Backtobanks

Maybe Theo understands that our rotation may not be as deep as people think without Hamels. Will Darvish come back as a TOR starter? Will Quintana be more than adequate? How much longer will Lester be as effective as he has been? Meanwhile, we want to slightly improve our good offense by paying a king's ransom to one player.

PTR is going to low ball all the FA's to save money and then trade Maddon for Renteria to save a few more $$$$.

Saw a blog from a NY writer on what the Yankees ought to do this offseason. He suggested a trade of Stanton for Darvish and I wondered if that could be expanded to Stanton + Gray + $$$$ for Darvish + Chatwood. Obviously the amount of money involved (and in what years) would be the sticking point. Figuring Gray gets $10 million in arbitration, we would be spending an extra 3.5 million in 2019. The problem with future finances arises on what happens to Gray in 2020 (extension?) and Chatwood after 2020. It's not Harper, but it would satisfy the power-crazed among us.

Of possible interest to NSBB: Harper 420,000,000/14 Dodgers Machado 390,000,000/13 Phillies Kimbrell 70,000,000/4 Cards Donaldson 20,000,000/1 Cards Gonzalez 36,000,000/4 Twins Britton 33,000,000/3 Astros Robertson 33,000,000/3 Mets Lowrie 30,000,000/3 A's Miller 27,000,000/3 Red Sox [highlight=yellow]McCutchen 45,000,000/3 CUBS[/highlight] [highlight=yellow]Chavez 10,000,000/2 CUBS[/highlight]

Well, those teams are either idiots or too poor to afford it so they’ve talked themselves in to that line of thinking when it comes to a player like Harper. Depends on the team and their needs. If a team has horrible production out of a corner OF and is one player away from contending, then paying (or overpaying) for Harper makes sense. If you've got a few holes to fill, getting 2-3 players makes more sense.

I have to wonder if this is fake news. I can't believe that Harper and Boras are going to make a choice without hearing all of the offers. Harper said he wants to get a record contract, so it's hard to believe he may be leaving $50 million on the table because he's friends with KB.

I'm sure Theo will try his best since you said please.

Jason Martinez from MLBTR suggested Schwarber for Wright & Fried. Expand the deal to include Quintana & Gausman to solve the young pitching hole that the Cubs have. Q is only 2 years older than Gausman and both have two years left before FA (I think, Guasman at most has 3 years left). Gausman could actually be more expensive over that time too. I saw that Schwarber-Braves blurb too. He mentioned Soroka and Fried for Schwarber too. I absolutely do that. Turn Fried in to a full time reliever like Miller/Hader, groom Soroka to be in the rotation in the next 2 years. Actually he mentioned Allard or Soroka plus a mid-level prospect for Schwarber.

Jason Martinez from MLBTR suggested Schwarber for Wright & Fried. Expand the deal to include Quintana & Gausman to solve the young pitching hole that the Cubs have.

The problem is that the Ricketts family won't be paying it, all of us Cub fans will be paying it through $200 seats, $15 beers, $10 hot dogs, and an extra $30 a month to add their network to your cable package. Everybody knows that a billionaire didn't get rich by eating the cost of an expensive asset, they just pass it along to the consumers. Just curious, is there anything you're ever happy about, Cubs related? Because you disappeared during 2016..... I didn't disappear in 2016, I was celebrating just like all of the rest of the Cub fans.

The problem is that the Ricketts family won't be paying it, all of us Cub fans will be paying it through $200 seats, $15 beers, $10 hot dogs, and an extra $30 a month to add their network to your cable package. Everybody knows that a billionaire didn't get rich by eating the cost of an expensive asset, they just pass it along to the consumers.

Yeah he would have been a great option after Marwin Gonzalez.

Well if he can't connect with "Millennials" then he has no business being a coach anymore then. Agreed. I just think it’s interesting that he made excuses about players not listening to him and stuff instead of just sticking with “it didn’t work out”. Means either the dude doesn’t like to take accountability or the players really did not listen to him. Or both So now that we solved the problem by firing Davis, does that mean we don't have to spend $400,000,000 on Harper or Machado? :-"

I'd rather do Peralta and Bradley in the diamonback fire sale.

If we lose out on Harper and somebody makes a decent offer on Schwarber, I would love to add Peralta to the Ray and Bradley rumor list from the Diamondbacks.

One phenominal season as a 22 yr. old and 6 other seasons with a line of .269/24 HRs/70 RBI/ 2.9 WAR makes for a solid everyday OF, but not a generational talent in my book. As I said before, he's young enough to add to his legacy, but right now his season as a 22 yr. old looks like an outlier. A lot of potential, a ton of hype, and a whole lotta money. Where does this book of yours rate Jim Hendry among GM candidates? I haven't heard Jim Hendry's name mentioned as a GM candidate.

I don't deny that he came in with a splash and had a phenominal season at 22 years old, but to me a generational talent is someone who consistently puts up the kind of numbers that will be remembered by the next generation. Again, he's very capable of putting up those numbers in the future, but it's certainly not a sure thing looking at his track record.

One phenominal season as a 22 yr. old and 6 other seasons with a line of .269/24 HRs/70 RBI/ 2.9 WAR makes for a solid everyday OF, but not a generational talent in my book. As I said before, he's young enough to add to his legacy, but right now his season as a 22 yr. old looks like an outlier. A lot of potential, a ton of hype, and a whole lotta money. you forgetting about his 2017 where he went .319/.413/.595? he has a career .900 OPS, and that's with a bunch of plate appearances as a teenager weighing it down The numbers include 2017. Again a very good player with the potential to add to his legacy and possibly become a generational talent, but I wouldn't consider him one yet.

One phenominal season as a 22 yr. old and 6 other seasons with a line of .269/24 HRs/70 RBI/ 2.9 WAR makes for a solid everyday OF, but not a generational talent in my book. As I said before, he's young enough to add to his legacy, but right now his season as a 22 yr. old looks like an outlier. A lot of potential, a ton of hype, and a whole lotta money.

I never understood the "Bryce is a generational talent" talk. He's very good, but not exactly "generational talent". Manny is also a generational talent. There can be more than one at a time. If you look at players under 30 in MLB right now,he ranks 4th in WAR since his rookie year. He is only 1.3 WAR away from being second on that list (and a mere 33.3 behind Trout). Also, count the number of hitters that have put up a 9+ WAR in a single season in the past 10 years. I'll save you the work. There have been 8 seasons of hitters achieving 9+ war since 2009. Five of them are Trout (holy crap is he good). One is Mookie this year. Then there's Bryce in 2015 (the other is Jacoby Ellsbury's 2011). Also, Harper owns a bunch of hitting record for teenagers in MLB, including HR and WAR. I'm a bit lost on why you wouldn't consider him a generational talent unless it is a silly semantics thing and you think that ONLY Trout is a generational talent for that "generation" of players. It might be a semantics thing, but it's not necessarily silly. As I said Harper (and Machado) are very good players that fit in nicely into this generation of stars like Betts, Stanton, Donaldson, Rendon, Lindor, Ramirez, Altuve, Springer, Goldschmidt, Votto, Carpenter, Yelich, Bryant, etc., but when I speak of generational talent I'm thinking of the 4-5 players who will define this generation of baseball. I'm not sure Harper fits that description yet. He's young enough to add to his legacy, but so are many of the other players listed. There's no doubt names like Trout and Kershaw will be defining this generation.

I never understood the "Bryce is a generational talent" talk. He's very good, but not exactly "generational talent".

The real problem with the offseason is knowing what to expect from Bryant & Darvish. Do they both come back as all-star quality players or middle- of-the-road players? As you stated, we certainly should be competitive and reassess at the trade deadline.

Yeah that lineup is pretty Joe-proof. The most likely way he'll screw it up is if Zobrist goes back to 2017 (or just being 38 years old in general) and Maddon inevitably keeps throwing him up at the top. Or he tries batting the pitcher 4th.

Unfortunately Schwarber,Baez, Contreras, Happ, etc. were the guys who came up in those situations. So you're picking on Javy here? The guy who led the NL in RBI? The guy who had a .860 OPS with runners in scoring position? Odd choice. Baez had a great year, but I'm not sure he's the perfect person to make contact and hit a sacrifice fly to drive in a run.

I'm tired of this constant complaint at the end of every Cubs season. A certain segment of the audience always claims the thing the Cubs need is fewer all or nothing hitters and more contact guys. Does this player even exist anymore? Players are striking out at record levels. And the Cubs had Zobrist, Murphy, Rizzo, and Heyward who put the ball in play. Almora not too bad either. That's plenty of non-all or nothing hitters. Unfortunately Schwarber,Baez, Contreras, Happ, etc. were the guys who came up in those situations.