Cubs offseason chit chat...

[LBiittner]

17 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Kinda forgot he could play outfield too, good call. 

I'll be disappointed if Tony Kemp is the "bat" Jed was referring to all along

[Rob]

27 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

You're gonna make Mastrobuoni cry

I understand on an intellectual level that Mastrobuoni ostensibly has some value to this team. (He's a high-percentage basestealer with positional versatility. In the minors he showed an ability to avoid strikeouts, to take a walk, and even to hit for a modicum of power. Yada yada yada...)

But for whatever reason, I just can't believe that he will provide any real value. For reasons that elude me, I have no faith in him whatsoever.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

 

7 minutes ago, Rob said:

I understand on an intellectual level that Mastrobuoni ostensibly has some value to this team. (He's a high-percentage basestealer with positional versatility. In the minors he showed an ability to avoid strikeouts, to take a walk, and even to hit for a modicum of power. Yada yada yada...)

But for whatever reason, I just can't believe that he will provide any real value. For reasons that elude me, I have no faith in him whatsoever.

 

40 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

You're gonna make Mastrobuoni cry

[Rob]

6 minutes ago, username said:

Wait... what?  Where is this discussion of Madrigal playing 1B coming from?  Call me old fashioned, but I don't want a guy who is listed at 5'8" (he's shorter in person, FWIW) and has zero power whatsoever playing any time at 1B unless five other guys get beaned in the dick in the same game, which necessitates it.  

Apparently nobody does. It looks like I misread the post I was responding to.

[BearDown1223]

If Morel's bat is stable in 2024, (120+) and he could be average at 2nd, I would potential look to trade Nico.  I know it's highly unlikely, but that's what I would explore. 

[LBiittner]

Wow. Just now noticed most online here jumped to 417. Considering when I signed up high water mark was in the low 300's. 

Amazing what a Hector Neris signing can do, imagine what would happen if we signed a "name" ?

[squally1313]

17 minutes ago, BearDown1223 said:

If Morel's bat is stable in 2024, (120+) and he could be average at 2nd, I would potential look to trade Nico.  I know it's highly unlikely, but that's what I would explore. 

You could make the argument for that as a personal preference, but it would seem to go very against the grain given how much they value up the middle defense. 

[LBiittner]

Njigba put on assignment by the Pirates looks like an interesting lefty bat to stash in Iowa. Not sure if he's required to be put on the 40? 

[UMFan83]

2 hours ago, squally1313 said:

You could make the argument for that as a personal preference, but it would seem to go very against the grain given how much they value up the middle defense. 

I would prefer to add more 5 win players in their mid-20's, not trade them away but maybe that's just me.

[Rcal10]

8 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

I would prefer to add more 5 win players in their mid-20's, not trade them away but maybe that's just me.

If you are suggesting Morel is a 5 win player, that may be a bit much. That said, I don’t want to trade him either and I don’t see him as trade bait. If he hits they will figure something out for him to play 125+ games a year, somewhere.! Hard to part with a guy who has 40 HR potential on a team without a true power hitter. 

[ILMindState]

3 hours ago, username said:

Wait... what?  Where is this discussion of Madrigal playing 1B coming from?  Call me old fashioned, but I don't want a guy who is listed at 5'8" (he's shorter in person, FWIW) and has zero power whatsoever playing any time at 1B unless five other guys get beaned in the dick in the same game, which necessitates it.  

Yu Darvish hit 2 different dicks on the same pitch so anything can happen.

[UMFan83]

2 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

If you are suggesting Morel is a 5 win player, that may be a bit much. That said, I don’t want to trade him either and I don’t see him as trade bait. If he hits they will figure something out for him to play 125+ games a year, somewhere.! Hard to part with a guy who has 40 HR potential on a team without a true power hitter. 

No I was responding to the initial post about looking to trade Nico if Morel hits well.  Nico is 26 and had a 5.1 bWAR/4.7 fWAR last year and has a very reasonable contract for the next 3 years.

[We Got The Whole 9]

11 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

No I was responding to the initial post about looking to trade Nico if Morel hits well.  Nico is 26 and had a 5.1 bWAR/4.7 fWAR last year and has a very reasonable contract for the next 3 years.

I'll let you in on a little secret: A lot of people only care about offense and they would rather shoehorn a superior hitter into the lineup than have a well-rounded player who is an inferior hitter. 

 

But the Cubs don't operate like this, so it's all an exercise in futility. 

[LBiittner]

Goodbye Michael Rucker.

[Stratos]

21 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

I'll let you in on a little secret: A lot of people only care about offense and they would rather shoehorn a superior hitter into the lineup than have a well-rounded player who is an inferior hitter. 

 

But the Cubs don't operate like this, so it's all an exercise in futility. 

I'd wager the Cubs don't care if it's a run added with the bat or a run saved with the glove.  If Madrigal can even manage a 100 wRC+ he'll probably be in the lineup this year.

[CubinNY]

1 hour ago, Stratos said:

I'd wager the Cubs don't care if it's a run added with the bat or a run saved with the glove.  If Madrigal can even manage a 100 wRC+ he'll probably be in the lineup this year.

For how many games? I'm betting he plays less than 70 games. 

[CubinNY]

The Cubs will be playing baseball this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rob]

25 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

For how many games? I'm betting he plays less than 70 games. 

Madrigal has a penchant for being injured, granted.

But when he's healthy, he's probably penciled in as our primary 3B. And even in those games where he doesn't start, he's going to get plenty of pinch hitting opportunities whenever it's a situation where contact is needed more than power. So he's probably appearing in 80+% of the games he's healthy for.

[Rcal10]

3 hours ago, Stratos said:

I'd wager the Cubs don't care if it's a run added with the bat or a run saved with the glove.  If Madrigal can even manage a 100 wRC+ he'll probably be in the lineup this year.

I really hope they do better than him. First, I want a better bat there. Second, do we know he is going to be a good third baseman moving forward. Defensive stats fluctuate from year to year. What happens if he grades out to average or a little less than average? They you have a weak hitting third baseman who isn’t a great fielder either. 

[Stratos]

Just now, Rcal10 said:

I really hope they do better than him. First, I want a better bat there. Second, do we know he is going to be a good third baseman moving forward. Defensive stats fluctuate from year to year. What happens if he grades out to average or a little less than average? They you have a weak hitting third baseman who isn’t a great fielder either. 

Yeah.  We don't really have any ideal 3B on the roster.  We got 2.7 WAR out of 3B last season, and the MLB median for teams was 2.3.  We were ranked 11th out of 30 teams at 3B, so we did pretty well.

Madrigal hit 95 wRC+ (which is what he's projected to hit in 2024 by ZiPS), with elite defense while playing 3B.  He had 1.3 WAR in 67 games at 3B.  At a 134 game pace that's 2.6 WAR, which is above average for the position.  He may not be healthy enough to play 130 games, but i'll take his projected 95 wRC+ if he continues to play excellent defense.  We know from his hitting that he has elite hand speed, so that seems to be a big asset for him at 3B where reaction time & good hands are probably the most important things, not arm strength.

It would be even better if Morel can play an average defense there and put up more good offensive numbers.  Busch is also an outside candidate to play there, though probably as a 3rd option at best, but he played there for the Dodgers last year.

[UMFan83]

Putting this here for the lolz

https://x.com/abeds15/status/1753211959313379587?s=46&t=0_jG0mfAmSwG-21Uluk7Vw

Annoyingly not embedding so here’s the image

 

Edited February 2, 2024 by UMFan83

[Bertz]

https://twitter.com/abeds15/status/1753211959313379587?t=55KBq7ISjUhgxm8rO0H7KA&s=19

Okay this one might be a thing

[Rob]

Just now, Bertz said:

https://twitter.com/abeds15/status/1753211959313379587?t=55KBq7ISjUhgxm8rO0H7KA&s=19

Okay this one might be a thing

Whatever it is has been deleted.

[KCCub]

Brewers are going to be much easier to deal with 

[gocubs218]

That package seems light.