Cubswin11

And then pray that Theo figures out he's incapable of drafting pitchers and stops trying. #AlwaysDraftBatsInTheFirstRound

Meh, we've awarded and will award free jobs to way less productive prospects than Brinson for making contact and existing as Cubs. Meanwhile the lineup is full of guys who K'd in the minors but also mashed, most like Brinson big guys for the position. For the cost - just swapping out a Almora and a not dead low ceiling cheap ML arm for a guy who min salary CF who actually hit in the minors to backup the OF - it's worth it on that kind of roster. The overarching point on Brinson is you're probably not getting a clearcut starting CF like Margot for the kind of prices the Cubs can pay for a non-stud Dude Lewis Brinson is horsefeathering horrible. Also how is the cost on Margot prohibitive? He’s a short side of the platoon bat and good defender, Happ and a Short or Ademan is more than enough for that.

Sign me up, outside of Brinson move. He horsefeathering sucks, like one of the worst players I’ve ever seen. I thought of Hernandez as a target as well, but went with Fraizer in my mock. I’m fine keeping Bote because he’s solid, but more as the 11-12th man on the 25 man for position players.

Iirc, Correa was our target and they thought they had him and the Astros sniped him from us because they caught him at a workout day or game they weren’t even there to watch him or something right before the draft. horsefeathering hell, don't tell us that. So their backup plan was, what, just close their eyes and pick whoever they ended up pointed at? I’m the biggest Almora hater you’ll find, he still was a successful pick. He made the major leagues and was somewhat productive for a stretch. Most first round picks don’t even make it. The problem was not developing him better or selling him off when he had some value before he sucked.

Iirc, Correa was our target and they thought they had him and the Astros sniped him from us because they caught him at a workout day or game they weren’t even there to watch him or something right before the draft.

Thank god I went golfing today and am again tomorrow. Just sit the important/hurt guys the rest of the way and try and get the highest pick possible.

I feel like this isn't changing things up enough. That lineup, rotation and bullpen is far too much the same for me to have any confidence in this bunch. Theo needs to get much crazier. I just don’t see the complete blow up offseason. There’s still a solid core here that likely gets tweaked instead of overhauled. I just don’t see how they do like the 4-6 big moves to overly change things. I think something what I laid out is roughly what’s going to happen. You’re still smoothing the edges with better depth and adding a ~3+ WAR SP and the bullpen is solid enough on paper going in to a year. It obviously doesn’t feel like enough but round things out better and take your shot again, just looking at it realistically. I’d like to see more change too but don’t want to get hopes up or remotely expect it.

He’s an outright FA but I think it’s typical a guy like him signs back in a minor league deal after we paid him to rehab.

Here's my first go of it - Exercise Q's and Rizzo's options, obviously. Phelps too assuming it stays at $3 million. - Trade Contreras, Chatwood and a Norwood type to the Rockies for Jon Gray and Carlos Estevez (let's say we pay half the difference in Chatwood's and Grays contract ~$7 million is the difference, so we save ~$3 mil) - Happ and Short for Margot - Ademan and Abbott for Adam Fraizer - Cut Descalso - re-sign Nick (lets call it 4/55-65) - Trade Almora for near major league ready bullpen arm or utility guy (like another team's Short) that's in AA/AAA - Sign Jason Castro or Russell Martin to be the backup with Vic Roster (we get 26 guys this year): Position Players (13) C- Vic 1B- Rizzo 2B- Nico SS- Javy 3B- KB LF- Schwarbs CF- Heyward RF- Nick Bench: Margot (CF), Fraizer 2B/OF, Bote IF, Kemp IF/OF, Castro/Martin C Pitchers (13) Rotation: Lester Darvish Hendricks Gray Q Bullpen Kimbrel Wick Estevez Ryan Wieck Phelps Underwood Mills Underwood And Mills are out of options so they get first crack at the bullpen. Then Graveman, Rea, Adbert, Mekkes, Hultzen, etc are on the shuttle.

Yeah more shocking in the sense he’s a key part of the core, seems popular in the clubhouse and is culture shock type stuff. I wouldn’t expect much more than a good bullpen arm and a prospect or a similar valuable MLB position player that got his value differently than Schwarbs for him. My preference would be just to keep him, honestly. Since the return is nominal. I also think we could get by fine with a Schwarbs/Heyward/Castellanos OF, defensively for a whole year. Just find a RHH, CF caddy (Margot) to pair with Heyward.

I think at least one of Willy or Schwarbs are moved as the bigger/shocking name. KB, Javy, etc aren’t going anywhere. There won’t be that big of a shakeup, we’re still going to be the best team in the division going in to next year even with minor moves so take your chances two more years with this rough core and hope thinks break better. Win the division, get to the DS and roll the dice in the dumb tournament. I think Almora and Happ are gone. Descalso should be gone. I’m fine adding 1 of the billion 2-3 win pitchers who are FA and won’t cost significant money for the 5th spot, keep Chatwood in the pen, add a relief arm with a decent track record through trade most likely, then smooth out the edges with a better/deeper roster at the least. Even some Lowrie, Margot, Frazier, Rojas, etc type adds go a long way. And also obviously be willing to pay up to make a Mookie trade happen if he’s truly available. I’m also wanting Castellanos back but more for 12-14 in AAV for 3-4 years and not the 4-5+ years at closer to 20 in AAV he’ll be looking for.

Well, yeah, that comes back to just how nigh-catastrophically bad they've developed pitching talent. Your bullpen is more likely to blow up if you have to rely overwhelmingly on guys you have to bring on because they didn't even manage to develop some legit horsefeathering relievers. It's truly amazing how they've produced absolutely nothing in the draft and IFA, pitching-wise. Just by accident you'd think some random 14th-rounder would hit a growth spurt or develop a new pitch and give you a couple of decent relief seasons. But just stone nothing. It’s going to be too late to help the current core but there finally is some pitching in the system and they’ve turned the corner on it, IMO.

Going in to today, the RD implied we’ve played 5 wins under where we should be and the Brewers 9 games over where they should be (A FOURTEEN GAME SWING). It’s horsefeathering unreal.

If they get credit for the 9th then they get knocked for not showing up until the 9th I mean, it was Happ, who is bad, Bote who is bad (and, unfortunately, got paid), and Castellanos, who is good, but an insanely impatient/aggressive hitter. Not an ideal trio of players to pin anything on. He has a 110 wRC+ on the year, 139 in the second half, 213 in August and 149 in Sep/Oct and I can’t remember seeing him do anything good for a long time. I don’t know how he has those numbers.

They maxed out their 2019 budget in 2018 when Yu was still available late in the winter and was cheaper than they expected and knew they’d have a need for a starter so they went for it. At least that’s the party line, but it seems fairly plausible. I think even with the fickle nature of relievers they didn’t anticipate Carl and Strop being completely worthless, Morrow they should have signed and then assumed we’d get nothing from him due to his injury history. In terms of OF, in the 17-18 offseason they were probably expecting Schwarber to be more like 2nd half 17 Schwarber and possibly improve, Happ to improve to a solid regular etc. They took some risks but ultimately felt they filled all their holes for the next 2 years. That’s not to say there weren’t glaring holes in that logic but I’m guessing that was their thinking if they did actually have a payroll restriction. Cubs took a lot of risks and most of them blew up in their face For me, the Chatwood and Morrow signings are just inexcusably stupid. Darvish makes total sense, and it sucks the first season+ went like it did, but that move makes sense. Shelling out that much for those two mopes if there's ANY inkling that money might be getting harder to come by? Get the horsefeathers out of here. Well yeah. That’s my point, I don’t think he signs Brandon horsefeathering Morrow or Tyler horsefeathering Chatwood for what he did if it kept him from making a run at Bryce or Manny.

I believe he got the rug pulled on him, no way he spent what he did in the offseason going in to 2018 if he knew it would keep us out of last offseasons market entirely. And weren’t the owners in Boston behind some of those big deals? Crawford I think? They hired like a PR firm to dictate targets that would be popular or something. They maxed out their 2019 budget in 2018 when Yu was still available late in the winter and was cheaper than they expected and knew they’d have a need for a starter so they went for it. At least that’s the party line, but it seems fairly plausible. I think even with the fickle nature of relievers they didn’t anticipate Carl and Strop being completely worthless, Morrow they should have signed and then assumed we’d get nothing from him due to his injury history. In terms of OF, in the 17-18 offseason they were probably expecting Schwarber to be more like 2nd half 17 Schwarber and possibly improve, Happ to improve to a solid regular etc. They took some risks but ultimately felt they filled all their holes for the next 2 years. That’s not to say there weren’t glaring holes in that logic but I’m guessing that was their thinking if they did actually have a payroll restriction. Cubs took a lot of risks and most of them blew up in their face This certainly seems plausible, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s true. But it still is deciding to sit out a market with two 26/27 year old type talents that rarely hit FA to do that, which I have my doubts he made that trade off.

I believe he got the rug pulled on him, no way he spent what he did in the offseason going in to 2018 if he knew it would keep us out of last offseasons market entirely. And weren’t the owners in Boston behind some of those big deals? Crawford I think? They hired like a PR firm to dictate targets that would be popular or something. So the take now is that under two different sets of owners Epstein has been ambushed/bamboozled financially? That's some astonishing bad luck. Partially yes. He’s made mistakes when he’s had freedom to spend at his own will but I believe something went sideways with the budget last offseason from ownership/business side and what ended up being the budget wasn’t what it was projected/promised to be when previous moves were made and it’s pretty well documented the Boston owners are meddlers and forced some moves on him.

Pretty much the difference between these teams is that STL can crap out ace starters and relievers whenever needed and we have to desperately sign anyone in sight and pray to God they don't horsefeathering suck. That’s worked out so well for the Cardinals the last 5+ years

Lol

Theo wanted both (obviously). Those are on PTR Man, I love the PTR meme more than anyone, but I will never believe ever that the FO was suddenly broadsided by out of nowhere financial restrictions by the Ricketts. Yeah, the owners are lame as horsefeathers, but this is largely a repeat of the kind of horsefeathers bad spending Epstein got bogged down by in Boston. I believe he got the rug pulled on him, no way he spent what he did in the offseason going in to 2018 if he knew it would keep us out of last offseasons market entirely. And weren’t the owners in Boston behind some of those big deals? Crawford I think? They hired like a PR firm to dictate targets that would be popular or something.

Assuming health I think he’ll be fine, not lock down like the past but good enough. He’s still throwing 96+ and has the breaker.

Have a night, Schwarbs

There’s going to be so many blown saves in the NL playoffs with C-Mart closing out games and the mess that the Dodgers, Nats and Braves have in their pens

Might as well see what he looks like the rest of the way out of the pen since he doesn’t have options next year.