probable that the Cubs will trade Marlon Byrd to the Red Sox. It's likely the Cubs pick up the bulk of Byrd's remaining contract ($6 millionish) to increase the package they get in return. It's unlikely the Cubs will acquire much talent in this trade. A decet relief pitching prospect is probably about as good as it will get.
More on this as it develops.
1:34pm: Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine acknowledged to reporters that the club’s talks with the Cubs are advanced, writes Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. “The talks have been good talks, from what I gather,” Valentine said. “Ben [Cherington] will try to get as good a player as he can get.” — MLBTR
Byrd states that he has been traded according to Bruce Levine:
Marlon Byrd confirms he has been traded to Boston. Deal will beannounced after Bostongame.
— Bruce Levine (@ESPNBruceLevine) April 21, 2012
It's also done according to Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com
Baseball source: Byrd to Red Sox for Michael Bowden and PTBNL done. Cubs will pick up "most'' of Byrd's $6.5 million.
— Sean McAdam(@Sean_McAdam) April 21, 2012
These games feel even better after the long losing streaks. It’s the slow buildup that makes it good.
I was going to do a comic where the Hope Monster is dying, but this win will definitely give him some fuel to come back to life. MAYBE JOE MATHER WILL SAVE US!
@ josh:
Awesome.
@ josh:
You’ve got it all wrong, josh. The Cubs are winning because Clevenger started
@ Berselius:
I forgot about the Clevenger Effect.
Berselius wrote:
More than that. You’d just have 1 hitter acting like a DH for every defensive player. Unlimited substitutions invalidate the whole concept of a lineup.
Oh Castro…
Alright, that’ll do, Starlin.
That was a wierdly shitty slide by Phillips
@ Berselius:
We’ve lost discipline in the midfield and across the back. Totally disorganized. Modric and Bale have vanished, due to selfish, positionally inept play from both. They’re both trying to be the star of the show and are only succeeding in removing themselves from play.
IBB works, but somewhere, a sabermetrician loses a year of his life.
@ Berselius:
Has to be the quad strain.
@ Rice Cube:
IBB works because of the shittiness of pitchers hitting
@ josh:
Indeed, the Book had a nice chapter on this.
Castro’s defense flat out fucking sucks.
Castro has more errors than the Cubs have home runs. I wonder how long this will last?
Why is Castro so bad at defense? He’s supposed to vacuum that ball up, that looked like a relatively easy ball.
And, just as I type that, Castro makes another error.
Wow, Narveson ——> torn rotator cuff. He looked pretty good last week
I’d move Castro to CF after Byrd is traded. Whether that’s today, tomorrow or the deadline that’s what I’d do.
non-Cubs TOOTBLAN!
With that strikeout, Maholm has dropped his season ERA all the way down to 9.00
@ ACT:
They’re “on pace for” 54 home runs and Castro is “on pace for” 76 errors. (dying laughing)
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
that’s how i felt wrt campana’s d after watching him on tv last year. he looked good in person, though. covered a ton of ground, backed up jax on occasion, threw out one guy at the plate and just missed a second.
Castro can sure hit. It’s too bad he can’t field.
Castro is also hitting .368/.393/.474
I guess now Castro is being yelled at for not running out that liner. He should have been on 3B.
@ Rice Cube:
I don’t know why he wasn’t running on it.
Is Baseball Reference publishing rWAR this season?
@ mb21:
I was wondering that. I hypothesized that they were waiting for more data to come in before putting in the numbers? But I thought you could calculate WAR as long as someone had playing time.
@ Rice Cube:
You can. Maybe they want to wait a month or something, but I’m beginning to wonder if they’re even going to publish it.
Yay! A clean play!
@ mb21:
I thought maybe it was because they hadn’t updated Total Zone yet, but it is updated.
So apparently the Repko dude BOS called up also separated his shoulder yesterday.
(dying laughing) @ Cubs defense
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
Campana
Stat posted on WGN before the inning:
“Maholm: season-high 6 IP” (dying laughing)
Maybe they’re just trying to make Castro feel better
Jesus Christ…nice snag by Castro, but WTF Campana.
2 doubles in an inning no outs no runs scored… very rare
@ srbutch5:
He’s giving up less than a run per inning now!
Dan Patrick is trying too hard.
@ Rice Cube:
Dan Patrick missed the memo that Santo was elected to the HOF
plesantly surprised
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing) @ Rolen
TOOTBLANRBI
clevenger should start till he comes back dramatically to earth
I’m starting to think that a Clevenger-Castillo platoon could manage league avg production at C.
I’m guessing we’ll see Marmol coming in to close out a 5 run lead. It’s not like he’s had many opportunities to work lately
@ Recalcitrant Blogger Nate:
I guess they need to hope that Soto kicks ass so they can trade him. I don’t think he will be non-tendered even if he sucks so bad.
BUNTFEST!
great bunt
Mather ========> paid attention in the bunting tournament
Campana doesn’t have the bat speed to keep up with the hard stuff
Huh. That was different. Glad Barney’s okay.
simon is a creationist that doesn’t believe in dinosaurs
Looks like White Castle is here today
@ GW:
bubbles doesnt believe in dinosaurs either.
This probably wont be shocking to many
@ bubblesdachimp:
Imagine the hilarity if a velociraptor knocked on Bubbles’ door.
<blockquote Source: Byrd deal remains probable. Timing issues remain. #Cubs likely to pay most of Byrd's remaining $6.5M. Bowden in play from #RedSox.
ken rosenthal. i’d say bowden is interesting for the bullpen
Steve Clevenger——–>Man of few words
@ bubblesdachimp:
oh. i was extrapolating from scant evidence in simon’s case. (i would also guess that he’s a harsh critics of children’s television.)
Aubrey huff is playing second base…
Seems like a bad idea
Pineda ————> shut down with shoulder pain.
@ bubblesdachimp:
It definitely fits in with the whole “I’m an idiot” persona you’ve been cultivating here.
No dinosaurs?
I hope this means we bring up B-Jax. I’m holding out hope that my larger sawx trade (Barney, Soto, and Byrd for Wil Middlebrooks and Anthony Raunado) somehow happens. I’d rather have one B prospect close to the majors for all three than three C+ prospects for each one.
I’m hoping we somehow snag Raunado. He was top 4 sawx prospects a year ago, but slipped due to injuries. Starter in low teens according to sickels. ++ Upside and not that far away.
I’m hoping upon Kim DeJesus’ titties that Josh doesn’t attack my hope posts with his hope monster.
humber working on something
levine says byrd deal is done
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/04/red-sox-acquire-marlon-byrd-from-cubs.html
It is complete. Except for that PTBNL thing.
No Mariner burnt Humber today.
Yeah that perfect game needs an asterisk. That wasn’t even close to a swing.
last call was really questionable
(dying laughing) Fox isn’t even going to show the replay.
mlb silently rejoicing that it isn’t a call that can be picked apart by the pitchf/x fagets
@ GW:
Milt Pappas is probably breaking shit at home right now.
Rice Cube wrote:
It will take 3 months to decide on it, and another 3 months for the media to report it
Swing? No swing? Looked like he checked. Oh well.
The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.
Makeup call for Armando Galarraga’s?
@ Berselius:
Unless Nick Cafardo gets to it first.
(dying laughing), I thought Humber was still in the Mets org somewhere. No wonder all the other blogs continuously blast this one for being complete shit
@ GBTS22:
It needs an asterisk because it was against the Mariners.
(dying laughing) @ Boston failpen
Okay, I sooooooooooooooooooort of get why you’d IBB Cano to face A-Rod.
But no, I really don’t. Even if he’s in a slump…no.
I love how Weaver, Shields, Verlander, Halladay, Strasburg and Kershaw are pitching today, and Philip Humber is the one who gets the perfect game.
Maybe the Red Sox should get on the phone with Theo for Marmol too.
(dying laughing) (dying laughing) @ IBB #2
@ Rice Cube:
I mean, I understand trying to get the force at every base too, plus Andruw Jones kinda sucks now, but still.
@ Rice Cube:
Fortune favors the bold, I guess. Could’ve been a bases-clearer if that’d been hit a bit further away. Too bad they couldn’t get the final out though (dying laughing)
IBB —> the devil
That looked like a check swing to me, but that just makes it equal to all the other perfect games since a call or three always goes the pitcher’s way.
So I assume they keep Bowden at the big league level and option Maine to Iowa, right?
@ mb21:
That’s what I figure too, though I wonder if they might send down Dolis instead
yeah, they’ve talked a lot about wanting two lefties
Silly Giants.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/21/the-mets-win-a-weird-one/
There’s a question on The Book Blog: who would you rather have for this season, Strasburg or Cliff Lee. About 3 in 4 have picked Lee. Are they fucking nuts? Lee makes $21.5 million this year. Strasburg $21 million less than that. Obviously you can’t really count on Strasburg for anything over 100 innings and Lee you can probably pencil in for 220. Strasburg is as good and maybe even better than Lee. Take the 100 innings from him for league minimum and spend the other $21 million on someone like Halladay. What the fuck?
@ mb21:
That’s as obvious as the existence of dinosaurs.
@ mb21:
You’re missing the point. It’s not about whom you’d pay for, it’s about which one you’d rather have. People are picking Lee because he’ll get more innings and therefore be more valuable (probably).
i.e., it’s asking about perfomance, not contract.
@ ACT:
That’s how I interpreted the question too
@ mb21:
I saw one of those today (specifically, a member of the family Cardinalidae, not sure which species).
@ ACT:
You’d obviously go with Lee if that’s the question. I assumed when Tango said for this year only it means that you also pay the contract since, well, it’s the only way you’d have the player. Cliff Lee comes with a $21.5 million price tag. Oh well. I misinterpreted the stupid question (it’s stupid either way).
@ ACT:
If that was a dinosaur, does that mean the Cubs also just traded a dinosaur?
@ ACT:
I just don’t get it. Dinosaurs aren’t something you believe in. How is something like this explained?
@ Rice Cube:
More like a dynosaur.
@ mb21:
Someone had a really crazy imagination.
@ mb21:
To clarify, I was referring to the fact that birds are members of the dinosaur taxon.
@ ACT:
They are technically avian, but there were some feathered dinosaurs discovered in the fossil record. Plus the bone structure (i.e. the “keel” bone) was remarkably similar.
/nerd
@ ACT:
I know that. I meant I don’t know why someone can just not believe in dinosaurs. What’s not to believe? It’s weird.
@ Rice Cube:
@ mb21:
This reminds me of Carl Everett for some reason.
I don’t believe in orange soda.
@ mb21:
I don’t think there really are many people like that.
@ ACT:
I think the phylogeny supports your statement but Dinosauria is a subclass of Reptilia whereas birds are in their own class (Aves) so it depends on which classification system you are talking about. Not that I’m a taxonomist, mind you.
@ mb21:
Open your mind.
@ Rice Cube:
And Luke Scott.
Here are some things people either believe in or don’t: Santa, Easter bunny, man in the sky, curses.
Here’s a a few things that exist or existed: Mountain Dew, rainforests, monkeys, hot dogs, cinnamon rolls, dinosaurs, pillows, couches, teeth
@ Berselius:
That’s a pterosaur, not a dinosaur!
@ ACT:
I doubt it, but isn’t one too many?
@ mb21:
http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/
@ Rice Cube:
Fake.
Re: the earlier query I had about substitutions in baseball…what if you forced the manager to keep the player in the same spot in the lineup for the entire game? Would it work better then?
@ Rice Cube:
To clarify: that player can be replaced by someone on the bench, but if he comes in, he must go back in his original lineup spot.
@ Rice Cube:
That would get rid of the problem of one batter doing all the hitting, but it would still likely lead to the hitters and fielders being different men. I suppose you could argue whether that’s bad, since both defense and offense would likely improve, but it would be a very radical change, and most people like to watch players who can hit as well as field.
With the exception of the DH I’d like to see them field. I’ll admit I’m not as married to that idea as a lot of people are, but I’d still rather the 8 position players bat and the pitcher be replaced by someone who actually practices hitting.
@ Rice Cube:
The matter is still debated, but there is evidence that birds are descended from a common ancestor with some late dinosaurs.
I gotta say Phil Humber is about the last person I’d expect to pitch a perfect game.
@ mb21:
I almost wouldn’t mind seeing an O-team and a D-team. I’d be for about anything that made the game more exciting. Personally, I imagine baseball could be made to be an exciting sport. I imagine kind of an arena baseball that maybe has more in common with modern softball than baseball. Taking away some of the elements of chance, such as if the ball is hit, and allowing players to make skill shots, for instance, be reducing the emphasis on pitching, could be fun. Vague I know. It almost seems like to me MLB will never make drastic changes, not until their revenues really suffer. They aren’t going to change major things for fear of losing fans.
I think the CBA will hurt baseball in the long-term for this reason. It’s a leveling move, which means luck becomes more important. Yay.
@ mb21:
I agree. Watching 9 straight DH/1B-type hitters would get tedious, I think.
I know Kemp said he wanted to be a 50-50 guy but I guess he’s reprioritized to try to become the first 90-10 guy in MLB history.
@ Rice Cube:
Rasmus has 2 today, he’s threatening to catch up to the Cubs.
So what’s the deal with Bowden? Is he at least a halfway decent reliever who could make us never have to see Shawn Camp again?
@ Aisle424:
Just okay. He might be better than Camp. I think he’s a lot younger, at any rate.
Trying some Smuttynose Robust Porter. Pretty good. I like dark beers. That’s why I don’t drink them too often.
@ Pezcore:
Sorry, I did take a potshot at you in my latest comic. You kind of asked for it (dying laughing) (dying laughing) (dying laughing)
@ josh:
Well done (dying laughing)
@ josh:
Kim DeJesus’ titties have clearly failed me….
I just hate Soto, that’s all. I really think Clevanger/Castillo will be better than what Soto has to offer. At this point, he is a backup catcher. Why not play splits?
Soto’s weird, unrealistic every-other-year approach almost always means he will dissapoint, and every even year is worse than the last.
Plus he’s latino, and Beef Castle/Steve Cleveage are not. And as a member of the general public, I have an unhealthy attitudes towards race.
I’d like to see Adolfo gone b4 Soto however.
@ Pezcore:
Beef Castle isn’t Latino? Or did he and Clevenger just form Devastator and thus the Latino part is suppressed?
@ Pezcore:
I love Soto when he’s hitting well. To be fair, I don’t think he’s actively trying to have an every other year is shit career. It’s pretty bizarre.
He’s domincan, but he’s the short half of the split, So Steve’s Clevage downgrades it. I saw the name and thought he was British.
The brits too busy killing things and playing quidditch to be any good at rounders.
@ josh:
I did, thanks for fufilling my requests. Now I can be dismayed in peace.
Woooooah…
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/21/a-twins-prospect-is-about-to-get-hit-over-the-head-with-mlbs-new-social-media-policy/
That’s crazy.
Don’t Toews me, bro.
So this was nice…
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20809833&topic_id=29312742&c_id=mlb
@ Rice Cube:
Gay people don’t bother him. It’s just the act of gayness that does.
What the fuck is wrong with people?
@ Rice Cube:
Um….
Stephen Strasburg has posted a 1.85 FIP over 117 career innings, good for 4.7 fWAR. That’s just crazy.
Fun times
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/21/postgame-drama-in-boston-bobby-v-has-closed-door-meeting-players-refuse-to-talk/
Why was I thinking Bowden was a lefty?
new shit: http://www.obstructedview.net/projections/projecting-the-2012-cubs-michael-bowden.html