Tryptamine

I actually love a 6 man rotation for the Cubs this year. Steele is coming off injury, Horton is coming of the most innings he has ever thrown, Boyd is coming off the most innings he has ever thrown, Taillon is coming off injuries, Shota is coming off injuries and Cabrera is coming off injuries. Limit these guys where you can and keep them fresh for the final push and the playoffs.

God if Lafluer is let go of too, has there ever been a more loaded coaching class?

I think there's probably some truth to that the Cubs just aren't interested in bringing Tucker back for whatever reason.

That would keep the Cubs from getting worse in 2026? I don' think there's anything.

Nico for 2026+draft pick >>>>>>> then the realistic return he'd get back

So Seranthony Dominguez is still out there. He was projected to get 2/15 but that's looking pretty unlikely at this point. I'd absolutely love to add him to the pen if they can get him on like a 1/7 deal with a club option for another 7M in '27 but with a 500k buyout.

I never would have believed it a few years ago, but it looks like Arenado is going to end up in the hall very good instead of the hall of fame. He's sitting on 51.6 career fWAR, coming off a .9 fWAR season and he's going to be just shy of 35 years old on opening day.

Yeah it's going to take something stupid that wont get offered for me to be on board with a Nico trade. With the Giants I'll take Bryce Eldridge and Randy Rodriguez. Chances that is offered? 0%. Also, I had completely missed that Rodriguez had TJS in September which means even that wont work.

I mean, if the Giants want to absolutely blow me away and offer Bryce Eldridge, then I'm intrigued outside of that, pass.

Easily my most detested guy in the booth with Troy Aikman starting to catch up. He's the king of the obvious and makes it very clear which players he does an does not like, especially his love affair with Mahomes. He brings no insight whatsoever. During the 49er game where Caleb was torching San Francisco, Collinsworth did nothing but focus on 3 throws that Caleb didn't hit. Meanwhile Brock Purdy was a good amongst men.

Oh please God let that be the last throw of his career.

Pittsburgh players are going to excited once Rodgers leaves.

They don't have anything, they're going to give up, that the Cubs should have any interest in.

CJ Stroud needs to be investigated this is way too blatant to not be intentionally throwing a game.

CJ Stroud doing his best Justin Fields impression.

So I think my hugely optimistic scenario, assuming the Cubs are willing to go above the cap, but not crazily so would be something like this. It does not include unrealistic things like Bellinger/Tucker/Bichette and does not include Framber or Ranger because frankly it seems like the Cubs have no interest in them barring their market full on imploding 1) Grab Zac Gallen at like 3/70 to 4/85 and follow that up with trading Taillon, hopefully for a SP prospect because god knows the farm needs it. This gives the Cubs a long term piece for the rotation and removes one of a half dozen or so guys that will need to be replaced at the end of 2026. There's a bit of upside there beyond Taillon, but mostly it's just trying to make Jed's life not a nightmare after this season. 2) Grab Seranthony Dominguez on something like 2/14 to round out the pen, the stuff is good, the control is not, see if a better pitch lab can get him squared away 3) I'm torn on this because frankly I like non April Alcantara and he provides so much more upside, but if they wanted to play it safe, you could pick up Tauchmann. He's a good 4th OFer, he's not exciting but he's safe and that's pretty much his selling point. They'd be incredibly deep in the pen, rotation and with the bats which they need to be if they're not going to have a mega star to carry them.

So let's say the Cubs are dead set on going over the cap what are even the realistic options? Tucker would obviously be a significant upgrade and push Seiya to DH and Mo to AAA Bellinger the same Bichette would be great, but there's no way he's ok with being the DH so it's wildly unrealistic After that, who is really going to significantly outperform Mo at DH? Eugenio Suarez has been between 105-125wRC+ the last 3 years and while Mo putting up a 125 wRC+ this year is optimistic, I don't think a 110-115 is at all unrealistic. The only way I could see it happening is acquiring a bat via trade.

I'm taking Houston all day over New England. Houston is my team to represent the AFC in the superbowl.

If they keep Puka+Adams under 250 combined receiving yards, I considering that a huge victory.

You know Shaw would likely still get like 300-400 PAs as the team currently sits, especially if they're able to get him to be passable in LF/RF.

They legitimately don't have anything I want outside of wildly unrealistic things like Schlitter. I guess Dominguez would be interesting if he wasn't a complete trainwreck defensively.

Philly is incredibly mediocre

Every time I watch Jalen Hurts I come away thoroughly unimpressed.

Wow, Kittle with the torn achilles, that really sucks.

Yeah, someone will give Nashon a healthy bit of money, I just don't want it to be the Bears, but yeah the secondary is almost in as desperate a need of help as the Dline.