bukie

With Judge out due to injury for an unknown amount of time, there is a very real chance PCA finishes the year with the highest bWAR in MLB:

I mean, it makes sense for the Brewers to try to upgrade their offense with what is by far the best available offensive option. Their offense is their weakness.

If the Cubs sit tight and do nothing, they're still the best team in baseball, so that's a B for me. It's reactionary to say they can't beat the Phillies or Dodgers in the playoffs with their current roster, as their current roster is already performing better than them so far this season (and the Cubs already went 4-3 against the Dodgers this year, including 2 way too early to count games in Japan that went against them). However, there are ways to measurably improve the team, so here's my thoughts: 1) If you can get Ryan or Gore without giving up Shaw or Horton, do it. Both are immediate and long term improvements, but if you have to give up Horton/Shaw to get them, it's not as big of an immediate improvement and you would still need extra pieces to complete the team. Just doing this would get them to A- level. 2) If that isn't an option, look to get 2 starter pieces, preferably of the Cease/Lugo/Kelly/Keller/Cabrera/Alcantara crowd. 3) Pick up an extra high leverage reliever. The pen was doing really well until the last 2 weeks, but having just one more reliable arm in there should bolster the whole pen. One of the Twins (Duran/Jax) or Guardians (Clase/Smith) options would be preferred, or Bednar from the Bucs. 4) Bolster the bench/LHP hitting. Suarez is the big score here, though I may overrate him due to how much he crushes the Cubs in particular and worry he could turn into a pumpkin at any time. More low-budget options would be someone like Yoan Moncada, Ramon Urias or Ke'Bryan Hayes. If 1 or 2 is accomplished, that's an A trading deadline. If they do everything, that's an A+.

While a sound idea in a vacuum, there are several reasons this is highly unlikely: 1) The Yankees are also trying to win and make the playoffs, and are very unlikely to unload their all-star starting 1B in a season where they're statistically still probably the 2nd best team in baseball, despite their record. 2) The Cubs already have an all-star caliber 1B, so Goldschmidt would effectively be replacing Justin Turner. The sheer amount of resources it would take to acquire him for so minimal a role is a poor use of the Cubs resources, seeing as they're already the best offensive team in baseball. 3) The Cubs desperately need pitching over offense and are unlikely to send actual assets to improve their offense until they acquire at least 2, if not 3 pitchers, especially at a position where they're already sporting the 2nd best offensive output in baseball (Kurtz of the Athletics is higher, that's all).

Cubs have the best record in baseball again. Looking forward to tomorrow's front page article detailing how everything is now fixed.

The Dodgers SP fWAR are one of 8 teams that have been worse than the Cubs SP fWAR. Their offense had scored the most runs in baseball until about an hour ago.

Scoreboard watching in July is stupid and pointless. Especially when you aren't chasing anyone and already have the best team.

Cubs now have the best record in baseball. Curious how long it'll be until someone complains about the Brewers again. EDIT: Cubs also have the best run differential and are the highest scoring team in baseball again.

Luke Mensik (LWC HS, ILL) drafted by the Giants in the 17th round. So that makes 7 IL prep players drafted (Jaden Fauske, Conor Essenburg, Jack Wheeler, Luke Mensik, Ethan Moore, Cameron Appenzeller, Ike Young) and not Jack Bauer who was the #1 prospect most of the spring. Wild.

Finally, my kid can put his phone down and not worry about getting a draft call from scouts that were definitely not looking at him while looking at Conor Essenburg and Jack Bauer. 🙂

Bonus pool rounds are done. Round 11, here we go.

It was a bit of an off-Book selection.

I am surprised Bauer hasn't gone by this point, maybe he's really committed to college or teams are really scared off by the huge velo uptick in a short time with relatively few innings.

Lincoln Way West P/OF Conor Essenburg goes 157 to the Braves.

Yeah, MLB drafts especially are hard to project and hard to analyze until basically 5 years later and depend a lot on organizational development.

Still on the board. Teams probably skittish about a HS arm that gained so much velocity in one year, the injury risk there skyrockets. Also, he was used mostly sparingly this season, and any time he went more than an inning, subsequent innings he'd sit low to mid 90s. He's a high risk high ceiling pick.

I just hope the Cubs continue winning because then other results don't matter.

Michael Busch is now 5th in MLB in OPS behind Judge, Raleigh, Ohtani and Will Smith.

If that were the only factor they'd just have used him for the entire 9th. Seems like they wanted Wicks to hit a specific count, then get Palencia a few tosses.

Nice 5-1 homestand against playoff contenders where the Cubs outscored their opponents 41-17.

Wicks was probably on a pitch count for today. Threw 41 pitches.

Hasn't pitched since Wednesday and no game tomorrow. Wouldn't want him to get no use for 6 days.

Man, it's like the Cubs offense just stopped trying after they went up 11 after 5.

Even Kris Bryant sees this.