Backtobanks

He is one of the few trade chips the Cubs have without giving up their top 3-4 prospects.

Trade him for Keone Kela. 2 headcases that might benefit from a change of scenery.

We all love Zobrist, but I'm not sure how much he can help the team. He's 38 years old, was terrible early this season, and hasn't faced live ML pitching since he left. He might help inspirationally, but I'm not expecting much on the field. Hopefully he will prove me wrong.

If only all of those batters would have struck out instead the Cubs probably would have won the game. I mean the odds go up if they do because you know, it’s 1 out vs 2 and guys stay on base and keep an inning going In this particular situation you are right, but in all of the other possibilities (hit, sacrifice, error, etc.) it would increase the odds by putting the ball in play.

Since you brought my name into this, I will point out that it was really fun watching the Cubs the other day playing "team baseball" by hitting to the opposite field, stringing together singles, doubles, and walks, moving runners from first to third, etc. rather than watching for the one HR among 10 strikeouts. It gets back to the discussion about making contact (even if it is an out) over striking out. Anybody who has ever talked to a hitting coach knows that making contact is preferable to striking out. Yeah I really enjoyed all that contact last night that led to 3-5 double plays. Much preferable to the batter striking out. If only all of those batters would have struck out instead the Cubs probably would have won the game.

I did read it. And not really a dumb statement by me because it’s a true statement. If you are defensive about your original statement then that’s on you. I could care less who the mgr grew up a fan of other than possibly pulling a philosophical bias or culture or something along those lines. Ironically, maddon grew up admiring the cards primarily. I wish the cub played as an organization more like the cards did through much of their history because not only were they a winning organization but one that consistently plugged and played their players and won with them. And they played “team baseball” instead of this hr or bust [expletive] that theo seems to love Wow. That's like a Backtobanks bad take... It's a dumb statement because everyone already knows that. No one hires a manager based on childhood allegiance/fanhood. No one cares about that for very obvious reasons. I'm going to stop now because this is a large waste of time lol. Since you brought my name into this, I will point out that it was really fun watching the Cubs the other day playing "team baseball" by hitting to the opposite field, stringing together singles, doubles, and walks, moving runners from first to third, etc. rather than watching for the one HR among 10 strikeouts. It gets back to the discussion about making contact (even if it is an out) over striking out. Anybody who has ever talked to a hitting coach knows that making contact is preferable to striking out.

Looking at our All Star finalists shows we don't need no stinking Harper and Machado.

To repeat what has been said - he'ss 22 years old with less than 200 PA in the majors. Also, he's playing on a team that can allow him time to grow and he's playing in a league that uses the DH. It's way too early to make predictions on what kind of career he will have, but he certainly looks like he can be a productive ML hitter for quite a few years. There’s plenty of numbers by him and historical comps to have a pretty good idea what he will be, not certain, but a good estimate. He will more than likely be a productive hitter, I’ve never said he won’t. He just won’t be all that valuable and it’s nonsense how he’s talked about as a future MVP/superstar. He’s probably going to end up being a player with similar value to Schwarbs (they’ll get there differently) as a 2-3 win guy most with maybe a peak year or two over 4 but not much over. And I have pointed out many times that Schwarber would be much more valuable in the AL. I still think it's way too early to guess/estimate what a 22 year old will turn into when he's had less than 200 PA in the ML.

I hope it’s not really weird to bring it up now that Eloy “The Real Deal” just went yard in the 9th to win the game. He’s never going to be all that valuable, sucks he Dong’d vs us but he’s nothing special in terms of value. To repeat what has been said - he'ss 22 years old with less than 200 PA in the majors. Also, he's playing on a team that can allow him time to grow and he's playing in a league that uses the DH. It's way too early to make predictions on what kind of career he will have, but he certainly looks like he can be a productive ML hitter for quite a few years.

Please stop asking an unemployed old yutz what he thinks of a place he has nothing to do with anymore Reminds me of when the print media used to ask Mike Ditka which ultra-conservative guy he was supporting in Illinois elections.

Descalso is running 6th. :-k

Somehow I guess I missed the news story that PTR won the last Powerball Lottery.

The problem is that he hasn't reduced his asking price in those 10 hours.

Dude, again, my dad is talking about how he thinks it's better to make a contact out as opposed to striking out, regardless of whether there's someone on base or not. He's not pining for them to get a hit when he says, "just make some contact," because, duh, we're all doing that; it's this weird thing he does when a player has 2 strikes and is swinging at everything, and he's just assuming the guy is going to make an out because they're just flailing/guessing or taking defensive swings, so in his head he thinks it's somehow always less bad if they hit into an out as opposed to striking out. Nobody is doing the goofy horsefeathers you're tossing out there trying to justify being on board with some spicy old man takes. As I posted before, there's a better chance of something good happening if you put the ball in play rather than striking out. I'm not trying to justify anything, it's simple math.

What about dropped third strikes? check and mate. BRB; just figured out Backtobanks is my dad. You didn't show up on my Ancestry page.

Making contact has the possibility of something happening (more good than bad) while striking out offers nothing. You just pretend double plays don't exist. Cool. As long as you pretend that homers, triples, doubles, singles, errors, fielder's choice, sacrifices, etc. don't exist.

You mentioned popping out or a weak ground ball, but making contact also could be a sacrifice fly, a fielder's choice, or an error all of which are preferable to striking out. Let's not forget that with some crazy winds, a pop out could drop in for a hit. or it could be a double play which is twice as bad as striking out...or a triple play which is 3 times as bad! Making contact has the possibility of something happening (more good than bad) while striking out offers nothing.

You mentioned popping out or a weak ground ball, but making contact also could be a sacrifice fly, a fielder's choice, or an error all of which are preferable to striking out. Let's not forget that with some crazy winds, a pop out could drop in for a hit.

He was a great player and fun to watch, but the sabermetrics fans weren't kind to him. It also shows how the game has changed - now everybody swings for the fences and and strikes out a ton. As a Cub (7 seasons) he struck out a total of 158 times in almost 4000 PA. Now 158 Ks in 1 season is pretty normal.

Because he's replacing one of our best hitters.

You want to argue semantics when you're busy throwing your opinion around. The FACT is that Baez and Contreras were brought to the Cubs' organization under Jim Hendry's tenure. Just because "it's your opinion" that Hendry doesn't deserve credit for anything good is your problem.

That's your opinion, but Hendry drafted Baez and Contreras. Found it: [tweet] [/tweet]That quote in the tweet is very illuminating. Also, Jim Hendry didn't "draft" Willson Contreras -- you sign young players from DR and Venezuela as FAs. Sure, he drafted Baez and signed Contreras, but he doesn't deserve that much credit in my opinion knowing what we know about Jim Hendry. Man, I really don't want to discuss this further and have this devolve into another weird "Jeromy Burnitz vs. Kyle Schwarber"-like tangent. No thanks, I'm done. You keep denying facts with the disclaimer "in my opinion". As I said before, you're welcome to your opinion but that doesn't make it a fact.

Okay, I know Hendry gets credit for "drafting" Javy under his watch just before he got fired, but I seriously doubt he did anything special or got highly involved. Hendry tries to brush off the Hayden Simpson debacle in the 2010 draft by saying he let his scouting director choose who he wanted. Christian Yelich was selected seven picks later at #23 by the Marlins. There was lots of good talent available. If Hendry tries to deflect criticism for the Hayden selection then he also doesn't deserve credit for drafting Javy. I'm trying to find the article or the quote, but I remember Hendry saying he basically let his scouting director do whatever he wanted (within the draft budget) under his tenure. I think all the credit (or most of the credit) goes to the previous scouting director Tim Wilken. He liked Javy Baez over Francisco Lindor and was super high on Baez. Hendry just went along with the selection and doesn't deserve that much credit IMO. That's your opinion, but Hendry drafted Baez and Contreras.

Juiced ball means more HRs. We are at record-setting era with the number of HRs. Maybe offense is down because everybody is swinging for the fences because the ball is juiced and you're rewarded handsomely for hitting .230 with 25 HRs and striking out 160 times a year. I don't really care why offense is down? This whole thing started because you said it'd be nice to have Burnitz's slash line in left field. You were then told that Schwarber basically already gives you that, with better defense. And then you were told that a roughly .800 OPS is more valuable in 2019, when the average OPS is .740ish, than literally every year Burnitz played, where the average OPS was higher. So...Schwarber > Burnitz, agreed? First, any discussion about Schwarber and Burnitz should never be about defense because both should be described as "adequate" defensively. As I posted before, Schwarber wouldn't be removed so often for defensive reasons if he was "above average" as many of you claim. Defensive statistics are questionable at best (i.e. Schwarber could be rated better than Griffey JR. according to some stats. You don't really believe Schwarber > Griffey JR. defensively, do you?) Secondly, Burnitz had an avg. .826 OPS and 138 runs scored over a 14 year career, while Schwarber's avg. numbers are .803 with 86 runs scored in his career. Also, Schwarber's numbers include more platooning against lefties. Obviously there are many players I would have in LF over Burnitz or Schwarber, but since Burnitz' name was brought up in jest, I would pick Burnitz over Schwarber.

The HR rate is skyrocketing now as compared to the steroid era when we know players were using steroids to hit HRs which sounds to me like the ball is juiced now. And...what does that have to do with anything? Are we really just at juiced ball vs juiced players after all of this? Who cares? Offense is down compared to where it was 20 years ago. By every meaningful measure. Juiced ball means more HRs. We are at record-setting era with the number of HRs. Maybe offense is down because everybody is swinging for the fences because the ball is juiced and you're rewarded handsomely for hitting .230 with 25 HRs and striking out 160 times a year.