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Rob

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Everything posted by Rob

  1. Rob
    Double post. Delete me please and thank you.
  2. Rob
    Everybody staying healthy is a pipedream. Did you forget that Hoerner had surgery that may keep him out the first part of the season? Shaw is going to get a ton of chances in ST to prove his worth. And he's likely to line himself up as a the primary backup to 2B, 3B, and SS. He may start the season with the Cubs depending on Hoerner's recovery, but once Hoerner is good to go it probably makes sense to put Shaw back in AAA for his development. But I'd bet dollars to donuts that any prolonged injury to Swanson, Hoerner, or Paredes ends up with Shaw getting the nod. I'd guess Shaw logs north of 60 games with the Cubs this year, and is poised to take over a spot next year. And to touch on a point you've made to other people -- I don't know why you're so concerned about offensive runs versus defensive runs. There are arguments about the proper roster construction to be made in the playoffs, but for the regular season runs are basically runs. There's no point of diminishing returns on defense during the regular season. Remember 2016? We had the best defense in baseball.
  3. Rob
    Shaw is exciting, and he may well render Hoerner redundant. But I see little need to push him. Already, we know our playoff hopes likely have a razor thin margin. We aren't some powerhouse team that can afford to take a mild downgrade this season while Shaw works out issues at the big league level. So pushing out a four win player for a guy who'd likely be worth closer to two this season (and maybe four a couple seasons down the road), is a move that we just can't make. Shaw can do the "first guy up from AAA" thing in event of injury. He will get his reps eventually, I have no doubt.
  4. Rob
    Cubs add reliever Brooks Kriske, per his own post on Instagram. He's out of options, so I'm assuming it's a minor league deal. Or he'll be cut in spring training when it's clear he can't magically throw strikes.
  5. Rob
    I haven't watched much football in the last couple decades, and am only slowly regaining a passing interest. So please excuse this if it's a dumb question. My understanding was that Poles was regarded as a good-to-great GM if for no other reason than the absolute steal of a deal with Carolina where the Bears traded down their #1 pick for this year's #1 pick and a bunch of additional stuff. A couple months ago I was seeing it lauded as one of the most lopsided trades of all time. What happened there? Or was that just the lone good spot in an otherwise-terrible performance as GM?
  6. Rob
    Tauchman is a surprise. But if we aren’t getting nibbles on Bellinger, then Tauchman is too well-paid to be a fifth outfielder. Still, I can’t believe there was no trade value there. Maybe there’s an off-season medical issue?
  7. Rob
    I'm wondering if the Cubs should be looking spending some of their funds on extensions this season. This may be the last chance to get PCA "cheaply." He struggled so badly in the first half of the season, but showcased skills that could make him a perennial 4+ fWAR player going forward if he's truly figured it out. Likewise, one of Alcantara/Caissie probably needs to go in a trade. So why not put team-friendly extensions in front of both of them and ship off the one who doesn't sign?
  8. Rob
    Well, my plan for surviving the next four years involves a lot of deep denial. Being able to block the politics thread (and other assorted threads) from showing up in my feed would be a major help. Truth be told, seeing those threads is already causing me some trepidation about being on the site. So I would be eternally grateful for whatever you can slap together to make it happen.
  9. Rob
    Necroing this old post. I'd love to be able to ignore certain threads. Could be a nice offseason project for you.
  10. Rob
    Yeah. Moving Hoerner for starting pitching and running a stopgap option until Shaw was ready seemed like a viable way to upgrade the rotation. Not particularly likely. But prior to this, it was at least possible.
  11. Rob
    When I heard he was arrested, I thought to myself "I bet he utilized any relevant slurs against the police during his arrest." But I didn't understand why I thought that. Finding out he's MAGA explained it.
  12. Rob
    In fairness, that figure looks very different if you merely extrapolate his 2024 figures from his time with the Cubs rather than include his time with the Rays. I don't like doing such a thing due to sample size issues. But there's cause for concern with Paredes, certainly.
  13. Rob
    I doubt any disliked him. But I count myself amongst the number who are certainly skeptical. His profile seemed like a poor fit here, and so far it has been. I'm hopeful he eats his Wheaties and makes some adjustments going forward. There's enough that he does well that he can still be solid even if he's not a 3-4 fWAR player going forward. But I'm not expecting stardom despite his prior performance. If he's putting up 2.5 fWAR, I'm pretty happy and he's still a reasonable upgrade from Morel.
  14. Rob
    He specifically says he's NotKyle. Rude.
  15. Rob
    We all know why people want Sean Murphy...
  16. Rob
    Not to go all Tom with it, but there was no Age of Innocence. There was an Age of Plausible Deniability -- where everybody's bad acts weren't captured on video.
  17. Rob
    20th There were 8 teams with between 5.1 and 7.8 fWAR. Then a bit of a gap, and an additional 13 teams between 2.8 and 4.5 fWAR. Not too far behind the Cubs, it starts to get ugly. But we were still pretty firmly planted in the fat part of the bell curve, albeit on the wrong side of it.
  18. Rob
    Yup. Rose wanted to be in the Hall of Fame because he wanted to exploit that fame in pursuit of monetary gain. And it would have degraded the prestige of MLB and the Hall of Fame to allow him to do so. Schilling is in a similar boat. He wants to be in the Hall of Fame so he can charge more for autographs and so every ****** opinion he has is published "MLB Hall of Famer Curt Schilling says..." Allowing the Hall of Fame to be forcefully associated with his abhorrent politics would hurt the game. Both of them should probably get in eventually. But posthumous induction is preferable.
  19. Rob
    Bailey is the best defensive catcher in baseball by a mile. Most of his value comes from framing, so robot umps will ruin him. But he's a 4 win player this year despite a miserable bat.
  20. Rob
    I'd love to get my hands on Patrick Bailey. Part of me thinks that Posey might overvalue catchers. But another part thinks that he might want a higher offensive floor from his catchers just based on his own performance. Either way, it's criminal if Jed isn't checking in there.
  21. Rob
    I mean, ideally, Sasaki would come over. IIRC, he'd be capped-out at something like $5-6M kinda like Ohtani was when he came over early. So if Jed made the right sales pitch, we could get the best pitcher on the market for a pittance. Of course, if he does come over a year early he's probably signing with a better team than us. But maybe if we made an impact signing or trade to signal our intent to compete... So I guess we'd just have to sign Soto too.
  22. Rob
    Swanson was worth nearly 5 fWAR last season. He's on track to be worth about 4 fWAR this year. If he continues to lose 1 fWAR per season -- a very aggressive degradation of production -- he'd still put up a total of 15 fWAR (assuming we bench/cut him after he reaches replacement level) over the course of his contract. Which would mean we'd have paid him roughly $12 million per win. That is less than the rate we're paying Bellinger this year. Is that a mild overpay? Sure. But that's only with a pretty pessimistic decline baked into that. Swanson could still easily be worth the contract. I don't know why everybody's talking about him like he's some big disappointment -- he's been the most valuable player on the Cubs since we signed him.
  23. Rob
    Lowe is somebody I didn't think about, but he'd be a perfect fit. Trade for a Mariners SP (probably Castillo) + Vlad Jr. That'll probably require moving Busch, Nico, and prospects. Sign Lowe and one of the veteran catchers. LF - Happ 1B - Vlad Jr. RF - Bellinger (or throw money at Soto if Bellinger opts out) DH - Suzuki 2B - Lowe 3B - Paredes SS - Swanson CF - PCA C - Amaya/Kelly (or insert your other favorite borderline starter) Shaw and Ballasteros would be well-positioned to help at midseason or in the event of injuries to the starters. SP1 - Steele SP2 - Castillo SP3 - Imanaga SP4 - Taillon SP5 - Assad / Wicks / Etc... Probably still needs some relief help, but that's a solid team.
  24. Rob
    Busch was blocked by Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani. We don't have anybody blocked to the same degree they did.
  25. Rob
    I feel like Busch to SEA makes a fair amount of sense, provided that we're able to use our prospects to peel Vlad away from TOR.
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