The 2018-2019 Cubs Offseason Rumors & Discussion Thread AKA The Rickettssss take a dump on EVERYTHING

[champaignchris]

The Cubs have long trafficked in guys who love sliding like dickheads, so he'd fit right in.

 

The warm, tender embraces of Javy Baez more than make up for anything his teammates may have done.

[Bull]

I really don't take the time to look deep into numbers anymore ...

 

Always a sad day when a Hall of Famer retires and becomes a color commentator.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

How has a horsefeathering gif of horsefeathering George horsefeathering Zimmerman shown up here more than once recently?

 

Up your gif game, dorks.

 

agreed. is that some alt-right secret handshake thing? we don’t ever need to see a picture of that nightmare person again until he’s dead and someone is desecrating his corpse.

Ironic gifs are ironic gifs. Some Drax the Destroyer pearl clutching going on in here.

[davell]

Any speculation what Brian McCann might get in FA?

 

Lol, I've brought him up to some buddies. Theo has mentioned adding a guy with an "edge" and I thought of who's a Lackey type and McCann was first I saw as far as FA go......

 

My guess is he'd get 1/5 or so, plus some incentives?

 

That said, I actually wonder if his own teammates hate him. He may be TOO much of a red ass to fit in.

[davell]

That said, I actually wonder if his own teammates hate him. He may be TOO much of a red ass to fit in.

 

What did he do?

 

Isn't he the guy that blocks home plate when someone pimps out a homer? Hates bat flips, all that stuff. Just super, super o!d school.

[davell]

 

What did he do?

 

Isn't he the guy that blocks home plate when someone pimps out a homer? Hates bat flips, all that stuff. Just super, super o!d school.

 

Just that on a guy who otherwise perfectly fits the roster for baseball reasons and probably is ready to take low commit steady work as a backup/semi-platoon for contenders? Just grab him and give him a start or three a week, however it works out. This one actually seems like an easy one to me as the top choice for a catcher among FAs.

 

Theo really seems to value the clubhouse fit stuff. Honestly, I figure McCann is either 100% the right guy or 100% the wrong one, based on his personality, and what Theo is looking for. From an On the field standpoint, I like the idea a lot. Lefty, solid defensively, has pop, seems to call a good game.......

[Sammy Sofa]

Brian McCann is a notorious Baseball Anus, and basically that's all he's known/mocked for at this point, so of course Tom has never heard of it.

[Sammy Sofa]

Willfully adding Brian McCann to a team basically defined by Javier Baez would be so majestically stupid that it would be a justifiably fireable offense.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Willfully adding Brian McCann to a team basically defined by Javier Baez would be so majestically stupid that it would be a justifiably fireable offense.

 

A backup catcher is playing about as much as Lackey did, I doubt that would be a huge issue.

 

My concern is that at this stage in his career, I’m not sure what McCann is actually good at. Framing has been below average for a couple years, and his bat fell off a cliff this year.

[cl smooth]

Willfully adding Brian McCann to a team basically defined by Javier Baez would be so majestically stupid that it would be a justifiably fireable offense.

 

A backup catcher is playing about as much as Lackey did, I doubt that would be a huge issue.

 

My concern is that at this stage in his career, I’m not sure what McCann is actually good at. Framing has been below average for a couple years, and his bat fell off a cliff this year.

 

he has a speed rating of 0 in mlb the show 18. hard pass.

[Sammy Sofa]

Willfully adding Brian McCann to a team basically defined by Javier Baez would be so majestically stupid that it would be a justifiably fireable offense.

 

A backup catcher is playing about as much as Lackey did, I doubt that would be a huge issue.

 

I know it would be a huge issue, because we all know he's a huge dork who sucks. Lackey is the worst, but he's at least one of those AJ Piertrubinsky types who is going to have a bunch of goobers on the team on his side despite literally everyone else outside of the team hating him.

 

Meanwhile, McCann's mother probably doesn't even like him.

[Cubswin11]

An interesting Machado factoid I saw today...... I think we can all agree Ian Happ's 2018 was not great and he was just an okay offensive player (some might even say not good), his wOBA was .329. That's better than 2 years Machado has posted in his career, including as recently as 2017, better than 3 years if you include his rookie year and ~50 games played and within .003 of another year (2014 in which he played about a half season).

[soccer10k]

Machado also posted a .265 BABIP last year while his career average is .301 and was worth at least 6 fWAR and 5.7 bWAR in three of the last four years. Happ needed a .362 BABIP this year just to have the line he did. He was in the .310’s in 2016 in AA as well as in AAA and the majors last year.

 

I know you weren’t making the argument that Happ > Machado or anything like that.

[Cubswin11]

Machado also posted a .265 BABIP last year while his career average is .301 and was worth at least 6 fWAR and 5.7 bWAR in three of the last four years. Happ needed a .362 BABIP this year just to have the line he did. He was in the .310’s in 2016 in AA as well as in AAA and the majors last year.

 

I know you weren’t making the argument that Happ > Machado or anything like that.

Yeah, I wasn’t not trying to say that at all. I just was saying Machado has kinda had some very mediocre years by wOBA and was more surprised by the Happ factoid than anything.

[Banedon]

Lol @ Al...this thread...

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[toonsterwu]

I haven't been to BCB in ages ... but that got me mildly curious enough to check out, and uh ... no. Just no.

 

I think there's probably an argument, or a fantasy trade, that could be composed of involving Quintana that I wouldn't necessarily say no to, but the idea of trading Quintana for bullpen arms? No, just no. In the first place, while I've been a fan of Smyly in the past, I think there should be minimal expectations placed on him for next season, along with Chatwood. Just too much unknown to actually depend on one of them. Now, if you want to toss them in there as competing for the 5th spot, fine. But if you remove Quintana without replacing it ... I think that's too many questions.

 

So, therein is the first problem. To trade Quintana while the Cubs are currently in their window, you would need to have a plan on improving the rotation. Simply saying Hamels/Smyly/Chatwood isn't enough, and that leaves aside questions on Darvish, age for Lester/Hamels. Either you are spending more money, or you are spending for trading assets to address that hole. I don't love Quintana ... never really loved him (trade made sense, much as it shocked me to see them double down with Eloy and Dylan), but it's going to be tough to find something better than him. I mean, in this FA market, there's what, a handful of guys that one would say is a notch above Quintana, and most of them are aging and older (and they are all going to get deals far surpassing Quintana's).

 

The 2nd issue is simple. I'm not trading a good starter, like Quintana, away for anything more than a good closer, basically. Any good organization should be able to find mid-90's hard throwers for the pen. Heck, the Cubs had Blake Parker (granted, he was never "young" as a pitcher, since he made a late transition and was a college guy to begin with).

 

I won't rule out any sort of trade as a concept. I mean, the idea of trading Quintana, or even a guy like Rizzo, while unlikely, shouldn't be written off as a thought, IMO. Still, only way I deal Quintana, because of the costs and production, is if I get a big, meaningful return, and young pen arms ... nope. As secondary assets to a deal, fine.

Edited October 25, 2018 by toonsterwu

[Tim]

If the Cubs were in a total blitz mode and didn't care an iota about being under the cap in the near future, I could see investing in Corbin and trading Quintana to add other assets.

 

But I just don't see it happening in the real world

[toonsterwu]

Well, I just wasted time trying to see if there's a possible Quintana deal that makes sense for me, and I can't figure one out. In general, acknowledging that you aren't likely to get Quintana level proven production in a deal ... I'd want, when considering Quintana's age, production, cost, and market value of similar arms ...

 

a) A controllable young starter that has shown he has some ability in the pros and still has potential to get better (but acknowledging the above point, said player has probably struggled so far)

 

b) If you want a young pen arm, okay. Every roster has a hard throwing young pen arm.

 

c) Another asset or two.

 

Closest I could come up with would be something like Dylan Bundy/Mychel Givens/x/x ... and even that would make me very wary as I'm just not sure what to think of Bundy. White Sox probably have some combination that would get close. But ... no way Orioles (anbd probably White Sox) do those deals in rebuilding modes.

[Bertz]

If you're damn sure 2018 Quintana is the new normal while there are teams out there willing to pay a high price because of his track record and because there was nothing obviously wrong with him, then sure trading him makes sense. I don't like the odds of both those things happening together though.

[Backtobanks]

Well, I just wasted time trying to see if there's a possible Quintana deal that makes sense for me, and I can't figure one out. In general, acknowledging that you aren't likely to get Quintana level proven production in a deal ... I'd want, when considering Quintana's age, production, cost, and market value of similar arms ...

 

a) A controllable young starter that has shown he has some ability in the pros and still has potential to get better (but acknowledging the above point, said player has probably struggled so far)

 

b) If you want a young pen arm, okay. Every roster has a hard throwing young pen arm.

 

c) Another asset or two.

 

Closest I could come up with would be something like Dylan Bundy/Mychel Givens/x/x ... and even that would make me very wary as I'm just not sure what to think of Bundy. White Sox probably have some combination that would get close. But ... no way Orioles (anbd probably White Sox) do those deals in rebuilding modes.

 

 

Jason Martinez from MLBTR suggested Schwarber for Wright & Fried. Expand the deal to include Quintana & Gausman to solve the young pitching hole that the Cubs have.

[Cubswin11]

Well, I just wasted time trying to see if there's a possible Quintana deal that makes sense for me, and I can't figure one out. In general, acknowledging that you aren't likely to get Quintana level proven production in a deal ... I'd want, when considering Quintana's age, production, cost, and market value of similar arms ...

 

a) A controllable young starter that has shown he has some ability in the pros and still has potential to get better (but acknowledging the above point, said player has probably struggled so far)

 

b) If you want a young pen arm, okay. Every roster has a hard throwing young pen arm.

 

c) Another asset or two.

 

Closest I could come up with would be something like Dylan Bundy/Mychel Givens/x/x ... and even that would make me very wary as I'm just not sure what to think of Bundy. White Sox probably have some combination that would get close. But ... no way Orioles (anbd probably White Sox) do those deals in rebuilding modes.

 

 

Jason Martinez from MLBTR suggested Schwarber for Wright & Fried. Expand the deal to include Quintana & Gausman to solve the young pitching hole that the Cubs have.

Q is only 2 years older than Gausman and both have two years left before FA (I think, Guasman at most has 3 years left). Gausman could actually be more expensive over that time too.

 

I saw that Schwarber-Braves blurb too. He mentioned Soroka and Fried for Schwarber too. I absolutely do that. Turn Fried in to a full time reliever like Miller/Hader, groom Soroka to be in the rotation in the next 2 years.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Schwarber for non-major leaguers(pitchers at that) is an unserious idea, regardless of their pedigree or readiness.

[Backtobanks]

Well, I just wasted time trying to see if there's a possible Quintana deal that makes sense for me, and I can't figure one out. In general, acknowledging that you aren't likely to get Quintana level proven production in a deal ... I'd want, when considering Quintana's age, production, cost, and market value of similar arms ...

 

a) A controllable young starter that has shown he has some ability in the pros and still has potential to get better (but acknowledging the above point, said player has probably struggled so far)

 

b) If you want a young pen arm, okay. Every roster has a hard throwing young pen arm.

 

c) Another asset or two.

 

Closest I could come up with would be something like Dylan Bundy/Mychel Givens/x/x ... and even that would make me very wary as I'm just not sure what to think of Bundy. White Sox probably have some combination that would get close. But ... no way Orioles (anbd probably White Sox) do those deals in rebuilding modes.

 

 

Jason Martinez from MLBTR suggested Schwarber for Wright & Fried. Expand the deal to include Quintana & Gausman to solve the young pitching hole that the Cubs have.

Q is only 2 years older than Gausman and both have two years left before FA (I think, Guasman at most has 3 years left). Gausman could actually be more expensive over that time too.

 

I saw that Schwarber-Braves blurb too. He mentioned Soroka and Fried for Schwarber too. I absolutely do that. Turn Fried in to a full time reliever like Miller/Hader, groom Soroka to be in the rotation in the next 2 years.

 

 

Actually he mentioned Allard or Soroka plus a mid-level prospect for Schwarber.

[Tim]

I want Ian Anderson from the Braves, please!

I like Jethro Tull as much as the next guy, but the dude is like 70 at this point.

[Backtobanks]

I want Ian Anderson from the Braves, please!

 

 

I'm sure Theo will try his best since you said please.