The Depressing National Narrative Around The Chicago Cubs

Some really bad takes in  here, but these 2 stand out to me.

1. Why would they extend Steele? He's going to be almost 32 before he hits FA. What's the rush to throw money at that?

2) Alcantara is underwhelming? He's an above average defender at a premium defensive position who put up 125 and 124 wRC+ over the last 2 years across AA and AAA in his age 21 and 22 season. 

19 hours ago, Tryptamine said:

Some really bad takes in  here, but these 2 stand out to me.

1. Why would they extend Steele? He's going to be almost 32 before he hits FA. What's the rush to throw money at that?

2) Alcantara is underwhelming? He's an above average defender at a premium defensive position who put up 125 and 124 wRC+ over the last 2 years across AA and AAA in his age 21 and 22 season. 

 

I too hope all the Cubs prospects are as underwhelming as Kevin Alcántara has been. Caissie is a platoon bat? Wouldn’t be surprised if you shelter him from a few tough lefties but he’s got like a .360 wOBA against LHP on tracked pitches.

We’re knocking the Cubs scouting department because they have both a hitter (Shaw) and pitcher (Horton) plus a previous draft pick (Smith) that all received national votes for the best hitter or pitching prospect in the game? I’m not saying you praise them for it, but why would this be viewed as a negative?

I gotta say this just reads like a hit piece on the organization, which is the vibe that has come across from this author in other articles. That’s fine, maybe there’s an appetite for it, but “If they are as wrong as the rest of the league seems to think, the future will look to be as bleak as the past six years.” What are we doing here?

Jed has a type. That type is Ian Happ. They love athletic college bats who perform well in wood bat leagues. They value certainty (not the right word) in their high draft pics and it’s why they choose college players with a “high floor” (I don’t like that either). Then they go over slot later in the draft in more of a gamble. Jed is always hedging his bets. It’s not necessarily a bad strategy, but the result typically are good, not great. Good, not great isn’t necessarily bad either if you’re willing to buy greatness when it’s available. They’ve not done that. Recently Jed’s made a point of talking about “clean books,” whatever the hell that means. The point of clean books is to go after top free agents I would guess. But they had clean books before and choose Swanson who is a defensive stalwart with a light bat. Not a star and he’s the face of the franchise. In a year or two his book will get messy too. 

There are more Cub fan boys on this site than fleas on a dog.  The Cubs are not the Orioles clawing to bring down the Yankees and other major market teams in the AL East. The Cubs are the only major market team in the NL Central. They routinely get their ass handed to them by the Brewers. The Cubs under the Hoyer reign have produced no superstars from the Cubs farm system. And no, PCA is not a superstar and the jury is still out on him. Brewers have a 19 yr old LF who is a star in his rookie year. He delivered results by help the Brewers go to the playoffs- again. Other than future hopes and dreams about a truck load of minor leaguers riding in to save us, what have you got - a $200M+ .500 team playing in an easy to win division. Results in the PRESENT is what MLB is about. Not misty eyed fairy tales about some great future. In the here and now the Cubs suck under Hoyer.