Jose Abreu

But the bold is also just not true. I wouldn't call it good but I wouldn't say he's nowhere near it either. At worst he's a slightly below average player right now.

Moncada back following root canal. No Anderson

He wasn't even that bad in the first inning- that 2-run double was pure luck for Martinez. I like that we used Fry for multiple innings. He isn't a loogy, despite his effectiveness against lefties. He should be given more opportunities to become a multi-inning weapon like Josh Hader.

Actually, here's the game thread, in which I (and several others) seem to be upset that he was brought out to start the 8th. Thanks, Robin

I wouldn't get your hopes up, this is like the 5th or 6th time in the past few weeks that they haven't had a starter announced until the day of. Once it was even with Kopech I think

I remember being so mad at Robin during that game. Sale was clearly fading the inning prior and should've been pulled, but Robin let him out to pitch the 8th and obviously everything fell apart. If he never let Sale out for that inning, Sale's 2014 season ERA would have been 1.97 instead of 2.17.

Quintana had the same defense (if not worse) and worse run support, yet never had any major fits or frustrations.

Got Tommy John yesterday according to his Instagram

Thanks, I didn't know that

Haha, really? That's funny, I didn't know that. My point was more that he's revered as some defensive god at shortstop (MLB) but was in reality pretty awful due to his lack of range

That's just so vague. Eric Hosmer and Yoenis Cespedes are recent gold glovers, and they're two of the worst defenders at their positions. It would be nice if reports could be more detailed rather than just having the sexy, grabby headline

Not that that's a bad thing but it also tells me nothing. For all I know he could be the Derek Jeter of second basemen where he doesn't commit many errors, but also has no range and is therefore poor defensively, yet the media crowns him as a defensive prodigy due to the lack of errors. To be honest, every scouting report I've read says that Madrigal is good defensively, but none have gone into much detail or even mentioned his range. Has anyone read anything substantial about his defense? It would be nice to know if he has both range and is less likely to commit errors

And Fulmer proceeds to get lit up after that tweet

Hard to hit homers playing on one wrist, first of all, and secondly, nobody is saying that he's the next Trout or Mantle, but that his raw tools make his ceiling a virtually flawless player like those two. The odds of it happening are less than 1%.

Abreu

Coming from someone who thinks/has always thought that Chris Archer is very overrated, that's probably a fair return considering his contract. Meadows and Glasnow alone would've been light. Baz could end up being the true headliner.

If anyone wants a laugh, search "Quintana" on Twitter and just scroll. Cubs fans are freaking out

And while that probably is an exaggeration, based on just pure tools I don't see many ways Robert doesn't make a good starting CF if he's healthy. It's just a question of how good- starter, all-star, or MVP type? He has the highest ceiling of any prospect in baseball aside from Vlad Jr.

How common is it to have 4 catchers in September? I don't see any playing time for Seby unless we DFA Smith or something.

As an absolute ceiling you are right, those are the only "best case" comps for Robert, as he is a speedy CF with very few flaws if everything works out. I don't understand why people have been down on his hit tool lately on the board

If that's the case, there are about a million more rational responses to the situation than cutting up each and every uniform with scissors.

Stephens has been pretty bad lately. At this point I don't see how he deserves the 5th spot more than Adams or Guerrero.