General Cubs Chit-Chat

[Tryptamine]

I really thought once the team completed the renovations the Cubs were basically guaranteed an ASG. I'd love to hear the justification for one of MLB's largest markets to get passed over year after year.

[UMFan83]

I really thought once the team completed the renovations the Cubs were basically guaranteed an ASG. I'd love to hear the justification for one of MLB's largest markets to get passed over year after year.

MLB prefers to reward teams who get public money to complete stadiums/renovations. The Cubs took no public money and then spent 3+ years crying poor and fielding less competitive teams using the excuse (among others) that they took too much debt on. The Cubs will get one eventually but can't help feeling like they are being punished.

Boob reports that the Cubs along with the Jays, Orioles and Braves are the leading candidates for 2025.

[Cubswin11]

Almost have to wonder if Ricketts are holding it off to finish some more development around the stadium to maximize revenue (idk what they have left or going on but would assume they still have some projects going) as a reason we haven’t gotten it yet.

[Tryptamine]

I really thought once the team completed the renovations the Cubs were basically guaranteed an ASG. I'd love to hear the justification for one of MLB's largest markets to get passed over year after year.

MLB prefers to reward teams who get public money to complete stadiums/renovations. The Cubs took no public money and then spent 3+ years crying poor and fielding less competitive teams using the excuse (among others) that they took too much debt on. The Cubs will get one eventually but can't help feeling like they are being punished.

Boob reports that the Cubs along with the Jays, Orioles and Braves are the leading candidates for 2025.

I'd bet the Braves after losing the ASG previously through no fault of their own.

[Derwood]

Another ASG not at Wrigley:



Cubs have hosted 1 ASG in the last 62 years. 2026 is spoken for already, so if the Cubs don't get awarded the 2025 game, it will be 2027 at the earliest.

That Texas ballpark is ugly as sin. When they hosted the COVID-World-Series I marveled at how awful it looked on TV

[UMFan83]

Anyone else going to the London games next year? I just bought tickets to the Saturday game, looking forward to the experience.

[17 Seconds]

[Old Style]

So who is left from the WS team? Hendricks? Anyone else?

[WrigleyField 22]

So who is left from the WS team? Hendricks? Anyone else?

David Ross (kind of counts )

[PackLandVA]

So who is left from the WS team? Hendricks? Anyone else?

David Ross (kind of counts )

That's one more (or two) than is left from the 1908 team.

[CubinNY]

Given the PR spin by the Ricketts (Crane Kenny, PTR publicist/VP of Business), if Jed does not manage to upgrade the team and sits on the money that is supposed there is he, "on the hot seat" if the Cubs are again a 77 win team?

[TomtheBombadil]

Given the PR spin by the Ricketts (Crane Kenny, PTR publicist/VP of Business), if Jed does not manage to upgrade the team and sits on the money that is supposed there is he, "on the hot seat" if the Cubs are again a 77 win team?

Seems like it? It does seem the owners are expecting money to be spent, probably aren’t to picky on who or what (outside of maybe a big name or two to market) since that’s Hoyer’s job. They might not even be a 77 win team if he doesn’t do some stuff

[Cubswin11]

Jed should come out and ask why Ricketts and Crane decided to take the legacy/long term play in the Marquee deal that required money put in and little money up front vs doing a comcast/Ballys/etc deal where they just got paid when we had our core so we had a bag to supplement them.

[UMFan83]

Given the PR spin by the Ricketts (Crane Kenny, PTR publicist/VP of Business), if Jed does not manage to upgrade the team and sits on the money that is supposed there is he, "on the hot seat" if the Cubs are again a 77 win team?

Seems like it? It does seem the owners are expecting money to be spent, probably aren’t to picky on who or what (outside of maybe a big name or two to market) since that’s Hoyer’s job. They might not even be a 77 win team if he doesn’t do some stuff

Yep, the reports that came out last week plus the Crane interview leave it pretty obvious. This is a franchise that has been cautious and calculated about setting expectations about individual offseasons and using vague statements like 'the money will be there when needed' to describe their future payrolls. The narrative has changed completely now based on the things they've said. They had to know that they were dramatically raising fan expectations. And now instead of 90% ownership blame, 10% FO blame (on twitter at least), its reversed.

[17 Seconds]

Given the PR spin by the Ricketts (Crane Kenny, PTR publicist/VP of Business), if Jed does not manage to upgrade the team and sits on the money that is supposed there is he, "on the hot seat" if the Cubs are again a 77 win team?

Seems like it? It does seem the owners are expecting money to be spent, probably aren’t to picky on who or what (outside of maybe a big name or two to market) since that’s Hoyer’s job. They might not even be a 77 win team if he doesn’t do some stuff

Yep, the reports that came out last week plus the Crane interview leave it pretty obvious. This is a franchise that has been cautious and calculated about setting expectations about individual offseasons and using vague statements like 'the money will be there when needed' to describe their future payrolls. The narrative has changed completely now based on the things they've said. They had to know that they were dramatically raising fan expectations. And now instead of 90% ownership blame, 10% FO blame (on twitter at least), its reversed.

seems like they know jed is a wuss and thought it would be easy to call his bluff and shift the blame

[Sammy Sofa]

Seems like it? It does seem the owners are expecting money to be spent, probably aren’t to picky on who or what (outside of maybe a big name or two to market) since that’s Hoyer’s job. They might not even be a 77 win team if he doesn’t do some stuff

Yep, the reports that came out last week plus the Crane interview leave it pretty obvious. This is a franchise that has been cautious and calculated about setting expectations about individual offseasons and using vague statements like 'the money will be there when needed' to describe their future payrolls. The narrative has changed completely now based on the things they've said. They had to know that they were dramatically raising fan expectations. And now instead of 90% ownership blame, 10% FO blame (on twitter at least), its reversed.

seems like they know jed is a wuss and thought it would be easy to call his bluff and shift the blame

Seems like a bunch of dumb horsefeathers all ping-ponging off of each other.

[17 Seconds]

Yep, the reports that came out last week plus the Crane interview leave it pretty obvious. This is a franchise that has been cautious and calculated about setting expectations about individual offseasons and using vague statements like 'the money will be there when needed' to describe their future payrolls. The narrative has changed completely now based on the things they've said. They had to know that they were dramatically raising fan expectations. And now instead of 90% ownership blame, 10% FO blame (on twitter at least), its reversed.

seems like they know jed is a wuss and thought it would be easy to call his bluff and shift the blame

Seems like a bunch of dumb horsefeathers all ping-ponging off of each other.

we'll never get it, but i'd love to hear theo's candid thoughts on all this

[Sammy Sofa]

seems like they know jed is a wuss and thought it would be easy to call his bluff and shift the blame

Seems like a bunch of dumb horsefeathers all ping-ponging off of each other.

we'll never get it, but i'd love to hear theo's candid thoughts on all this

Just get him drunk. You know he's the type.

[champaignchris]

seems like they know jed is a wuss and thought it would be easy to call his bluff and shift the blame

Seems like a bunch of dumb horsefeathers all ping-ponging off of each other.

we'll never get it, but i'd love to hear theo's candid thoughts on all this

Didn’t he walk away from several million dollars on the last year of his contract? That in itself spoke pretty loudly.

[CyHawk_Cub]

It was $10 million, I think.

[Bertz]

These are generally kinder to the Cubs than the Steamer projections already live on Fangraphs. On the position player side, it's a lot higher on Swanson and Wisdom, but lower on most of the young guys (including Morel and Mervis unfortunately), and most of the marginal/depth guys. The latter I expected as anecdotally Steamer seems to think essentially everyone in organized baseball would throw up at least 1 WAR in full playing time.

On the pitching side, ZiPS is much higher on the top of the rotation. Stroman and Steele get fairly soft inning projections, but their rate numbers are super strong. The depth guys, including Wicks and Brown, generally all look fairly decent as well. They all project to between 1-1.5 WAR if given 120 IP. Smyly is an exception, he gets a VERY horsefeathers projection.

The reliever group is relatively strong. Alzolay, Thompson, and Leiter all are projected as swingmen who put up 1+ WAR in 80-100 IP. Dan also notes in the writeup that Leiter projects to a 3.07 ERA if he codes him as a pure short reliever, have to imagine Adbert and Keegan would get similar bumps. Wick, Heuer, Hughes, Leeper, and Boxberger all project as solid but unspectacular 7th inning types. Jeremiah Estrada gets a very strong projection, easily the best of the pure 1 inning guys.

Overall promising stuff. I think from looking at this you'd probably want to add two more bats to the 1B/DH mix rather than just one, and stretch to add a late inning reliever even if the price is somewhat prohibitive. But this is a team that's likely to project right in the middle of that 5th/6th seed scrum after the rest of the expected offseason moves are made.

[TomtheBombadil]

Gallardo, Wicks, and Kilian got positive projections from ZiPs…Gallardo actually projected to throw the most IP…Keeeep going

[Bull]

Was it news that Henricks may not be ready for opening day? I don’t remember hearing that explicitly stated before.

[PriorFighter]

With Tim Stebbins being laid off, Cubs Talk Podcast is not going to be as good. Say what you will, but I liked the banter on that show. Curious what you guys think the best Cubs podcasts are or who has the best coverage outside some of the known names like Bleacher Report, BCB, Cubs Insider, etc.?

[Bertz]

Was it news that Henricks may not be ready for opening day? I don’t remember hearing that explicitly stated before.

I think this weekend was the first time they said it outright, but they'd really been pumping the brakes on expectations for him all offseason so I think they've expected for a while.