2014 Roster Discussion

[Warpticon]

She's a pretty minor star. She's like girl #6 in some girl group, hasn't recorded since 2007, and her biggest media exposure since then has been getting her MRS from Masahiro Tanaka University.

[Guest]

No clue, but it'd make sense to me if she's a legit star in Japan, it'd be convenient to cut some air time down by already being on the west coast. In case she needed to go back and forth often.

The time savings are pretty overblown.

 

You probably save an hour or longer layover, plus a 3 or 4 hour flight. It'd be pretty damn important to me. Especially when a flight from LA to Japan is 10-12 hours as well.

 

Can't you fly pretty much anywhere from Chicago to Japan direct?

[UMFan83]

No clue, but it'd make sense to me if she's a legit star in Japan, it'd be convenient to cut some air time down by already being on the west coast. In case she needed to go back and forth often.

The time savings are pretty overblown.

 

You probably save an hour or longer layover, plus a 3 or 4 hour flight. It'd be pretty damn important to me. Especially when a flight from LA to Japan is 10-12 hours as well.

 

Can't you fly pretty much anywhere from Chicago to Japan direct?

 

Just to Tokyo

[Guest]

No clue, but it'd make sense to me if she's a legit star in Japan, it'd be convenient to cut some air time down by already being on the west coast. In case she needed to go back and forth often.

The time savings are pretty overblown.

 

You probably save an hour or longer layover, plus a 3 or 4 hour flight. It'd be pretty damn important to me. Especially when a flight from LA to Japan is 10-12 hours as well.

 

Can't you fly pretty much anywhere from Chicago to Japan direct?

 

Just to Tokyo

 

Well, if you go by where his old team was, it looks like most fly through Tokyo anyway:

 

There are no major airports in Tohoku and most travellers arrive via Tokyo.

 

http://wikitravel.org/en/Tohoku

[Ryne Ween]

Chicago to Tokyo takes a polar route and the flight times are pretty negligable compared to LA - Japan. A lot of airlines have that flight out of Chicago. There are tons of reasons to choose LA over Chicago international travel capability isnt one of them.

 

Could be that Mrs Tanaka doesnt like the run support situation her husband would be signing up for.

[davell]

Damn, it's only like an hour difference. Good, one less thing to think is an obstacle.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

If international travel is an item of concern, he shouldn't be so eager to play MLB.

[CubsWin]

As far as which factors might influence Tanaka's decision, I think it's nearly impossible for us to know without a strong statement from Tanaka or his agent. Speculate away, but without that, it's all just speculation.

[Boris]

If I was Tanaka, my million dollar arm wouldn't be limited to my wife's whimsical preferences.

[CubsWin]

As far as the Cubs FO approach to this rebuild, it seems like, agree with it or not, they are following the plan they've said they would from the beginning. Gain financial flexibility on the major league level and spend wisely on pieces that can add value now and in the long term or in the short term on short term contracts. On the organizational side, increase and improve the scouting and development team and their technology and empower those guys to go about improving the talent base of the franchise acquiring as much impact talent as possible. To my eyes, this is exactly what they've done.

 

It's worked out better on the organizational side, hitting on both their 1st round picks, developing many of the more raw talents that they inherited and adding more high-ranking talent in what seem like, at the moment, to be smart long term trades. They successfully won the bidding for several key IFAs in Soler, Jimenez, Torres and others. The 1st wave of that young, controllable, impact talent should arrive in the 3rd year of the rebuild.

 

It has definitely not worked as well on the major league side. The bullpens they've gone to war with have been bad. The FO is responsible. They've had regression from many of their young "core" players. The FO is responsible and have addressed that. We'll see if Renteria will improve that situation. Epstein's apparent adherence to value-based signings, be they long or short term, has led to very few meaningful signings. The frustration many fans have with this is deserved and understandable, but with the FO's stated plan, the lack of big money FA signings of players their 30s should not be surprising. The main FA they were able to persuade to come to a rebuilding team, Edwin Jackson, performed poorly last season. According to reports, it is very likely that Anibal Sanchez had no intention of signing with the Cubs. As far as missing out on other possible FAs, Epstein's long-term vision and value-based philosophy is partially responsible for the lack of impact talent added via free agency. Many of the short term signings have been very good but were flipped for long term assets and led to even more disappointing results at the big league level.

 

All in all, after two years of a rather complete overhaul of an unhealthy franchise, I see a lot of progress. The results at the major league level haven't turned out they way they would have liked, but even if they had, they still would've been less than a .500 team. In a rebuild, I'm okay with that. In year 3, I want to see progress at the major league level.

 

Sometimes, people seem to read my personal statement of what I'm okay with as if they're supposed to agree with it, and if they don't, they're somehow less than. That's ridiculous. No matter how nuanced or not nuanced your argument is, you have the right to feel however you feel. This is a discussion board. Let's discuss.

[Geech]

Yeah but the front office also made a lot of noise about dual fronts and every season being precious. I think we've definitely seen less competitive desire from them at the majors than they promised.

[CubsWin]

Yeah but the front office also made a lot of noise about dual fronts and every season being precious. I think we've definitely seen less competitive desire from them at the majors than they promised.

Fair enough. You see less desire. That's certainly understandable.

 

When I look at it, I see an effort to build a team that would've won more games if players hadn't regressed, under-performed or sustained key injuries. But since they got off to such a poor start that even when they started playing better they still wouldn't be competitive, Theo & Co. didn't care about the cosmetics of the situation (i.e. the final numbers at the end of the year) and sold at the deadline. This from the Trib about 11 months ago...

"We're going to see where we are and take a real cold assessment in the middle of the season. If we have a legitimate chance to push for a playoff spot then 2013 can become our primary focus. If we think a playoff spot's not in the cards, there will be no concern for appearances or cosmetics whatsoever. We'll continue to address our future and trade off some pieces that would keep us respectable.''

Theo has been quite upfront about wanting to avoid the meaningless middle during this rebuild. Either playoffs or bottom ten. From the same article...

"What I want to avoid is the middle ground,'' Epstein said. "It'd be nice to make the playoffs or get a protected draft pick (awarded the bottom nine teams). We're not hiding that. There's no glory in 78 wins instead of 73. Who cares?

Anyone has the right to look at the rosters they put together and say they had no chance of making the playoffs. I don't necessarily disagree. But there was a lot of under-performance, regression and some key injuries on last year's squad. And then, the stated policy to sell off the pieces that were performing made the final numbers all the worse.

 

Last year, the Cubs got off to a terrible start. 18-30 thru May 25th. On that day, Castro was hitting .265/.296/.368. Barney had gone .207/.295/.345. Soriano had hit 4 HRs and gone .262/.291/.395. Fujikawa had been injured. Garza didn't return from his injury until 4 days earlier. Marmol was having the worst year of his career. From May 26th to July 2nd when they traded Scott Feldman in a IFA money related deal, they go 17-16. From July 3rd to July 22nd when Garza was traded, they go 9-7. That's 26-23 in almost a two month span. But their terrible start had buried them. Overall, on the day they traded Garza, they were 9 games under .500 and 15.5 games back.

 

Looking at it in context, for me, an effort was made that if things went well, they would make a run. They certainly could've given themselves a much better chance by going against their stated value-based signings philosophy and signing some big name FAs. But I don't think that's what people are wishing they did.

[jumbo]

Yeah but the front office also made a lot of noise about dual fronts and every season being precious. I think we've definitely seen less competitive desire from them at the majors than they promised.

 

Not to defend the FO too much, but I definitely think the new CBA hurt the dual fronts plan the most. Essentially the only way to stock up in the draft is to have a top pick. Yes, the Cardinals and Rays will make good picks and help their farm, but for the Cubs to stock the system (instead of those team re-stocking) they had to lose.

 

I'm not at all happy about the MLB team sucking or the renovations, etc, but if the club could have spent freely in the draft I think the dual front campaign would have been more realistic to carry out.

[A New Era]

To be frank. I'm quite happy they didn't do "dual fronts" in 2012. Because we got a pretty special long term talent in Kris Bryant. It's very likely we might get another pretty special long term talent in 2014's draft.

 

Instead of Cespedes who would have helped them compete, but pick lower in the 2013 draft. They got Soler, who still might be as good, or better, but it allowed them to suck enough to nab Bryant.

 

Simple truth is it's more likely to get "special" players at the tippy top of the 1st round of the draft. I've heard kyle say so many times good FOs draft well no matter where they pick. And that's true. But you are muchmuchmuchmuch much more likely to nail it, at the very top. I think this was decided what they wanted to do, they nailed their top picks in 2012 and 2013. The only part where I start to get off the bandwagon, is if they plan to continue doing this very much longer.

 

I'm ready for those elite prospects to come up, and would love it if they could be joined by a big signing to ease the burden on them. (IE: a Tanaka for example).

Edited January 15, 2014 by A New Era

[UK1679666180]

Yeah but the front office also made a lot of noise about dual fronts and every season being precious. I think we've definitely seen less competitive desire from them at the majors than they promised.

 

Not to defend the FO too much, but I definitely think the new CBA hurt the dual fronts plan the most. Essentially the only way to stock up in the draft is to have a top pick. Yes, the Cardinals and Rays will make good picks and help their farm, but for the Cubs to stock the system (instead of those team re-stocking) they had to lose.

 

I'm not at all happy about the MLB team sucking or the renovations, etc, but if the club could have spent freely in the draft I think the dual front campaign would have been more realistic to carry out.

 

The Cubs have done well on this front, they've more than held up their end of the bargain as far as building up the farm.

 

The changes in the draft have done little to impact that.

 

The regression of key players is why this thing has been stunted for a year, had they finished around 75-80 wins last year with similar contributions as they did in '12 from Rizzo, Barney, Castro, and Samardzija while retaining Soriano and Garza for the entire '13, maybe we would see a more active FA plan.

 

There's still a chance to get N. Cruz and another possibility of a SP (assuming Tanaka is not coming and they have a plan B).

 

I want to be more confident in their future spending than I am at this point.

[pitchcs]

If some things work out the way we're all hoping and the Cubs can roll out this lineup by late May or so I'd be pretty happy. And then Javy at some point thereafter:

 

2B - Alcantara (S)

SS - Castro ®

1B - Rizzo (L)

C - Castillo ®

RF - Schierholtz (L)

3B - Olt ®

CF - Sweeney (L)

LF - Lake ®

 

Bench:

Kottaras (?)

Valbuena (L)

Barney ®

Ruggiano ®

? Logan Watkins ?

[Guest]

Can't imagine Alcantara up by late May.

[CubsWin]

Can't imagine Alcantara up by late May.

Me neither. Man, if Rizzo and Castro, mostly Castro, don't improve and Olt doesn't hit enough to stick, it's going to be a long season.

[Cubswin11]

Can't imagine Alcantara up by late May.

He's starting in AAA, right? May is way to aggressive. I think late June/early July is the absolute earliest for him and that would probably take him to be absolutely crushing AAA along with an injury or Barney being Barney. I'm hoping he's up sometime in August and given a chance to start at 2B for at least 30-40 games for the duration of the year.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

The main thing for me isn't when these guys get here within the year, but whether they lock themselves in to jobs for 2015. Having the full infield and maybe one spilling over into the outfield would be really helpful.

[Benny Rodriguez]

A lot of people have discussed the dual fronts situation and pretty much said you can't do it because you won't get high picks. In baseball picks are fair less likely to be sure things. You can get guys like Mike Trout and the end of the first round. For every Bryce Harper, there's Shawn Abner.

I hope we contend soon, but it's hard to not like the draft and signings that they have done so far. I know we all want this to speed up, but I really do want to sell out a chance at a very sound long term future to win 80-85 games this season.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Assuming we aren't going to rush any prospects in the event of injuries, this roster is tissue-paper thin outside the bullpen. Getting through ST healthy would mean a lot.

[KingCubsFan]

A lot of people have discussed the dual fronts situation and pretty much said you can't do it because you won't get high picks. In baseball picks are fair less likely to be sure things. You can get guys like Mike Trout and the end of the first round. For every Bryce Harper, there's Shawn Abner.

I hope we contend soon, but it's hard to not like the draft and signings that they have done so far. I know we all want this to speed up, but I really do want to sell out a chance at a very sound long term future to win 80-85 games this season.

Are you arguing with yourself?

[Fro]

The big key this year will be getting off to a good start.... seems like we've had absolutely awful starts the past few years in April.

 

With 2 wild cards, if you're .500 you're probably going to be in the race at the deadline.

[Backtobanks]

The big key this year will be getting off to a good start.... seems like we've had absolutely awful starts the past few years in April.

 

With 2 wild cards, if you're .500 you're probably going to be in the race at the deadline.

 

This team isn't a playoff team no matter what kind of start we get off to.