General Cubs Chit-Chat

[muntjack]

Starting pitching is very important

[Backtobanks]

Starting pitching is very important

 

What's this "starting pitching" you speak of?

[Backtobanks]

Hoyer has gone from "aim for 82 wins and hope for the best" to "aim for 62 wins and hope for the best".

[Bertz]

Since returning from the IL on 5/25 Nico has the lowest K rate in baseball at 4.9% and the next closest is JRam at 6.6%. Nico has struck out just 3 times in June. What's also encouraging and somewhat exciting is that he's maintained his LA during that time and that is just below 10 on the season, which is a number that several guys live at and still punch out 20 HR a year with. He could be in for a major breakout next year. During that time post-IL he's put up the 2nd best defense across baseball also.

 

Yeah I think he's a guy that a few years ago would have been liable to put up some random juiced ball 25 homer season.

 

Even if the power doesn't progress though, he's really taking a star turn. He's played at damn near a 6 win pace since the start of last year, and he's over 4 WAR for his career in less than a full season's playing time. I don't think the defense is actually *that* good, but he's going to continue to pace comfortably above 3 WAR/600 PAs. The durability is the big issue, but plenty of young guys have overcome that (while old guys who become brittle nearly always stay brittle).

[Transmogrified Tiger]

With Nico, you'd like to see the walk rate go back to last year's levels, but that's a nitpick when he's playing as well as he is. Roughly league average offense from a plus SS goes a long way. Now is probably a good time to get a sense of his appetite for an extension, he's only just turned 25 but he's first time arb eligible this year already, it could be mutually beneficial for Hoerner to lock in his financial security(even as a 1st rounder he "only" got a bonus of 2.7 mil) and the team can be more aggressive knowing he's not even going to hit 30 until his 2nd post-FA year.

[UMFan83]

In 2014, Al Yellon wrote a letter suggesting that Theo Epstein should be fired. After being mocked endlessly, the Cubs went on to win the World Series in 2016.

 

Now...

 

 

Cubs 2024 World Series champs incoming!

 

Among his arguments for firing Jed, he mentions the Cubs being forced to take BP on a day when it was 97 degrees out lol

[Backtobanks]

In 2014, Al Yellon wrote a letter suggesting that Theo Epstein should be fired. After being mocked endlessly, the Cubs went on to win the World Series in 2016.

 

Now...

 

 

Cubs 2024 World Series champs incoming!

 

Among his arguments for firing Jed, he mentions the Cubs being forced to take BP on a day when it was 97 degrees out lol

 

It's a moot point, he's got 3 1/2 years left on his contract and Ricketts is "broke".

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I will save you the click, his solution is hiring Sam Fuld.

 

Also he spends a paragraph getting mad that the Cubs took batting practice on some very hot days, and another paragraph mad that they signed Stephen Brault who has co-hosted Chris Rose's Youtube show a couple times while he's rehabbing injury.

[UMFan83]

I will save you the click, his solution is hiring Sam Fuld.

 

Also he spends a paragraph getting mad that the Cubs took batting practice on some very hot days, and another paragraph mad that they signed Stephen Brault who has co-hosted Chris Rose's Youtube show a couple times while he's rehabbing injury.

 

That's why I posted it though, to mock Al Yellon because he's endlessly mockable.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I will save you the click, his solution is hiring Sam Fuld.

 

Also he spends a paragraph getting mad that the Cubs took batting practice on some very hot days, and another paragraph mad that they signed Stephen Brault who has co-hosted Chris Rose's Youtube show a couple times while he's rehabbing injury.

 

That's why I posted it though, to mock Al Yellon because he's endlessly mockable.

 

Oh I agree, I was trying to tee up mockery with the fewest possible page views on his end.

[Proven Veteran]

I will save you the click, his solution is hiring Sam Fuld.

 

Also he spends a paragraph getting mad that the Cubs took batting practice on some very hot days, and another paragraph mad that they signed Stephen Brault who has co-hosted Chris Rose's Youtube show a couple times while he's rehabbing injury.

 

That's why I posted it though, to mock Al Yellon because he's endlessly mockable.

 

Oh I agree, I was trying to tee up mockery with the fewest possible page views on his end.

Damn it, I clicked before reading your recap. I wanted to slap him within a couple of paragraphs.

[UMFan83]

 

That's why I posted it though, to mock Al Yellon because he's endlessly mockable.

 

Oh I agree, I was trying to tee up mockery with the fewest possible page views on his end.

Damn it, I clicked before reading your recap. I wanted to slap him within a couple of paragraphs.

 

One of my favorite parts is that he ends the article with a highlight of Sam Fuld making a diving catch as if that has anything to do with the point he's making with the article. Like wtf?

[Proven Veteran]

 

Oh I agree, I was trying to tee up mockery with the fewest possible page views on his end.

Damn it, I clicked before reading your recap. I wanted to slap him within a couple of paragraphs.

 

One of my favorite parts is that he ends the article with a highlight of Sam Fuld making a diving catch as if that has anything to do with the point he's making with the article. Like wtf?

 

I mean, it's 100% the reason he wants to hire him.

[imb]

In 2014, Al Yellon wrote a letter suggesting that Theo Epstein should be fired. After being mocked endlessly, the Cubs went on to win the World Series in 2016.

 

Now...

 

 

Cubs 2024 World Series champs incoming!

 

Among his arguments for firing Jed, he mentions the Cubs being forced to take BP on a day when it was 97 degrees out lol

 

It's a moot point, he's got 3 1/2 years left on his contract and Ricketts is "broke".

 

you mean "mute point"

[Sammy Sofa]

That's a ludacris thing to say.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Mineaswell just say what we're all thinking

[Backtobanks]

In 2014, Al Yellon wrote a letter suggesting that Theo Epstein should be fired. After being mocked endlessly, the Cubs went on to win the World Series in 2016.

 

Now...

 

 

Cubs 2024 World Series champs incoming!

 

Among his arguments for firing Jed, he mentions the Cubs being forced to take BP on a day when it was 97 degrees out lol

 

It's a moot point, he's got 3 1/2 years left on his contract and Ricketts is "broke".

 

you mean "mute point"

 

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=joey+saying+%22moo+point%22&&view=detail&mid=35D11A6585AEDD264B9D35D11A6585AEDD264B9D&&FORM=VDRVRV

[UMFan83]

I have no idea what this podcast is but they interviewed David Ross and actually got some quotes from him about why Heyward plays all the time.

 

[Cubswin11]

He’s a horsefeathering moron and should be a first base coach at best and not managing a team making decisions.

[Tim]

I'm honestly not that mad at Ross for continuing to play Heyward while he's on the roster. As much as he's a respected leader on the team, it could easily hurt the clubhouse to stick him at the end of the bench.

 

The answer is that the decision shouldn't be in his hands and Heyward shouldn't be on the roster.

[muntjack]

I can't believe we're back to Dusty Baker. Just play Velazquez.

[CubinNY]

Crane was on the score lying about spending, again. I swear they think Cub fans are morons.

 

I don’t know what is worse, if he’s lying or telling the truth.

 

https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2022/06/27/cubs-business-president-crane-kenney-says-a-lot-of-money-will-roll-over-from-2022-to-2023/

[squally1313]

Hot take: We, the fans, are not missing out on anything fun by playing Hewyard

 

Hotter take: It's a really ugly look to be the big market team with zero payroll issues, somehow fewer expectations (even for a Cubs team!), and zero legitimate options to just DFA a highly respected player because because. Cycling through all the fringe MiLB flavors of the week is fun to talk about amongst ourselves but not a real option (take solace...yet! great Future being built in this freest and bravest land) and kind of an insane way for anything not evil to exist

 

I weirdly don't disagree with most of this, but it's disingenuous to throw in the big market/zero payroll part because DFAing him, as far as I understand, wouldn't save them any money, outside of some team bizarrely (understatement) deciding to pick him up and taking on a small part of it. I think that's actually where the frustration comes in, that it seems like they're just going with sunk cost fallacy here. And obviously Ross' answer there didn't help.

[SouthSideRyan]

Crane was on the score lying about spending, again. I swear they think Cub fans are morons.

 

I don’t know what is worse, if he’s lying or telling the truth.

 

https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2022/06/27/cubs-business-president-crane-kenney-says-a-lot-of-money-will-roll-over-from-2022-to-2023/

 

GREAT NEWS GUYS!!!

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I'm honestly not that mad at Ross for continuing to play Heyward while he's on the roster. As much as he's a respected leader on the team, it could easily hurt the clubhouse to stick him at the end of the bench.

 

The answer is that the decision shouldn't be in his hands and Heyward shouldn't be on the roster.

 

Yeah if Jed was really furious about Heyward getting all the starts he would do something about it, and Jed has also proven himself not at all overly attached to the players of past glories. Prior to Suzuki's injury and his spell with covid, Heyward was playing far less, and while he had gone cold right before the covid spell, on the whole he was playing at a rosterable level. Since he's been back from covid, Suzuki and Hermosillo are out, and apparently they don't trust anyone else(given Ross's playing time distribution and Jed DFA'ing Frazier) to play RF with any regularity. I can half accept this argument for the lack of alternatives even if I don't agree with it, but the marginal alternative is something like Rivas playing RF so it's not something I care to get too worked up about. Both UZR and Statcast seem to agree that his defense is still comfortably above average(in the +5 to +7 range) if not at his previous elite +12 or +14.

 

As for Velazquez, I think it's clear that they don't think he should be up, but injuries have forced their hand and they're hesitant to do even more 40 man shenanigans to get someone else in. I can accept that they want to meter out his playing time carefully, he was hitting .211/.290/.415 with a 36% K rate at Iowa, he's very likely gonna get humiliated by hitting against RHP with regularity which could set back whatever development path they have for him.