Rob

His is probably the flukiest. And the "fakest" amongst them. He ran a .304 BABIP for his career. But that season he was at .341. And here's his Total Zone figures: 1985 - 5 1986 - 4 1987 - 1 1988 - 3 1989 - 2 1990 - 25 1991 - 1 1992 - -5 1993 - -6 1994 - 1 1995 - 4 1996 - 9 For a guy who spent most of his career hovering in the "slightly above average CF" range, he suddenly put up one of the top 20 fielding seasons in CF history. Since fielding stats are so fuzzy for guys even now, I'm pretty hesitant to buy in on him being anywhere near that good. In reality, PCA's 2026 is probably already better than Dykstra's 1990. But still an interesting topic, I thought.

If he stopped playing today, PCA's 8.4 fWAR would be the 52nd best season by a CF in history. Names above him on the list: Willie Mays 8x (1954, 1955, 1958, 1957, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965) Mickey Mantle 5x (1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1961) Ty Cobb 5x (1910, 1911, 1912, 1915, 1917) Tris Speaker 5x (1912, 1913, 1914, 1920, 1923) Mike Trout 5x (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018) Stan Musial 3x (1944, 1948, 1949) Joe Dimaggio 3x (1937, 1939, 1941) Ken Griffey Jr. 3x (1993, 1996, 1997) Aaron Judge 2x (2022, 2024) Benny Kauff 2x (1914, 1915) Hank Aaron 1x (1961) Rickey Henderson 1x (1985) Duke Snider 1x (1953) Fred Lynn 1x (1979) Joe Jackson 1x (1911) Jacoby Ellsbury 1x (2011) Lenny Dykstra 1x (1990) Cy Seymour 1x (1905) Josh Hamilton 1x (2010) There's still some one-offs in there for various reasons (injuries, drugs, deadball era, etc...). But PCA is beginning to reach rarefied air. It's hard to put up seasons like this unless somebody is in possession of Hall of Fame caliber tools. Hell, there's a bunch of Hall of Famers who never put up a season quite this good. And we're still in mid-August.

Honestly, I'm interested in the concept of buying low on him this offseason. He's still running a 12.2% walk rate versus an 18.4% strikeout rate. The power is way down. Maybe it's his injuries failing to heal. Maybe part of it is ballpark. But he's also posted a .329 xwOBA. So even with his failings, he'd look like an above-average bat if he just had neutral luck (his BABIP is one of the lowest of his career right now). That's down pretty far from the estimates of him after his mammoth half-season in 2024 and the start of 2025. But I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him bounce back into the 3-4 fWAR range next year. And there's upside for more. He's burned some bridges this season. If the Dodgers front office is willing to eat a significant chunk of the contract, I'd happily take a flyer on him.

Josiah HartshornOwen AyersJaxon WigginsCade TownsendEthan ConradKaleb WingKane KepleyCaden SorrellMyles BaileyJames TriantosBrooks CapleWill SandersBrandon BirdsellJuan CabadaDerniche ValdezAriel ArmasEli LovichRiley MartinJostin FlorentinoGrant Kipp

The Cubs staff ranks 27th in baseball in pitching fWAR. 25th for SP. Our run prevention was coming from defensive excellence, not pitching excellence. Having an even average staff with this team defense should significantly cut our runs allowed per game. We've been decimated by injuries and have cobbled together enough serviceable arms to stay afloat thanks to the aforementioned team defense. But guys like Colin Rea are not playoff caliber pitchers. It was time for an upgrade.

No evidence. Pure speculation. Hope I'm wrong.

I think Jed is going to balk at the prices for a controlled starter. And since he's already had a very solid move for that cements this trade deadline as better than the last one, I could see him declining to pull the trigger on any big moves. If we end up with another starter, I'm guessing it's a rental swingman type that moves into the bullpen if enough players get healthy.

I don't think we are adding bench players unless we use guys like Pedro Ramirez to snag a controllable starter. And unfortunately, I don't think Jed is going to find a good controllable starter he's willing to spend much prospect capital on. At this stage, I think the most likely outcome is that Jed grabs a good reliever and a guy from the Soroka model last year. A rental who is an upgrade over our 5th starter mess, but would probably move to the pen if enough players are healthy come the playoffs. Or maybe instead of a swingman he just goes straight with a second pen arm. I'm prepared to be underwhelmed. But Gausman was a good add at a fine price. So the trade deadline wont be a total bust.

I like Bateman and Southisene, but this is a pretty small price to pay - especially considering how large an upgrade this is and how desperately we need it.

We'd signed Tyler Austin in the offseason to be that guy. They said he'd be out "months" after the knee procedure in spring training, but I haven't heard anything about a rehab assignment or timeline since then. At this point I'm doubtful he ever takes a plate appearance for us. But there is still Jonathon Long and BJ Murray in AAA. Both are reasonable bench options to come up as part of the roster shuffle when we start making other moves.

Best comp I can think of is Andruw Jones in his 20s. Transcendent defense. 30+ HR power. 20+ steals. Strikes out a bit more than average. Fluctuating walk rate that's sometimes pretty good. There's also ways to tweak a Mike Cameron comp to make it work pretty well.

I'm not attached to any specific names. Mike Soroka wouldn't have been anybody's top 3 choice last year -- but if he'd stayed healthy and done what he did for Arizona this season, we'd have been thrilled with the add. I just want three good healthy arms. One rotation, one bullpen. I don't care where the third one goes. We're dealing with small samples the rest of the season. It's entirely possible for a #3-4 guy type to outgun a Skubal the rest of the way. No sense in blowing up the farm for any of the arms I see on the market. Just grab the cheapest reasonable options and hope they're pumped to be in a playoff race.

Of course, a no-trade list is not really a no-trade list. It's a "you have to incentivize me to waive this" list. Most of those lists are now populated by teams the players think will be in the market at the trade deadline -- such that they can get an extra $1m relocation fee or whatever for agreeing to waive. It's just gamesmanship. The number of players that wont actually accept a trade to a team on their no-trade list is pretty small. 90+% of them just want a bribe to do so.

Nah. With his speed and power, PCA always had a chance to BABIP his way to crazy numbers. And I think that's part of this. But that's not to take away from the plate discipline improvements -- which appear to be real. He's making much better swing decisions.

It's worth noting that Javy batted .299/.371/.515 and put up 2.0 fWAR in 47 games there. He was actually worth a pretty good prospect haul. Just not this much.