Irrelevant Dude

Honestly the Hosmer thing is the only part that has me at all fazed. There's a lot of people yelling 'that's it??' who are not thinking very hard about the actual value Soto is going to put up(thanks to his position/defense) and I'm also wondering where else you're gonna find a willing partner to give up as much pedigree and production as what is in that deal. Same here, I was in the "that seems reasonable" camp until hearing about Hosmer and his negative value.

Hosmer is also going to Washington, in which case I don't think the Nationals got nearly enough in return.

Who wants to break it to them that Happ can't play CF?

And Alzolay assuming he’s still a thing. Some of these guys are going to need to transition to the bullpen. Alzolay might be a good candidate for that.

I don't love trading the one potential long-term bullpen piece on the roster, but Wesneski looks like an interesting return. I assume he goes into the starting rotation immediately, especially if the Cubs find any takers for Smyly.

Ricketts looking for ways to cut costs?

Apparently I haven't watched much golf lately, but when did they start putting the ball trails on every shot?

That sounds great in theory, but I'll eat my hat if it actually happens. Willson's value on the open market will almost certainly be higher than what the Cubs would have had to pay to extend him, and his prospect return isn't enough to justify playing that game if the Cubs actually wanted to bring him back. He will sign elsewhere, just like all the others.

To play devils advocate: If the team wins, the fans will be there. We're now 6 years removed from the WS team. It sucks that it played out this way but, as a comparison, here are key members of the 2016 team that were on the roster in 2014: Rizzo (breakout season in 2014) Baez (hit .169, spent most of 2015 in the minors) Coghlan (traded from Oakland in 2016) Arrieta (breakout 2014) Hendricks (called up down the stretch, pitched great) Rondon Strop Grimm That's 8 guys (and stretching it a lot on Coghlan and Grimm) that were on the team just 2 years before the 2016 team. This is a bad team right now, it's been a bad team for a whole calendar year. Yes, a lot of that is self inflicted, which is garbage, but the fans (which are already showing up) will be selling the place out as soon as the record flips, regardless of the players on the field. Agreed, success (both individual and team) is always going to be the biggest driver. No one bemoaned losing the connection to the success of 2016 when Almora or Russell was kicked to the curb, or got contemplative about the business of baseball when they moved on from Quintana or Chatwood. People are dying to not look at Heyward in a Cubs uni anymore, it's always gonna come down to the belief that they can continue to be successful and play a part in the team continuing to be successful. Those guys were all much different. In Contreras, you have: A homegrown player who signed with the organization at age 17 A player who is at/near his prime and will still be only 30 years old on Opening Day 2023 One of, if not the, best offensive Catcher in the league A player who, by all accounts, wants nothing more than to stay with the Cubs A team leader on and off the field Why wouldn't he be the type of guy that you want to reward with a multi-year deal, or at least attempt to get a deal done? If the team is planning to compete somewhere around 2024-2025, a 32 year old Contreras could still be a key contributor on that team.

I haven't watched a full game since 2019. There's basically no more emotional investment into this team anymore. I still watch games all the time, but I understand the sentiment and I know several people who used to follow the Cubs very closely and have basically stopped watching them entirely over the past few years. There is risk involved in operating the team like an analytical sports simulation, which can be contradictory to maintaining a fan base over the long term. There is a point where the "smart" business move might not be the best thing for the long term health of the franchise. Do you really want to sever one of the last links to the 2016 championship team (Contreras), while creating yet another giant hole to fill? How can you expect to build a loyal fan base if the organization fails to reciprocate that loyalty to both the fans and players? Maybe this new rebuild works and we have another 3-4 year playoff run, but then what? Then it's time to trade Davis, PCA, Amaya, etc. and start over again. We can't expect the team to re-sign everyone all the time, but there are times when re-signing a player might be the right thing to do even though the computer says otherwise. Contreras is the exact type of player that the team should be looking to keep around and bridge the gap to the proverbial "next great Cubs team", yet somehow that idea has never seriously been entertained. It's one thing to rebuild and be smart about spending money, but this team shouldn't be operating like the Tampa Bay Rays.

paul kilgus was the first cub as a kid who i thought "this guy sucks." Doug Dascenzo, and Harry horsefeathering loved that dude. I rode in an elevator with Dascenzo at Cubs Convention and remember being completely unimpressed. At that time, the idea of having a close interaction with a Cubs player was mind-blowing, but something about a scruffy 5'7" guy with a toothpick in his mouth just didn't fit the bill.

Too young. That said, the fact that he was 58 makes me feel old as hell. That surprised me as well. And then I thought, "maybe he was a really old rookie in 1989." But nope, he debuted at 25. We're just getting old. What an amazing rookie season he had. He was never quite able to reproduce those results, although he did have a bit of a renaissance in 93-94. Thinking of Dwight Smith made me pull up Jerome Walton's stats for reference and I was amazed by his stat lines from 94-98. It was a very limited sample size over those years, but he was consistently hitting around .300 with OPS in the 750-900 range. Why didn't he get more at bats during that timeframe? Does anyone know why he retired at 32?

The spelling of his first name bothers me way more than it should.

Maybe we can repurpose those "just one before I die" shirts.

Nah. They probably won't get another hit.

The mic'd up players have been pretty interesting. Trevino especially seems like a cool guy.

Gonsolin... More like Gone-solin. Amirite?

Is there history between Guerrero and Machado?

That's the problem. With Boras, an extension is EXTREMELY unlikely. If it were any other agent, there would be the thinking that you can make the trade and then work out a deal to extend the player, but I don't think that is the case for most Boras clients.

Soto is a Boras client, so he's going to hit the market in 2.5 years. I can't justify a team like the Cubs giving up the young talent that would be required to bring him in. They would be much better off building up the team over the next 2 years and then taking a huge run at him in free agency. For a team that is competing this year and next, it would be a completely different story. Said another way, you're paying a big premium for current value, and that current value means much less to the Cubs than it does to another team that is positioned to win this year and next.

Willson really seems to want to stay with the Cubs, and I think he would take a discount to do it, but the Cubs don't appear willing to even make him an offer. The chances of finding another catcher who can put up comparable production to him over the next few years are slim to none.

I thought it became interesting again a few years ago when they changed the format up, but maybe this year was the format beginning to get stale again.

What a mess that home run derby coverage was. The cameras were all over the place and missing home runs right and left. The announcers had no clue what was going on and were calling home runs that weren't and vice versa. The announcers also seemingly kept forgetting about bonus time and talking like guys were done after 3 minutes. And I'm pretty sure Pujols' 13th home run in the first round (which ended up being the tieing home run) came seconds after time had expired. Julio Rodriguez was fun to watch, but other than that it was a rather uneventful home run derby.

A couple to full season ball(Horton, Birdsell) a couple to the complex league(Ferris, Mule), a couple of the senior signs might be relievers real quick(Hull), and a couple probably need pitch lab/dev list/rehab time(McGwire, Frisch). Plus there's a decent chance that the slooooooowwww ramp up they did with everyone in the minors this year is the new normal, in which case even in the unlikely event you've got too many pitchers guys are probably piggy-backing through at least Memorial Day Yeah, I don't think getting pitchers innings will be a problem, partly because of how slow pitchers typically ramp up at the lower levels. There are plenty of innings to go around for the guys who will matter. It isn't like hitters who need more and consistent at bats.

I assume the Cubs are confident in working the money out, but so far it would seem they need to find some some additional money somewhere to sign all the 2-4 picks: 1 - Horton (under slot) 2 - Ferris (over slot) 3 - Paciolla (over slot) 4 - Mule (over slot) 5 - Birdsell (around slot)