting for the other to sign first, so the other guy can then get a bigger deal.

I think teams won't mind waiting through the holidays for either guy, but I think some posturing starts that week of January 7th. This market isn't as slow as it was last year, guys are getting signed and deals are getting made. At some point though, suitors are going to really pursue other guys/deals if the price isn't coming down (if the price is coming down, totally different scenario). Deals for either guy certainly can come sooner, but I think it won't be until that week that we see one of these guys sign.

[JWags85]

Oh, OK. That's his wife. When you said girlfriend, I thought you meant the baby mama written about on Deadspin today.

That said, I'm not convinced anything there is new to the Cubs or MLB. She spoke with MLB investigators in September. If there's something in that link that she didn't share with MLB, that's on her, not the league or the Cubs.

I think its a pattern of behavior.  He's an absolute liability beyond being just a crapty person.  Purely from a baseball standpoint, he's not shown an ability to separate his personal and professional to an extent it doesn't hurt him on the field.  Now getting another woman pregnant in the midst of all the activity with his wife?  There is just very little to feel good about if you're the Cubs in my opinion.  Its sickening.

[GB Warrior]

It really shouldn't surprise anyone that an organization owned by terrible people condones or is implicit in the behavior of over terrible people.

[Jockey]

It really shouldn't surprise anyone that an organization owned by terrible people condones or is implicit in the behavior of over terrible people.

 

[wadesworld]

Just going to leave this here and go so I don't get in a six page battle with wadesworld.

https://www.docdroid.net/b4Kkd6i/melisa-reidy-is-speaking-out-its-time-for-everyone-to-listen-kw.pdf

Addy has to be gone.

If he takes the stage at the Cubs Convention next month, the crowd response is going to be ugly.

Honestly didn't read the link.  Don't really need to read 12 pages on Addison Russell.  It was pretty obvious the guy was a POS already.  Not sure what there is to argue about.  Are you saying I'd argue that fans at the Cubs Convention (assuming that's some sort of fan day where Cubs players interact with the fans, sing autographs, etc.?) would warmly welcome Addison Russell with open arms just like Brewers fans cheered Josh Hader when he pitched for the Brewers?  If so, that's beyond laughable.  Talk about an apples to hippopotamus comparison.  Unacceptable racist, sexist Tweets surfaced 7 years after Hader was a stupid teenager while pitching on a baseball field.  Compare that to a wife beating cheater smiling for pictures with fans.  Good comp.

We don't need to wait around to see Cubs fans reactions to a wife beater on the team.  Aroldis Chapman answered that question for us.  When the Cubs tendered a contract to Addison some Cubs fans wanted to spread the narrative that this was a really classy thing for the Cubs to do.  They weren't doing it because Addison could help them on a baseball field, they wouldn't even have him playing, they just wanted to see their own get the help he needed.

The reality is the ONLY reason they tendered a contract to Russell was in hopes that the worst was already out there, they could hide him away from the public eye until this died down, and then he could come back and be the All Star they thought he could be for the Chicago Cubs.  They'd keep the narrative out there that he wouldn't play, they'd send him to anger management, and as long as nothing else was going to come out he'd be back on the field, and they could even claim there were some serious holes in the accusers story, she had failed to comply with authorities in the past when given an opportunity to do so, etc.  Now we're (to nobody's surprise, or at least it shouldn't be) finding out the guy really is as bad of a person as the accuser claims he is and the Cubs are stuck.

And guess what?  A LARGE MAJORITY OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS WOULD HANDLE THE SAME SITUATION THE SAME WAY!  It's sad and gross, but that's how it goes.  It's also absurd to claim that the Cubs were taking the "tough route" by tendering him a contract or pretending they did it because they wanted to see the guy rise above his challenges.  They did it for one reason and one reason only, they still hoped he could produce on a baseball field, regardless of how terrible of a person they knew he was.

[🏀]

Honestly didn't read the link.  Don't really need to read 12 pages on Addison Russell.  It was pretty obvious the guy was a POS already.  Not sure what there is to argue about.  Are you saying I'd argue that fans at the Cubs Convention (assuming that's some sort of fan day where Cubs players interact with the fans, sing autographs, etc.?) would warmly welcome Addison Russell with open arms just like Brewers fans cheered Josh Hader when he pitched for the Brewers?  If so, that's beyond laughable.  Talk about an apples to hippopotamus comparison.  Unacceptable racist, sexist Tweets surfaced 7 years after Hader was a stupid teenager while pitching on a baseball field.  Compare that to a wife beating cheater smiling for pictures with fans.  Good comp.

We don't need to wait around to see Cubs fans reactions to a wife beater on the team.  Aroldis Chapman answered that question for us.  When the Cubs tendered a contract to Addison some Cubs fans wanted to spread the narrative that this was a really classy thing for the Cubs to do.  They weren't doing it because Addison could help them on a baseball field, they wouldn't even have him playing, they just wanted to see their own get the help he needed.

The reality is the ONLY reason they tendered a contract to Russell was in hopes that the worst was already out there, they could hide him away from the public eye until this died down, and then he could come back and be the All Star they thought he could be for the Chicago Cubs.  They'd keep the narrative out there that he wouldn't play, they'd send him to anger management, and as long as nothing else was going to come out he'd be back on the field, and they could even claim there were some serious holes in the accusers story, she had failed to comply with authorities in the past when given an opportunity to do so, etc.  Now we're (to nobody's surprise, or at least it shouldn't be) finding out the guy really is as bad of a person as the accuser claims he is and the Cubs are stuck.

And guess what?  A LARGE MAJORITY OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS WOULD HANDLE THE SAME SITUATION THE SAME WAY!  It's sad and gross, but that's how it goes.  It's also absurd to claim that the Cubs were taking the "tough route" by tendering him a contract or pretending they did it because they wanted to see the guy rise above his challenges.  They did it for one reason and one reason only, they still hoped he could produce on a baseball field, regardless of how terrible of a person they knew he was.

Pretty much.

[GGGG]

Machado very good player, bad example setter at times.  I appreciate my stars busting ass all the time.  Mike Trout, best player in baseball and busts it every damn time.  It pays off with infield singles, infielders panicking and committing an error, etc.  It was how I was raised, in the Pete Rose era.....bust it out every time.   No doubt MM makes any team likely better as he is a pure upgrade, but there is baggage there that some other super stats managed not to bring with them, including the basics of how to properly play the game.

Feel free to attack on the grounds I am stuck in another era.  I proudly wear the label.

There are plenty of people now who go all out.  There were plenty of people then who dogged it.

[GGGG]

And guess what?  A LARGE MAJORITY OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS WOULD HANDLE THE SAME SITUATION THE SAME WAY!  It's sad and gross, but that's how it goes.  It's also absurd to claim that the Cubs were taking the "tough route" by tendering him a contract or pretending they did it because they wanted to see the guy rise above his challenges.  They did it for one reason and one reason only, they still hoped he could produce on a baseball field, regardless of how terrible of a person they knew he was.

And that's why their original press release was just a load of B.S.

[WarriorDad]

It really shouldn't surprise anyone that an organization owned by terrible people condones or is implicit in the behavior of over terrible people.

 

[wadesworld]

And that's why their original press release was just a load of B.S.

Agreed.  They said what they had to say but for someone to believe what they were trying to sell was naïve at best.  I'd imagine that even the people writing the press release knew that only people within Chicago would buy a word of what they were saying.

[GB Warrior]

But hey, if the Chicago Cubs won't support him, maybe he can get a fresh start with the Schaumburg Cubs

[buckchuckler]

Agreed.  They said what they had to say but for someone to believe what they were trying to sell was naïve at best.  I'd imagine that even the people writing the press release knew that only people within Chicago  Cub fans would buy a word of what they were saying.

FIFY.

[buckchuckler]

Well, Harper to the Dodgers is gonna happen pretty soon I'd guess.

[Cheeks]

The Pete Rose era, when players did tons of coke (not to mention greenies) and started using steroids.
But Manny Machado sets a bad example.

We can play this game all day I suppose, but not worth it. 

I was talking about hustling in games, running out hits, hell even running at times when walked.....not what they were doing off the field.   

[DegenerateDish]

Well, Harper to the Dodgers is gonna happen pretty soon I'd guess.

I read it the other way, this is them signaling they’re out on Harper and giving them flexibility moving forward for another trade or signing someone like Pollock. Harper would still punish them well into the tax, a short term Pollock deal or trading for Kluber wouldn’t.

Machado also told all 3 teams today he won’t sign until after the new year. My Sox guy had heard that earlier this week, I had mentioned on here the week of Jan 7th would be likely, and appears to be the case.