Cubs suck and we were always right to hate them (2019 negativity thread)

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[Old Style]

Maybe PECOTA wasn't so far off after all

 

The Baseball Prospectus projection system unveiled its 2019 picks Thursday morning and they believe the Cubs will finish third in the National League Central...with only 82 wins.

[squally1313]

How did this thread not make it out of April?!?

Because most of the people here have spent the last 4 months turning the whole board into this thread.

 

(Don't worry, I'm basically at that point now)

[UMFan83]

The 2 shutouts against Milwaukee a couple weeks ago really sapped my emotional investment in this team. I want them to do well and think they can make the playoffs etc but I realized that this team is just not that good and wasn't worth getting frustrated over. Really the only thing I'm truly looking forward to is what changes happen in the offseason. But I'm afraid I'm expecting too much and we'll just see 1-2 medium sized trades and FA signings to fill the gaps. Who knows..

[Derwood]

Cubs are 52-54 since May 14.

They have been the definition of “meh” for a long time

[Named After Maddux]

I posted most of my thoughts on the season in one of the disastrous Brewers game threads:

 

This team is infuriating. Sure they could make the playoffs, but I’m okay with a significant shakeup.

 

2016 was a once in a (possibly) lifetime team. I get that, but 2017 it was “the hangover”. 2018 was “everyone got hurt but we still won 95”. 2019 had a couple injuries, but nothing extreme or unexpected. [They lost Javy in September. It's not like they were cruising for 90+ wins and he went down. Really his production since the heel-injury derailed his season and he kept playing through it (the medical staff strikes again).]

 

It’s the same unit and has a handful of very excellent performances, but is just so up and down. It’s just not there.

 

Honestly it falls on the entire organization. Ownership tightened purse strings on a team that they make hundreds of millions in profit a year. The front office made poor decisions. Joe plays the hands he's dealt, but still proceeds to make terrible choices related to line-up and bullpen. And ultimately as Theo said “judge us by what we do on the field”, it’s on the players.

 

This year has been exhausting. Hope they give us a fun memory or two in the next few weeks, but I'm trying not to get emotionally invested.

[sneakypower]

one of the more depressing things from a roster standpoint is we recklessly burned through prospect capital with extreme abandon: probably 2 guys combining for 80 HR this year that we threw away for 1-1/3 seasons of closer

 

there's always people jumping in to justify Chapman trade but that always conveniently leaves out that a full year of him only required a return of Rookie Davis and Eric Jagielo but of course we needed to give up a now 22yo SS with 38 HR / 162g for 2 months of him..nice foresight

[Cubswin11]

one of the more depressing things from a roster standpoint is we recklessly burned through prospect capital with extreme abandon: probably 2 guys combining for 80 HR this year that we threw away for 1-1/3 seasons of closer

 

there's always people jumping in to justify Chapman trade but that always conveniently leaves out that a full year of him only required a return of Rookie Davis and Eric Jagielo but of course we needed to give up a now 22yo SS with 38 HR / 162g for 2 months of him..nice foresight

Everyone knew the risk with that and it was an admitted overpay but we won the horsefeathering World Series largely because of it, I’m not second guessing that one bit (We has had two 20-22 year old MIF’s on the roster so it was a position of strength to trade from at the time). The other move helped win us the division and get to a CS and we also got either Davis or Roederer (forget which one) with the comp pick out of it, plus Soler had nowhere to play and is still just a 2-3 win player at max.

[Andy]

If anyone can give me some info that Theo could've gotten Chapman without trading Gleyber, then I will begin shredding him for giving up Gleyber. Until then I can't and won't. I'm also not gonna fault him for the Soler/Davis trade. It made perfect sense to use a surplus guy with no everyday spot to get a shutdown closer for a whole year.

[ConstableRabbit]

one of the more depressing things from a roster standpoint is we recklessly burned through prospect capital with extreme abandon: probably 2 guys combining for 80 HR this year that we threw away for 1-1/3 seasons of closer

 

there's always people jumping in to justify Chapman trade but that always conveniently leaves out that a full year of him only required a return of Rookie Davis and Eric Jagielo but of course we needed to give up a now 22yo SS with 38 HR / 162g for 2 months of him..nice foresight

Gleyber this season:

36 HR, .896 OPS

 

Gleyber against Baltimore:

13 HR, 1.512 OPS

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Remember, everything that worked out is good on its face, and everything bad made sense at the time so how can you criticize them now?

[Andy]

Remember, everything that worked out is good on its face, and everything bad made sense at the time so how can you criticize them now?

Trading a surplus outfielder for a badass closer is what teams in contention windows do. It sucks that Soler went on to hit 40 HRs, but as has already been pointed out in this thread, that basically makes him a slightly better Schwarber.

 

Put another way, it'd be super damn cool if we'd traded, like, Happ or whatever young guy you like for a badass closer rather than give a bunch of money to Morrow and Kimbrel right before they broke.

[Brian]

Anybody complaining about not having Soler right now would have been the loudest voices complaining about him as a 2017 and 2018 Cub.

[We Got The Whole 9]

It did suck that we didn't jump on Chapman right when the Reds shopped him but the team was trying to pretend they would avoid scandalous players. I mean it was a pretty hot topic with most Cubs fans I know insisting he wouldnt be worth the headache. Certainly cost us massively though.

 

Although I have questions about our ability to develop hitters once they reach the Majors and I really dont know if we get this version of Torres TBH. I never saw his power ceiling as anything that exciting.

[Brian]

Can you imagine the hellscape this place would be if Chapman had given up a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th of Game 7? (and 2017 to now had played out the same)

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Remember, everything that worked out is good on its face, and everything bad made sense at the time so how can you criticize them now?

Trading a surplus outfielder for a badass closer is what teams in contention windows do. It sucks that Soler went on to hit 40 HRs, but as has already been pointed out in this thread, that basically makes him a slightly better Schwarber.

 

Put another way, it'd be super damn cool if we'd traded, like, Happ or whatever young guy you like for a badass closer rather than give a bunch of money to Morrow and Kimbrel right before they broke.

 

Yeah that's what I said.

[Andy]

I just went back through the thread from the Cubs getting Davis and I forgot how many people were at best lukewarm on that deal, although a lot of that came from health concerns that we were fortunate enough to largely avoid.

 

TT made a comment about not liking to pay $10 million for a year of a closer with an injury question, which made me laugh and then despise the stupid Morrow signing of $10M/per for 2 years all over again.

[sneakypower]

If anyone can give me some info that Theo could've gotten Chapman without trading Gleyber,

the Yankees did not have to give up a future superstar to acquire Chapman

[The_Achiever]

I just hope we move on from Maddon this year. Need a reboot.

[CoolHandLuke]

If anyone can give me some info that Theo could've gotten Chapman without trading Gleyber,

the Yankees did not have to give up a future superstar to acquire Chapman

 

When they acquired him it was right after the dv allegations, from what I remember, and it was unclear how long he'd be suspended, so his value was extremely low at the time. His value was very different when the Cubs traded for him.

[PackLandVA]

[Cubswin11]

If anyone can give me some info that Theo could've gotten Chapman without trading Gleyber,

the Yankees did not have to give up a future superstar to acquire Chapman

 

When they acquired him it was right after the dv allegations, from what I remember, and it was unclear how long he'd be suspended, so his value was extremely low at the time. His value was very different when the Cubs traded for him.

The Dodgers had a trade in place giving up at least one, if not two, really good prospects for him like the day before the DV news hit and pulled the trade back. IIRC.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Gleyber Torres sucks and we were always right to trade him

[d_money]

An outfield of Schwarber, Soler and Jimenez would be an insane experiment from an offensive and defensive standpoint. 120 dongs, negative WAR.

[George Hayduke]

PECOTA’s right and we were always sucks to hate it