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.

Plenty of resources to upgrade the rotation. Bummed for Justin.

Some amazing golf yesterday. This pairing should be fun. Especially while Rory ignores the crowd and DeChambeau makes sure he touches hands with every person in the crowd. I still hope Rory wins.

I've watched 'em all. Well, fell asleep in the middle of the 2nd AZ game, but I tried to stay awake for it. Gotta get my money's worth out of the Marquee app. Wife started getting into audio books, so yay. Even watched all of the Masters coverage so far. Already have the overlap (Cubs start and Masters finish) mapped out for tonight. Damn, I'm lazy.

Exactly. I mean, what are we really talking about here? Trading Tucker at the deadline because he wants to test the market instead of accepting whatever offer the Cubs feel like offering, while the Cubs are 10 games in first place and looking like a team that could go deep in the playoffs? If the Cubs traded him at the deadline and then face planted the rest of the season, no one will ever know if they had a chance to win it al or not, and the chances of winning it without him drop dramatically. This team currently has exclusive negotiating rights to sign one of the top 5 players in the game. They traded some talent for that right, while also having a chance to win a World Series this year because of his talent. There are two scenarios going forward that are acceptable: A) Sign him to a lucrative long term deal to make him a Cub for the rest of his playing days B) Ride it out to the playoffs. I don't think we can even include the thought that this team doesn't make playoffs. They are winning this division with one arm tied behind their back. So it's pointless to include C) they are out of the playoffs at the end of June and trade Tucker for a haul when he declares he'll wait out for free agency. If you trade Tucker at the trade deadline while in a playoff race, people will absolutely lose their minds. It's absolutely not even remotely an option. As far as what it would take to sign him, I think 500m will lock it up pre-free agency. If you can negotiate for less, yahoo!

Looks to me like he was going to be out anyway.

This is also not taking into consideration what will be available at the trade deadline, which the Cubs apparently have lots of money available to upgrade where necessary. Assuming PTR coughs it up.

The Cubs have Ryan Brasier, Tyson Miller and Javier Assad on the IL. Then you have Daniel Palencia, Luke Little, Ethan Roberts and Jack Neely in AAA. Ignoring that they are currently playing the top teams in MLB every day, in crappy weather, I don't see the need to sign Robertson at this point. They seem to be winning more games than would normally be expected. Granted, you don't want your bullpen blowing games, but I don't think the bad luck will continue. Hodge's runs were completely flukey. Tucker is not familiar with RF in Wrigley yet. And I'm certainly glad he didn't crash into that wall hard trying to be a hero like Happ the other day. Happ is familiar with his surroundings. To me, Hodge is pitching like a true closer. He's missing bats and his stuff is electric. So a swap of Pressly and Hodge, and maybe even another swap of Pressly and Merriweather might be a better usage of the pen. Pressly seems to be the ground ball pitcher you want to bring in with runners on base in those later innings.

Fun game.

I'm the least observant person in the world. I can't answer that question.

Only the second GIDP this season. Dansby with the first one.

Pressly will be better than he's been so far. Between the guys here now, guys on the IL, guys in the minors and the trade deadline, I think they have the ability to make the bullpen an extreme asset by playoff time. Merryweather was my favorite bullpen arm pre-injury. Hoping he gets back to that level again.

Everyone seems pretty confident it's Bowa, but my pick would have been Jay Johnstone.

26 pitches per inning avg thru 6. Love the patience.

I wouldn't call it unlikely, unless he's looking for a guaranteed contract beyond one year. Ending his career as a Hawk would be quite popular with the fan base. His veteran experience would be a great learning tool for the youngsters.

The Cubs have 4 errors on the season, which have resulted in a total of 1 unearned run. The most forgivable errors are ones that don't cost runs.

The first 1/18th of the season is complete, and the Cubs team WAR is on pace for 46.8. That's playoff baseball, ladies and gentlemen. If they can continue winning 5 games every 9 times they take the field, they will win 90 games. It's that simple, baseball. Just do it.

Only because she isn't offering up Chicago weather. Oh wait.............nevermind.

They brought him in to pinch hit in extra innings last night. Now he's 0-19 with no BB and 9 K's.

It seems like the perfect draft to trade back. Just not sure how many teams see value in trading up.

Spot on analysis, Raw. If Jeanty survives to 10, you take him. But, an OL will be a need with the next pick. I'd expect one of Thuney or Jones to be back next year, but probably not both.

Carson Kelly gets the triple for the cycle. So cool.

I could swear Suzuki’s contact rate was supposed to be spectacular. He’s K’ing at an alarming rate.

187 pitches through 6. Sacramento is gonna need to call up some pitchers to close out this series.

I was assuming no one was all that interested in crossing the border for food, but yeah.