First of all, RIP







So long to the players who decided to hang up the spikes in 2014:












Moving on, lets look forward to the offseason and the free agent...

Whats that?

I forgot a retiring player?





Congrats to the champ:






the best story of the season that came up oh so short:






and those who failed miserably:
















Your Top Free Agents:









International:



Kenta Maeda



Yasmany Tomas


Things I'm looking forward to in 2015:


Joey Gallo


Buxton (Please stay healthy)


Kris Bryant


NEVER FORGET

Good OP imo. Spoiler needs an "lol GREEEEEEEAR"

I predict TIGAZZZZ go crazy, not necessarily with signings, but with trades. Have a feeling Kinsler will be moved, maybe Price too.

Tigazzzzz

What are the red sox' best options to improve their rotation short of swinging for the fences with scherzer? Their current one doesn't seem to be very competitive.

If they can work out some sort of extension deal beforehand, id be down for the Cubs to trade for Price

Gallo maybe second half of season? I can't see Buxton getting more than a cup of coffee (at best) given his disaster 2014. No way the Cubs can play the Super 2 game with Bryant (right?), worst case if he doesn't break camp is mid-April or whatever the date is for them to get 7 years of control.

FA pitcher predictions:

1 - Scherzer - Yanks. They just have no clarity with any of their guys and I think they're gonna just dump a ton of money on him.

2 - Lester - Cubs. Will have a pretty cost-controlled young offense for a while, they can outspend Boston on Lester.

3 - Shields - Red Sox. Like the Yanks they have to get someone.

we are going to re-sign Pablo (ldo), Romo, Vogey & Morris. Timmy will return to form and Matty will be back.

I'm not as optimistic (duh)...
- re-sign Pablo (for more than anyone expected, but that's been the post-championship MO)
- Romo walks
- Vogey offered 1-year again, same as last year
- Morse offered a bump, but nothing crazy...I do like that he's ostensibly happy with his role, because he won't get another big payday effectively being a 6-inning player
- Timmy shipped mid-season w/ SFG eating a big chunk of salary. I would personally love a renaissance, but don't see it happening.
- Cain health a huge unknown...can't imagine how painful it must have been to have to massage bone chips around your elbow such that you could pitch
- Peavy walks
- Petit will remain in his role of super swing + emergency starter
- Javier Lopez is going to be 38 and Jeremy Affeldt is going to be 36 next year...um, where are the lefty bullpen guys of the future?

great OP

My wishlist for the Cubs:

-Jon Lester or Max Scherzer
-Jake Peavy or better
-Russell Martin or better
-a few decent bullpen guys


1. Alcantara
2. Baez/Addison Russell
3. Rizzo
4. Starlin
5. Bryant
6. Soler
7. Russell Martin
8. Coghlan
9. Pitcher


1. Lester or Sherzer
2. Arrieta
3. Peavy or better
4. Kyle Hendricks
5. Travis Wood/Eric Jokisch/whoever


Bullpen:
Neil Ramirez 7
Pedro Strop 8
Hector Rondon 9
Justin Grimm
fill the rest

Manager: Joe Maddon



lets be truthful for once, this team is ready to win a championship next year right?

No man, I'm optimistic but no.

Yes Cubs win. Now stop.

Scherzer to the Cubs cuz epstein's too smart to overpay the easiest regression candidate a laughable contract

Lester to the Yankees cuz Cashman isn't

Big Lame Shame to the Doyers because lol

Cruz resigns with Orioles

Melky to the Cards (RIP Oscar)

Hamley is the most fascinating one to me. Here's an opportunity to correctly trade a massively overrated Gordon and free up space for Guerrero/Seager and keep Hamley at short or 3rd. Friedman definitely seems more likely to capitalize on this than lol Ned ever would. But then again Mattingly is his manager despite Maddon making himself available so wtf do I know

If the Doyers don't resign him I fully expect Beane to tilt shove here. And it would be an absolutely awesome signing too even if it does pretty much eliminate any chance at keeping samarzjdjdja and probably donaldson

Then I expect Hamley to tear his ACL in a spring training buffet line trying to catch a hot dog falling off his plate. Beane will then spend the rest of his life in a room with shoeboxes on his feet

Sandoval resigns with the Giants because there isn't a franchise in sports that values fanbase love of a player as highly as they do. The contract will almost certainly be god awful especially when sandival shows up for spring training looking like Latino Mangino but whatever. It's the same reason I expect them to resign romo (probably correct considering how much of the Giants success is predicated on having a shutdown bullpen and Bad Hunter being bad) and vogelsong (sigh. 2 year deal for him to finish his career as a giant inconing) and let morse leave (blanco almost certainly is the new everyday LF)

im fine with the slight sandoval overpay, but having romo, vogelsong, or peavy come back would make me $ad. keep morse and affeldt.

An A's firesale is about 95 times more likely than a Hanley signing, but I may be underselling the firesale option.

Big Game James to the doyas would be perfect

If peavy was elite during the World Series that probably would have changed things but as is there's no way the Giants go after him. Besides that they can't go after both him and vogelsong anyway

I mean, is there someone better?

This is the last year the a's will be relevant as a WS contender for quite possibly a decade. If nothing else cespedes and Russell for Lester and shark should show all bets are off

As far as ACTUAL spots for Hamley if not the doyas has to be the tigers or yankees with tigers more likely to go for it since Little Ceaser's what, 106?

Yeah I wonder how much Romo is going to command since he didn't finish out the season as the closer.

If they're grooming Strickland as the closer of the future, they better keep grooming. Dude has the potential to give up some really majestic homers for a long time tho

Ladies and gents, the first domino has fallen. Jays trade Adam Lind to Milwaukee to for Marco Estrada. Appears to be straight up.

this is bad, right?

It's great for the Brewers, filling their biggest need with one of their most expendable players!

Estrada could still be good for Toronto (I'm not sure what their rotation needs are) if he can get his HR/9 down, he has looked good in the past and most were expecting a much better year out of him in 2014. He did pitch good out of the bullpen and gave up a lot less homeruns the last couple months of the season.