Report: Cubs considering bringing back Addison Russell

[anotheridiot]

I was very impressed with Schwarber's improvement in the field. He went from -1.4 dWAR to -0.4. If he just maintained that, I'd be satisfied. If he can just get stable versus lefties and make his 2018 pre-ASB his norm I'd live with that all day and night. Depending on the line up, he's solid for the 5/6 slot.

Thanks for some usable stats. He has worked hard but people still just keep thinking he is a catcher trying to find a spot.

I posted that video of the home run on top of the scoreboard hit off a lefty. He just needs at bats. We can watch Rizzo go on a 1-30 dive against lefties but he stays in. Look at Schwarbers splits vs lhp, his obp is .352 with .340 babip. All he gets all year is 94 chances.

My whole argument is the game is tight, they pull him for defense, and they put in a player that is not that much better. Sure they might put a much better player in center with Almora, but not that much better in left. For that they lose 40 games out of 82 in the second half because they cannot score more than 1 run.

He did not need to get a hit every time, but one or two could have sealed the division.

 

[Castor76]

Thanks for some usable stats. He has worked hard but people still just keep thinking he is a catcher trying to find a spot.

I posted that video of the home run on top of the scoreboard hit off a lefty. He just needs at bats. We can watch Rizzo go on a 1-30 dive against lefties but he stays in. Look at Schwarbers splits vs lhp, his obp is .352 with .340 babip. All he gets all year is 94 chances.

My whole argument is the game is tight, they pull him for defense, and they put in a player that is not that much better. Sure they might put a much better player in center with Almora, but not that much better in left. For that they lose 40 games out of 82 in the second half because they cannot score more than 1 run.

He did not need to get a hit every time, but one or two could have sealed the division.

I'm a Schwarber fan, not so much that I wouldn't use him in a trade for a good piece back, but love the potential I see. If he puts in that much work becoming a better, not great but better defender, then imagine what he can do if he puts the same effort into hitting lefties. What do the Cubs have lots of on their starting staff? Pretty good lefties. I hope Schwarber just jumps in and grabs as much BP versus them as possible. I'd probably, if I were him, live at a Florida college taking all the swings I could against lefties, splitting time with keeping up my defensive work.

 

[Castor76]

The main thing for Russel is going to be is was 2016 the norm or an aberration.

 

[zack54attack]

So Friday is the deadline?

 

[JimJohnson]

So Friday is the deadline?

Yes

 

[anotheridiot]

about 11 hours from now

 

[zack54attack]

Bruce says they are going to tender him.

https://twitter.com/MLBBruceLevine/status/1068575378049048578

 

[anotheridiot]

yeah, we all figure he will be tendered, but will it be for 2.5?

 

[beckdawg]

yeah, we all figure he will be tendered, but will it be for 2.5?

That's not how tendering works.... Tendering just means they aren't releasing him. You are essentially saying you keep his rights. His salary is determined by arbitration or if he is a pre-arb player it's typically just the league minimum unless they are someone special and the team is trying to curry favor a la Trout or Bryant who got $1 mil pre-arb salaries.

As for whether they offer him $2.5 mil in arbitration. No they wont because if they do he could say he wants $5-6 mil and he'd likely win since the arbiter choses one or the other between what the players reps offer and what the team offers and $2.5 mil is so far below the $4.5 mil he's projected to get.

Long story short, the way this likely works is the cubs will probably offer him some where between $4-4.25. His team probably wants $5. Typically the team and player meet in between.

 

[CSF77]

He made 3.2. It wouldn’t shock me that Jed was talking to his agent trying to work a deal for 3.5 and it is going 11th HR. I’m pretty sure if Boras is being a ass they will drop him here.

 

[beckdawg]

He made 3.2. It wouldn’t shock me that Jed was talking to his agent trying to work a deal for 3.5 and it is going 11th HR. I’m pretty sure if Boras is being a ass they will drop him here.

I mean look the cubs aren't going to play hard ball on this. The last thing you want after tendering him is to have him all over the media in an arb battle. They did in fact tender him which as I've said all along is the only real choice they had. I would be very surprised if they made the tender contingent on him taking a low ball deal. It would be a pretty scum bag thing to do. Now on the contrary will they be in a lower range in their arb offer than they typically might? Maybe but just as an example here if the "fair number" is $4.5 and typically you knock 5% off in your offer for a normal player I don't see them knocking like 25% off their offer which is essentially what $3.5 mil would be. I could see them offering $4 mil or him coming to them with some sort of offer where he takes $4.5 mil but promises to use $500k to a DV charity.... something like that. That's win win for both side. He gets to keep his arb number where it normally would be which helps next year and they get good pr around his return.

And I mean the difference between $3.5 mil and $4.5 mil is fairly trivial for a player with his skillset. The last thing you want is for him to have you being cheap as part of his mind set. If he plays like he can such as 2015 or 2016 he's a 3-4 win player and that's worth anywhere between $24-32 mil. That's why I could see the good PR way being a really strong idea. It takes some of the media pressure off him and gives him a bit of a win moment. He can get the feel good moment of him handing a giant over sized check to a charity and hopefully by the time ST rolls around he can just focus mostly on baseball.

 

[anotheridiot]

That's not how tendering works.... Tendering just means they aren't releasing him. You are essentially saying you keep his rights. His salary is determined by arbitration or if he is a pre-arb player it's typically just the league minimum unless they are someone special and the team is trying to curry favor a la Trout or Bryant who got $1 mil pre-arb salaries.

As for whether they offer him $2.5 mil in arbitration. No they wont because if they do he could say he wants $5-6 mil and he'd likely win since the arbiter choses one or the other between what the players reps offer and what the team offers and $2.5 mil is so far below the $4.5 mil he's projected to get.

Long story short, the way this likely works is the cubs will probably offer him some where between $4-4.25. His team probably wants $5. Typically the team and player meet in between.

I know Arbitor are non baseball people, but everyone knows his domestic violence story. They have time between both offers before they reach the hearing to work something out. I just dont want to see him getting 5 because he has to give back 15% of it.

 

[CSF77]

Not a fan of it. Enuf said.

Edit: Career wOBA .305 Which is rated below avg to poor. Last year .290 which was rated awful.

Everything is regressing with him.

UZR150

2016 9.7
2017 6.8
2018 2.0

This a mistake honestly.

That is not even getting into the puff piece that he played to the media. Guess he has had time to brush up on his speech.

 

[CSF77]

I mean look the cubs aren't going to play hard ball on this. The last thing you want after tendering him is to have him all over the media in an arb battle. They did in fact tender him which as I've said all along is the only real choice they had. I would be very surprised if they made the tender contingent on him taking a low ball deal. It would be a pretty scum bag thing to do. Now on the contrary will they be in a lower range in their arb offer than they typically might? Maybe but just as an example here if the "fair number" is $4.5 and typically you knock 5% off in your offer for a normal player I don't see them knocking like 25% off their offer which is essentially what $3.5 mil would be. I could see them offering $4 mil or him coming to them with some sort of offer where he takes $4.5 mil but promises to use $500k to a DV charity.... something like that. That's win win for both side. He gets to keep his arb number where it normally would be which helps next year and they get good pr around his return.

And I mean the difference between $3.5 mil and $4.5 mil is fairly trivial for a player with his skillset. The last thing you want is for him to have you being cheap as part of his mind set. If he plays like he can such as 2015 or 2016 he's a 3-4 win player and that's worth anywhere between $24-32 mil. That's why I could see the good PR way being a really strong idea. It takes some of the media pressure off him and gives him a bit of a win moment. He can get the feel good moment of him handing a giant over sized check to a charity and hopefully by the time ST rolls around he can just focus mostly on baseball.

projections

Cubs (8)

Kris Bryant (3.171) – $12.4MM
Kyle Hendricks (4.081) – $7.6MM
Javier Baez (3.089) – $7.1MM
Addison Russell (3.167) – $4.3MM
Kyle Schwarber (3.086) – $3.1MM
Mike Montgomery (3.089) – $3.0MM
Carl Edwards Jr. (2.134) – $1.4MM
Ronald Torreyes (2.139) – $900K

 

[JimJohnson]

I mean look the cubs aren't going to play hard ball on this. The last thing you want after tendering him is to have him all over the media in an arb battle. They did in fact tender him which as I've said all along is the only real choice they had. I would be very surprised if they made the tender contingent on him taking a low ball deal. It would be a pretty scum bag thing to do. Now on the contrary will they be in a lower range in their arb offer than they typically might? Maybe but just as an example here if the "fair number" is $4.5 and typically you knock 5% off in your offer for a normal player I don't see them knocking like 25% off their offer which is essentially what $3.5 mil would be. I could see them offering $4 mil or him coming to them with some sort of offer where he takes $4.5 mil but promises to use $500k to a DV charity.... something like that. That's win win for both side. He gets to keep his arb number where it normally would be which helps next year and they get good pr around his return.

And I mean the difference between $3.5 mil and $4.5 mil is fairly trivial for a player with his skillset. The last thing you want is for him to have you being cheap as part of his mind set. If he plays like he can such as 2015 or 2016 he's a 3-4 win player and that's worth anywhere between $24-32 mil. That's why I could see the good PR way being a really strong idea. It takes some of the media pressure off him and gives him a bit of a win moment. He can get the feel good moment of him handing a giant over sized check to a charity and hopefully by the time ST rolls around he can just focus mostly on baseball.

Sorry but that's just terrible business. You're completely ignoring his domestic abuse case. Addison should consider himself fortunate (very fortunate) that the Cubs kept him. And he better just take what the Cubs give him and say "thank you daddy" to Theo.

 

[JimJohnson]

Not a fan of it. Enuf said.

Edit: Career wOBA .305 Which is rated below avg to poor. Last year .290 which was rated awful.

Everything is regressing with him.

UZR150

2016 9.7
2017 6.8
2018 2.0

This a mistake honestly.

That is not even getting into the puff piece that he played to the media. Guess he has had time to brush up on his speech.

Sorry man I just don't know why you're so hung up on this. I've been talking to you for days about this and you refused to listen to me. At the end of the day, I'm going to trust Theo's decision. The guy kind of knows baseball.

 

[CSF77]

Sorry man I just don't know why you're so hung up on this. I've been talking to you for days about this and you refused to listen to me. At the end of the day, I'm going to trust Theo's decision. The guy kind of knows baseball.

He is not infallible. This is the same guy That created the chicken din din in the Cubhouse. And signed E-Jax and Chatwood. Every stroke of genius is countered by a stroke of stupidity

 

[anotheridiot]

Sorry but that's just terrible business. You're completely ignoring his domestic abuse case. Addison should consider himself fortunate (very fortunate) that the Cubs kept him. And he better just take what the Cubs give him and say "thank you daddy" to Theo.

That would come from accepting whatever Theo offered. If Russell takes the cubs to the hearing the other half of the people (the ones with him) might change sides too.

 

[anotheridiot]

He is not infallible. This is the same guy That created the chicken din din in the Cubhouse. And signed E-Jax and Chatwood. Every stroke of genius is countered by a stroke of stupidity

lets not forget he signed heyward and its one good year and a defensive excuse. Cant see the future, but Heyward replaced Soler and made Eloy subject to being traded. But now world series with Soler, even though he was 8-16 and the only cub that hit in the 2015 playoffs.

David Ortiz fell in his lap in Boston, his big free agent signing for that run was JD Drew.

Here, Strop and Arrieta fell into our lap. Both were banned from cutters and both became dominant using it.

Development is key with Theo, he has lost high picks and forced the hand with free agents.

If he can move Heyward it cleans the slate with me, just like eventually Soriano got gone. But its just too easy to forgive the guy for bad moves, to me, it makes me want him to stay the hell out of the big name signings. They should be able to win with who we have.

 

[JimJohnson]

He is not infallible. This is the same guy That created the chicken din din in the Cubhouse. And signed E-Jax and Chatwood. Every stroke of genius is countered by a stroke of stupidity

Nobody said he's infallible. But he certainly knows more than us message board posters.