Irrelevant Dude

That makes sense, but the surprising part is that is occurred now when the Cubs still have some faint hope of competing for the Wild Card spot, rather than riding it out for a few more weeks and then making these types of moves in September when/if it is obvious that there is absolutely no chance of making the playoffs.

I'm all for this move as it keeps Neris off the roster next year, but I find it a bit surprising. Obviously Neris is overpaid, but that is a sunk cost. Taking that out of the consideration, are there really 8 better relievers on the roster? Neris isn't a guy I want closing games, but he has been relatively solid for most of the year. I'm not sure how this can be seen as anything but a "make sure the option doesn't vest" move, which is fine from a business standpoint but looks a bit strange on the baseball side with regard to assembling the best bullpen for the remainder of 2024.

And somehow still having a lower payroll than the Cubs.

I am increasingly of the mindset that it is Juan Soto or bust in order to fix this team, and the choice is almost certainly going to be bust. I just can't really see a scenario where the Cubs swap a few expendable pieces around and magically become a legitimate contender. Bellinger could be off the books, that's great. But can they actually find a better non-Soto hitter to replace him? The Cubs have accumulated quality depth at AAA, so now let's USE IT. One thing that depth can do for them is enable them to make a huge financial commitment to Soto, locking up that cornerstone star player, then save money by filling in some of the peripheral roster spots with cheap minor leaguers rather than spending on veteran free agents. Save some money on guys at the end of the bench and use that where it actually matters by signing a true superstar player instead of spreading the money around on decent players and simultaneously blocking all the AAA talent. Yes, I realize there are other ways to go about roster building. Maybe the Cubs will take a completely different approach and make several significant trades in the offseason to compeltely revamp the roster. That is also an acceptable attempt at fixing this mess. What isn't acceptable is simply replacing Bellinger and a few pitchers with comparable players and expecting things to turn out differently, which is exactly what I expect Hoyer to do...

Oh, good. Another appearance for Neris.

Maybe continuing to hit towering pop ups into the wind isn't the answer.

And on top of that, the deciding run could be a home run by a made up player with a sub-600 OPS.

That was awesome.

This needs to be the end for Neris. They absolutely cannot allow his contract to vest. Either put him on waivers and release him or bury him in the last bullpen spot.

That would make sense, but spotrac has it reversed.

The buyout comes into play if he opts out. But it's only $2.5M this year. $5M if he opts out after next year.

Absolutely. His comments fell really flat for me, like he was looking for credit for the team spending a few extra dollars.

I took it as a "See, we're willing to go over the tax" when in reality they are probably over by like $1M, which is negligible and dumb.

To me, the biggest problem with a challenge system is the way it takes the excitement out of the moment. I want there to be finality to the umpire's call. As a fan, I don't want to have to temper my reactions knowing that any ball/strike call could be challenged and overturned. Let's just get the calls right, and get them right immediately.

I just caught a short clip of the Sandberg segment. He was really emotional, and understandably so. Good for him, and good news for those of us who hope to see him around Wrigley Field for many years to come.

I agree. And they need to do it FULL TIME, not some half-assed challenge system. If they need to use a challenge system at the big league level for a year to get some bugs ironed out, that's fine, but that should be nothing more than an interim solution toward the ultimate goal of a fully automated strike zone.

I'm not going to read the article, but I can conclude that it is a stupid idea.

Where is Boog? I hate this rotating broadcast crew more than I hated when the games were televised on a different channel every night.

Can you imagine watching a peak Tom Glavine game with the strike zone box? "Egregious" wouldn't even begin to describe the strike calls.

Disaster averted!

Where the hell is the episode? The wife and kids went to bed and I settled in to watch... nothing?

Eh, if Nico doesn't draw that throw Swanson was out at first anyway. Maybe something crazy happens in a rundown, who knows?

I thought that play should have been ruled a Hit and an Error, for that reason. He wasn't going to get the runner at first base, so it was definitely a hit, but the runner wasn't going to advance to third until Dansby allowed the ball to get past him.

I have always preferred the Winter Olympics anyway.

The David Ross special?