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Opening Day rotation

Hairyducked Idiot

By Hairyducked Idiot,
in Chicago Cubs Talk

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Little Slide Rooter MVP

Little Slide Rooter

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2) It's infuriating that they decided to give up on 2012, because with some offense this could easily be a playoff team.

 

Well to be fair, it seems like they were going in hard on Cespedes but he got a ridiculous offer from Oakland and took it. The offense could have been better with Cespedes in there instead of someone like Byrd. Not drastically better but enough to have a small amount of hope for a playoff spot.

 

As much as I would have liked Cespedes, there's really no guarantee that he would have made the offense any better or even broke camp with the team. He's really struggled so far in a very small ST sample size. The available options who would have been sure things to make our offense better are Pujols or Fielder, who the FO did not want to comit the money and contract length they got and to a lesser extent, Aramis, Reyes, Beltran, and maybe Rollins, who would have costed more than they were willing to pay for older and mostly injury prone players.

 

I don't know how we'll get anything better next offseason, with the position player highlights being Brandon Phillips, Josh Hamilton, Shane Victorino, B.J Upton, Andre Ethier, and Delmon Young who will have a make or break year. I really wish that Matt Kemp wasn't extended because he would have been exactly what we needed. I guess he'd have been exactly what most teams need.

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Sammy Sofa GOAT

Sammy Sofa

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who would have costed more

 

What the what.

 

I mean, it even underlines it in red and everything, as if to say," hey dumb ass; 'costed' is not a word."

toonsterwu ACL Cubs

toonsterwu

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Looking at that rotation, I marvel at how cheap, solid and young it is, with long-term upside.

Really?

 

I could be wrong, but I think KyleJRM was the one that was really heads over heels for Travis Wood. I remember having some discussions with someone here about Wood, and I think it was Kyle. Could be wrong, though.

 

There's really only one young-ish guy with upside, and that's Samardzija, and he's in his prime years (27). Garza is dead smack at the start of his prime years, and Volstad is close enough to it, but again, much as I like him, more of a 3/4 that could pass as a 2/3 depending on the situation, IMO.

 

It's still odd to marvel at how cheap solid and young it is. Because it isn't that young. And most of the cheapness is very short-term.

 

yeah, my point exactly. and ... the upside isn't all that great with any of the semi-youngish guys.

Hairyducked Idiot All-Star

Hairyducked Idiot

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I think this one's pretty much settled. Garza/Dempster/Maholm/Samardzija/Volstad it is, with Wells possibly the swingman and Wood in AAA.

 

Assuming that Wood can work things out and hasn't come down with Rich Hill disease, then the Iowa Cubs have an amazingly high number of spots where they are either better or even with the Cubs.

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toonsterwu

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I think this one's pretty much settled. Garza/Dempster/Maholm/Samardzija/Volstad it is, with Wells possibly the swingman and Wood in AAA.

 

Assuming that Wood can work things out and hasn't come down with Rich Hill disease, then the Iowa Cubs have an amazingly high number of spots where they are either better or even with the Cubs.

 

What? Really? I know you are high on Wood, or I assume you were the one, but really? A positive case of Wood is ... Maholm. Jay Jackson has average stuff. Chris Rusin, if he goes down, is a softer-tossing version of Wood. Alberto Cabrera, a guy I'm higher on than most, should be in the pen. Who else? Nick Struck, another guy I'm higher on than most, is a ... righty version of Travis Wood basically, an end of the rotation arm with a mid-rotation ceiling. Who else? Dallas Beeler, another guy I really like, would be fortunate if he turned into a Volstad type starter. Maybe he can be a bit better, but Volstad would be a good outcome for Beeler in terms of the expectations game. McNutt has ceiling, but has to get consistent mechanics, and well, overall consistency.

 

Are you really going to argue that any six you pick from AAA Iowa is going to have more days in the rotation where they would be better than the 6 on the major league squad against major league hitters?

Hairyducked Idiot All-Star

Hairyducked Idiot

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I think this one's pretty much settled. Garza/Dempster/Maholm/Samardzija/Volstad it is, with Wells possibly the swingman and Wood in AAA.

 

Assuming that Wood can work things out and hasn't come down with Rich Hill disease, then the Iowa Cubs have an amazingly high number of spots where they are either better or even with the Cubs.

 

What? Really? I know you are high on Wood, or I assume you were the one, but really? A positive case of Wood is ... Maholm. Jay Jackson has average stuff. Chris Rusin, if he goes down, is a softer-tossing version of Wood. Alberto Cabrera, a guy I'm higher on than most, should be in the pen. Who else? Nick Struck, another guy I'm higher on than most, is a ... righty version of Travis Wood basically, an end of the rotation arm with a mid-rotation ceiling. Who else? Dallas Beeler, another guy I really like, would be fortunate if he turned into a Volstad type starter. Maybe he can be a bit better, but Volstad would be a good outcome for Beeler in terms of the expectations game. McNutt has ceiling, but has to get consistent mechanics, and well, overall consistency.

 

Are you really going to argue that any six you pick from AAA Iowa is going to have more days in the rotation where they would be better than the 6 on the major league squad against major league hitters?

 

I didn't mean the rotation.

 

I meant that assuming that Travis Wood isn't permanently broken or something, he's at least a reasonable comp for the back end of our rotation.

 

Then you start including position players. Jackson and Rizzo are probably at least even with their big league counterparts right now. I've laid out the case before why I think Sappelt is pretty even with Soriano at this point in their careers. If Darwin Barney regresses to what everything outside of last April suggests, I don't think whoever ends up at 2b in Iowa will be much worse, if any.

 

Warning, irrational hatred of a player ahead:

 

And, of course, we'll be fielding a warm body at 3b down there, presumably, and that may be more than we can say for the big league club.

 

toonsterwu ACL Cubs

toonsterwu

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Okay, I assumed you were just talking about the rotation.

 

But even positionally, it's probably still a tiny stretch to argue that the Iowa lineup would give similar or better production than the MLB unit as a whole, relative to the start of the season. It's easy to talk about youngsters, but it's the exception that doesn't miss a beat in the majors. I'm far higher on Brett than some, as I think his ceiling is under-rated a tiny bit (but granted, not many reach their ceilings), but it's hard to imagine Brett not having hiccups in the bigs in his first year (I know I posted some ridiculous thing somewhere asking for positive season ending outcomes and said that a strong 2nd half would lead Brett to the ROY ... more wishful thinking than anything, albeit not impossible). Rizzo had his hiccups last year, so we have to see if he can bounce back. Soto should be more productive offensively than Clevenger or Castillo, and Castro is on a whole separate level. And yes, it's fair to question Ian Stewart, but he has some record in the bigs showing his power. The depth of the big league squad also helps a fair amount.

 

It's not impossible that whatever unit that starts in Iowa might be similarly productive in capability to whatever unit is in the bigs, but I wouldn't be on it. Now, the Iowa unit will probably be more proficient at getting on base and creating problems on base, with Brett, Campana, and Sappelt at the top of their lineups.

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Wittenmyer tweets that Dempster is the Opening Day starter.
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Wittenmyer tweets that Dempster is the Opening Day starter.

 

Ugh.

 

vs. Strasburg too.

KingCubsFan ACL Cubs

KingCubsFan

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Wittenmyer tweets that Dempster is the Opening Day starter.

Strange decision by Sveum, even if it doesn't really matter. Maybe he wants to give Garza a chance to get a win in his first start, as opposed to being the sacrificial lamb against Strasburg on Opening Day.

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Wittenmyer tweets that Dempster is the Opening Day starter.

Strange decision by Sveum, even if it doesn't really matter. Maybe he wants to give Garza a chance to get a win in his first start, as opposed to being the sacrificial lamb against Strasburg on Opening Day.

 

I doubt it has anything to do with that.

 

Probably mostly has to do with the whole "honor" of it and seniority thing, considering it's rather meaningless in the grand scheme.

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I'm mostly just bummed that I have to watch Dempster instead of Garza on opening day.
El Duderino ACL Cubs

El Duderino

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@MattGarza22: There's only so many times a man that has done everything he's been asked to do can be disrespected! Guess the GOOD GUYS do finish last...

 

brilliant

Little Slide Rooter MVP

Little Slide Rooter

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@MattGarza22: There's only so many times a man that has done everything he's been asked to do can be disrespected! Guess the GOOD GUYS do finish last...

 

brilliant

 

I certainly don't agree with the call, nor do I inderstand it as there's no question that Garza is by far our best starter, but I really don't see the point of him publicly griping about it, assuming that's what the Tweet's about. Maybe he can go to Red Sox camp and share a bottle of Boons Farm with Chris Carpenter while listening to AFI.

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