Cubs get Castellanos for Lange and Richan

[David]

In related news, this is actual footage of Tony Kemp’s time with the Cubs:

 

 

What in the world.

 

i was giving him the benefit of the doubt and thinking he meant to say maldonado

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I'm not going to gnash teeth over the individual players, but I'm again bummed that we're still on this multi-year track of frittering away prospect currency on so many rentals. It doesn't help that I am not a very big Castellanos believer, hard to get too over the moon over a position player that is the worst defender on the roster and not in the top dozen or so hitters against RHP.

 

Much as the galaxy-brained solution to the Cubs being better is that Kris Bryant simply needs to decide to make fewer outs, the easy answer to these trade woes is for Theo and co. to decide to get better at making baseball guys. D'UH.

 

[jersey cubs fan]

In related news, this is actual footage of Tony Kemp’s time with the Cubs:

 

[Cubswin11]

 

That probably depends on a number of things, from how well Happ and Bote play, to if and when Zobrist comes back. Castellanos being a nothing against RHP is bad either way, because even if you aren't overextending him, he's a guy who's easy to game plan around in late innings and he lacks a defining tool like Daniel Murphy's contact ability to help smooth that out.

He has a career 103 wRC+ vs RHP. That’s better than a lot of the Happ/Bote/Descalso/etc bunch has been for some time.

 

Bote or Descalso, sure. But I'll take most every lefty over him against RHP(Caratini, Rizzo, Robel, Schwarber, Heyward, Happ, Zobrist when he comes back) plus the obvious Bryant, Baez, Contreras; and there's more than a few situations where I'd rather have Kemp or even potentially Almora(if contact was goal #1). It's not that he's completely unhelpful, I know I'm being a little harsh in the characterization. But I don't see this as any different in terms of impact as Kemp or Maldonado, and not a 'big bat' or major acquisition in the sense that even Murphy was.

Him and Almora have almost identical contact rates this year and are like 3% apart for their careers.

[Post Count Padder]

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[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Welp, he'll fit right in with our "can only hit fastballs" style:

 

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/nicholas-castellanos-crushes-fastballs-but-thats-about-it/

[Sammy Sofa]

Welp, he'll fit right in with our "can only hit fastballs" style:

 

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/nicholas-castellanos-crushes-fastballs-but-thats-about-it/

 

Got an A from Moe Dee for sticking to themes.

[Brian]

Cubs tweet says we did in fact get cash in the trade.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Welp, he'll fit right in with our "can only hit fastballs" style:

 

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/nicholas-castellanos-crushes-fastballs-but-thats-about-it/

 

Got an A from Moe Dee for sticking to themes.

http://66.media.tumblr.com/2adae1c2a3c9933f678117c9a51cdb5a/tumblr_mrraf1pZZg1s0aolho1_400.gif

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

So I just did a quick check of how bad his defense is in the OF...its insanely bad. Would Maddon and Theo consider putting him back at 3B and letting Bryant spend more time in the OF? Is that even a good idea? Who are the defense quants here?

[Cubswin11]

So I just did a quick check of how bad his defense is in the OF...its insanely bad. Would Maddon and Theo consider putting him back at 3B and letting Bryant spend more time in the OF? Is that even a good idea? Who are the defense quants here?

His defense is historically bad at 3B vs just being not very good in LF/RF.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

So I just did a quick check of how bad his defense is in the OF...its insanely bad. Would Maddon and Theo consider putting him back at 3B and letting Bryant spend more time in the OF? Is that even a good idea? Who are the defense quants here?

His defense is historically bad at 3B vs just being not very good in LF/RF.

My untrained eye squinting at the fangraphs fielding section seems to hint its the exact opposite.

[Brian]

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[itisallpartoftheplan]

[abuck1220]

gee thanks tom

[UMFan83]

Whoa, very brave of the Cubs' ownership to take on a whole 2.5. mil

 

Give them a break, they needed that money to try to get a racist criminal scumbag re-elected.

[toonsterwu]

If things are so hammer tight on the budget, then its up to the FO to make some decisions on how to reallocate resources. We can go PTR all day long, but it is what is for now and no amount of wishing and hoping will change that.

 

Thing is, in terms of individual moves and actions, I haven't found much that I can criticize, much as I've long said we shouldn't be too in love with the names running things. Like this Castellanos trade ... as ... unexciting ... as Castellanos is. we're giving up Lange and Richan. For all the Hendricks in the world, there's 5 more that failed, so giving up Richan types should never be a big deal if there's a chance of improvement of some sort. Lange is in the ... who cares ... range ... although I do wonder if someone can fix him up and he can ramp it up as a useful pen arm for a couple years.

 

I tend to be more curious what Tony Kemp can bring, and find that a lot more intriguing, in the long term and short term, if he can find some sort of rhythm ... but that may require regular PT which I'm not sure he'll get.

 

That said, TT touched on this idea that we are bleeding prospect capital, and it is troubling. When you couple that with a farm system that hasn't developed all that well in the last couple of years, plus a major league team thats good, but has noticeable holes ... it is a troubling consideration. Look, by itself, there aren't any moves that I really thought was that bad at the time - I even said, pre-trade, that I'd be stunned if the Cubs put in Jimenez and Cease that year, but for Quintana, on that contract, it made sense.

 

Can't change history, and I'm not going to get upset about any asset lost this year, but to effectively right the ship and balance out the budgetary issues they have, they have to do better in the farm and provide a lifeline to the bigs. I applaud what they did this deadline - instead of trying to fix multiple holes, which wasn't likely, they focused on one aspect. Now, it's about hoping to get hot at the right time.

 

In the offseason, I'm hoping for something bold ... although I have no idea what that might be.

[Cubswin11]

I would’ve preferred Bote down to take a mental break, if nothing else. But whatever

 

[Sammy Sofa]

If things are so hammer tight on the budget, then its up to the FO to make some decisions on how to reallocate resources. We can go PTR all day long, but it is what is for now and no amount of wishing and hoping will change that.

 

Thing is, in terms of individual moves and actions, I haven't found much that I can criticize, much as I've long said we shouldn't be too in love with the names running things. Like this Castellanos trade ... as ... unexciting ... as Castellanos is. we're giving up Lange and Richan. For all the Hendricks in the world, there's 5 more that failed, so giving up Richan types should never be a big deal if there's a chance of improvement of some sort. Lange is in the ... who cares ... range ... although I do wonder if someone can fix him up and he can ramp it up as a useful pen arm for a couple years.

 

I tend to be more curious what Tony Kemp can bring, and find that a lot more intriguing, in the long term and short term, if he can find some sort of rhythm ... but that may require regular PT which I'm not sure he'll get.

 

That said, TT touched on this idea that we are bleeding prospect capital, and it is troubling. When you couple that with a farm system that hasn't developed all that well in the last couple of years, plus a major league team thats good, but has noticeable holes ... it is a troubling consideration. Look, by itself, there aren't any moves that I really thought was that bad at the time - I even said, pre-trade, that I'd be stunned if the Cubs put in Jimenez and Cease that year, but for Quintana, on that contract, it made sense.

 

Can't change history, and I'm not going to get upset about any asset lost this year, but to effectively right the ship and balance out the budgetary issues they have, they have to do better in the farm and provide a lifeline to the bigs. I applaud what they did this deadline - instead of trying to fix multiple holes, which wasn't likely, they focused on one aspect. Now, it's about hoping to get hot at the right time.

 

In the offseason, I'm hoping for something bold ... although I have no idea what that might be.

 

All of their in-season moves are things they should have (pretty obviously) done in the offseason. Scrambling to play catch up with what relatively few resources they have is not a good look.

[KingCubsFan]

 

That said, TT touched on this idea that we are bleeding prospect capital, and it is troubling. When you couple that with a farm system that hasn't developed all that well in the last couple of years, plus a major league team thats good, but has noticeable holes ... it is a troubling consideration. Look, by itself, there aren't any moves that I really thought was that bad at the time - I even said, pre-trade, that I'd be stunned if the Cubs put in Jimenez and Cease that year, but for Quintana, on that contract, it made sense.

 

I'm guilty of overrating the Cubs prospects as much as anybody, but there's no need to worry about trading guys like Richan and Lange for players that can help down the stretch in a competitive window. They're, at best, fringe top 10 guys in a mediocre system. We just drafted a bunch of pitchers in the first 10 rounds, and we'll draft a bunch more next year. It hurts to trade guys like Eloy, Torres, Cease, etc, but it doesn't hurt to trade fringe pitching prospects. Outside of Brennen Davis and Hoerner, I don't really care who the Cubs trade from the farm system as long as they get something that can help the ML team. They're all replaceable.

[BigSlick]

The Ricketts quibbling over half a mill is some real looney tunes horsefeathers

 

I’m honestly shocked we won a World Series with these owners in the first place, the way they’ve become Scrooge McDucks all of a sudden is dramatic

[Andy]

The Ricketts quibbling over half a mill is some real looney tunes horsefeathers

 

I’m honestly shocked we won a World Series with these owners in the first place, the way they’ve become Scrooge McDucks all of a sudden is dramatic

The fact that we won a World Series with them is a good deal of why they've become Scrooge McDucks. They got their title, and they'd like more, but not at the expense of making piles of money.

[Tedward]

The Ricketts quibbling over half a mill is some real looney tunes horsefeathers

 

I’m honestly shocked we won a World Series with these owners in the first place, the way they’ve become Scrooge McDucks all of a sudden is dramatic

The fact that we won a World Series with them is a good deal of why they've become Scrooge McDucks. They got their title, and they'd like more, but not at the expense of making piles of money.

 

According to Mooney's recent piece in the Athletic, the Cubs payroll is now near $245MM. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I can't seem to recall the prior owners (the Tribune Co) forking out that kind of dough to put a team on the field. Exceeding the $246MM threshold also leads to draft penalties... I wonder how many other teams in MLB are spending that kind of dough? Probably not that many. I've been following this team since 79' and you know... we could have done worse with an ownership group imo ....

 

Maybe Theo and crew need to do a better job of spending Ricketts $ .... just sayin ....

[jersey cubs fan]

The Ricketts quibbling over half a mill is some real looney tunes horsefeathers

 

I’m honestly shocked we won a World Series with these owners in the first place, the way they’ve become Scrooge McDucks all of a sudden is dramatic

The fact that we won a World Series with them is a good deal of why they've become Scrooge McDucks. They got their title, and they'd like more, but not at the expense of making piles of money.

 

According to Mooney's recent piece in the Athletic, the Cubs payroll is now near $245MM. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I can't seem to recall the prior owners (the Tribune Co) forking out that kind of dough to put a team on the field. Exceeding the $246MM threshold also leads to draft penalties... I wonder how many other teams in MLB are spending that kind of dough? Probably not that many. I've been following this team since 79' and you know... we could have done worse with an ownership group imo ....

 

Maybe Theo and crew need to do a better job of spending Ricketts $ .... just sayin ....

When the Trib owned the team they were barely worth $500 million, now they are approaching the $3 billion level and revenues have never come close to current levels.

 

Yes, Theo and Jed need to do better.

[HawkeTrackler]

The Ricketts quibbling over half a mill is some real looney tunes horsefeathers

 

I’m honestly shocked we won a World Series with these owners in the first place, the way they’ve become Scrooge McDucks all of a sudden is dramatic

The fact that we won a World Series with them is a good deal of why they've become Scrooge McDucks. They got their title, and they'd like more, but not at the expense of making piles of money.

 

According to Mooney's recent piece in the Athletic, the Cubs payroll is now near $245MM. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I can't seem to recall the prior owners (the Tribune Co) forking out that kind of dough to put a team on the field. Exceeding the $246MM threshold also leads to draft penalties... I wonder how many other teams in MLB are spending that kind of dough? Probably not that many. I've been following this team since 79' and you know... we could have done worse with an ownership group imo ....

 

Maybe Theo and crew need to do a better job of spending Ricketts $ .... just sayin ....

 

We don't take kindly to bootlickers around these parts mate