Cubswin11

Come to think of it, with all this talk of trading guys to save money. Why don’t they just trade Heyward, he makes the most and is easiest to replace.

Something like Newcomb, Pache, and Wright doesn’t make me feel all that warm and fuzzy, but it would be a good combination of underlying talent, unrealized upside, and MLB ready contributions. It almost certainly makes them worse in 2020, and when you combine it with the fact that Braves fans would probably howl in anger at that package, makes me feel it’s in the ballpark. If we’re truly punting on 2020, you need to consolidate. Reunite him with Maddon and get Jo Adell. I think this is my preferred route in trading KB if they decide to do it. Get the highest upside/highest rated guy, even if he might not play for a year or two instead of trying to thread this needle of adding major league ready dudes for him who could help this year but aren’t as good as KB and you aren’t replacing KB with an equal talent (Rendon, Mookie, etc.).

Yep. I don’t understand the enthusiasm behind trading him when the return is sure to be underwhelming. Nobody seems enthusiastic about it, it’s been a rumor so it’s been discussed what would be an acceptable return but nobody seems to be saying it should and needs to be done. How do you know it will be underwhelming?

Any team with the starpower of Bryant, Baez, Hendricks, and to a lesser extent Rizzo has the foundation needed to win the world series. The supporting cast is a lot easier to fix/replace/have better luck, so you shouldn’t be writing off 2020 at all. While this is true, if they have to get under 208 for reasons I just don’t see how you build a proper team to win this year.

I don’t see KB getting moved at this point with the grievance thing and Donaldson and Rendon still FA. I think at least 1 of Willy, Q, Happ, Bote or Schwarbs (don’t want to move him) this week. Hopefully we do the signings you suggested too.

I’m almost positive there were reports we took a skeleton crew to Vegas last year. It was like Theo, Jed, a few assistants and business side people. So if we are taking 25 people this year you’d think it’s setting up for some movement this week.

Jesus, taking 25 people has to mean we are looking to do stuff.

Hopefully the Dodgers are holding tight on their low years, high AAV offer like they did with Bryce and the Yankees or Angels come in with the huge offer he can’t turn down.

We’ve been saying it’s been their problem the last two years and they’ve figured it out. I still think it’s a big issue and they need to add at least 1, if not 2 guys in that tier of SP via FA/trade. Burnes and Perlata were absolutely brutal as SPs last year, Woodruff was excellent but was the first time he’s ever had success as a SP and he’s already 27/28 and has never pitched more than 122 innings in a year, Houser and Lauer seem like just guys. If the season started today it’s Woodruff/Houser/Lauer/2 of Burnes/Peralta/Suter. They really need Woodruff to be that 3-4+ win guy he showed before the injury. If guys get favorable outcomes you can see how that rotation is fine, I guess, but it also isn’t hard to see it having issues again. They need to lock in some certainty, imo, to be more than a high 70/low 80 win team on projections and a serious threat. Unless they’re going to do the rebuild thing that’s been rumored this year and let the young guys get sorted out.

Giannis is such a cheat code. Still think over the course of a 7 game series they can be beat in the playoffs and even though those team didn’t have Giannis Bud is kinda doing in Milwaukee what he did in Atlanta for 2-3 years. Great regular seasons then falter in the playoffs with not making the right adjustments/too 1 dimensional on offense.

He pitched to like a sub 3 ERA with the Brewers the last two years they traded for him mid-season. They seemed to have some Gypsy magic with him so glad he didn’t go back there.

Reading the profiles on there Gage Workman, Zac Veen, Daniel Cabrera, and Casey Martin all seem like intriguing enough bats who could/should be around at 16 just going off where they’re ranked. Assuming they go bat at 16, seems like profiles they may like based on rankings today.

Him and Margot seem like they could be a really nice platoon.

Seems like a prime lab candidate with the spin rates. I watched some of his baseball savant videos.... His slider/cutter has some decent movement to it and looks like he goes low 80s to high 80s between them (on top of tweaking things with his spin like the article talks seems like working on tunneling the two would be something to look at). Also looks like he can generate some decent arm side run on his FB.

If Kendrick only goes for $6.25 a year I can’t imagine Hernandez goes for more than $4.5 or so. We should get on that. Also trade for Margot you idiots.

All of these trade proposals involving all stars (Contreras, Bryant, etc.) talk about getting young players back, which is fine if those young players are going to contribute to the Cubs at the major league level in 2020 and 2021. I'm not interested in 18-20 year-olds that "might" be really good in 2023-2024. Any trade for these guys I think brings back at least some level of a ready MLB player on top of prospects. Like a Margot, Lamet, Estevez, other RP or whatever types. I don’t think they’d go for 100% prospect packages.

Ralph is a horsefeathering moron

that's awful kind. We came out perfectly fine on those trades. It’s Score listeners and call in idiots who think they were massive mistakes. It’s complete hindsight and revisionist history to think otherwise. Eloy is going to struggle to be a 2 win player and Q very well could give us more WAR as a Cub than Eloy will put up for the White Sox, we got a WS for Gleyber and he was a player in A ball at the time, Jorge was worth 0 WAR the two years before this year and Davis got us to a NLCS and there was nowhere to play Jorge.

I don’t think anybody just wants to cast him off. The thought is he’s our 2nd most valuable offensive trade piece and most easy to replace his value without having to go spend crazy money/do another trade we can essentially be buying and selling at the same time. As TT showed Vic+Castro platoon probably gives us similar value plus we get whatever good stuff we get in a trade for him. I’m more than fine keeping him, but think it makes plenty of sense to move him now and I’m pretty confident they won’t move him unless it’s for a package that’s pretty good. There’s also the whole game calling, framing, defense thing. Maybe they just don’t like what Willy does there and don’t want it anymore and even for as good as the offense is they feel he’s giving up a lot back with all that.

Contreras has hit the DL the last 3 years, or at least should’ve in 2018 when he completely died offensively and something was wrong. I think Contreras only playing 115-125 games (whether because of extra rest/maintenance to avoid injury or because he gets hurt) is something you have to bake in to projecting him moving forward.

When have they really blown up on teams outside of like the Votto/Giancarlo massive ones? The ones more in the Rizzo, Yelich, Suarez, Quintana, Trout’s first one, and Bogaerts, Albies and Acuna are well on their way all seem to have worked out I’m trying to think of other ones an really can’t. And a lot of those you aren’t talking that much guaranteed money at risk of blowing up. Starlin Castro? He signed a 7/60 extension in 2012. 2013-2019 he was worth 10.9 WAR, not great but only cost $8.5 per year and he also had a 3.2, 2.3 and 1.9 win years. So you got a few decent years.

Nah, they're incredibly overrated. On average, fans especially but even teams fall victim to optimism bias when projecting out young players. Athletes fall apart at a way higher rate than we are comfortable baking into our projections. Having them under non-guaranteed team control >>>> owing them guaranteed deals. When have they really blown up on teams outside of like the Votto/Giancarlo massive ones? The ones more in the Rizzo, Yelich, Suarez, Quintana, Trout’s first one range and Bogaerts, Albies and Acuna ones just started all seem to have worked out/are working out. I’m trying to think of other ones and really can’t. And a lot of those you aren’t talking that much guaranteed money at risk of blowing up.

Darvish, Jake and Corbin all got paid the previous 3 offseasons. Maybe missing a guy or two. I think Wheeler gets in that ballpark the last two offseason coming off the season he had. If Bumgarner gets 100+ then yeah I think things may be swinging back a little to at least be a showing of good faith to players leading to the CBA talks. Moustakas is probably a bit of an outlier/indicator things may be changing but there seems to be more teams willing to buy this year and if I remember correctly his first FA year he turned down a decent offer from the Angels (who then signed Cozart) then he was left in the cold when nobody really wanted him/filled the spots in other ways and went back to the Royals. That's fair. Although I would argue Yu got way less than people anticipated, which is why the Cubs were able to land him in the first place. Corbin was considered the best pitcher on the market and actually got less AAV than Wheeler, although did get one more year. But I'm willing to go with you on this one at this point. I think the WS really had an affect on Yu’s value. But that offseason also saw Hosmer, Cain, JD Martinez, Jay Bruce, Reddick, Santana, etc get big deals or paid plenty that year. Wade also got a big one. Harper, Machado, Brantley, Happ, Pollock, Eovaldi, McCutchen, etc last year. Idk, there’s been big deals given out the last two years (even overpays). Just because things took until February/March doesn’t mean guys didn’t end up around where they should (or even got more). I’m not defending owners here, the system needs fixes and they certainly could spend more. But the OMG COLLUSION nobody is getting paid (or is getting paid 20 cents on the dollar or whatever) narrative isn’t entirely true either.

I think it’s just Nightengale being an idiot. Other than signings happening faster I still don’t see this offseason being all that different as the past few ones so far. Guys are ending up with about the money they should, ultimately. It’s just happening sooner, so far. I guess I'm conflicted on that. I'm not so sure Wheeler would have been given that contract at any point during the last few offseasons. Or the Moose getting those years, etc. But I guess we will see when contracts for guys like Bum are determined. Because if he really does get $100 million, well, that for sure wouldn't have happened. Especially with a draft pick involved. Darvish, Jake and Corbin all got paid the previous 3 offseasons. Maybe missing a guy or two. I think Wheeler gets in that ballpark the last two offseason coming off the season he had. If Bumgarner gets 100+ then yeah I think things may be swinging back a little to at least be a showing of good faith to players leading to the CBA talks. Moustakas is probably a bit of an outlier/indicator things may be changing but there seems to be more teams willing to buy this year and if I remember correctly his first FA year he turned down a decent offer from the Angels (who then signed Cozart) then he was left in the cold when nobody really wanted him/filled the spots in other ways and went back to the Royals.