Buy or sell, where do you land? Let's talk hot stove.

[Banedon]

Sources - Cubs tell teams Cody Bellinger won't be traded - ESPN

Quote

The Cubs' turnaround on the field has led to a change in strategy off it as opposing teams have been told outfielder and free-agent-to-be Cody Bellinger will not be traded, according to sources familiar with the situation.

 

[Post Count Padder]

Just trade some combination of Ryan Jensen, Cam Sanders, Luke Little to the Rox for Sutter and be done. He's been a solid lefty reliever for a few years now. Expand it to add Cron, maybe send Mancini to someone for a struggling starting pitcher in a challenge trade.

[chibears55]

3 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

So if I am understanding what you are saying you want to sell. So get rid of Stroman, Bellinger, Gomes and some lesser guys because they are not signed next year. You want to sell when they are 3 1/2 games out of first, and 3 out of the wild card. Basically you want the white Sox white flag trades of years ago all over again. Is this correct? I competely disagree. This is a flawed team. I get that. But they are chasing other flawed teams. They have a decent chance at making the playoffs. You don’t sell now. 

They have a chance but that about all they might do, and then what ? 

They're not winning the WS with this roster, they now don't have the extra prospects in their system that could be a part of their near future roster.

Yes it great They're beating up on the Cardinals the last week and beat the Whitesox to get themselves above 500, but do you really think theyre gonna play above 500 ball the rest of way?

They're not winning the WS and the majority of this roster won't be a part of this team in 2-3 seasons,  so there no point in keeping it together just to hope to win a crappy division  and then be even further behind in the rebuild after the season. 

 

[Tryptamine]

1 minute ago, Banedon said:

Sources - Cubs tell teams Cody Bellinger won't be traded - ESPN

 

Notice no mention of Stroman. They won't actually try and thread the needle where they trade stroman and use the money/prospects to add to this year's team, right? 

[Tryptamine]

5 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

They have a chance but that about all they might do, and then what ? 

They're not winning the WS with this roster, they now don't have the extra prospects in their system that could be a part of their near future roster.

Yes it great They're beating up on the Cardinals the last week and beat the Whitesox to get themselves above 500, but do you really think theyre gonna play above 500 ball the rest of way?

They're not winning the WS and the majority of this roster won't be a part of this team in 2-3 seasons,  so there no point in keeping it together just to hope to win a crappy division  and then be even further behind in the rebuild after the season. 

 

They've been .500 or above in every month but that May disaster 

[chibears55]

4 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Notice no mention of Stroman. They won't actually try and thread the needle where they trade stroman and use the money/prospects to add to this year's team, right? 

I hope they extend him after the deadline,  he young enough to be a big part of the future that could actually contend for a WS, build around him.

[PeanutPunch33]

43 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Hoyer needs to make up his mind and act. If he waits until after Monday's game, the chances of getting anything meaningful done is pretty small and the pool of available players will be nearly dried up.

I don’t even see how it’s still a decision.  3 games back now, 2 over .500 and the hottest team in baseball? If they don’t at least soft buy, that would be unforgivable imo 

The only trade I’d seriously consider is if the reds wanted to dangle Encarnacion strand, India or another young bat for Stro.  Because that could help the cubs for this year too.  Doubt that would happen though 

 

[UMFan83]

18 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Notice no mention of Stroman. They won't actually try and thread the needle where they trade stroman and use the money/prospects to add to this year's team, right? 

i think thats what they'd prefer to do imo

[Bobson Dugnutt]

16 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

They have a chance but that about all they might do, and then what ? 

They're not winning the WS with this roster, they now don't have the extra prospects in their system that could be a part of their near future roster.

Yes it great They're beating up on the Cardinals the last week and beat the Whitesox to get themselves above 500, but do you really think theyre gonna play above 500 ball the rest of way?

They're not winning the WS and the majority of this roster won't be a part of this team in 2-3 seasons,  so there no point in keeping it together just to hope to win a crappy division  and then be even further behind in the rebuild after the season. 

 

They have been winning at a nearly .600 clip since the start of June. 24 of their remaining 58 games are against bad teams. Of the remaining 34, 9 are against Atlanta and Toronto who are, I think, clearly superior.. The other 25 are against teams like Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Arizona, and San Francisco that the Cubs should consider themselves on equal footing with. There’s every reason to believe they can/should play above .500 the rest of the way.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

25 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

They have a chance but that about all they might do, and then what ? 

They're not winning the WS with this roster, they now don't have the extra prospects in their system that could be a part of their near future roster.

Yes it great They're beating up on the Cardinals the last week and beat the Whitesox to get themselves above 500, but do you really think theyre gonna play above 500 ball the rest of way?

They're not winning the WS and the majority of this roster won't be a part of this team in 2-3 seasons,  so there no point in keeping it together just to hope to win a crappy division  and then be even further behind in the rebuild after the season. 

 

They might win the World Series this year.  No actual analysis can come from zeroing out that non-zero probability.

Is it likely? No. But it's also extremely unlikely that the specific prospects we acquire at the deadline would be the difference between winning one and not winning one in the future.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Hairyducked Idiot

[squally1313]

We’ve sold the last two years and the only players from those trades who have gotten to the majors are Wesneski, who has contributed a -0.2 fWAR this year, and Madrigal (0.8 fWAR). And this is with everyone generally happy with the returns from those trades. I guess if we nail this hypothetical sell off we can get some dudes who can start to contribute right when this 2024-2026 window closes, yay? 

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Just now, squally1313 said:

We’ve sold the last two years and the only players from those trades who have gotten to the majors are Wesneski, who has contributed a -0.2 fWAR this year, and Madrigal (0.8 fWAR). And this is with everyone generally happy with the returns from those trades. I guess if we nail this hypothetical sell off we can get some dudes who can start to contribute right when this 2024-2026 window closes, yay? 

That's actually perfect, because then we can trade those guys for *more* prospects.

The last thing you want is prospects who start contributing when the team is good. Then you might have to actually use them and risk your farm system ranking.

[Tryptamine]

17 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

i think thats what they'd prefer to do imo

I suppose with Taillon returning to form and posting a 1.78 ERA over his last 4, it makes it more possible. 

[Jfoley89]

I'm open to a thread the needle trade at this point.  Wasting resources on rental relievers isn't ideal. Trading Stro for a controllable 3b/1b and hoping Taillon fills the void could work for me

[Banedon]

17 hours ago, Tryptamine said:

Notice no mention of Stroman. They won't actually try and thread the needle where they trade stroman and use the money/prospects to add to this year's team, right? 

The source was probably some team that was looking at Bellinger is all.  I wouldn't read too much into leaving out Stroman from that blurb.  If they're keeping Bellinger, they're almost certainly keeping Stro as well.