Backtobanks
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Everything posted by Backtobanks
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I think the Cubs ought to use some of their upper level prospects to get some pitching. It might be worth it to "overpay" for Marquez, Means, Gallen, etc., if their teams want quantity as they rebuild.
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This is really surprising to me at least. The league feels much less stratified than it was a few years ago. I guess the difference is that the bad teams have been spread out into separate divisions? There's no longer an AL Central with awful Royals, Tigers, and White Sox, where the unbalanced schedule is the only thing preventing all three from losing 100? I think the league is pretty stratified. Going into the last weekend there are 16 teams more than 10 games out of 1st place.
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The current Cubs roster is on a pace to lose more than 110 games over a full season.
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That will go great with our versions of Vlad, Bichette and Teoscar Hernandez with the world series win in hand, the ricketts are content to go for 80-85 wins To get to the 80-85 win level, they're going to have to spend more than they want to spend or get really lucky.
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David Ross sucks and GR was always right to hate him
Backtobanks replied to soccer10k's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
Well he has job security for a few more years. -
They have money to spend, but they don't plan on spending according to all of the articles that I've read. They just have too many holes and weaknesses to fill to compete next year. I think we're looking at a much improved team in 2023 and a competitive team in 2024. Next year will be spent finding out whether Wisdom, Ortega, and Schwindel are for real, whether Hoerner/Madrigal is their middle infield for the future, whether Steele and/or Thompson can be a rotation piece, whether Happ is really fixed or not, etc. They have to spend something, even just running a cheap ass Brewers payroll gives them like $80 mil. There’s paths to building a team through FA, a trade or two and 1-2 of these guys remaining being a thing to a degree. They just aren’t going to run out a $40 mil payroll and keep this current roster next year. I’m not betting on them being good next year as of today but think there’s a reasonable path with not spending up to the $180-200 mil mark/not giving out any 9 figure deals to being a competitive division team. I expect them to sign some mid-level FAs that will accept a short term deal, with the hope that they can be flipped to a contender at the deadline.
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They have money to spend, but they don't plan on spending according to all of the articles that I've read. They just have too many holes and weaknesses to fill to compete next year. I think we're looking at a much improved team in 2023 and a competitive team in 2024. Next year will be spent finding out whether Wisdom, Ortega, and Schwindel are for real, whether Hoerner/Madrigal is their middle infield for the future, whether Steele and/or Thompson can be a rotation piece, whether Happ is really fixed or not, etc. I'd love to see some of these articles. Because just about everything I've seen, both on the record and on background, has said some variation of either "retool not rebuild" or "¯\_(ツ)_/¯ until we know what the CBA looks like." I consider a 3 year "retool" a "rebuild".
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Fangraphs thinks 2022 is going to be another lost year for the Cubs. I think it’s way too early to claim that. They have so much money to spend even if they run a “cheap” payroll. If 1-2 of these guys actually remain a thing to some level and they hit on the spending/trades they could easily be back to a division competing team. It really shouldn’t be that hard to build a team that can compete for the division without trading any major prospect pieces with the money they have and ancillary prospects to add a bit as well. They also are starting to amass the prospects to go make a major trade (Soto) if they go that route. They have money to spend, but they don't plan on spending according to all of the articles that I've read. They just have too many holes and weaknesses to fill to compete next year. I think we're looking at a much improved team in 2023 and a competitive team in 2024. Next year will be spent finding out whether Wisdom, Ortega, and Schwindel are for real, whether Hoerner/Madrigal is their middle infield for the future, whether Steele and/or Thompson can be a rotation piece, whether Happ is really fixed or not, etc.
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9.11 Davies batting practice
Backtobanks replied to CubinNY's topic in Fred Hornkohl Game Thread Forum
They had a winning streak going when they faced the Royals, Pirates, Twins, & Rockies. It's only when they face real ML teams that they struggle. -
Well maybe the Cubs are doing it right because we have a lot of 21-26 players.
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Do you really think the Cubs are going to have a payroll under $100 Million next year? Yeah, even when the Cubs were tanking we were still going out and signing mid-tier guys on short deals hoping to score when we flipped them. Paul Maholm and Reed Johnson ended up part of the Arodys Vizcaino deal which led to Tommy La Stella. Scott Feldman brought Arrieta and Strop. Jason Hammel helped bring in Addison Russell. We will be high on the list for mid-tier free agents. Injured or old but want to prove you still have something in the tank? Had a down year in your walk year before FA? We have a solid coaching staff, lots of time, and very low expectations. And if you do well you can get shipped to a contender at the deadline. I expect us to fish heavily from this pond. Bargains can be found. They do have a lot of holes to fill and mid-tier/short term guys would be the way to go while rebuilding/in transition. they have a couple of years to assess which of the cheap players named above are worth keeping or replacing before seriously thinking about being competitive in 2024 and beyond.
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PTR is grinning from ear to ear while thinking of Schwindel, Madrigal, Hoerner, Wisdom, and Ortega in the daily lineup and Alzolay, Mills, Steele/Thompson in the rotation with a bullpen that has Wick, Heuer, Rodriguez, Morgan, and Maples all at or near the league minimum in salary.
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Well we have to hope because it looks like the plan is for Schwindel, Wisdom, and Ortega are all penciled in for next year. lol - None of us have the slightest idea what the plan looks like. The sad thing is that Hoyer is included with the rest of us.
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Why are you saying he's not a full time player? If he continues hitting anywhere near what he has done so far, he certainly would be the full time 1B next year. Sure if he does he would be an excellent full time player. People are rightly wary of someone with ok minor league numbers breaking out at age 29 and don't want to hand out starting spots based on a still small sample size of ~150 PAs. He could be legit but its still early to tell for sure. Well we have to hope because it looks like the plan is for Schwindel, Wisdom, and Ortega are all penciled in for next year.
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Why are you saying he's not a full time player? If he continues hitting anywhere near what he has done so far, he certainly would be the full time 1B next year.
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A new scapegoat to deflect blame away from Ricketts and Hoyer. Whoever it ends up being, he/she better sign a long term contract because it's going to be ugly for a few years.
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When it comes to baseball, it's a Cubs town. In reality, it's a Bears town and always has been.
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I would love to sign Castellanos, but I don't think the Cubs will go all in for a top FA. My preferences keeping the budget in mind is signing Chris Taylor, Lorenzen, and possibly Gray. Ortega and Schwindel are great options for the bench or DH. Try making the Heyward/Hosmer trade work and if that doesn't work, see what it takes for getting Voit from the Yankees. Resign Chirinos to a 1 year deal. Try to work out a deal for Merrill Kelly to fill out the rotation. And finally, hope that Davis progresses and gets to Wrigley asap.
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NL Central: Reds, Pirates and others
Backtobanks replied to Hairyducked Idiot's topic in General Baseball Talk
The Cubs conceded the day they traded Darvish. -
Baez, Rizzo, Marisnick, Trevor Williams, and Davies and we're done.
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The Barnhart situation is interesting. The Reds don't spend, have an obvious replacement in Tyler Stephenson, can get a good backup for cheaper than $7.5, and were shopping and/or considering NT'ing Barnhart while in the Realmuto trade hunt a couple years ago. OTOH he's an effective enough LHH and a GG candidate at catcher and having Stephenson as the cheap backup who also lets them rest Votto some is something that is working out really really well If they want to go with Stephenson, they should pick up the option and trade Barnhart. I'm sure lots of teams would love to have a solid, 1st string catcher for $7.5 million and probably get a decent return.
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Lorenzen would be a great addition. Not only to the pitching staff, but the offense too (LOL). As for Barnhart, there's no way the Reds let him go on a $7.5 million club option.
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A couple of decent ideas in there, but as I've pointed out before the money spent seems out of line with what I think PTR is willing to spend. Extending Contreras and signing C. Seager and Bryant is a ton money alone. I agree Kyle Seager will take a pay cut because of a poor season and age, but he was making $18 million. I like the idea of of trading some young players/prospects in the Oakland deal, but as contenders are they going to trade away two reasonably young players that are still under control?
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The point is that we have a team with a bunch of holes to fill. I think we need to fill those holes first before upgrading positions that are already filled by players like Happ, Hoerner, Wisdom, etc. and then deciding if they need to be upgraded. The obvious holes to fill are 2 SP, 1B, LF, and the bullpen. It's not like we're going to be contending next year. those positions aren't "filled". happ sucks, wisdom likely sucks, and hoerner could very well suck. The team sucks which is why they won't go overboard on spending this year. For those of you that believe this is a "retool" instead of a "rebuild", then the first thing Hoyer ought to do is trade players in our upper ml (like Amaya, etc.) for young ML or ML-ready talent. Hoerner deserves a chance to succeed or suck before we give up on him. Happ should get his last chance to go back to being productive if for no other reason than we really don't have another option until Davis is ready. Money is great, but you can't fill 7-8 spots in one year.
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those positions aren't "filled". happ sucks, wisdom likely sucks, and hoerner could very well suck. And also your idea is to sign KB to play left field (move him, make his bat less valuable) but somehow Wisdom, Happ, and Hoerner, who have all played multiple positions, are somehow locked in. KB can play 3B with Wisdom at 1B.