Cubs prospects and roster

[chibears55]

We're almost down to 100 games left in the season and there are teams starting to fall way under 500 with no real chance of making the playoffs. 

Mets, Rockies, Marlins,  BlueJays, Whitesox, As, Angels...

Cubs have needs, and IMO their biggest needs are a bat(s) and reliever(s).

Hoyer needs to make moves to get something going with this team before they fall further, they just have no spark going for them and have guys in the lineup providing absolutely nothing for them on a daily basis.

He has a bunch of prospects, and there are teams that may start looking to move salary sooner rather then later, so he needs to either use them or move them to make this team better. 

Get rid of Madrigal,  send Busch to Iowa and let him work on his hitting more, he just isn't ready, same with Amaya.

Hoyer needs to shake up the roster and go find guys that can help the offense and bullpen. 

They have very good SP now, and it being wasted due to a horrible offense and inconsistent bullpen.

 

 

Edited May 28, 2024 by chibears55

[Irrelevant Dude]

Michael Busch will be 27 this year.  If he isn't ready, he is never going to be.  There is nothing else for him to do in Iowa.  He needs to figure his struggles out at the Major League level.

[Tryptamine]

2 more weeks of this and they're going to find themselves on the selling end of things. 

[Derwood]

Busch could be good, or he might be Bryan LaHair*. We’ll only know if we keep playing him. 
 

*Former All-Star Bryan LaHair

[thawv]

6 hours ago, chibears55 said:

We're almost down to 100 games left in the season and there are teams starting to fall way under 500 with no real chance of making the playoffs. 

Mets, Rockies, Marlins,  BlueJays, Whitesox, As, Angels...

Cubs have needs, and IMO their biggest needs are a bat(s) and reliever(s).

Hoyer needs to make moves to get something going with this team before they fall further, they just have no spark going for them and have guys in the lineup providing absolutely nothing for them on a daily basis.

He has a bunch of prospects, and there are teams that may start looking to move salary sooner rather then later, so he needs to either use them or move them to make this team better. 

Get rid of Madrigal,  send Busch to Iowa and let him work on his hitting more, he just isn't ready, same with Amaya.

Hoyer needs to shake up the roster and go find guys that can help the offense and bullpen. 

They have very good SP now, and it being wasted due to a horrible offense and inconsistent bullpen.

 

 

Jed hasn't shown the ability to do anything big.  He's much more comfortable doing nothing and losing, than doing something big and MAYBE regretting it.  Hell, PCA was on a 600 plate appearance pace for 4.75 WAR.  He's afraid to keep him on the team.  Service time games?  Jed's not putting the best 26 guys on the roster, that's for sure. 

Edited May 28, 2024 by thawv

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Michael Busch will be 27 this year.  If he isn't ready, he is never going to be.  There is nothing else for him to do in Iowa.  He needs to figure his struggles out at the Major League level.

I'd agree if they weren't supposed to be contending for a division/playoff run, but how do you trot a rookie out there everyday and give him 500+ AB to do nothing at a position that normally a run producing one in your lineup.

Including last season,  he now has 263 PA, he hitting .213 with a .684 OPs and 91 Ks

He isn't ready and he not going to figure it out at the MLB level, he needs to go down like you would send a pitcher down and have coaches work with him there.

 

[chibears55]

31 minutes ago, thawv said:

Jed hasn't shown the ability to do anything big.  He's much more comfortable doing nothing and losing, than doing something big and MAYBE regretting it.  Hell, PCA was on a 600 plate appearance pace for 4.75 WAR.  He's afraid to keep in on the team.  Service time games?  Jed's not putting the best 26 guys on the roster, that's for sure. 

I agree, which is why it worries me that he going to waste away some of the minor league talent he has by holding them down too long and not using them in trades to upgrade or with team.

 

 

 

[Rcal10]

50 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

I'd agree if they weren't supposed to be contending for a division/playoff run, but how do you trot a rookie out there everyday and give him 500+ AB to do nothing at a position that normally a run producing one in your lineup.

Including last season,  he now has 263 PA, he hitting .213 with a .684 OPs and 91 Ks

He isn't ready and he not going to figure it out at the MLB level, he needs to go down like you would send a pitcher down and have coaches work with him there.

 

This year Busch has an opts+ of 112. How many Cubs are better than that?  It is his first real chance at starting. I don’t think they send down a guy who offensively is actually better than league average. Who are you bringing up, anyway? PCA? What are his offensive numbers? 
BTW, I am not against bringing PCA up and letting him play. But I disagree with sending Busch down. 

[Bertz]

As someone who generally likes Jed and isn't prone to jumpiness, I'll say even I'm pretty worried about Jed's passivity for this summer.

This team has jumped the market exactly zero times since Theo left.  And one of the prominent examples during the Theo era is one of the few moves where we know Jed and Theo weren't aligned (Quintana).  We also know the current regime really values intangibles at the catcher position.  We also know teams hate changing catchers mid-season.

But the team is clearly in need of some additional reinforcements, and I think catcher is clearly the spot on the roster least likely to just work itself out naturally.  I think the obvious solution would be to pay a bit of a premium to jump the market, run with three catchers on the roster for much of June, and then barring a miraculous rebound dump Gomes from there.  But like pointed out above that just goes so far against MO for Jed I don't see it happening.

[Rcal10]

2 hours ago, Bertz said:

As someone who generally likes Jed and isn't prone to jumpiness, I'll say even I'm pretty worried about Jed's passivity for this summer.

This team has jumped the market exactly zero times since Theo left.  And one of the prominent examples during the Theo era is one of the few moves where we know Jed and Theo weren't aligned (Quintana).  We also know the current regime really values intangibles at the catcher position.  We also know teams hate changing catchers mid-season.

But the team is clearly in need of some additional reinforcements, and I think catcher is clearly the spot on the roster least likely to just work itself out naturally.  I think the obvious solution would be to pay a bit of a premium to jump the market, run with three catchers on the roster for much of June, and then barring a miraculous rebound dump Gomes from there.  But like pointed out above that just goes so far against MO for Jed I don't see it happening.

Yes, the catcher’s position is very concerning. Even if you believe Amaya will hit better and is just slumping now, he still can’t control the running game. He has not been good on either side of the ball. And Gomes looks done. Catcher is a real black home for the Cubs right now and as you said, I don’t see it getting better. 

[Dmac]

I will never understand why they let go of Estrada.  He was not good last year, but to just let him go was ridiculous.  I didn't get it at the time either. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

12 hours ago, Bertz said:

As someone who generally likes Jed and isn't prone to jumpiness, I'll say even I'm pretty worried about Jed's passivity for this summer.

This team has jumped the market exactly zero times since Theo left.  And one of the prominent examples during the Theo era is one of the few moves where we know Jed and Theo weren't aligned (Quintana).  We also know the current regime really values intangibles at the catcher position.  We also know teams hate changing catchers mid-season.

But the team is clearly in need of some additional reinforcements, and I think catcher is clearly the spot on the roster least likely to just work itself out naturally.  I think the obvious solution would be to pay a bit of a premium to jump the market, run with three catchers on the roster for much of June, and then barring a miraculous rebound dump Gomes from there.  But like pointed out above that just goes so far against MO for Jed I don't see it happening.

Yeah I doubt they care much. Amaya is running a CS% (14!) that is on par with his awful offense and I haven't heard any mention of them potentially exploring that part of the market. The C production this year makes the 1B production from last year look fantastic.