Cubs offseason chit chat...

[Stratos]

45 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Bowden in his mailbag today says the Cubs remain engaged with Montgomery, Bellinger, Chapman and Hoskins. Believe they will get one or two of them.

Montgomery too?  Interesting.

Edit:  could be Boras noise.

Edited January 10, 2024 by Stratos

[Rcal10]

13 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Again keep in mind that Heyman is usually quite plugged in with Boras

 

The only way 2 of them is Bellinger and Chapman is if one of them took a contract like the first Correa deal. 3 year with opt out each year. As you and nyc pointed out, most likely it is either or with Chapman and Bellinger. But with a short deal with high AAV for one of them, they can get both, assuming they are okay going over the first LT line. 

[Rcal10]

2 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Montgomery too?  Interesting.

Edit:  could be Boras noise.

Probably is Boras noise. 

Edited January 10, 2024 by Rcal10

[Stratos]

What about Madrigal (or Wisdom) plus prospect for Brandon Drury?  

Drury can play 3B, 1B, and 2B.  Would play 1B and is insurance for Morel at 3B and Mervis.  Essentially replaces Candelario.

Hoskins has better bat potential but not the defensive ability or versatility.

DH would be covered by Morel, Drury, Mervis, Canario, Wisdom (vs LHP if stays) and a potential other bat like Belt.  Can also use DH to give other regulars the odd day off from the field.

Edited January 10, 2024 by Stratos

[thawv]

1 hour ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Bowden in his mailbag today says the Cubs remain engaged with Montgomery, Bellinger, Chapman and Hoskins. Believe they will get one or two of them.

They don't really plan on going with 4 LHP's in the rotation, do they?  Is Wicks getting moved if they sign Monty?  With 65% of league being RHH, I don't like more than 2 LHP in my rotation.  These guys aren't Randy Johnson.  These LHP'ers are not TOTR guys.  And I know that the matchup are not the same as how difficult a LHP is to hit for a LHH.  I still prefer a heavy RHP staff.  4/1 is preferred for me.

[Jason Ross]

26 minutes ago, thawv said:

They don't really plan on going with 4 LHP's in the rotation, do they?  Is Wicks getting moved if they sign Monty?  With 65% of league being RHH, I don't like more than 2 LHP in my rotation.  These guys aren't Randy Johnson.  These LHP'ers are not TOTR guys.  And I know that the matchup are not the same as how difficult a LHP is to hit for a LHH.  I still prefer a heavy RHP staff.  4/1 is preferred for me.

Well, they're not going to have four, either. Likely rotation today is: Steele-Imanaga-Taillon-Hendricks-Wicks, which is three. And while you may prefer 4/1 or 3/2, it seems likely the Cubs don't share that belief. Imanaga and Wicks shouldn't be too prone to splits; Imanaga has a splitter to attack RHP and Wicks has the change as his best offering. Both are generally good against RHP.

I guess they could add Montgomery, but I don't find it likely. And I think they'll really be using a modified 6-man anyways.

[Rcal10]

23 minutes ago, thawv said:

They don't really plan on going with 4 LHP's in the rotation, do they?  Is Wicks getting moved if they sign Monty?  With 65% of league being RHH, I don't like more than 2 LHP in my rotation.  These guys aren't Randy Johnson.  These LHP'ers are not TOTR guys.  And I know that the matchup are not the same as how difficult a LHP is to hit for a LHH.  I still prefer a heavy RHP staff.  4/1 is preferred for me.

Even if they got Montgomery, which I doubt they would, it would not be 4/1 L/R rotation. Montgomery would replace Wicks. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Getting Montgomery would signal a major trade coming to me

[Stratos]

38 minutes ago, thawv said:

They don't really plan on going with 4 LHP's in the rotation, do they?  Is Wicks getting moved if they sign Monty?  With 65% of league being RHH, I don't like more than 2 LHP in my rotation.  These guys aren't Randy Johnson.  These LHP'ers are not TOTR guys.  And I know that the matchup are not the same as how difficult a LHP is to hit for a LHH.  I still prefer a heavy RHP staff.  4/1 is preferred for me.

Would be very surprised if they signed another significant SP FA

[Jason Ross]

23 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Getting Montgomery would signal a major trade coming to me

Yeah. Probably a Wicks/Morel joint or something in that vein.

[imb]

21 hours ago, Backtobanks said:

Using your definition of turds, let's trade the king of turds based on current mlb performances and trade PCA + for Luzardo.

 

you got a deal

[chibears55]

3 hours ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Bowden in his mailbag today says the Cubs remain engaged with Montgomery, Bellinger, Chapman and Hoskins. Believe they will get one or two of them.

Surprise a little that Hader is not on that list or one of the other closers. 

You'd think a closer or setup reliever is a target along with 2 of the bats.

[Jason Ross]

2 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Surprise a little that Hader is not on that list or one of the other closers. 

You'd think a closer or setup reliever is a target along with 2 of the bats.

I'm not surprised, I doubt the Cubs would spend a draft pick and a $15m+ deal on a closer.

[Rcal10]

18 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I'm not surprised, I doubt the Cubs would spend a draft pick and a $15m+ deal on a closer.

Agreed. I have no idea why anyone would expect this FO to be in on Hader or any pen arm looking for $16-$20M a year for 4 or 5 years. Not arguing if it is warranted or not. Just saying they wouldn’t do it. 

[LBiittner]

10 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Agreed. I have no idea why anyone would expect this FO to be in on Hader or any pen arm looking for $16-$20M a year for 4 or 5 years. Not arguing if it is warranted or not. Just saying they wouldn’t do it. 

You are correct. They'd pickup a closer in season, if in contention, like 2016 aroldos chapman.

[WhyCantWeWin]

I think they might be in on Hader if his market doesn't take off. But if they sign Chapman thats probably off, don't think they would sign two QO players

[Bull]

43 minutes ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

I think they might be in on Hader if his market doesn't take off. But if they sign Chapman thats probably off, don't think they would sign two QO players

The only QO player they might sign is Bellinger, and I honestly think that’s the biggest holdup on him. They want to gain that pick, and they don’t want to lose any others. 

[Backtobanks]

Saw this trade proposal on MLB trade values: Wesneski + PCA + Brown for Santander + Westburg + Mayo.

Now there's a trade that I would love to see happen.

 

 

[Rcal10]

26 minutes ago, Bull said:

The only QO player they might sign is Bellinger, and I honestly think that’s the biggest holdup on him. They want to gain that pick, and they don’t want to lose any others. 

I don’t sense that at all. I especially don’t see a problem signing Bellinger and not getting a pick for losing him. They just keep all their picks. I do see this as a problem if they also added Hader, Chapman or Snell. Which I doubt they do. 

[ILMindState]

57 minutes ago, Bull said:

The only QO player they might sign is Bellinger, and I honestly think that’s the biggest holdup on him. They want to gain that pick, and they don’t want to lose any others. 

The hold is is Boras. Its always been Boras. Most of his other clients haven't signed either. It's just how he does business. It's not that deep. 

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, LBiittner said:

You are correct. They'd pickup a closer in season, if in contention, like 2016 aroldos chapman.

Which would be a dumb move.  If I were a team i'd rather have a surplus of pen arms to trade at the deadline because I signed too many than to have to trade quality prospects for one.

They don't necessarily need Hader, but it would be nice if they had another quality guy capable of closing to backup Adbert's ducktaped arm.

I said they needed another late-innings arm late last offseason and most fans told me they'd be ok and be able to find their closer.  Well it took them 2 months to figure out who could close and it cost them the playoffs.

[Rcal10]

11 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Which would be a dumb move.  If I were a team i'd rather have a surplus of pen arms to trade at the deadline because I signed too many than to have to trade quality prospects for one.

They don't necessarily need Hader, but it would be nice if they had another quality guy capable of closing to backup Adbert's ducktaped arm.

I said they needed another late-innings arm late last offseason and most fans told me they'd be ok and be able to find their closer.  Well it took them 2 months to figure out who could close and it cost them the playoffs.

Not arguing the merits of a dominating closer, Just saying the Cubs aren’t going to spend that kind of money for one. And even with being a pen arms short at the start of the season, had they traded for one (better than Clus or at least in addition to Clus), at the deadline, they would have made the playoffs. That is exactly what the d’backs did. 

[Stratos]

36 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Not arguing the merits of a dominating closer, Just saying the Cubs aren’t going to spend that kind of money for one. And even with being a pen arms short at the start of the season, had they traded for one (better than Clus or at least in addition to Clus), at the deadline, they would have made the playoffs. That is exactly what the d’backs did. 

Agreed.

If they wanted to stay under the CBT they probably thought they needed to stay cheap in the pen, which is an argument I get, but they still needed to do better at the deadline.  Both last year and arguably this year this team lacks the surplus to be as good as they need to be and still stay under the CBT.

Hopefully we're a better roster when most of the best prospects are on this team in the next couple of years.

[LBiittner]

1 hour ago, Stratos said:

Which would be a dumb move.  If I were a team i'd rather have a surplus of pen arms to trade at the deadline because I signed too many than to have to trade quality prospects for one.

They don't necessarily need Hader, but it would be nice if they had another quality guy capable of closing to backup Adbert's ducktaped arm.

I said they needed another late-innings arm late last offseason and most fans told me they'd be ok and be able to find their closer.  Well it took them 2 months to figure out who could close and it cost them the playoffs.

The playoff possibility was lost thru a number of reasons: Ross continually playing hosmer, playing mancini, not using luke little late in the season along with many more Ross decisions. They technically lost by one freaking game from the playoffs. I just cited probably 3 names that could've changed the Cubs record by more than one freaking game. 

The conversation to Rcal was originally about a closer. You did a pirouette to pen arms.  Big Dif.

 

[gocubs218]

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Edited January 11, 2024 by gocubs218