Cubs (Imanaga) vs Marlins (Bellozo): 8/24/24, 3;10pm

[WhyCantWeWin]

Yeesh striking out against a position player

[Tim]

Start of day comparison:

• PCA: 1.2 fWAR  
• Luis Robert jr: 0.8 fWAR

And PCA has added a HR, double, walk, HBP to his totals today.

[Eeyore]

If they're allowed to do this, why haven't they been doing it all along? It's a bit more fun to watch.

[JHBulls]

Back to .500

Woo

[Bull]

33 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

Shota is going to give up HRs. It’s part of his game. 

It is. And so is limiting base runners, which makes the big flies ok.

[Irrelevant Dude]

I'll say it again, and will keep saying it until I'm blue in the face, but with PCA and Amaya showing major signs of life, I am even more convinced that the Cubs should focus on doing whatever it takes to sign Soto.  Another catcher is still a need, but the Cubs can probably get away with a quality backup/serviceable starter type rather than a primary offensive everyday starter.  The infield and outfield spots are essentially all set already, barring trades.  Pay whatever it takes to bring in the one huge bat, and everyone else falls into place around him (with quality Minor League depth as reserves, injury replacements, trade bait for pitching, etc.).  The Cubs are setup perfectly to make that move, if only Hoyer were the type to take that "risk".

[PeanutPunch33]

PCA and Amaya leading a late season resurgence is wild lol it's been fun to watch 👍

[BKHoo]

Can we just keep playing the Marlins?! 

[UMFan83]

2 hours ago, Tim said:

PCA has caught up to Dansby in OPS

This group is all bunched together.  It will be interesting to see how they finish the season:

.665 - Nico

.656 - PCA

.651 - Swanson

.647 - Amaya

[Derwood]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

This group is all bunched together.  It will be interesting to see how they finish the season:

.665 - Nico

.656 - PCA

.651 - Swanson

.647 - Amaya

I'll be disappointed if PCA isn't well ahead of the other 3 next year

[s2obed]

Can’t believe this team is back to .500, I’d be shocked to see them in the playoffs, but it’s fun to watch the last couple of weeks.

[Tryptamine]

2 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

This group is all bunched together.  It will be interesting to see how they finish the season:

.665 - Nico

.656 - PCA

.651 - Swanson

.647 - Amaya

I'm getting my offseason hot take out of the way now. PCA posts a 5+ fWAR season in 2025.

[Outshined_One]

I love that we've gone from calling for PCA to get demoted to AAA and traded in the offseason to holy horsefeathers he might actually be amazing in the span of a few weeks.

[Backtobanks]

12 hours ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I'll say it again, and will keep saying it until I'm blue in the face, but with PCA and Amaya showing major signs of life, I am even more convinced that the Cubs should focus on doing whatever it takes to sign Soto.  Another catcher is still a need, but the Cubs can probably get away with a quality backup/serviceable starter type rather than a primary offensive everyday starter.  The infield and outfield spots are essentially all set already, barring trades.  Pay whatever it takes to bring in the one huge bat, and everyone else falls into place around him (with quality Minor League depth as reserves, injury replacements, trade bait for pitching, etc.).  The Cubs are setup perfectly to make that move, if only Hoyer were the type to take that "risk".

It will never happen with Ricketts and Hoyer running things.

 

[Rcal10]

13 hours ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I'll say it again, and will keep saying it until I'm blue in the face, but with PCA and Amaya showing major signs of life, I am even more convinced that the Cubs should focus on doing whatever it takes to sign Soto.  Another catcher is still a need, but the Cubs can probably get away with a quality backup/serviceable starter type rather than a primary offensive everyday starter.  The infield and outfield spots are essentially all set already, barring trades.  Pay whatever it takes to bring in the one huge bat, and everyone else falls into place around him (with quality Minor League depth as reserves, injury replacements, trade bait for pitching, etc.).  The Cubs are setup perfectly to make that move, if only Hoyer were the type to take that "risk".

That is just not going to happen. But I do agree with you that the Cubs are set up well to be very good next year. Hell, even if Bellinger comes back and they send the same line up out there, if PCA and Amaya are better than this year the team should be better. Add a TOR starter and maybe a pen arm as well as a decent bat somewhere and they have a very good team. That bat would have to fit in with the 9 they already have and 10 guys would play 9 positions in the line up. Yes, I would love that bat to be Soto, if in a trade, Vlad or Tucker. But I don’t see Jed doing that. But as you said, they are set up nicely. 

[17 Seconds]

pca is down to a 21.8 k% and he passed bellinger in fwar

[Tim]

After today:

• PCA: 1.5 fWAR
• Robert: 0.8 fWAR

I'm so glad that those of you who wanted to include PCA with other players to acquire Robert aren't in charge.

[Tim]

6 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Did anyone on this site, let alone the even more Cubs prospect centric Cubsverse outside, ever? 

 

Definitely B2B, possibly others, as well. I'm pretty sure that if we looked for it, you made the suggestion to do the trade at least straight up, possibly adding more to PCA to get it done.

[WhyCantWeWin]

I do recall Tom wanting to trade PCA for Robert. Too lazy to look up the post

[Eeyore]

At least they didn't accuse you of liking ketchup on hot dogs 

[Tim]

37 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Did I poop in someone important’s milk here? There’s a new edge to my already trumped up villainy the past couple days I notice. It was interesting when the… joke…was pretending I’m so zany and incomprehensible, but seems we’re willing to walk new lines now. Interesting and I’m interested to see how it develops and to what end (a more echo-y echo chamber?) 

Edit: Seems this already had to be cleared up two weeks ago too:

Noisy, wonky times!

First off, I was more making fun of B2B and some others (maybe?) for suggesting that trade.

For you, it was mainly your unending insistence all year long that we needed to fix this team by putting Robert in center over PCA. A two minute search didn't turn up a 1-1 swap, but I did find a couple pages worth of you talking about how Robert would fix this team. Your suggestions on what we'd pay were almost always generic "top prospects". You did make the following suggestions:

• Getting Robert and a toolsy ML arm for like Alcantara, Ballesteros, Vazquez, Sanders, and Hodge would be dreamy

• Cubs trade for: Luis Robert CF, Michael Kopech RHP; White Sox trade for: Pete Crow-Armstrong CF, Luis Vazquez, and Cristian Hernandez IF

• Yeah, I’d swap out Crow-Armstrong for Robert Jr. rn if possible.

 

[Tim]

13 minutes ago, Eeyore said:

At least they didn't accuse you of liking ketchup on hot dogs 

YOU said this: "I saw one trade proposal online that was PCA and Shaw for Robert. I'd do that in a heartbeat. I'd even sweeten that with another non-pitcher."

 

So yes, Tom, people on here have suggested trading PCA for Robert. And adding in Shaw. And adding another prospect on top of those two.

[Tim]

39 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

 

Swap Hodge out for another arm and there’s nothing hysterical about this. 

That is reading comprehension issue if translated the way you want it translated. It could just be disingenuous too since this post is in the same thread I spell out that this does not literally mean trade one for the other. You guys understand they’re allowed to make more than one move? 

Ah, so I slipped up once 

This is a .500 team the board still doesn’t think has a shot at one of 700 playoff spots until maybe 2026. This is even with Crow-Armstrong now sporting an ascending star’s version of a  .273 wOBA / xwOBA through 303 career ML PAs 

I wish we were more honest and just said it was more a matter of money than talent. It’s like unbecoming in Cubslandia to suggest doing anything but sit and wait for prospects to graduate. The one approved Plan besides 5 year rebuild is say you’re willing to go out there and sign Juan Soto or Bryce Harper or Manny Machado or Shohei Ohtani so long as you also acknowledge it will never actually happen due to some inefficiency 

So you're going to ignore the parts of what I've posted that explained I wasn't even talking about you with the trade part of what I posted. Fine.

You're not going to admit you were wrong and that multiple people (including you) talked about trading PCA for Robert. Fine.

But you continuing to insist that Robert would have helped this team in 2024 when he has pretty much sucked out loud continues to blow my mind. He has been a below average player this year whether you want to go with fWAR or bWAR. It's not about the money. He's just not that good right now.

[Geographyhater8888]

Score between 0-3 runs for in 8 of 10 games, score 30 in 3 and back to their typical 0-3 run duds. Without that dude in the lineup who can pick up the slack of the role players from April-October and drive in all these stranded base runners. The offense is a ship without a captain.

 

theyre the most consistently inconsistent Cubs team I’ve seen. 

[Tim]

1 hour ago, TomtheBombadil said:

What more do you want? Turns out I did say it once in a vacuum

Oh but lets not get it too twisted here: money is the decider. That’s why the statistical comp in my first post went totally ignored. All I particularly care about in Robert’s case with the White Sox off an injury is the tools are intact and they are. Still he can hit hard flyballs in the air, play CF, and run the bases well. That’s got as much a shot to play over the next month, seasons+ as a contact (with chase and whiff?) and defense guy. Situation seems pretty fluid and ongoing, either one could stay hot, post a 5+ WAR season or two over the next couple years

I'll give a serious response here.

On the first part - you very confidently claimed that NOBODY ever said it. I found you and Eeyore after three minutes of searching. I'm very sure B2B said it, as well. Possibly others.

On the second part, it's not just money. I know you will continue to refuse to believe me here, but I don't care much about the money in this case. In my mind, there's no reason to use fairly significant assets to acquire a player who has major red flags in his strikeout rate taking a big jump for the second year in a row, and who isn't playing the CF he used to. Plus, we already have a player who plays a better CF, runs the bases better, and is showing a greatly improved bat recently. And he's 4-5 years younger so should have a longer period of peak contribution to the team.

Before you say it in response, yes, I'm aware that Robert has played a very good CF in the past. And he's run well in the past. Has he traded that speed and contact for power?  Is he striking out so much because he's selling out on his swing? Will that continue to get worse? The 36% k rate already puts him at the edge of unplayable, much like Wisdom. 

This doesn't even touch on his injury history, which seems extensive given his number of missed games. In summary, he's been a below average player this year with major red flags, but his current team wants multiple premium assets to acquire him.

There are a whole bunch of reasons that I don't want to trade for Robert and salary is not really on that list.