davell

Eh, he's a shitbag of a human, he's far from irreplaceable, and he's got tons of on the field issues at this point. Outside of defense, he offers very little. And hes starting to make decent money. If he can net us a solid pen arm, and you get rid of his salary, go for it. We've still got the middle infield covered. We might need to move more than just Duensing and Kintzler this offseason, from a salary standpoint, if we want Bryce and Hamels back too. Russell is next on my list to go, after them, that's borderline reasonable to think about.

Survive Arizona and finishing with 10 games in Chicago, after a day off, will be nice.

Couple his season with the fact he's a shitty human being, I'm sure most are over him. Strictly from a baseball standpoint, my guess is he'll be healthier and back to not being a complete black hole offensively. That said, I'm over him, trade him for a solid reliever and be done with it.

https://twitter.com/DOM_Frederic/status/1040953869184970752?s=19

Yes. Him and Thrilo were absolutely head over heels for him.

No, he was good. Had the talent to be great. His tenure here was definitely flawed. Wouldn't consider THAT to be good. But, I do think it could have been, as they inexplicably failed to surround him with anything remotely close to a full puzzle. you're saying you wouldn't consider his tenure here to be good? so you agree? the fact that he had some nebulous unfulfilled potential doesn't really change what he was. I'm saying it wasn't HIS fault. We had the ability to surround him much better than what we did. But, if you need me to say his tenure wasn't good, I'll agree.

cutler was good though he wasn't bad. he was fine. good is pushing it (in terms of his overall tenure), and i love/loved him. No, he was good. Had the talent to be great. His tenure here was definitely flawed. Wouldn't consider THAT to be good. But, I do think it could have been, as they inexplicably failed to surround him with anything remotely close to a full puzzle.

I think he winds up like a Tannehill or someone. Basically decent. Which wasn't worth anything close to using a pick that high on him.

I'm still waiting on the people here that were soooooooo adamant he was going to be elite, to continue with that....

I didn't think his increased value was predicated on becoming a better defender. I thought he had untapped potential on offense and that is what is happening. I thought he would draw more walks and become a little more patient. He only has 21 BB this season so that hasn't happened yet. I definitely saw him hitting for more power. I think I saw this type of season happening in 2-3 seasons down the road (with a little higher OBP/more walks), but not this soon. Maybe once you turn 18 or whatever, you'll learn just how obnoxious it is when you make posts just to suck your own dick Geez, really lol? Come on, there's plenty of guys here who bring up things from time to time they're right about. I don't see anything wrong with what Regular Show just said. Hell, Javy was an absolute lightning rod, there's been more of that with him, than with anyone probably. horsefeathers, the only other thing that's probably had more play was the whole rebuild debate. We've all been right some, we've all been wrong some.

Nope. Sulley was wrong as horsefeathers. I'm here for the inevitable back tracking on Trubisky. You weren’t a fan of him? I wasn't in favor of taking a QB there at all. And no, while I hope for the best, I wasn't a fan of his coming out of college.

Nope. Sulley was wrong as horsefeathers. I'm here for the inevitable back tracking on Trubisky.

Good. Glad to see. Surprised on Pereda though, with Higgins already going. Time for Steele and Clark to create some buzz though.....

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I can see that and don't blame anyone for thinking that way. That said, this is by FAR, the deepest we've been organizationally, with decent guys. I honestly believe this is the actual strategy that they've put into place, over the last few years. We'll see whether it works or not. I wish we had had Flaherty drop to us, he was our target with our second pick his year. Honeycutt was a guy we had targeted as well. Only lost Urias due to him inexplicably being at Puigs workout for the Dodgers....... Obviously, we missed on them. But, just one hit and this entire narrative is dead. Like I said, in the end, all we need, is one Hammel type to emerge. I feel confident it will. I am also confident we can trade for an upper end type. Or, we could trade for an upper level pitching prospect or two, even if that's unlikely. Plus, we've got money to burn. Whether we actually develop a starting pitcher is almost immaterial. Because hitting on the vast majority of our hitters, has kept us in position to make deals. They know their true strengths and they've played within them mostly, with tons of success. I have no issues with our overall pitching outlook going forward.

I think there's more to all of this..... They've developed surplus positional guys. We've got the ability to.still trade from them to add a high end starter. They've also gotten a very solid group of non-exciting, but productive guys at the upper levels now. Most will get shelled, like Tseng did. But, the strength in numbers approach should actually produce a guy or two that conceivably turns into a Jason Hammel.(Alzolay, Mills, Robinson, Rucker, Thompson, Clifton, Swarmer, Steele) And that would be HUGE for this organization. Finding a guy thru the org, having the ability to trade from positional depth for another, and oh yeah.... Are rolling in money and can still add thru FA too. Yeah, this year was bad on the starting pitching front. But, they've done pretty well in the past, and I'd suspect that'll continue in the future. At least we know they'll be proactive and are trying to learn from what mistakes they made this past offseason. If anything though, I see these discussions and just smile. The fact we're even discussing this stuff is awesome. 3 straight NLCS's, a freaking World Series, and this year the sky is falling because we're on pace to win 94-95 games and have home field thru out the NL playoffs. We'll have a ton of depth next year pitching-wise, and they'll not go thru this again. And yeah, we'll get Bryce too.

I'm not really concerned with Marquez' body. He's young, he'll get put on a nutrition plan, or if he's on one already, it'll be monitored closely. My honest guess is he'll come to ST looking chiseled. He IS our best hope at a TOR type arm. But, I'd sacrifice a bit of velo for more movement personally. Granted, at his age, he's still got time to find more of either or both.

We need at least one starting pitcher. A good one, at that. We need multiple relief arms. And I think.we need a backup C, that's defensive minded. That's what I think we actually NEED. But, adding a superstar bat, allows us tradeable equity we currently don't have and is our best shot at getting better. I really wish the Red Sox had gone over the top end of the LT. Or multiple teams give the impression they would for the right guys this year. If so, it's not like we can't afford it. I just don't see us being the team that gives everyone else the proverbial finger. But damn, it'd be nice if we did.

Not even sure where to put this, but "I just upset Roger Federer and my next act is......"

So, Cole needs to be a Cub forever.....

I absolutely would too. But, the Cubs didn't make the wrong call at draft time. Buehler had TJS and came back throwing 4-5 MPH harder than before. He was considered a back end starter, at the time of the draft.

Thanks, as always, Navin. You're the man.

They could not resign Hamels and voila But, we like Cole lol.

- I don’t necessarily believe they end up over the max with that main group of players (Bryant, Harper, Baez, Realmuto, Rizzo, Stroman, Darvish, Lester, Hendricks, Edwards) between ‘19-‘21 in this scenario - It’s basically a 3 move offseason with a couple reliever signings most notable because the Cubs make them. Simple was a goal - I think this really simplifies and consolidates the roster before the inevitable Bryant extension and sticks to my “ride the wave the next three years” plan with a better cast around Bryant - I think for sure the Marlins trade Realmuto. No one’s building around a soon to be 28 YO C with 3 years before FA. I think you can trade for him and offer a 5/60 extension after 2019 My main point though is I don't see it necessary to trade out Willy and Q for Realmuto and Stroman. The talent level is close enough to where those moves aren't warranted. Again, I'm evidently one of the few here that thinks adding Stroman is a decent enough idea. But, not at the expense of losing Quintana. Plus, I will keep bringing up Chatwood. Because moving him is going to hurt far worse than what I think you're thinking it will.

- I don’t necessarily believe they end up over the max with that main group of players (Bryant, Harper, Baez, Realmuto, Rizzo, Stroman, Darvish, Lester, Hendricks, Edwards) between ‘19-‘21 in this scenario - It’s basically a 3 move offseason with a couple reliever signings most notable because the Cubs make them. Simple was a goal - I think this really simplifies and consolidates the roster before the inevitable Bryant extension and sticks to my “ride the wave the next three years” plan with a better cast around Bryant - I think for sure the Marlins trade Realmuto. No one’s building around a soon to be 28 YO C with 3 years before FA. I think you can trade for him and offer a 5/60 extension after 2019 My main point though is I don't see it necessary to trade out Willy and Q for Realmuto and Stroman. The talent level is close enough to where those moves aren't warranted. Again, I'm evidently one of the few here that thinks adding Stroman is a decent enough idea. But, not at the expense of losing Quintana. Plus, I will keep bringing up Chatwood. Because moving him is going to hurt far worse than what I think you're thinking it will.