General Cubs Chit-Chat

[wekse]

I like TLS, he's awesome.

[Lefty]

David found this and told me to post it

 

 

Sean Boy hanging with Lackey and Jake?

 

i really want to believe TLS is unmarried and has no children and just happened to be in the neighborhood in a donkey kong costume so they had him jump into a picture.

 

The kid in the Bryzzo hat looks like Tom Brady.

[Banedon]

Ricketts was offering baseballs in lieu of candy for trick or treaters...

 

[Sammy Sofa]

Uh, there's lots of candy in there, too.

[Sammy Sofa]

Unless "in lieu of" doesn't mean what I think it does.

[Banedon]

Bad wording on my part...I just meant it "as an alternative", but I don't think that's right now that I think about it.

[wekse]

I'd be leaving with a baseball and one of those Snickers bars.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

staple your door back together, Tom

[Sammy Sofa]

Owner of the Cubs, yet he can't go full bar? #PTR lives...

[UMFan83]

Owner of the Cubs, yet he can't go full bar? #PTR lives...

 

Don't be so hard on him, he's obviously saving up for Harper.

[Brian707]

One year ago, game 6

 

[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.facebook.com/NBCSChicago/videos/10155287980746429/[/bbvideo]

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Hopefully the Arrietas and Lackeys took their crew to Shedd Aquarium so Tommy could get some snacks.

[chopsx9]

Ricketts was offering baseballs in lieu of candy for trick or treaters...

 

 

Is that a Damon Berryhill signature I see?

[Brian]

The Cubs haven't won the World Series in 1 year.

[Bruno7481]

You have to love the power rankings piece for 2018 before any moves are made. Cubs are 8th.

 

“Look, they should be good again, and maybe even better. That young foundation of position players remains, but while Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo were great in 2017, Addison Russell and Javier Baez didn't improve, and Kyle Schwarber has to do better than a .211 average and .315 OBP, given his subpar defense. The Cubs will have to replace free agents Jake Arrieta and John Lackey in the rotation, and given Jon Lester's age and inconsistent 2017, there is potential for a rotation collapse. Most likely, the Cubs will have to trade Russell, Baez or Ian Happ for some pitching help.”

 

Baez didn’t improve????

 

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21139850/ranking-mlb-teams-ahead-offseason

[biittner77]

The Cubs haven't won the World Series in 1 year.

 

The last time the Cubs won the World Series, gas cost $2.36 a gallon, the US was at war in Afghanistan and Barack Obama was President.

[Sammy Sofa]

You have to love the power rankings piece for 2018 before any moves are made. Cubs are 8th.

 

“Look, they should be good again, and maybe even better. That young foundation of position players remains, but while Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo were great in 2017, Addison Russell and Javier Baez didn't improve, and Kyle Schwarber has to do better than a .211 average and .315 OBP, given his subpar defense. The Cubs will have to replace free agents Jake Arrieta and John Lackey in the rotation, and given Jon Lester's age and inconsistent 2017, there is potential for a rotation collapse. Most likely, the Cubs will have to trade Russell, Baez or Ian Happ for some pitching help.”

 

Baez didn’t improve????

 

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21139850/ranking-mlb-teams-ahead-offseason

 

Eh; none of that seems too egregious.

[jersey cubs fan]

wait, did javy improve? I wasn't under the impression that he had any better of a season this year than last.

[Sammy Sofa]

Better offense, worse defense, lower WAR...profit?

[Bruno7481]

I was pleased with his .480 SLG, finished just short of an .800 OPS.

 

I didn’t think anything was egregious, but I think his 2017 offensive season was better than 2016. I think he was destined to slide some defensively after having such a crazy 2016 with the glove.

 

The Cardinals coming in 9th seemed a tad high.

[Banedon]

I was pleased with his .480 SLG, finished just short of an .800 OPS.

 

I didn’t think anything was egregious, but I think his 2017 offensive season was better than 2016. I think he was destined to slide some defensively after having such a crazy 2016 with the glove.

 

The Cardinals coming in 9th seemed a tad high.

 

Pretty hard to argue meaningfully about such a pointless exercise.

[UMFan83]

horsefeathering pissed someone posted the power rankings thing before me

[ScrubMD]

You have to love the power rankings piece for 2018 before any moves are made. Cubs are 8th.

 

“Look, they should be good again, and maybe even better. That young foundation of position players remains, but while Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo were great in 2017, Addison Russell and Javier Baez didn't improve, and Kyle Schwarber has to do better than a .211 average and .315 OBP, given his subpar defense. The Cubs will have to replace free agents Jake Arrieta and John Lackey in the rotation, and given Jon Lester's age and inconsistent 2017, there is potential for a rotation collapse. Most likely, the Cubs will have to trade Russell, Baez or Ian Happ for some pitching help.”

 

Baez didn’t improve????

 

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21139850/ranking-mlb-teams-ahead-offseason

 

Eh; none of that seems too egregious.

 

Everything he says is technically true, his tone and conclusions are just really dumb.

 

He begins with "Look," which tells you he's a douche. "Look, I'm about to lay down the exact hot take I've seen everyone else running with."

 

Then he lists not paying John Lackey $17m as a bad thing.

 

His argument is basically, if the Cubs don't replace Arrieta and Lackey + Jon Lester sucks, their rotation will collapse. Also, if Schwarber is historically awful like he was in the first half, that will be bad. He's just trying way too hard to paint a bleak picture.

 

We are losing 2 players who matter, with $35m in payroll cleared up. Despite a decent amount of injuries and a terrible first half, we won 92 games, had the 2nd best record in baseball the 2nd half, and made it to the NLCS again. And that leads him to "Look, things ain't pretty, sports fans."

[Sammy Sofa]

He simply stated the Cubs have to replace 2 guys in the starting rotation, which they do. Pointing out Lester's age and how their starting rotation situation can, ominously, turn into a liability relatively quickly doesn't seem like too crazy a stretch. Being ranked #8 isn't some kind of crazy slap in the face for a team that has some real work to do with its starting pitching (yes, I know this will likely lead to a flood of posts about how I shouldn't worry about the starting rotation because: FO).

[jersey cubs fan]

We are losing 2 players who matter, with $35m in payroll cleared up. Despite a decent amount of injuries and a terrible first half, we won 92 games, had the 2nd best record in baseball the 2nd half, and made it to the NLCS again. And that leads him to "Look, things ain't pretty, sports fans."

 

Arrieta, Davis and Lackey all mattered.

 

Arrieta was terrific and will almost certainly be replaced by a lesser pitcher.

Davis was great and although maybe a little easier to replace, lots of quality front offices have rolled the dice on the wrong guy in that situation.

Lackey's value is under appreciated, as it costs a lot of money to simply get a guy you can reasonably expect to duplicate what he did.

 

It's going to take a lot of work to replace those guys, and they may not collectively improve on that group, so they'll need to other three starters to at least not take a step back.

 

it's a legit big ask.