Cubs (Peterson) vs Cardinals (TBD): 7/27/26, 6:45pm

[mk49]

1 minute ago, squally1313 said:

This is a good horsefeathers team. 

as long as, Nico and Bregman hit, like they should.  I'm OK with either Detmers or Hancock.  We need someone like that.  Plus, like you said, someone like last year's Kittredge.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

8 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Go get Detmers and Adell. Trade Alcantara, trade one of Shaw/Ramirez, or both I don't care, trade a couple guys from the top 10. Find another cheap starter and the 2026 version of Kittredge. Let Adell feast against lefties (like, say, the Sanchez/Luzurdo combo we might see in a wild card series), let Counsell cook with 2.5 good starters and Brown/Steele/Cabrera all going balls to the wall for extended relief appearances. This is a good horsefeathers team. 

What are we doing with Adell? Platoon with Happ?

[Irrelevant Dude]

4 hours ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I have been stuck at LAX since this morning and have another 4 hours to wait before my rescheduled flight takes off.  I've been sitting here waiting for the Cubs game to start so I have something to do, and now a weather delay...

Good news: The Cubs won and I got to watch the whole game on my tablet. 

Bad news: I live at LAX now.

[Soul]

5 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Good news: The Cubs won and I got to watch the whole game on my tablet. 

Bad news: I live at LAX now.

I feel you.  When LAX goes bad, it goes REALLY bad.

[squally1313]

5 minutes ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

What are we doing with Adell? Platoon with Happ?

Mostly. 161 wRC against LHP this year. 

[Geographyhater8888]

6 hours ago, squally1313 said:

Mostly. 161 wRC against LHP this year. 

Only a 64 versus righties too with an 84 and 148 wRC+ splits since 2023. It feels more like a luxury than a big need but I’d love his bat platooning in the DH spot, especially with team control through 2027. 

Edited 5 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[NorthsideAvenger]

15 minutes ago, Geographyhater8888 said:

Only a 64 versus righties. Those are insane splits. I love it. Since 2023 he’s at a 148 in 352 PAs versus lefties and an 84 versus righties in 1168 PAs. horsefeathers it, go get him. 

I love the idea of Adell but if you can't get Adell what about Tyrone Taylor of the Mets? Taylor also kills lefties.

[Geographyhater8888]

4 hours ago, NorthsideAvenger said:

I love the idea of Adell but if you can't get Adell what about Tyrone Taylor of the Mets? Taylor also kills lefties.

Taylor is having an outlier year. He has a 137 wRC versus lefties this year, a 62 in 2025 and he’s a career 100 guy. I’m not sure what to make of that. 
I would hope there’s a better options if it becomes a need by trading Shaw. 

Edited 6 hours ago by Geographyhater8888

[Geographyhater8888]

3 hours ago, mk49 said:

It's official.  He's back.😃

I don’t think he ever left. 

[mk49]

Yeah, I found that out 2 weeks ago.  His xwOBA hasn't been bad the whole year.  

[CubUgly]

6 hours ago, squally1313 said:

Mostly. 161 wRC against LHP this year. 

Yeah, Happ's RH plate appearances are starting to look like Taillon's starts unfortunately.  It's hurting the team.  Now granted when they bring in a righty in the 6th or so he can turn around and his defense has been as good or better than it's ever been - so there is somewhat of an argument against platooning him for those reasons, but man he's been bad RH. 

[Geographyhater8888]

1 minute ago, CubUgly said:

Yeah, Happ's RH plate appearances are starting to look like Taillon's starts unfortunately.  It's hurting the team.  Now granted when they bring in a righty in the 6th or so he can turn around and his defense has been as good or better than it's ever been - so there is somewhat of an argument against platooning him for those reasons, but man he's been bad RH. 

That’s the thing. There’s so many loud outs and hard hit balls to the outfield that you could argue that his glove is a net positive, despite his inability to hit left handed pitching. I can’t prove it but If we had the 2023 version of Justin Steele then maybe you’d sit him.

[squally1313]

There's also the DH spot. PCA/Adell/Suzuki/Kelly/Bregman/Busch/Dansby/Nico/Happ is plenty solid, and you can put Shaw or Ramirez out there over Happ to avoid Adell's (very bad) defense.

The last part is probably the biggest knock against him. He's got another year of control and is somewhat of a tweener in that he's probably too good of a player to 'only' use as a short side platoon guy (37 HRs last year), but definitely doesn't seem like the kind of guy the Cubs want in the mix given their clear preference for defense and flexibility.

[Bertz]

The 2027 outfield is a really interesting puzzle to think about.  

- Seiya and Happ are leaving, and while they're still good players and good dudes they're both at an age where you shouldn't give them the 3-4 years they'll require

- The best free agent alternatives are Randy Arozarena and Taylor Ward.  Two guys strikingly similar to Seiya in both age and production

- There's a small army of platoon outfielders available, even some Id consider premium (JJ Bleday, Trent Grisham)

- Trade market doesn't have any obvious solutions unless Byron Buxton surprisingly comes available 

- The Cubs' best prospects are generally LHH outfielders you're eying for a 2028 ETA

So I do wonder if the best move is to hodgepodge it for a year.  E.g trust that you can get good production out of a Shaw / Bateman / Adell / Bleday quartet even if you're not positive in what proportions.

 

[Derwood]

Peterson hasn't been great as a Cub, but his ERA has been a full run lower than it was as a Met. His FIP is still 5.12, though

[squally1313]

45 minutes ago, Bertz said:

The 2027 outfield is a really interesting puzzle to think about.  

- Seiya and Happ are leaving, and while they're still good players and good dudes they're both at an age where you shouldn't give them the 3-4 years they'll require

- The best free agent alternatives are Randy Arozarena and Taylor Ward.  Two guys strikingly similar to Seiya in both age and production

- There's a small army of platoon outfielders available, even some Id consider premium (JJ Bleday, Trent Grisham)

- Trade market doesn't have any obvious solutions unless Byron Buxton surprisingly comes available 

- The Cubs' best prospects are generally LHH outfielders you're eying for a 2028 ETA

So I do wonder if the best move is to hodgepodge it for a year.  E.g trust that you can get good production out of a Shaw / Bateman / Adell / Bleday quartet even if you're not positive in what proportions.

 

Wonder if Conforto has played himself into a multi year contract, because otherwise he’d be a great addition to the hodgepodge. I generally agree though, unless you get some sort of hometown discount from Ian or seiya, there’s no one out there you really want to commit to long term. If they go that route though, I want a top end starter, or at least two guys at the Steele/horton level of production. 

[Rex Buckingham]

Taylor Ward's 2026 plate discipline would definitely fit in our lineup

Edited 1 hour ago by Rex Buckingham

[We Got The Whole 9]

I wish it would be Pedro in LF. He has the speed and arhleticism. Hes basically like Happ without the whiffs. He could become quite good out there. The bat looks legit too.

[Outshined_One]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

- Seiya and Happ are leaving, and while they're still good players and good dudes they're both at an age where you shouldn't give them the 3-4 years they'll require

This is going to be one of the most legitimately fascinating issues going into the offseason.  I can see both guys being open to hometown discounts, and both guys *should* be valuable enough in 2027 to justify keeping either or both, but there also are valid reasons not to keep them long past then.  On the flip side, this will probably be Seiya's and Happ's best chance to cash in on their successes, and I could easily see both of them getting 4 year deals from teams who can talk themselves into needing a veteran bat.

My personal prediction is Happ cuts a hometown discount and stays on a 3 year deal, while Seiya leaves, but TBD.

[Jason Ross]

23 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

I wish it would be Pedro in LF. He has the speed and arhleticism. Hes basically like Happ without the whiffs. He could become quite good out there. The bat looks legit too.

He doesn't look bad, but his xwOBA is under .300 currently and his BABIP is over .350. These are pretty curated PA's and he's barely played against LHP. I don't think he's basically like Happ; he is someone you can take to the bank on hitting 20 home runs and Ramirez probably isn't someone you can even bank on hitting 15. The xData is still in small sample size territory, but part of that is also brought back down with the curated PA's thing. Definitely something to monitor. 

I'm not entirely against the idea of Ramirez getting a look in LF and had floated that idea before he even came up, but there are some underlying numbers that should give everyone pause and the idea that his bat is much more that of a 2b than a corner OF'er. He's fun, but I'm not entirely sold yet in that fashion.

[mul21]

5 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

He doesn't look bad, but his xwOBA is under .300 currently and his BABIP is over .350. These are pretty curated PA's and he's barely played against LHP. I don't think he's basically like Happ; he is someone you can take to the bank on hitting 20 home runs and Ramirez probably isn't someone you can even bank on hitting 15. The xData is still in small sample size territory, but part of that is also brought back down with the curated PA's thing. Definitely something to monitor. 

I'm not entirely against the idea of Ramirez getting a look in LF and had floated that idea before he even came up, but there are some underlying numbers that should give everyone pause and the idea that his bat is much more that of a 2b than a corner OF'er. He's fun, but I'm not entirely sold yet in that fashion.

I think some combination of bringing Seiya back and rotating him and Shaw/Conforto in LF is a decent short term solution (obviously pending deadline deals) for next year while you buy some developmental time for the minor league guys until 2028.  But I definitely agree with you on him not being a guy who has enough pop to be the every day guy in LF, even before factoring in whether or not he can hit LHP adequately in MLB.

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I think some combination of bringing Seiya back and rotating him and Shaw/Conforto in LF is a decent short term solution (obviously pending deadline deals) for next year while you buy some developmental time for the minor league guys until 2028.  But I definitely agree with you on him not being a guy who has enough pop to be the every day guy in LF, even before factoring in whether or not he can hit LHP adequately in MLB.

I can see Seiya with a 3 year deal. I think Happ will want more years. Seiya may want to go back to Japan, so he might not care to leave mlb at 35. 3/$75 would be fine with me. Then get some sort of platoon in left and get a solid pitcher or two. 

[squally1313]

3 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

He doesn't look bad, but his xwOBA is under .300 currently and his BABIP is over .350. These are pretty curated PA's and he's barely played against LHP. I don't think he's basically like Happ; he is someone you can take to the bank on hitting 20 home runs and Ramirez probably isn't someone you can even bank on hitting 15. The xData is still in small sample size territory, but part of that is also brought back down with the curated PA's thing. Definitely something to monitor. 

I'm not entirely against the idea of Ramirez getting a look in LF and had floated that idea before he even came up, but there are some underlying numbers that should give everyone pause and the idea that his bat is much more that of a 2b than a corner OF'er. He's fun, but I'm not entirely sold yet in that fashion.

Yeah that goes back to Bertz' idea. If your opening day position player list is:

• LF: 
• CF: PCA
• RF: 
• 3B: Bregman
• SS: Dansby
• 2B: Nico
• 1B: Busch
• 😄 Amaya
• DH: 

That leaves 6 spots. Backup catcher, Kelly is the ideal but whatever, is one. Filling the other 5 with 

1. Whoever is left of Ramirez and Shaw (good against LHP, can play most anywhere)
2. Conforto or a Conforto esque player (LHB, corner outfield type)
3. Jo Adell (LHP masher, can't really play the field)
4. Brett Bateman or I guess Kevin Alcantara if he's somehow still here (can play CF)
5. Ballesteros if he's here to be the default DH guy, otherwise some infield rover

Cons: It is very much not Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki and the production would fall off. Probably an infielder short, though we've basically gone four months now without a first base backup, so not that worried.

Pros: We'd probably be better against LHP, and it would be incredibly cost efficient, which is good, because we're looking at a rotation that would be average at best if everyone could throw 200 innings, which they likely won't be able to. Hello, Tarik Skubal. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

17 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

He doesn't look bad, but his xwOBA is under .300 currently and his BABIP is over .350. These are pretty curated PA's and he's barely played against LHP. I don't think he's basically like Happ; he is someone you can take to the bank on hitting 20 home runs and Ramirez probably isn't someone you can even bank on hitting 15. 

I'm not entirely against the idea of Ramirez getting a look in LF and had floated that idea before, but there are some underlying numbers that should give everyone pause and the idea that his bat is much more that of a 2b than a corner OF'er. 

I didn't mean he would come out and be a 120 bat but i think from a profile standpoint they share similarities that could lend well to Pedro being pretty good in LF. I would expect he would post a higher BA but lower slug, maybe similar OBP. They are curated PA and he got lucky with some weak doubles, but I think his plate discipline will only get better and he has a track record of being really good in that respect. The batted ball numbers are pretty good. 

 

Personally there's only a couple potentially available SP I would trade him for. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

17 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I think some combination of bringing Seiya back and rotating him and Shaw/Conforto in LF is a decent short term solution (obviously pending deadline deals) for next year while you buy some developmental time for the minor league guys until 2028.  But I definitely agree with you on him not being a guy who has enough pop to be the every day guy in LF, even before factoring in whether or not he can hit LHP adequately in MLB.

You dont necessarily need pop to post good batting lines FWIW. I think as he matures he will post good OBP.