BREAKING: Cubs Sign Third Baseman Alex Bregman to Five-Year Deal

[Banks-Williams]

1 minute ago, Cuzi said:

I prefer better baseball players and someone who's wRC+ dropped 60 points outside of Yankee Stadium doesn't top my list of wants and wishes.

Well Bellinger is much better than Bregman both morally and statistically.  

[Cuzi]

Just now, Banks-Williams said:

Well Bellinger is much better than Bregman both morally and statistically.  

Thanks to Yankee Stadium.

[Rcal10]

6 minutes ago, Banks-Williams said:

Well if this was his decision, he should be fired.  Bregman’s stats post cheating era are that great.  Plus who wants someone associated with cheating on their team 

In his last 4 seasons where he accumulated over 2500 PA his WAR is 17. How is that not very good? All those years are post “cheat” years. 

[Banks-Williams]

1 minute ago, Rcal10 said:

In his last 4 seasons where he accumulated over 2500 PA his WAR is 17. How is that not very good? All those years are post “cheat” years. 

His batting average and home runs were never close to those of the cheating years: 284-296 v. 242-273 and 31 and 41 v. 26 tops.

[Gjfificifjdej]

12 minutes ago, Banks-Williams said:

Well Bellinger is much better than Bregman both morally and statistically.  

If a players morals mean anything to you, you’re a pretty bad sports fan. If Hannibal Lecter was an all star at 3B we’d call it an eating disorder 

[KCCub]

19 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Why do we get trolls every time the Cubs do something significant? We end up with new posters who are just here to howl at the moon. This is another example. 

Because it’s an internet sports forum. Happens everywhere. Best way to deal with a troll is to not engage 

[Banks-Williams]

53 minutes ago, Gjfificifjdej said:

If a players morals mean anything to you, you’re a pretty bad sports fan. If Hannibal Lecter was an all star at 3B we’d call it an eating disorder 

You know what?  Baseball is a family sport. Parents take their kids to the game so they can admire persons who became successful through hard work and skill.

But you, you, think it is fine to tell them to admire cheaters?  I’m glad you weren’t my parent. 

[Banks-Williams]

53 minutes ago, KCCub said:

Because it’s an internet sports forum. Happens everywhere. Best way to deal with a troll is to not engage 

 

[Jason Ross]

Just now, Banks-Williams said:

You know what?  Baseball is a family sport. Parents take their kids to the game so they can admire persons who became successful through hard work and skill.

But you, you, think it is fine to tell them to admire cheaters?  I’m glad you weren’t my parent. 

Listen, you have a right to not watch the Cubs if this matters so much to you. 

I think in the grand scheme of baseball, if you're drawing a line here, then you probably shouldn't have been watching the sport for a while. What Bregman did or was apart of is pretty tame compared to what some of these people are behind the scenes. 

[Banks-Williams]

2 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Listen, you have a right to not watch the Cubs if this matters so much to you. 

I think in the grand scheme of baseball, if you're drawing a line here, then you probably shouldn't have been watching the sport for a while. What Bregman did or was apart of is pretty tame compared to what some of these people are behind the scenes. 

 

[Victor Reichman]

IGNORANT SIGNING ! We have an excellent 3B in Shaw, who is a slightly better fielder, far more speed and low cost. $35 mil a yr till he is 37+ at that level is unconscionable. Don't get me wrong, Bregman is a really good player, but not for 5 yrs/$35 mil when he is 32. Ready to puke. Thankfully, the Bears had a miracle comeback to soften the news of this foolish signing.

[Derwood]

I assume this guy didn't watch a single minute of 2025 because Tucker was on the team

[Banks-Williams]

What they do on their own time is their business. At they do on the job — and get caught doing — is my business.  You are right: I can spend my money elsewhere. But if I can get rid of Hoyer for being an idiot, I’ll take that too. 

It is good to teach kids that you can make a difference.  I don’t teach them that multiple wrongs make a right or make it even okay. 

[Bertz]

Cubs now have 11 hitters that Steamer projects to at least a 100 wRC+.  Swanson (98) and Amaya (96) are close and above average for their positions.

The Cubs also have 10 hitters projected above 100 specifically vs. left handed pitchers as well as 10 vs. right handed pitchers, so there's a strong balance as well.

[Derwood]

4 minutes ago, Banks-Williams said:

What they do on their own time is their business. At they do on the job — and get caught doing — is my business.  You are right: I can spend my money elsewhere. But if I can get rid of Hoyer for being an idiot, I’ll take that too. 

It is good to teach kids that you can make a difference.  I don’t teach them that multiple wrongs make a right or make it even okay. 

Counterpoint:

[Gjfificifjdej]

9 minutes ago, Banks-Williams said:

You know what?  Baseball is a family sport. Parents take their kids to the game so they can admire persons who became successful through hard work and skill.

But you, you, think it is fine to tell them to admire cheaters?  I’m glad you weren’t my parent. 

Most professional athletes are not the kinds of people I would want kids looking up to, this has been the case for my entire life. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy sports if I required the players on my favourite teams to be good human beings. I assume you didn’t watch any games last year because Tucker, another member of the sign stealing Astros was on the team?

[Bertz]

Something to keep in mind with adding Bregman to an already full lineup.  The level of health the Cubs got on the position player side last year was extremely fortunate.  And of course health aside if the bench had been less terrible each of those guys probably sits an extra 5-10 games organically.

[Cuzi]

13 minutes ago, Derwood said:

I assume this guy didn't watch a single minute of 2025 because Tucker was on the team

Tucker was in the minors when the cheating scandal happened. He didn't join the team until the following year.

[Derwood]

5 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

Tucker was in the minors when the cheating scandal happened. He didn't join the team until the following year.

Damn, it was that long ago? I was looking at the wrong Astros WS team

[cl smooth]

1 hour ago, Banks-Williams said:

His batting average and home runs were never close to those of the cheating years: 284-296 v. 242-273 and 31 and 41 v. 26 tops.

...are we talking about batting average to gauge if a player is good or not? in the year of our lord 2026?

[Gjfificifjdej]

8 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

Tucker was in the minors when the cheating scandal happened. He didn't join the team until the following year.

He played games with the Astros in 2018, the investigation concluded the sign stealing operation was still running during that season. 

[Victor Reichman]

My comment apparently isn't posting. IGNORANT SIGNING.

Shaw is actually a better fielder, far more speed, 10 Hr in 2nd half and inexpensive. Bregman is an excellent player, but 32, slowing down, and 5 yrs at $35 yr. is too long and too much, esp. with the possibility of a shutdown in 2027. 

[Derwood]

Just now, Victor Reichman said:

My comment apparently isn't posting. IGNORANT SIGNING.

Shaw is actually a better fielder, far more speed, 10 Hr in 2nd half and inexpensive. Bregman is an excellent player, but 32, slowing down, and 5 yrs at $35 yr. is too long and too much, esp. with the possibility of a shutdown in 2027. 

It posted 27 minutes ago, and was wrong then and is wrong now

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

5 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

I think this also shows we were way more interested in Tucker than the Cubs were. I do think that when he was traded here the plan was for him to love the city and the Cubs sign him long term. They have proved they will pay a guy until 37 years old with this Bregman deal. So, IMO, I think they would have done 10 years with Tucker. I think what happened was the Cubs ended up not really liking Tucker. I have no idea why. But, IMO, they like Bregman’s make up better. What happened last year while the Cubs were trying to get Tucker to love the city was the Cubs decided they didn’t love Tucker. Right or wrong on the Cubs part, I don’t think money or years bothered the Cubs with Tucker. I think Tucker bothered the Cubs. 

I have heard something that would confirm this. 

[Cuzi]

20 minutes ago, Gjfificifjdej said:

He played games with the Astros in 2018, the investigation concluded the sign stealing operation was still running during that season. 

During "parts" of 2018. The investigation concluded there was no sign stealing taking place during the 2018 playoffs, so at some point during the season they stopped doing it. Tucker played in 28 games in 2018 for the Astros starting in July. He had a .141/.236/.203 batting line for his time on the team that year. If they were still stealing signs by the time he came up, he didn't do a very good job of reading them.

If you look at their hitters monthly numbers, June kind of stands out for 2018. They all went on a heater that month.

Edited January 11 by Cuzi