General Cubs Chit-Chat

[Transmogrified Tiger]

A few interesting nuggets in this mailbag column: https://theathletic.com/3632284/2022/09/27/cubs-prospect-camp-kyle-hendricks/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983

 

- The Cubs are holding a prospect 'mini-camp' to introduce a few prospects to the major league staff and what to expect at that level. The names are maybe indicative of some 40 man decisions.

 

The players expected to attend include six pitchers — Ben Brown, Ryan Jensen, DJ Herz, Jordan Wicks, Ben Leeper and Daniel Palencia — as well as eight hitters from a farm system that showed signs of significant growth this year: Brennen Davis, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Owen Caissie, Matt Mervis, Chase Strumpf, Darius Hill, Yonathan Perlaza and Yohendrick Pinango.

 

 

- In answering a question about the 40 man crunch, Sharma doesn't say much that's concrete, but the one thing that stood out is that he grouped McKinstry with Quiroz and Hermosillo, which is not what I would've guessed about how highly he might be viewed.

 

- Sharma also used the strongest language I've seen yet that the Cubs are looking for more of a game manager profile at catcher, and Contreras isn't going to be pursued unless it was as a bat with a catching afterthought. He also says he doubts Willson will take the QO because of that dynamic and his desire for long term security.

[Bertz]

A few interesting nuggets in this mailbag column: https://theathletic.com/3632284/2022/09/27/cubs-prospect-camp-kyle-hendricks/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983

 

- The Cubs are holding a prospect 'mini-camp' to introduce a few prospects to the major league staff and what to expect at that level. The names are maybe indicative of some 40 man decisions.

 

The players expected to attend include six pitchers — Ben Brown, Ryan Jensen, DJ Herz, Jordan Wicks, Ben Leeper and Daniel Palencia — as well as eight hitters from a farm system that showed signs of significant growth this year: Brennen Davis, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Owen Caissie, Matt Mervis, Chase Strumpf, Darius Hill, Yonathan Perlaza and Yohendrick Pinango.

 

 

- In answering a question about the 40 man crunch, Sharma doesn't say much that's concrete, but the one thing that stood out is that he grouped McKinstry with Quiroz and Hermosillo, which is not what I would've guessed about how highly he might be viewed.

 

- Sharma also used the strongest language I've seen yet that the Cubs are looking for more of a game manager profile at catcher, and Contreras isn't going to be pursued unless it was as a bat with a catching afterthought. He also says he doubts Willson will take the QO because of that dynamic and his desire for long term security.

 

Jensen, Hill, and Perlaza being included in that mini camp seems notable with the 40 man situation. I assume they're all under consideration for protection and this is an opportunity to make the final call.

 

And yeah the Contreras stuff seems way stronger and more definitive than I expected. I guess the question at catcher this winter is more about whether they add a Omar Narvaez or Christian Vazquez to replace Higgins rather whether they allocate big resources to the position with a Contreras re-signing or a Sean Murphy trade.

[CubinNY]

Heyward is meeting with the media this morning. I admire that he's doing it. I don't know if I could do something like that.

[champaignchris]

Adrian Sampson…

 

Something there or the Frank Schwindel of pitchers?

 

It’s tough to put too much faith in what he’s doing when the Cubs themselves DFA’d him earlier in the season while Leiter and Swarmer were getting lit up as starters.

 

But at some point, you are what your stats say you are and he has a 3.12 ERA over 130 innings and two seasons as a Cub. From a guy with a 5.40 ERA in Korea in 2020.

[Bertz]

Adrian Sampson…

 

Something there or the Frank Schwindel of pitchers?

 

It’s tough to put too much faith in what he’s doing when the Cubs themselves DFA’d him earlier in the season while Leiter and Swarmer were getting lit up as starters.

 

But at some point, you are what your stats say you are and he has a 3.12 ERA over 130 innings and two seasons as a Cub. From a guy with a 5.40 ERA in Korea in 2020.

 

I think for me a lot of it depends on his minor league option status. Fangraphs says he'll still have one next year, but service time and stuff can get a bit weird with the guys who go over to Asia and come back, so I wouldn't 100% count on that. But broadly, I think if he has options you keep him at Iowa if he doesn't you trade him.

 

The sparkling ERA seems almost surely to be a fluke. The peripherals say he should have a mid 4's ERA, and Statcast agrees. He likely isn't some magic soft- contact guy that outperforms his peripherals.

 

But a mid 4's ERA is not bad! In fact from a 5th/6th starter it's pretty good. There are teams out there, I would specifically circle the Rangers, who will look to add like 3 or 4 SPs this winter, and would be happy to have Sampson as one of the latter ones. If Sampson doesn't have options and can't be stashed at Iowa, I would trade him rather than awkwardly stashing him in the bullpen. Baseball Trade Values isn't gospel but thinks he's worth a prospect or two in the back half of our top 30, that's nothing to sneeze at.

[soccer10k]

Heyward is meeting with the media this morning. I admire that he's doing it. I don't know if I could do something like that.

 

I could if my employer was paying me $22M that year.

[cl smooth]

 

say what you want about the product on the field but this video is outstanding. editing is top notch.

[CubinNY]

 

say what you want about the product on the field but this video is outstanding. editing is top notch.

I'm going to have to politely disagree. They made the video without very many fans. The same shots 30 minutes before 1st pitch on a sold-out day, it's a different video.

[UMFan83]

 

say what you want about the product on the field but this video is outstanding. editing is top notch.

 

I have said many many bad things about the ownership and I will continue to do so but one positive is that they really modernized the franchise. It felt like a mom and pop shop under Trib Co. Little things like having a top notch content creation team are awesome.

[cl smooth]

 

say what you want about the product on the field but this video is outstanding. editing is top notch.

I'm going to have to politely disagree. They made the video without very many fans. The same shots 30 minutes before 1st pitch on a sold-out day, it's a different video.

 

that's a fair assessment. to have everything lined up correctly for the drone to do its thing sounds like a producer's nightmare. can't imagine how difficult this would be to pull off with a packed house.

[Derwood]

 

say what you want about the product on the field but this video is outstanding. editing is top notch.

 

That was cool as hell.

 

I'm going to have to politely disagree. They made the video without very many fans. The same shots 30 minutes before 1st pitch on a sold-out day, it's a different video.

 

oh FFS

[Ding Dong Johnson]

My brain can't comprehend what it took to pull that off.

[CubinNY]

 

say what you want about the product on the field but this video is outstanding. editing is top notch.

 

That was cool as hell.

 

I'm going to have to politely disagree. They made the video without very many fans. The same shots 30 minutes before 1st pitch on a sold-out day, it's a different video.

 

oh FFS

You have bad takes on everything no matter what direction of the compass you want to point toward, so I'll take that as a compliment.

 

How do you make a tribute to the fans that come to Wrigley by showing an empty Wrigley Field?

 

The video was neat, the same way the bowling alley one that was done, what 4 years ago?

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I haven't been to Wrigley since 2007. Mildly surprising how different the area looks, now.

[mul21]

 

say what you want about the product on the field but this video is outstanding. editing is top notch.

 

That was cool as hell.

 

I'm going to have to politely disagree. They made the video without very many fans. The same shots 30 minutes before 1st pitch on a sold-out day, it's a different video.

 

oh FFS

You have bad takes on everything no matter what direction of the compass you want to point toward, so I'll take that as a compliment.

 

How do you make a tribute to the fans that come to Wrigley by showing an empty Wrigley Field?

 

The video was neat, the same way the bowling alley one that was done, what 4 years ago?

 

The logistics of doing what they did were probably ridiculous in the first place and it likely would have been even more difficult and probably unsafe to try to pull it off with fans in the stands because people are morons. You're dead wrong here.

 

That was cool af too. Well executed.

[UMFan83]

I haven't been to Wrigley since 2007. Mildly surprising how different the area looks, now.

 

Wait until you actually see Corporate Wrigleyville in person

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I haven't been to Wrigley since 2007. Mildly surprising how different the area looks, now.

 

Wait until you actually see Corporate Wrigleyville in person

That's going to be a long-a$$ wait.

[TruffleShuffle]

effross needs tommy john surgery, making that wesneski trade look even better. Bad luck for effross though, hope he comes back and pitches well in 2024.

[Derwood]

RIP Bruce Sutter

[imb]

 

say what you want about the product on the field but this video is outstanding. editing is top notch.

 

damn i love wrigley field

[Bertz]

I don't know if they're final or more WIP, but it looks like initial 2023 Steamer Projections are listed on Fangraphs.

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=17

 

Lots of encouraging stuff, but I'm gonna avoid getting too into the weeds until there's more indication they're final.

[UMFan83]

Why the horsefeathers isn't Sammy in this group? I'm guessing its because his vote % was way lower than the other guys but that's bullcrap. Don't get me wrong, he was nowhere near as good as Bonds or Clemens and maybe even Palmeiro but I feel like his candidacy deserves discussion if the worlds biggest horsefeathers Albert Belle and Mattingly are on there. Or maybe I'm just a Sammy homer

 

[Andy]

Why the horsefeathers isn't Sammy in this group? I'm guessing its because his vote % was way lower than the other guys but that's bullcrap. Don't get me wrong, he was nowhere near as good as Bonds or Clemens and maybe even Palmeiro but I feel like his candidacy deserves discussion if the worlds biggest horsefeathers Albert Belle and Mattingly are on there. Or maybe I'm just a Sammy homer

 

Sammy had 6 more bWAR in his career than McGriff (3 more fWAR), so at an absolute minimum if he's on this thing Sammy should be.

[UMFan83]

Why the horsefeathers isn't Sammy in this group? I'm guessing its because his vote % was way lower than the other guys but that's bullcrap. Don't get me wrong, he was nowhere near as good as Bonds or Clemens and maybe even Palmeiro but I feel like his candidacy deserves discussion if the worlds biggest horsefeathers Albert Belle and Mattingly are on there. Or maybe I'm just a Sammy homer

 

Sammy had 6 more bWAR in his career than McGriff, so at an absolute minimum if he's on this thing Sammy should be.

 

And 16 and 18 more WAR than Mattingly and Belle respectively.

 

If I had to guess on their logic, they are only considering steroid guys that seem like obvious HOFers and then throwing some other good guys from the era on there. The fact that McGwire is also not on the list validates this. I love Sammy but his case is not great if you are penalizing the years that steroid use was likely. That said, we all know Sammy did steroids but he never officially tested positive or appeared on the Mitchell Report nor has he admitted it. There was a report that he tested positive in the 2003 anonymous testing but there's been a lot of questions about the validity of the leaked reports. So you are going to penalize a guy because you think he did steroids?

[Tim]

https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2022/11/08/the-ricketts-family-reportedly-have-interest-in-buying-a-different-soccer-franchise/

 

Wasn't sure where to put this.

 

You would think that a group that recently suffered "biblical losses" from owning a sports team wouldn't be so excited about pursuing another team. Unless, of course, they didn't really "suffer" all that much.