Yeah, he provided a touch of excess value in 2024 with 2.5 fWAR. It was much less under water going into this year at 4.9 total fWAR but the -1.1 this year completely killed it.
Rojas is probably a 3B long term (and has been playing there primarily lately) so I wouldn't rule him out of an Angels trade even if they manage to pull off that deal with the Red Sox.
Detmers, Miller, and Weaver would likely make the Cubs a really, really tough playoff out, especially if they get anything from Cabrera, Brown, Palencia and Steele down the stretch and into the playoffs.
I think the lack of good players being picked may create a chicken/egg situation with this argument. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think it's probably a tough thing to prove either way.
I think you have to account for the fact that the Angels are bad at pretty much everything and there's some expectation that the Cubs pitching coaches/development team can squeeze some more out of him, especially when you factor in the additional years of control.
I always find it weird that people write articles that are so poorly constructed when the information you got wrong is out there if you just look for it. It would have been really unfair of Jed or Craig to expect Boyd to go back out to pitch Game 5 on 1 day of rest after he got them 14 outs in the Game 4 win at Wrigley 2 days earlier.
I think the bigger issue here is claiming 6 players with 120+ wRCs when only 3 of them are clear everyday players. It's just intellectually dishonest and falls right in line with calling the Cubs offense lacking because PCA hits first instead of 3rd or 4th. It's a misrepresentation of reality.
Exactly what I was going to posit. Playoff starter, back end of the pen guy, and another useable arm that's better than what's currently in the pen but inexpensive to acquire.
This is wildly misleading. The Cubs are 8th in baseball in fWAR from the DH position at 0.2. It also appears to have just used whoever has the most PAs as DH to put this chart together.
He feels like one of those guys who bounces around and struggles at a few organizations at the MLB level, then suddenly pops a 4 WAR season or three once he hits 27 and figures things out at that level.
The Brewers do make sense when you dig in. They've just stopped swinging the bat. They also have a focus on hitting hard ground balls. They also don't pull the ball. They're zigging when everyone else is zagging and being the only ones going against the grain is proving to be successful. I ran across a reel from the Wake and Rake podcast that outlines their strategy and it's pretty wild.
Technically, once the game starts it's in the hands of the umpires. They probably get overridden when it comes to World Series Game 7 if it comes down to it, but that's the way it normally works.
Then he doubled down after he got called out for it. He's a native St. Louisan, so it all makes sense. His reasoning is just so dumb, especially when he doubled down.