Random Cubs Musings

[jersey cubs fan]

http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/the-cubs-have-new-pitchers-kyle-hendricks-tsuyoshi-wada-fantasy/

 

Hey, what did you want anyway? C.J. Edwards has only been in Double-A for twenty innings and this Cubs team does not need to start his clock.

 

Well,, that and he wasn't available.

[Guest]

I really wanted to read the Sheehan piece on the trade that Bernstein just read on air from, but it looks like his blog is subscriber only.

 

Anyone else hear it?

 

This is the excerpt you can get for free...

 

"The Cubs had squeezed the most out of Samardzija and Hammel, and traded both players at the peak of their value. They used what was left to acquire one of the top prospects in baseball. Addison Russell, or perhaps players later acquired for Russell, will play in World Series games at Wrigley Field. For the Cubs, this was also about flags flying forever."

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I

"The Cubs had squeezed the most out of Samardzija and Hammel, and traded both players at the peak of their value. They used what was left to acquire one of the top prospects in baseball. Addison Russell, or perhaps players later acquired for Russell, will play in World Series games at Wrigley Field. For the Cubs, this was also about flags flying forever."

 

I hate stuff like this. There's nothing that makes the Cubs special or immune from the playoff crapshoot. There's no reason they can't be the Oakland A's.

[Guest]

I

"The Cubs had squeezed the most out of Samardzija and Hammel, and traded both players at the peak of their value. They used what was left to acquire one of the top prospects in baseball. Addison Russell, or perhaps players later acquired for Russell, will play in World Series games at Wrigley Field. For the Cubs, this was also about flags flying forever."

 

I hate stuff like this. There's nothing that makes the Cubs special or immune from the playoff crapshoot. There's no reason they can't be the Oakland A's.

 

The fact that our games will never end due to infinity runs being the main possible culprit

[jersey cubs fan]

I

"The Cubs had squeezed the most out of Samardzija and Hammel, and traded both players at the peak of their value. They used what was left to acquire one of the top prospects in baseball. Addison Russell, or perhaps players later acquired for Russell, will play in World Series games at Wrigley Field. For the Cubs, this was also about flags flying forever."

 

I hate stuff like this. There's nothing that makes the Cubs special or immune from the playoff crapshoot. There's no reason they can't be the Oakland A's.

 

Not unless they also get Bud Selig to help them solve their stadium problems.

[Guest]

There's nothing that makes the Cubs special or immune from the playoff crapshoot. There's no reason they can't be the Oakland A's.

I'd be happy with that.

[Guest]

Scott Miller ‏@ScottMillerBbl 5m

Sources: The #Cubs have extended scouting director Jason McLeod's contract by 2 years.

[Careless]

I don't know why I'm surprised Barney is becoming a father. Maybe it's the jockey voice.

[Guest]

I don't know why I'm surprised Barney is becoming a father. Maybe it's the jockey voice.

he's been a father. this is his 3rd kid.

[treebird]

let me preface this by saying that i know this is not going to happen.

 

the cubs have:

 

ONE a crazy offense-leaning farm system

 

TWO top minor league pitchers who mostly seem to have big stuff but questions about durability

 

THREE no big established successful starters in their major league rotation

 

FOUR no apparent willingness to sign expensive pitchers to long-term contracts.

 

aren't they in a perfect position to be the team that throws out the normal pitching rotation and does the all piggy-back pitching staff and just pitches guys slightly more often but for briefer outings?

[Guest]

That would be amazing, I've been wanting a team to do that for years.

[Cubswin11]

Love that idea

[imb]

it will never work, because your pitchers become worthless outside of your system. who is going to want to pitch for the cubs when your value as a FA takes a nose dive because you've spent 7 years throwing 4 innings every 4 days or whatever.

[Guest]

it will never work, because your pitchers become worthless outside of your system. who is going to want to pitch for the cubs when your value as a FA takes a nose dive because you've spent 7 years throwing 4 innings every 4 days or whatever.

So we get to keep them at a discount, too?!?

[NOLA]

FWIW, I like the system until playoff time, but then it's Game One and we're throwing Wood, Schlitter, Ramirez and Rondon against Clayton Kershaw.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

the theory is cool, it'll just never work in practice ever

[treebird]

it will never work, because your pitchers become worthless outside of your system. who is going to want to pitch for the cubs when your value as a FA takes a nose dive because you've spent 7 years throwing 4 innings every 4 days or whatever.

 

part of the premise is that we don't appear to be interested in signing good starting pitchers anyway. unless you think we're going to draft guys and have them refuse to sign as a result of this, i don't think it'd be a huge concern. hell, i bet a lot of relief pitchers would be more inclined to sign with the cubs than they would otherwise if we were doing this.

[treebird]

FWIW, I like the system until playoff time, but then it's Game One and we're throwing Wood, Schlitter, Ramirez and Rondon against Clayton Kershaw.

 

we already aren't valuing high-end pitchers, though, either in the draft, through free agency, or trades. even if we have the best offense in the national league in 2016 or whatever, we're probably still looking at a kershaw vs scott feldman 4.0 game one, except in your scenario, you're hoping for feldman to get you six or seven good innings.

 

if first round playoff pitching matchups are a concern, you should be against what our front office is doing at present.

[treebird]

i'm going to keep defending this, but for safety's sake, i am going to reiterate here that i don't really think there's any chance of us doing this at all.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Arrieta > anyone besides Kershaw

[Guest]

It also doesn't necessarily mean never ever having a full time SP. For example, you could have something like this next year:

 

Arrieta

Maeda

Wood/Ramirez

Jackson/Hendricks

Brett Anderson/Wada

 

And still have 5 'pen' slots for Rondon, Strop, Vizcaino, Rivero, Wright. You can also rotate the piggy back guys as off days come and go to help manage innings, give guys extra rest or a confidence boost(e.g. lower workload after getting shelled, rewarded for a terrific short outing, etc).

 

EDIT: And if anything, this may set up even better for a playoff setup. You have a couple guys who for sure will start 4 games of a series, and then you can prioritize the guys you think are the best match for the opponent. For example, if you were facing this year's Brewer team in a playoff series, you can throw more RHP at them since they're so RH heavy. For another team, starting a guy like Wood would be a necessity, but because of the plug and play nature of having ~8 'starters', you can better hide bad matchups.

[Cubswin11]

I was just going to suggest, what about doing it with just 1 or 2 spots in the rotation.

[NOLA]

FWIW, I like the system until playoff time, but then it's Game One and we're throwing Wood, Schlitter, Ramirez and Rondon against Clayton Kershaw.

 

we already aren't valuing high-end pitchers, though, either in the draft, through free agency, or trades. even if we have the best offense in the national league in 2016 or whatever, we're probably still looking at a kershaw vs scott feldman 4.0 game one, except in your scenario, you're hoping for feldman to get you six or seven good innings.

 

if first round playoff pitching matchups are a concern, you should be against what our front office is doing at present.

Outside of the draft, I don't know that we can really judge him on that once we are potentially a real baseball team. Playoff matchups are obviously of no concern right now. This maybe is why they are biding their time with low cost reclamation projects until signing a TOR guy in 2015 or no later than 2016 when we're ready to make a move. Arrietta would start game 1 for now, but I don't want Wood, Jackson then a bunch of guys going up against Greinke or even Ryu, for example. Or Matt Cain for that matter.

[Little Slide Rooter]

It's been 5 days since the trade, and the team is playing it's worst. It's hard not to entertain the notion that the two are connected. Think about it. Between June 1st and the trade, they were 18-9, playing the best ball since the new regime. 7.5 games out of the 2nd Wild Card may not be cause for excitement, but to them, they must have been having thoughts of a run.

 

Then, the rug is pulled from under them. Their two top pitchers are sent packing, essentially sending out the message that they'll be spending the next three months playing to pad their own stats.

 

While players and rational fans alike understand that this trade was a huge step toward seasons that aren't effectively over in July, this has to take a hard mental toll one these guys. And I don't buy the whole "they get paid millions, they don't care" schpiel. These are young guys playing their hearts out to win. They were pulling it together for the first time in four and a half years. They probably knew this was coming, but when your at your peak, a blow like that will take the wind out of you. This isn't to say that they're going to spend the remainder of the season feeling bad for themselves, but it must be a huge downer which will take time to wear off.

[d_money]

Arrieta > anyone besides Kershaw

For now... He can still revert to his old self occasionally