Cubs offseason chit chat...

[17 Seconds]

imagine if jed signed bauer. he wouldn't, right?

[Sammy Sofa]

4 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

imagine if jed signed bauer. he wouldn't, right?

If they could get him for cheap enough they 100000000000000000% would.

[Rob]

1 minute ago, Sammy Sofa said:

If they could get him for cheap enough they 100000000000000000% would.

Signing Bauer cheap isn't the problem. It's that their insurance doesn't cover sexual battery.

[muntjack]

5 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/jesus-luzardo-drawing-trade-interest.html

The ask would be very high, but this is the kind of guy you could slot in behind Steele for the next few years. Health is an issue, but the results the last 2 years speak for themselves. 

I said this somewhere yesterday but BTV has PCA and Wesneski as an overpay for Luzardo.  Would do that in a heartbeat once they re-signed Bellinger.

[Jason Ross]

6 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

imagine if jed signed bauer. he wouldn't, right?

I don't think the Cubs would do that, no. The Cubs have been pretty concerned with public perception, IMO. Bauer, regardless of price, influences that. 

[JBears79]

9 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

imagine if jed signed bauer. he wouldn't, right?

If Bauer had to pay the Cubs to pitch here he would totally sign him

[Layoutman]

1 hour ago, Tryptamine said:

Hoyer has proven he values defense highly. I'd find it very hard to believe he's going to move Morel over there when you're most likely outcome is below average defense with a chance at Ryan Braun levels of awful. 

Naylor at first base is really starting to make more and more sense. Besides the obvious offensive upgrades while being a left-handed bat. His improved infield defense will benefit whomever Counsell runs out there at 3B.  

[17 Seconds]

speaking of the cubs being evil, what happened to treeman? he quit after the addison russell stuff, but he came back for a few posts last season. I wonder if he's still around.

[LBiittner]

Cubs did the Addison russell thingy a few years ago. Don't think Jed wants to face a million angry fans again

[LBiittner]

3 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

speaking of the cubs being evil, what happened to treeman? he quit after the addison russell stuff, but he came back for a few posts last season. I wonder if he's still around.

Wow we both brought up Addison at the same time lol

[gflore34]

17 minutes ago, muntjack said:

I said this somewhere yesterday but BTV has PCA and Wesneski as an overpay for Luzardo.  Would do that in a heartbeat once they re-signed Bellinger.

I'd do that in a heartbeat, not certain PCA is going to hit at the major league level and Wesneski type arms are a dime a dozen. 

In fact I wouldn't be hesitant to trade any or all of PCA, Merivs, Canario, Alacantara for proven players, none of them is going to amount to more than a replacement level bat.

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by gflore34

[Rob]

8 minutes ago, muntjack said:

I said this somewhere yesterday but BTV has PCA and Wesneski as an overpay for Luzardo.  Would do that in a heartbeat once they re-signed Bellinger.

Part of the reason I've been so down on reupping with Bellinger is because PCA's defense gives him a pretty high floor in CF. So I don't generally see the 1-2 win gap between their expected production as worth the contract Bellinger will demand.

That said, if we could turn PCA into a guy like Luzardo, I'd be a lot more interested in a reunion with Bellinger.

[Layoutman]

1 hour ago, PeanutPunch33 said:

They’ll prob re sign Belli, sign Hader, and swing a Dylan Cease trade with the Sox 🙂  

at the very least if they swing the top 2, and any kind of meaningful trade hard to say this was a bad off season

The Sox wanted 2 top 50 prospects from the Orioles for Cease. Think the cost is prohibitive for the Cubs. 

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, LBiittner said:

Thanks. Somewhere Rcal is wetting himself now.

What is wrong with you? 

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

He and his staff in Milwaukee took some of the crappiest defensive catchers in the league and routinely turned them into borderline gold glovers.  He might view turning an athlete the caliber of Morel into a viable 3B as a project he could knock out in a weekend.  And the urgency on the offensive side of the ball goes WAYYYYYY down if you can put Morel at 3rd.

Exactly. If they can add 2 bats and still have Morel they have  pretty deep line up. Even better if the second bat doesn’t have to be a 3rd baseman. Get a first baseman and another bat. Period. And tbh, none of us knows the plan for Morel anymore than we know the plan for specific players this off season. It is all guesswork. 

[LBiittner]

7 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

What is wrong with you? 

Sorry, couldn't resist. You're love for Morel at 3rd has been expressed daily ad nauseum 

[We Got The Whole 9]

10 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

Sorry, couldn't resist. You're love for Morel at 3rd has been expressed daily ad nauseum 

It's not a love; moreso the fact that if he works out there it's a huge boon to the team. He wasn't even given a shot with Ross.

[We Got The Whole 9]

33 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

I'd do that in a heartbeat, not certain PCA is going to hit at the major league level and Wesneski type arms are a dime a dozen. 

In fact I wouldn't be hesitant to trade any or all of PCA, Merivs, Canario, Alacantara for proven players, none of them is going to amount to more than a replacement level bat.

 

That's quite a statement to make.

[Rcal10]

5 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

Sorry, couldn't resist. You're love for Morel at 3rd has been expressed daily ad nauseum 

And you post nonsensical comments ad nauseum. 

[Rcal10]

2 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

It's not a love; moreso the fact that if he works out there it's a huge boon to the team. He wasn't even given a shot with Ross.

At the risk of biitner’s snarky comment I have to tell you, you are 100% correct. 

[Rob]

Yeah, I'll be honest, I'm a bit surprised we haven't seen more of an attempt to play Morel at third. He's always had a plus-plus arm, but troubles with range and hands. That combo would seemingly play better at 3B than 2B, but the Cubs have been more comfortable letting him play 2B.

I mean, I'd get it if they just decided he was an outfielder. But if they're gonna let him play infield, they ought to try to maximize the value of his arm.

[LBiittner]

8 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

It's not a love; moreso the fact that if he works out there it's a huge boon to the team. He wasn't even given a shot with Ross.

Did you believe Ross was a great / good / adequate / bad at managing our chicago cubs?

[LBiittner]

8 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

And you post nonsensical comments ad nauseum. 

Agreed. And a million words typed here later will not influence the cubs decisions one bit

[squally1313]

7 minutes ago, Rob said:

Yeah, I'll be honest, I'm a bit surprised we haven't seen more of an attempt to play Morel at third. He's always had a plus-plus arm, but troubles with range and hands. That combo would seemingly play better at 3B than 2B, but the Cubs have been more comfortable letting him play 2B.

I mean, I'd get it if they just decided he was an outfielder. But if they're gonna let him play infield, they ought to try to maximize the value of his arm.

As mentioned elsewhere, he has played third base more than anywhere else in his professional career. And there are plenty of ways to give players a look at a defensive position, especially an infield position, without spotting him 60-80 starts in the majors. You could knock out the number of opportunities he would get in that stretch in about an hour and a half of pre-game work.

The idea that the Cubs, with their second baseman, shortstop, left fielder, and right fielder all under contract for multiple years, would just now, 575 games into Morel's professional career, be like 'oh man, we never really thought about him as a third baseman, should we try to make that work?' is pretty absurd. Similar to all the comments about 'they probably just wanted him to focus on his offense', as if Morel, by all accounts an elite 24 year old athlete, spent all 5-6 hours of pre-game in the batting cage or was somehow too tired to field groundballs after all the exhausting 'focusing on offense' he was doing. 

Could the Cubs be wrong? Sure. But I'm pretty sure this isn't some novel idea that hasn't previously been considered. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

21 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

Did you believe Ross was a great / good / adequate / bad at managing our chicago cubs?

Adequate, I suppose, on the whole. But I was not a fan with how he managed the roster during our tailspin this year.