jersey cubs fan

Yeah, that's revisionist nonsense Not at all. The timing of that contract was such that I never wanted him extended. It expired at a point when it's a bad idea to sign any first baseman to a big contact. I'm sure there are receipts here if you're bored enough to search for them. The only positive I ever saw to extending him was the nostalgia/emotion factor, and, well, I'm a robot. The first extension was clearly team friendly from the beginning, while at the same time making it very unlikely he would sign again with the Cubs. He was the one guy I didn't want back.

either that or he read this thread title and was offended

stop with your poles hating, he signed jesper horstad today

yeah, I really don't see the high floor idea. they've got as good of a chance as most non-contenders to be terrible. There's plenty of volatility on this roster

Happy draft month

I think it was as simple as convincing them they could make the offense better. All they had to do was score more points. They didn’t have to win 10 games or make the playoffs. They were in a good spot to get a new QB, took the shot on the right guy and had a chance. There’s no reason why competent coaching couldn’t have gotten the job done in 2021. It was not a hopeless situation. If Nagy managed to show some forward momentum with the offense the same group gets to bring back more players in 2022 and try and develop Fields. But they showed nothing. There was zero sign of life with any of the QBs. They didn’t score. They had another losing streak and vets quit on the coach. It was not an inevitable situation, other than the fact Nagy sucked.

When I read the tweet that’s exactly what I thought too, I think Prior had the same thing.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nl-central-preview-who-will-play-spoiler-to-the-brewers/ More about the fact that they didn’t lose any quality free agents, they were already gone.

Not the first Pollock on the south side

I can't get over the decision to keep Nagy and Pace following 2020. It was so obvious at that time that it needed to be done, setting up Pace and Nagy to go for it one more time almost literally against all odds (hardest schedule, no QB, aging roster, OL problems, lack of weapons). Drafting Fields made no sense with those guys doing what they were doing. I'll stop here, cuz this is a bad cycle I get into! Sounds familiar. The stars never align. At some point something has to happen to improve the team in spite of the conditions not being right. Because there's always going to be something that makes our situation less than ideal. Every team that isn't successful can look back and talk about stars not aligning and conditions not being right, until they are. The Rams had their coach and defense but not the QB they needed, until they got it. The Bengals and Bills had nothing but a series of failure and disappointment until they got their QB. The Cowboys seemingly go into every season with an elite something, but haven't come close to putting it all together. It's not about timing and conditions. It's just getting the job done.

I don't get why people are so excited about this. Why would anybody want more umpire involvement? They signal safe or out and we all understand what's going on. I don't need to hear some Hochuli wannabe overexplaining the simplest sport there is.

suzuki dong

I suppose it's possible. Nagy said all the right things about Trubisky to get the job but then turned into a complete douche toward him. Would really make me question everything about Poles and Eberflus as talent evaluators. Trying to picture how this would play out. 2022 disaster season, everybody raises questions about Fields and team positions themselves to draft a QB in 2023. This is a very unproven coaching staff though, and a bad start to 2023 is going to put a lot of them on shaky ground. Maybe Eberflus survives, but Getsy would quickly be on the hot seat. They are going to have a tough time recruiting quality OCs to replace him, so they pretty much have to hit on that 2023 QB from the outset, and odds are they won't be able to. Purposefully taking a dive with Fields is just a disaster waiting to happen for all these guys. Nagy took the job with a thin resume, and he wasn't exactly in heavy demand. Poles was supposedly a hot commodity. I can't imagine a situation where you take the job where you have a QB perceived by ownership and the fan base as a stud, and would then feel confident destroying any chance of him succeeding all so you can take a guy in a couple years. A 3-13 debut followed up by another sub .500 record with the next QB, after giving away Fields for pennies on the dollar is going to cause an uproar. However confident you are in the leash ownership has given you, you have to know that Emery/Trestman went down in a ball of fire after just 2 years, and only one of them was sub .500. Pace was given time to rebuild from that mess, but Nagy was fired after his first sub .500 season. The Bears are desperate for longterm stability, but they do not hesitate from cutting bait if things are bad. They've be much better off doing the best they can with Fields, getting the most out of him, and then if that fails, you try again with your guy in 2025.

I can't differentiate between half those names so I don't have a preference, but why is that too many? Aren't they expanding rosters to 28? 14 pitchers is more than enough. If your entire position player identity is about versatility over ability you might as well use 14.

I'm not that down on the guy. I think they are being reckless with how they are treating their quarterback, but they've got a long way to go before assuming this guy is as bad as Nagy was. If Fields wasn't on the team, I'd be completely fine with what they have/haven't done. If this was completely about repositioning for 2024 then fine. But it's not.

Did you mean to link something? Definitely did mean to lol I don't understanding how this is supposed to be helpful to Bears fans. Beane was brought in to a team that was effectively run by the head coach who was hired months before him, coming on board after the draft. They played and were above .500 the first year with a team put together before Beane got involved. They then drafted their quarterback of the future the following season and had the luxury of not really needing to see anything about of him in year 1. Poles took over this team from day 1 this offseason with the QB already in place. And contrary to that thread, they don't have 4 years to make a couple runs without having to pay Fields. They have to decide on the 5th year option after year 3, and the longer you wait to sign them to a real extension, the more prohibitively expensive it will be. You can't put Fields in a position to get destroyed with no weapons (people keep giving examples of QBs who succeeded with poor offensive lines, but those examples all had pro bowl caliber skill players and many all pros) while expecting him to take the huge year 2 leap (Eberflus's words). They don't have the luxury of blowing off Fields in 2022. And as others have pointed out, if all you do is save your cap space for a rainy day you will get caught overspending once that day comes. The fact that the Bills managed to draft and develop what may be the best QB in the league says nothing about the Bears ability to take advantage of Fields' abilities.

The 3rd wave of free agency is done and they have nothing. Being explicit about not trying to acquire any players for your completely alone on an island 2nd year QB does not make it a good plan.

because they haven't acquired any good players.

look on the bright side, this indicates Poles has good taste in free agents and values them appropriately on the other hand this roster is hot garbage and the odds that Fields survives year 2 as a Bear are dangerously close to coming off the board.

How about a capable offensive starter somewhere?

http://i.imgur.com/u6bvHEU.gif

Bates still seems like a swing IOL guy at best. Think they need a solid swing T and then maybe a cut candidate at G before the draft. That would allow them to focus on one big OL draft pick, but with position versatility Jenkins, Whitehair, Patrick, Bates, Please tell me there's a RT named Mann available in the draft

makes sense for a moment til you reason that instead of Schwarber Darvish Bryant doing nice things sometimes, you just have a couple new guys to provide a few compelling moments on a kinda dog horsefeathers team in actuality you get to May and you're sick to death watching Andrelton Simmons pop out so you steadily tune out for the remainder of it i steadily tuned out the last 2-3 years too though with all those guys doing good stuff occasionally. The death row beat is a more enjoyable and uplifting experience than following the cubs.

NSBB has a minor league forum? viewforum.php?f=2