Cubswin11

Pretty crazy that ball got out. And if the ball is jumping that much to RCF Schwarber probably should be in there, splits be damned.

Cain robbed Jose Martinez of a game tying HR to end the game. Chacin also hit a HR and had another hit and scored a run. So they’re still up to their [expletive] magic. At least the cardinals lost.

Heyward is fixed

Thought Bryant Dong’d but the wind must really be blowing in. 111 mph off the bat.

And it would be Burnes or Woodruff, probably?

Nothing says production over potential and taking every game seriously like having your 7th or 8th best OBP guy in that collection of names leading off

I don’t worry about KB aging much at all. Javy’s the guy I don’t have a ton of interest in extending. He’s such a baseball weirdo and his skill set/underlying stats show he’s a volatile/not sustainable elite player historically speaking, plus he relies on his athleticism a lot. I’m fine the most with riding out the arb years with him. No offense, but saying Baez is "such a baseball weirdo" doesn't mean much... Stop trying to compare him to other elite players historically because you can't find a good comparison. He's unique and special. We've discussed him before and you made the same points and talked up Addison Russell for starting SS and that didn't go well for you last time either. I can't believe how many Baez detractors there still are after last season. Plenty of people were wrong on Russell, a lot smarter people than any of us on here were wrong too (from a pure baseball stand point, leaving out the off field POS he is). Just from a pure numbers stand point I'd still pick a Russell profile over a Javy profile 10 times out 10 on prospects. But enough of that, I hope Russell is gone sooner than later with what we know now. I wouldn't say I'm a detractor anymore, last year made me a believer Javy just has some insane, innate, skills that likely let him be valuable to some degree when many players would fail with similar profiles (or need to be platooned/hidden). If Javy can prove he can repeat last year (relatively) for another year or two I'd be all for an extension, I'd just like to see a little more proof he can be a 4+ win guy again (and not just a ~2 win guy, which is still fine) given that historically it is hard to be 4+ wins consistently with the numbers we have on him.

Bogaerts just doesn’t do it for me, for some reason. He’s really good, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t know if he has an elite level and I’m assuming he’s going to want north of $150 million. Between Javy, Russell (he’s likely sticking around) and Nico I don’t see us spending big $ on SS anytime soon for an external option.

We really need to approach Baez about getting an extension done. Hendricks and Baez were the two key ones I want and most realistic targets. I want to get an extension for KB as well, but I'm honestly concerned about how he'll age after 30. I feel like for some reason that Bryant will not age well and that once his batspeed slows down his swing and approach will suffer. Probably has to move to corner OF at some point too (or 1B). I don’t worry about KB aging much at all. Javy’s the guy I don’t have a ton of interest in extending. He’s such a baseball weirdo and his skill set/underlying stats show he’s a volatile/not sustainable elite player historically speaking, plus he relies on his athleticism a lot. I’m fine the most with riding out the arb years with him.

What’s out there to really spend on next offseason? The FA class is garbage on the top/expensive end. We’ll add some RPs (hopefully re-sign Pedro) and maybe a SP and a position player that’s more a platoon/backup to replace Zobrist. I see us adding any impact through trade, who that is idk. The best FA bats are Castellanos, Ozuna, Puig, Bogaerts and Rendon. I don’t see us being in on those guys (Rendon would be fun if he would play 2B/OF, but I don’t overly see a fit). The FA SP class is deep but average. Cole is the only top end guy. Then it’s a bunch of older/middle rotation guys.

Yeah not really a deal we had to do and he probably doesn’t get much more in FA. But whatever, it’s not that much money that should handcuff us. I think he’ll age fairly well barring an injury.

The Cubs MRI machine is just a bunch of old oil drums taped together and Gryzlo shining a laser pointer around

This would be interesting

deGrom 5 year extension (he was controlled for 2 years yet including this year). He was already older, think this locks him up through age 35/36 season.

https://twitter.com/carriemuskat/status/1110342016448102400?s=21

AL East: Yankees AL Central: Indians AL West: Astros AL WC1: Red Sox AL WC2: Twins Red Sox over Twins Astros over Red Sox Yankees over Indians Yankees over Astros NL East: Nationals NL Central: Cubs NL West: Dodgers NL WC1: Phillies NL WC2: Cardinals Cardinals over Phillies Cubs over Nationals Dodgers over Cardinals Cubs over Dodgers Cubs over Yankees Win the division with 93 wins, it's a dog fight most of the year. Cards and Brewers have a tie breaker game for WC2 (both have 87 wins), the Pirates and Reds both win more than 76 but fewer than 83 games. Good Cubs predictions: - Bryant is back to MVP form, 7+ WAR year, sets a career low in K%. Hits over 30 Dongs. - Rizzo ends up in his typical range of triple slash line outcome .275-290/.375-.390/.500. Finally tops 32 Dongs for a year. - Javy manages to maintain most of his offensive output from last year and sets a career high in BB% (6-6.5%), he loses about 1 win off his WAR from last year but that's mostly due to defense and playing at SS. - Willy is closer to the player he was in 2017/first half of 2018 as he gets proper rest. Tops 20 Dongs. - Schwarber takes a mini leap and gets the K% down a bit and hits .250 while maintaining a BB% in the teens. Hits mid 30s Dongs. - Zobrist is solid and is around the player he was in 2016 and 2017 for 120 games - The bullpen ends up grading out as a top 10 pen in baseball, but it's a bumpy ride early and lots of turnover. Someone from the scrap heap/AAA shuttle emerges as a top 3-4 bullpen arm. Strop is his solid self, Morrow is solid but handled with care when he returns and it's annoying how little he's used but understood, Carl is a little more consistent but still frustrating, Cishek is solid but not as good as last year, Kintzler either somehow has the BABIP gods on his side and is usable or off the team before Memorial Day, Brach gives us 1-2 good months and 1-2 bad month then the rest are his career average or so months. - The rotation, ends up a top ~7 rotation in baseball. Finishes with more than 13 but less than 16 WAR as a group. Darvish tops 4 WAR, Hendricks mid 3s, Q mid 3s, Hamels and Lester switch off being bad and good both finishing with ERAs over 3.65 but under 4.1 and both around ~2 WAR each (Hamels has at least 1 ace like month). Monty gives us 9 solid starts when a small injury comes up/spot skipped in the rotation. - We trade for an OF'er (Castellanos, Haniger, Conforto, Nimmo, Peralta, Calhoun just a few names that pop out) and RP at the deadline - Bote puts in a solid year and slashes .260/.340/.480 but doesn't get enough playing time as Joe favors Almora/Descalo over him and eventually Russell when he’s back. - We play every month over .500 (like last year) - Heyward puts up 1.5-2.5 WAR and isn't completely useless, similar numbers to last year. Bad Cubs Predictions: - Almora is close to the player he was from June on last year and is started way too much. He has 1 month where he BABIP's like crazy and hits .320+ but ends up with the same ugly peripherals a .260-.270 BA, OBP around .300 and SLG around .300 and wRC+ below 80. - Descalso is a more solid LaStella but Joe plays him too much, like he did Jon Jay, he finishes at about 1 WAR. Not bad but not good. - Caratini still can't hit or be a plus defender/framer but is given more playing time to keep Willy fresh, we have a new backup catcher before the end of June. - Happ doesn't overly fix the K problems after his time in Iowa, still contributes some with versatility, OBP and Dongs (and has better peripherals and WAR than Almora) but it's clear he's the odd man out.

Get him, please

Darvish has a bullpen/side session Thursday, sounds like he’s pitching in Texas for one of the games if the blister isn’t an issue. I could see Hamels getting the other start in Texas then Hendricks and Q 1-2 in the Braves series. So Lester-Darvish-Hamels (Yu/Hamels in some order)-Hendricks-Q rotation.

Should’ve been done months ago but glad he’s finally gone.

He’s been worth 3.3 WAR in two seasons he’s played as a 22 and 23 year old. Averaging less than 2 WAR per year is not good. I don't care how old he is. If he sucks, send him down. Don't let him work out his mechanics in important games. I'm fine with this thinking and running the team this way, if you suck and have options you go down to figure it out. But given the current options we have for the 12 position players to start the year I find it hard to believe he's not one of the best 12 options. Just seems if they are going this route they aren't applying the rules to every player the same and it makes this joke of an offseason an even bigger joke if they weren't at least brining in vets on cheap/MiLB/invite deals to compete for spots with the younger guys at the minimum. Also, and it's just interpreting tweets so who knows exactly, but it seems like they blindsided Happ with this and handled it poorly. For a team that prides itself and brag about how well they treat and communicate with guys it seems like they should've handled this better to let it be known to him this was on the table weeks or months ago if x, y, z things weren't fixed/worked on/showed improvement out of him.