Guess what a guy who used to play for the Cubs did this time...

[CyHawk_Cub]

I always encounter fans who are under the false impression that Almora was actually good. Up until he was let go, I periodically looked at his minor league numbers in an attempt to understand from where the optimism/expectation about him came. I still can't figure it out.

[chopsx9]

I always encounter fans who are under the false impression that Almora was actually good. Up until he was let go, I periodically looked at his minor league numbers in an attempt to understand from where the optimism/expectation about him came. I still can't figure it out.

I've never encountered anyone that thought Almora was actually good. He never had enough tools to be taken seriously and the ones he had never developed enough (or at all) to matter. Maybe advancing to 2nd in the 10th inning of Game 7 sucked all the potential out of him.

[Tryptamine]

I always encounter fans who are under the false impression that Almora was actually good. Up until he was let go, I periodically looked at his minor league numbers in an attempt to understand from where the optimism/expectation about him came. I still can't figure it out.

I've never encountered anyone that thought Almora was actually good. He never had enough tools to be taken seriously and the ones he had never developed enough (or at all) to matter. Maybe advancing to 2nd in the 10th inning of Game 7 sucked all the potential out of him.

 

What was the ridiculous draft comp that I believe Harold Reynolds gave him? I believe it was either Arod or Braun, I can't remember which, but it was very obvious that those tools never existed.

[CubinNY]

I always encounter fans who are under the false impression that Almora was actually good. Up until he was let go, I periodically looked at his minor league numbers in an attempt to understand from where the optimism/expectation about him came. I still can't figure it out.

I've never encountered anyone that thought Almora was actually good. He never had enough tools to be taken seriously and the ones he had never developed enough (or at all) to matter. Maybe advancing to 2nd in the 10th inning of Game 7 sucked all the potential out of him.

 

What was the ridiculous draft comp that I believe Harold Reynolds gave him? I believe it was either Arod or Braun, I can't remember which, but it was very obvious that those tools never existed.

Reynolds wasn't the only one but to a greater extent than others. At the time of the draft, a lot of people said he had the best bat-to-ball skills in the draft. He played + defense in CF. He just never developed his skills. I get what he's saying even if I don't totally buy it. Brooks Kieschnick said much of the same things and worse about the Cubs' development of players.

[Bertz]

Feels like Schwarber would be the only guy who would have a decent argument for pointing his finger at the org for his lack of development, considering he's the only one who got better after leaving.

[Cubswin11]

Feels like Schwarber would be the only guy who would have a decent argument for pointing his finger at the org for his lack of development, considering he's the only one who got better after leaving.

I’m guessing he’d blame the knee injury before anything

[Clem Fandango]

Almora's hype was around his contact skills and gold glove defense. All the scouting reports, IIRC, said his defense was MLB-caliber ready straight out of the draft. And his ability to hit for contact was some of the best in the minors. He just never translated that skill to hits

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Almora's hype was around his contact skills and gold glove defense. All the scouting reports, IIRC, said his defense was MLB-caliber ready straight out of the draft. And his ability to hit for contact was some of the best in the minors. He just never translated that skill to hits

Or good defense.

[NOLA]

Schwarbs with 2 more dongs tonight. That 4 in the last two days and 26 in his first 80 games.

 

Edit: that’s 27 HR.

Edited July 7, 2022 by NOLA

[NOLA]

Almora's hype was around his contact skills and gold glove defense. All the scouting reports, IIRC, said his defense was MLB-caliber ready straight out of the draft. And his ability to hit for contact was some of the best in the minors. He just never translated that skill to hits

Or good defense.

IIRC, it was his “intangibles” that were supposedly off the charts, but not exactly the best athlete. On defense, he was said to get great reads off the bat but was not what anyone would call fast. That WS G7 play where he stretched a hit into a double was probably everything Theo could have envisioned.

[Derwood]

Bryant is OPSing 1.045 since coming off the IL

[UMFan83]

A Theo drafted pitcher finally made the all star team - congrats Paul Blackburn

[UMFan83]

^^ Alex Lange was snubbed, I say! More opportunities will come but still, would have been nice

 

From The Athletic:

 

Soto’s 2.67 ERA makes him worthy of All-Star consideration. But did the Tigers actually have at least one even more deserving representative? The argument could certainly be made.

 

Alex Lange and Michael Fulmer built convincing All-Star cases of their own in the first half of the season. Soto ultimately got the nod, but let’s compare the numbers as of Sunday:

 

Soto: 30.1 IP, 2.67 ERA, 9.2 K/9, 4.45 BB/9, 0.4 fWAR

 

Lange: 33 IP, 1.91 ERA, 11.73 K/9, 4.09 BB/9, 0.7 fWAR

 

Fulmer: 32.2 IP, 1.93 ERA, 9.43 K/9, 2.58 BB/9, 0.7 fWAR

 

---

 

Great to see Bryant's season line coming together too...He just had or is having twins soon? Good horsefeathers

 

Wait wtf Alex Lange is a thing now? Always wondered if Theo-era Cubs were worse at drafting or developing. Seems to be some strong evidence it was the latter

[The_Achiever]

Regarding Almora, Theo refused to part with him in 2017 for Jussin Verlander. This was after trading Eloy and Cease for Q.

 

People have ragged on the Q trade enough but if he trades Almora for Verlander we might go back to back. What a disaster the post WS years were.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Does Harold Ramirez count?

 

Guy is slashing 330/379/452 for Tampa

[Andy]

Regarding Almora, Theo refused to part with him in 2017 for Jussin Verlander. This was after trading Eloy and Cease for Q.

 

People have ragged on the Q trade enough but if he trades Almora for Verlander we might go back to back. What a disaster the post WS years were.

We should have traded for Verlander but for various, um, reasons, I have reason to doubt that Verlander would have been as successful with us - or for anyone - as he has been for Houston.

[CyHawk_Cub]

Harold Ramirez never would have gotten regular chances with the Cubs. So yeah, that should make everyone o.k. with that whole thing.

[The_Achiever]

Regarding Almora, Theo refused to part with him in 2017 for Jussin Verlander. This was after trading Eloy and Cease for Q.

 

People have ragged on the Q trade enough but if he trades Almora for Verlander we might go back to back. What a disaster the post WS years were.

We should have traded for Verlander but for various, um, reasons, I have reason to doubt that Verlander would have been as successful with us - or for anyone - as he has been for Houston.

 

Steroids? I’m in the dark on this one.

[Bertz]

Regarding Almora, Theo refused to part with him in 2017 for Jussin Verlander. This was after trading Eloy and Cease for Q.

 

People have ragged on the Q trade enough but if he trades Almora for Verlander we might go back to back. What a disaster the post WS years were.

We should have traded for Verlander but for various, um, reasons, I have reason to doubt that Verlander would have been as successful with us - or for anyone - as he has been for Houston.

 

Steroids? I’m in the dark on this one.

 

Sticky stuff

[soccer10k]

Stupid Schwarber shit the bed against Pujols in the Derby.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Stupid Schwarber shit the bed against Pujols in the Derby.

What a mess that home run derby coverage was. The cameras were all over the place and missing home runs right and left. The announcers had no clue what was going on and were calling home runs that weren't and vice versa. The announcers also seemingly kept forgetting about bonus time and talking like guys were done after 3 minutes. And I'm pretty sure Pujols' 13th home run in the first round (which ended up being the tieing home run) came seconds after time had expired. Julio Rodriguez was fun to watch, but other than that it was a rather uneventful home run derby.

[PackLandVA]

Much like the Slam Dunk Contest, the HR Derby became repetitively boring after about the third or fourth iteration. Wash, rinse, repeat. Yawn.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Much like the Slam Dunk Contest, the HR Derby became repetitively boring after about the third or fourth iteration. Wash, rinse, repeat. Yawn.

I thought it became interesting again a few years ago when they changed the format up, but maybe this year was the format beginning to get stale again.

[cl smooth]

last night's home run derby horsefeathering ruled, y'all are crazy.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

last night's home run derby horsefeathering ruled, y'all are crazy.

 

Julio's runs were very fun, and the final was pretty good, but the format is incentivizing stuff that make it hard to follow and appreciate. The split screen plus rapid fire pitches because of the timed rounds meant that you barely could follow the flight of half the home runs. Unless it was said on the broadcast(which I muted after BCS came on) I have no idea what home runs were the furthest or who had the best average distance. Some of my best HRD memories are of guys hitting the ball impossible distances, and that's been replaced by a made for TV format that pays lip service to majestic bombs and instead makes it an impressive test of endurance through speed swinging. That's not objectively bad, but I think it's fair for some to prefer more emphasis on the extremes of how far a ball can be hit instead of a speedrun. Especially with the camera work/tracking that objectively is difficult to follow at times.