Cubs (Taillon) vs Padres (Cease): 4/14/25, 8:40pm

[We Got The Whole 9]

15 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I think we have to pause a bit on the prospect stuff there. Palencia, Little and Neeley have yet to establish themselves, which is a fair criticism! But rookies do that. Palencia is the oldest of all of them and he's 25. It's fair to be skeptical of them, but if this isn't the time to see, then I don't know when it is. I do think it's kind of a time to see Palencia sink or swim a bit more. He's cruising through Iowa this year. 

I'm not opposed to signing Robertson, but a few caveats:

1. He's sitting at home for a reason. I won't claim to know what that reason is - but there's one. It could be a Robertson personal one, it could be teams are wary...whatever. But good players don't sit at home for nothing. 

2. Even if the Cubs do sign him, it's going to take him probably a while to ramp up. He's been in no camp, he's not been throwing in games...he's a veteran and if he wants to play is likely not doing nothing, but it's probably a few weeks to get him going. You'd probably have to experiment with the names above regardless. 

I'm not sure if any of the names listed here will make themselves mainstays in the bullpen, but I wouldn't mind seeing any of them (for various reasons). 

Absolutely true about Robertson. For us, I just don't see why not. But I know Hoyer talked to him and he's still sitting at home, so maybe he's just not interested, retirement could be around the corner. The whole thing is weird. Did he get punished for trying to rep himself?

 

It's fine to shuffle some things and see what sticks but I don't have much confidence that our Iowa guys are going to provide much in leverage spots. Maybe Keegan for a few games but his stuff isn't anything MLB hitters haven't seen a hundred times. I digress. Everybody but Hodge sucks.

[BigbadB]

To me, there will be two 40 man spots open. One for when Steele gets moved to the 60 day DL and one for launching Pearson to the moon. DFA him and hope someone picks him up so that maybe we can get some retaliatory at bats against him later this season. Absolutely no reason to protect him on the 40 man roster at this point.

[Jason Ross]

9 minutes ago, BigbadB said:

To me, there will be two 40 man spots open. One for when Steele gets moved to the 60 day DL and one for launching Pearson to the moon. DFA him and hope someone picks him up so that maybe we can get some retaliatory at bats against him later this season. Absolutely no reason to protect him on the 40 man roster at this point.

I'm as annoyed with Pearson as anyone but I don't think he needs a DFA spot right now. He's been bad, but I also don't think it's unfixable. Stuff+ still likes him a lot, meaning he's not declining. His location, specifically on the slider, is horrible right now. There's something jacked up mechanically. He was quite good in 26 innings with the Cubs last year. 

He has options. I'd send him to Iowa and give him a little time to figure that out. If the slider can be located down and glove side (like it had been) instead of up and in the middle of the plate...he's probably fine. No promise he can, but I think it's possible.