General Cubs Chit-Chat

[David]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-chicago-cubs-a-dynasty-in-the-making/

 

As currently constructed, Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer have set the team up to dominate the sport for the next five years.

 

Man, there are some trifling, whining Dodgers fans all over those comments.

 

Gotta say it's the first time I've seen the moral high ground through outspending everyone else argument.

[Sammy Sofa]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-chicago-cubs-a-dynasty-in-the-making/

 

 

Man, there are some trifling, whining Dodgers fans all over those comments.

 

Gotta say it's the first time I've seen the moral high ground through outspending everyone else argument.

 

Yeah, I kinda could see fans of mediocre or crappy teams with smaller payrolls grumbling, but for fans of the team with payroll resources that blows everyone out of the water to be crying about how another team is built? Get the horsefeathers outta here with that.

[UMFan83]

Criticize how the team is built 5 months after they win a title because of it? Do you think Cub fans are still hurt the Cubs sucked badly from 2010-2014? Didn't we just have like the 8th largest recorded gathering in human history after winning the title? They weren't there to boo the Cubs for sucking for several years to get to that point (except Kyle I'm sure).

 

The plan could have backfired, the Cubs could have been mediocre for years after missing on several draft picks and trade targets and Theo could have been run out of town as a disgraced baseball executive. But that didn't happen...probably because they hired the best baseball executives and baseball operations people they could, invested in state of the art facilities in 3 different places (Wrigley, Mesa and the DR), poured resources into their development system, basically did all the things needed to do to build an organization, not just a collection of highly regarded young talent.

 

I don't blame fans of other teams for only looking at the tanking portion and determining that the cubs only got good by sucking to get talent and then spending a ton of money in FA, but obviously anyone who takes a closer look will see that the emergence of this ballclub as a juggernaut went way deeper than that.

[bukie]

If collecting several years of high draft picks and then developing every one of those picks to be a major league asset is cheating, then a lot of teams are bad at it.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Are we already at this part? "They may have won more games than us, and personally knocked us out in the LCS last year when Kyle Hendricks treated our lineup like a blank canvas for his Depiction of the Artist as Greg Maddux, then won the WS, and now beaten us handily in all this projection that the article is about. But does it *really* mean they're better than us when we also did something slightly different?"

 

I love this part. And the hate is just warming up.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

If you can't build the best team by inheriting the best pitcher in baseball and lapping the field in spending, why bother? Where's the honor?

[David]

Are we already at this part? "They may have won more games than us, and personally knocked us out in the LCS last year when Kyle Hendricks treated our lineup like a blank canvas for his Depiction of the Artist as Greg Maddux, then won the WS, and now beaten us handily in all this projection that the article is about. But does it *really* mean they're better than us when we also did something slightly different?"

 

I love this part. And the hate is just warming up.

 

Lawrence Holmes on the Score was on yesterday with some Pittsburgh sports station to help them preview the Cubs.

 

Obviously, he was saying good things about the Cubs because, well, the Cubs are really good. The Pittsburgh guys took offense to this and said the Cubs bought a title.

[bukie]

Are we already at this part? "They may have won more games than us, and personally knocked us out in the LCS last year when Kyle Hendricks treated our lineup like a blank canvas for his Depiction of the Artist as Greg Maddux, then won the WS, and now beaten us handily in all this projection that the article is about. But does it *really* mean they're better than us when we also did something slightly different?"

 

I love this part. And the hate is just warming up.

 

Lawrence Holmes on the Score was on yesterday with some Pittsburgh sports station to help them preview the Cubs.

 

Obviously, he was saying good things about the Cubs because, well, the Cubs are really good. The Pittsburgh guys took offense to this and said the Cubs bought a title.

The Cubs did spend 171 million in salary, 6th highest in baseball.

 

Of that, 75% of it was spent on 9 players, one of which never played for the Cubs in 2016 (Edwin Jackson) and another of which wasn't on the postseason roster (Hammel). I guess you could squint hard enough and say the Cubs bought a rotation, as Lester, Lackey, Arrieta and Hammel were among the high paid players.

[treebird]

http://i.imgur.com/Mhgksyt.jpg

[David]

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/give-cubs-your-tired-huddled-masses-theyll-give-them-to-boz/amp/

 

So far, he has been healthy in his first spring with the Cubs, and one of the reasons he believes he can stay that way is a change that pitching coach Chris Bosio suggested early in camp.

 

“It’s just to try to limit the pressure on my back,” Anderson said, “a minor mechanical adjustment where I don’t land on my heel as much and kind of land on the ball of my foot or my toes so it’s not such a whiplash effect.”

 

If Anderson stays healthy for a full season for just the second time in eight years, he may count as another pitcher in the win column for Bosio, the Cubs’ resurrection specialist whose career rehab successes include Jake Arrieta, Scott Feldman, Jason Hammel and Pedro Strop.

[Cubswin11]

Bosio being able to keep Anderson healthy for a full season may be the greatest trick he ever pulled.

 

I laugh of the imagine in my head of Bosio and his buddha belly watching film of Anderson thinking "If only he landed less on his heel," as he pounds Bud Heavy's.

[mikeyt34]

If collecting several years of high draft picks and then developing every one of those picks to be a major league asset is cheating, then a lot of teams are bad at it.

 

I love this. Every time I hear the "tanking" argument I cringe. This is a great point to make.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

If collecting several years of high draft picks and then developing every one of those picks to be a major league asset is cheating, then a lot of teams are bad at it.

 

Break up the Twins!

[UMFan83]

Are we already at this part? "They may have won more games than us, and personally knocked us out in the LCS last year when Kyle Hendricks treated our lineup like a blank canvas for his Depiction of the Artist as Greg Maddux, then won the WS, and now beaten us handily in all this projection that the article is about. But does it *really* mean they're better than us when we also did something slightly different?"

 

I love this part. And the hate is just warming up.

 

Lawrence Holmes on the Score was on yesterday with some Pittsburgh sports station to help them preview the Cubs.

 

Obviously, he was saying good things about the Cubs because, well, the Cubs are really good. The Pittsburgh guys took offense to this and said the Cubs bought a title.

 

I don't know if they think that we're bothered by their attempts to demean our title. I really don't care, we won.

[mikeyt34]

Anyone think there's a shot that Albert takes over the CF duties full-time by say the all-star break? Probably not, but if he can just show a consistent approach at the plate his glove could justify abandoning the platoon with Jay. This is what I'm hoping for sooner rather than later, his glove is game changing much like Javy's. Joe already said he's going to get some starts against right-handers to see how he performs, so maybe Joe is thinking this is a possibility too.

[jersey cubs fan]

Anyone think there's a shot that Albert takes over the CF duties full-time by say the all-star break? Probably not, but if he can just show a consistent approach at the plate his glove could justify abandoning the platoon with Jay. This is what I'm hoping for sooner rather than later, his glove is game changing much like Javy's. Joe already said he's going to get some starts against right-handers to see how he performs, so maybe Joe is thinking this is a possibility too.

 

Health has been such an issue for Albert I can't imagine him in any true full-time duty, even if he does take a step forward with his bat.

[David]

Anyone think there's a shot that Albert takes over the CF duties full-time by say the all-star break? Probably not, but if he can just show a consistent approach at the plate his glove could justify abandoning the platoon with Jay. This is what I'm hoping for sooner rather than later, his glove is game changing much like Javy's. Joe already said he's going to get some starts against right-handers to see how he performs, so maybe Joe is thinking this is a possibility too.

 

I don't really think it's going to be a platoon, per se, the way things have been playing themselves out in spring.

 

Going in, I thought Jay would primarily play vs. righties and Albert vs. lefties (at least, to start), but I'm thinking Albert is going to be more or less the starter, while Jay will play against the tougher righty matchups. That's just my read on it now.

[mikeyt34]

Anyone think there's a shot that Albert takes over the CF duties full-time by say the all-star break? Probably not, but if he can just show a consistent approach at the plate his glove could justify abandoning the platoon with Jay. This is what I'm hoping for sooner rather than later, his glove is game changing much like Javy's. Joe already said he's going to get some starts against right-handers to see how he performs, so maybe Joe is thinking this is a possibility too.

 

I don't really think it's going to be a platoon, per se, the way things have been playing themselves out in spring.

 

Going in, I thought Jay would primarily play vs. righties and Albert vs. lefties (at least, to start), but I'm thinking Albert is going to be more or less the starter, while Jay will play against the tougher righty matchups. That's just my read on it now.

 

So maybe 100-120 starts is a possibility? If he starts anywhere near 120 games I'd be thrilled, that would mean he's playing really well. As far as Jersey Cub Fan mentioning his injury history, I know he's had a few dings and small set backs throughout his career but would he be classified as injury prone? Not sure I'd go that far, he's just a kid and heals quickly.

[David]

Anyone think there's a shot that Albert takes over the CF duties full-time by say the all-star break? Probably not, but if he can just show a consistent approach at the plate his glove could justify abandoning the platoon with Jay. This is what I'm hoping for sooner rather than later, his glove is game changing much like Javy's. Joe already said he's going to get some starts against right-handers to see how he performs, so maybe Joe is thinking this is a possibility too.

 

I don't really think it's going to be a platoon, per se, the way things have been playing themselves out in spring.

 

Going in, I thought Jay would primarily play vs. righties and Albert vs. lefties (at least, to start), but I'm thinking Albert is going to be more or less the starter, while Jay will play against the tougher righty matchups. That's just my read on it now.

 

So maybe 100-120 starts is a possibility? If he starts anywhere near 120 games I'd be thrilled, that would mean he's playing really well. As far as Jersey Cub Fan mentioning his injury history, I know he's had a few dings and small set backs throughout his career but would he be classified as injury prone? Not sure I'd go that far, he's just a kid and heals quickly.

 

I think that totally depends on health and, as you mentioned, how he handles it in terms of production. I think that's what his role will be going in, but if he plays his way out of it, Jay could end up starting more.

[Sammy Sofa]

With him clearly being the most handsome Cub by far, I am pulling for Almora.

 

And I mean pullllllllllllllllin'.

[David]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Daniel_Hodgman/status/847443126989889536[/tweet]

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I don't have a good feel for how they'll handle Jay/Almora, but my guess is they'll start with Almora playing against all LHP and then split time against RHP to start. Once they have a little data on how those two are handling RHP they can customize the 'platoon' a bit more. They don't have opposite strengths as hitters though, so it might simply be a matter of giving Almora as much RHP exposure as his production will allow.

[Cubswin11]

I don't have a good feel for how they'll handle Jay/Almora, but my guess is they'll start with Almora playing against all LHP and then split time against RHP to start. Once they have a little data on how those two are handling RHP they can customize the 'platoon' a bit more. They don't have opposite strengths as hitters though, so it might simply be a matter of giving Almora as much RHP exposure as his production will allow.

With Jay's defense, along with neutralish splits I could see him getting some early starts vs LHP for Schwarber and even Heyward to ease both in.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I don't have a good feel for how they'll handle Jay/Almora, but my guess is they'll start with Almora playing against all LHP and then split time against RHP to start. Once they have a little data on how those two are handling RHP they can customize the 'platoon' a bit more. They don't have opposite strengths as hitters though, so it might simply be a matter of giving Almora as much RHP exposure as his production will allow.

With Jay's defense, along with neutralish splits I could see him getting some early starts vs LHP for Schwarber and even Heyward to ease both in.

 

No need to start Jay against a LHP when you can use Baez via Bryant/Zobrist to the OF.

[Tim]

I think we will also see times when Heyward is moved to CF to get both Zobrist and Javy into the lineup at the same time.