Colon had a 3.43 ERA in 191.2 innings last year

If Newcomb and Fried aren't ready yet, I'd happily take that for this year for 12M and a 1-year deal

Plus the endless comedy of Bartolo at-bats

This is a good example of moves that I don't quite understand. Isn't there a starter that doesn't cost 12 million that will also allow you to win 70 games?

Sure, but you can turn it into a trade asset - with no long term risk on the other side of the coin.

No such thing as a bad 1 year deal is the saying.

Oh my god. I don't know if you saw but there was a viral video of a 108 year old woman who was a Cubs fan. Anyways, she died just a few days after they won. That is so ****ing gangster.

She'd been to one game in her life.

It was her 90th birthday.

Sounds mostly like coincidence to me.

No bro, it's proof of predestination.

Of course it's coincidence. A quaint and sweet one.

I mean, there's some evidence of olds and sicks hanging on for one more family Christmas and **** like that

So it's probably only like 99% coincidence

Yeah, plus, the cheaper a pitcher is, the lower his chance of actually providing those innings. Barves don't want to tank to the extent that they hang on to a 6.50 ERA starter thru July, and they want to end the revolving door commuter shuttle between atlanta and gwinnet that they think is having and adverse effect in development. These guys have decent bang for the buck in terms of the probability they remain serviceable. Probably better than the cheaper options that are out there.

But mostly it's the trade value thing, along with fan interest and the rarer times contention actually happens

Yeah, signing guys for their trade value was a big part of the Cubs rebuild. It's actually kind of misleading to say they just tanked for draft picks. Yes, they got Bryant & Schwarber from the draft, but they got just as much value in those years by trading mediocre or washed-up starting pitchers in the last year of their deals.

-In 2013, they signed Scott Feldman, he had a decent 1st half and was traded at the deadline for Jake Arrieta & Pedro Strop.
-In 2014, they signed Jason Hammel, he had a good 1st half and (with Samardzija) became part of the deadline deal for Addison Russell.
-In 2012, they signed Paul Maholm, who they then traded at the deadline for a guy they later traded for Tommy LaStella.
-In 2012, they traded Ryan Dempster in the last year of his deal for Kyle Hendricks
-In 2013, they traded Matt Garza in the last year of his deal for Carl Edwards Jr. & Justin Grimm.

I'm probably forgetting someone, but any rebuilding team who has a chance to sign guys like that to a one-year deal would be a fool not to. The Cubs wouldn't have gotten to where they were this year if they had just sat back trying to lose 110 games per year hoping their own draft picks worked out.

Bears mentioning that Maholm got flipped for Arodys Vizcaino

Cespedes, EE, Bautista, Desmond, Kenley have all turned down their QOs

Fowler and Turner too.

Jays signing kendrys for 3 yrs, probably means EE is not going back to the Jays.

Neil Walker and Hellickson both accepted their QOs

Hellickson accepting is pretty surprising given the available FA pitching

Fulmer and Seager win ROYs.

Some Chinese guy hit a ball through the top of the dome in one of their ****ty stadiums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEJap9MV5iI

It says Japan

That is such a deliciously racist post. Dude is 22 and is ****ing Steve Nebraska.

Hard to tell where over the field the ball is when it disappears. Want to see the stat cast numbers on that!

It would be awesome to see him pitch and play outfield in the majors

He's Shohei Otani, who's probably the best player in the world not in MLB, would get somewhere in the 200-300M range if he made himself available this offseason, and could be MLB's first true two-way player since Babe Ruth. He's a pretty big deal, regardless of this hit.

And yeah...Japanese. I mean, come on.

could cover all your bases and call him a celestial

What about Micah Owings?