Dreamcast 67: The Gigantic Rant

In by Rice Cube134 Comments

RC, AC, and berselius may have ranted the Cubs into a shocking comeback…or not, it could go either way. Topics include whether to buy, sell, or stand pat, trading the farm for a certain uberstar, and more.

You can probably note the difference between when I take the time to edit the crap out of the podcast and when I just say “fuck it” and post.

You can check out the podcast page or just click on the embedded players below. You can also use the sidebar to get to our Apple Podcast pages and leave a nice review and rating if it pleases you.

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  1. berselius

    Too many AL teams, too much guessing of late 90s guys (dying laughing)

    Immaculate Grid 108 6/9:
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    Pat Hentgen never played for the Twins, but I guessed him since he had a name that screamed Minnesota (dying laughing).

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  2. Perkins

    Immaculate Grid 108 9/9:
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    Couldn’t think of better answers than Joey Bats and Kevin Kiermaier, or the rarity score might be better.

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  3. Author
    Rice Cube

    I was watching the game summary and they were like “slow bouncer, it’ll have to be quick” on the GIDP where Mancini was thrown out by like 25 feet (dying laughing)

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  4. Perkins

    Immaculate Grid 109 8/9:
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    TIL Barry Bonds didn’t have a .300 average for his career.

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  5. andcounting

    Rice Cube,

    I’m not so much worried about teams seeing what buttons he’s pressing as about him developing new tells in the process of taking the new approach of calling pitches. It can be the most subtle tick or variation.

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  6. berselius

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 109 7/9:
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    Could have sworn that Rogers Hornsby was a Pirates guy, whoops.

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  7. Perkins

    berselius:
    berselius,

    Oh, I guess I mixed him up with Honus Wagner.

    I got Honus Wagner after missing on Bonds. Glad I didn’t pick Votto for CIN (.296) but Pete Rose doesn’t get that many fewer points than a miss would have.

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  8. Author
    Rice Cube

    Perkins,

    They really should hang a punching bag from the dugout ceiling or something so they have something to punch that would reduce injury but since most macho men don’t know how to punch they’d probably sprain a wrist or something

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  9. berselius

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 110 7/9:
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    Some real WAGs in there, hit on half of em

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  10. Perkins

    berselius,

    For a moment I thought you meant weak-ass grounders and was confused. (dying laughing)

    All mine hit today and ended up being pretty deep cuts.

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  11. berselius

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 111 9/9:
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    This one took me a minute, would not have guessed that I would go 9/9

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  12. Perkins

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 111 8/9:
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    I wasted a guess on DET-ANA by trying Edwin Jackson. Fernando Rodney to the rescue.

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  13. BVS

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 111 7/9:
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    Apparently Adrian Beltre was never MVP.

    Grid is going to 9:00 am start, so it’ll be a lunch break in eastern time now.

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  14. Author
    Rice Cube

    So BN wrote this up but the gist is the Cubs would more likely trade Stroman and keep Bellinger. Bellinger can obviously be extended a QO so the Cubs can at least get something if he leaves but the idea is that they can have first dibs at an extension. Stroman could also be brought back after trade. I hope that’s the extent of the selling because they need to build up and not tear down, but I can’t tell them what to do.

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  15. BVS

    Catching up on the rantcast as I consider wrapping up this painting project.

    1. Perfect timing to bring improvements. Even Mastrobuoni hits homers now.

    2. Grammy award to AC for his Madrigal monologue.

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  16. BVS

    I’d be curious how many major stars re-sign with teams that trade for them in their free agent year. Stars like Ohtani. Especially if the team that gets them doesn’t go far in the playoffs. Let’s say someone who had had at least 6 WAR in each of the previous 3 years with top 3 MVP finishes and at least 4 WAR at the trade deadline.

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  17. Perkins

    BVS,

    That has to be a very short list. Off the top of my head, the only major FAs I remember immediately re-signing with the team that traded them are Jason Hammel and Aroldis Chapman.

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  18. BVS

    BVS,
    From 2016 on minus oddness if 2020. But not that none of these listed exactly for the criteria I put forth above.
    Not Scherzer with LA. (Though his 2020 season was only 2.x war).
    Not KB with SF (didn’t have 2020 war value stats above)
    Not Javy with NYM (also sub 2020 war)
    Not Ian Kinsler with LAA
    Not Yu with LA
    Not Aroldis Chapman with the Cubs (multiple *** regarding criteria)
    Not Carlos Beltran after any time he was traded.

    Rizzo didn’t come close to WAR values of major star but he did re-sign, of course.

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  19. berselius

    BVS:
    Perkins,

    I meant with the team that traded for them.

    But your point illustrates the issue with letting Stroman go and hoping he comes back.

    It worked for the Dodgers with Mookie Betts, fwiw

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  20. BVS

    berselius,

    Mookie was traded to LA in Feb 2020. I guess that was his last year of arbitration. LA extended him in the summer of 2020 during COVID. I didn’t look at 2020 above, because it seemed like the economics wouldn’t really compare.

    AC suggested on the rant cast that having a few months to negotiate with Shohei would be an advantage. I was trying to see if there was evidence of that, but too lazy to go back 30 years. AC’s point seems intuitive, in that you have a chance to develop a relationship with the player and get an advantage. But the last 7 years don’t seem to back up that intuition. Maybe because agents, spouses, and others help drive decisions.

    I guess if you are gonna blow $500M on Ohtani, then having some prospect/young player depth to support him makes more sense than trading Hoerner, Morel, PCA, Ben Brown, and Cade Horton for him and 60 games.

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  21. Perkins

    BVS:
    Perkins,

    I meant with the team that traded for them.

    But your point illustrates the issue with letting Stroman go and hoping he comes back.

    Just realized you meant this. Verlander is the only one I can think of who meets the spirit of the question, but he was hurt/bad for a couple years and wasn’t traded in a walk year.

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  22. BVS

    Perkins,

    It’s definitely SSS stuff. I suppose if everything was neutral, we’d expect the odds of resigning with the team that trades for you should be 1 in 30. Or maybe 1 in 29 if we are counting out the team that traded you away. Maybe there is an advantage, if you count Rizzo and Verlander. Bit seems like both had special circumstances. Rizzo with the short porch in NY and not really WAR-y enough. JV with his injury.

    It’s all 🤷🏻‍♂️

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  23. BVS

    By the way, when I was looking at trades earlier Andrew Cashner from Pitt to TB for Shane Baz, Tyler Glasnow, and Austin Meadows came up.

    Legendary badness

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  24. andcounting

    BVS,

    I definitely have no evidence that this approach would work for Ohtani. I think in most cases teams who trade for players on expiring contracts really are looking for rentals, just that little something extra to push them over the edge in the pennant race/postseason. I just don’t know that there’s a good comp for Ohtani and what he’s worth. I would be willing to gamble away a hell of a lot for negotiating rights, but I certainly wouldn’t call anyone dumb for disagreeing. (dying laughing)

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  25. Perkins

    andcounting,

    I think realistically any team betting on finding value in a window of exclusive negotiation with Ohtani also needs to be ready to offer something like a $750MM contract.

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  26. Perkins

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 112 9/9:
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    Could have done better but picked fairly obvious answers for MIN-CWS, LAD-BAL, and LAD-CWS.

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  27. BVS

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 112 9/9:
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    Used as many exCubs as I could in the other columns

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  28. berselius

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 112 9/9:
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    Late 90s Orioles knowledge finally pays off (dying laughing)

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  29. BVS

    Rice Cube,

    Three players on the roster can play 3rd. One has decent splits against lefties and just hit his 1st career homer. But instead, let’s play Wisdom.

    Hope he and his mustache prove me wrong.

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  30. BVS

    I tried Immaculate Grid NFL. (dying laughing)

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    I feel like the ex Purdue QB from the 80s or 90s who whined about his contracts/draft would have worked for the Colts. But I can’t remember his name. Also some MAC school backup QBs whose names I also can’t recall. Apparently Marvin Harrison didn’t work on the Colts row. I only can name one Jax player ever, Trevor Lawrence, because I live in Clemson country.

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  31. Perkins

    Rice Cube,

    Yeah I understand the general logic of trading impending FA:s when a team falls out but the Cubs are at a weird point in the contention cycle relative to their roster that I’d rather they double down on the good players and add to them in the offseason.

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  32. andcounting

    Pretty gratifying to see the team rally after Belli juuuuuust missed connecting on a grand slam that would have made it 6-0. As it is, they made it 7-0. You really do love to see it.

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  33. Author
    Rice Cube

    Rice Cube:
    Alas I don’t think Taillon will complete the 6th due to pitch count but this was encouraging

    Almost false until he turned back into a pumpkin at the end, still a strong showing and I hope he can eat more innings going forward

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