Cubswin11

Which one of their SP’s that’s not coming off shoulder surgery and projected for under 1.5 WAR is your favorite? fuggen GOT EMMMMM suck it stearns You know it!

Whichever one kicked our ass into the play-in game remember when theo admitted that the offense flat out broke, and we actually thought that meant changes/additions and not just a new hitting coach Speaking of, saw this tweet today. Kinda fits here in response I guess. It’s interesting, at the least.

Here’s everyone in 1 tweet. All arb guys have signed. Depending on who you use for projections it appears we saved some money (but obviously we don’t know what they calculated internally).

I think he was actually projected to get $4.3 million in arb -- sorry if I'm wrong and spreading bad info -- so hopefully he's getting screwed a bit no matter what. Yeah I saw he came in $900K-$1.6 million under projections depending on the site

Jays are paying $16-18 million of his salary. Between just cutting and eating all of Tulo’s money and now this amount they’re eating I’m surprised we didn’t work out a Chatwood or Heyward swap for one of or both Tulo/Martin. Seemed to make sense and they fill some needs.

Didi might not be back at all this year. It’s Tulo/Torres have SS, DJ/Torres have 2B, Andujar/DJ 3B and both them could play some 1B. It’s not that crowded, especially since Tulo hasn’t played in 2 years and they also have a DH spot every game.

I’m still super leery of that command comment, not the first time I’ve seen it. I just don’t believe guys with strong fastball command at his ages and levels of comp are giving up HRs like he has or popping off 5+ ERAs in Rk ball. He had a low 3 and sub 3 era in two levels in 2018 that are above RK ball that he was in, in 2017. So idk why RK ball carries more weight when he’s been better more recently at higher levels (he was also 17/18 years old in RK ball). He’s only given up 9 HRs in ~155 minor league innings, idk that doesn’t seem like a red flag number and he’s had a BB/9 around 2.5 +/- at every stop the last 3 years. His command seems to be pretty good and certainly adequate for someone with his velo and age.

Which one of their SP’s that’s not coming off shoulder surgery and projected for under 1.5 WAR is your favorite?

Deadline to exchange numbers and agree before going to a hearing is today (Friday, I think noon et). [tweet] [/tweet]

God damn it, that’s some mighty fine doom bonnering

And even on the small chance that it is, you can still fix that! if the Cubs felt it was incredibly important to pick up the Hamels option at that point, that means they thought they were getting a good deal, and he'd be worth more on the open market. That means he still is. Yes, he can block trades to 20 teams, but you know the 10 teams that are options would be contenders. If that doesn't work, Hamels and Quintana are projected to be basically identical pitchers next year. Quintana definitely has value. Go save yourself that money. I can understand that the Ricketts may be frustrated based on the last couple years. The plan was waves of homegrown talent. The team won 97 games in 2015, and then went out and signed the most expensive hitter on the market. Last year, we signed the most expensive pitcher on the market. Now they're asking to sign the biggest contract of all time. Neither has worked out so far, and it doesn't look great going forward. It's a legit criticism. But it shouldn't keep them from Bryce. Or from trusting Theo. The thing that eats at me is that I was thinking/hoping we'd have rebuilt at least some portion of our farm system by now. Maybe I'm asking too much for a team thats in the 5th year of a 'win now' cycle but I'm not expecting 2014 levels of talent. If we really are cash strapped, also having a broke farm system is a death blow. Adbert going down last year really sucked, yeah we probably should have a little more depth and options at this point even given the cycle but if he doesn’t get hurt he definitely gets a chance to make some starts with Yu and Chatwood getting hurt/sucking and if he looks good maybe we don’t do Hamels option this year or we feel good about him in a relief role or something.

I’d be pretty shocked if Duensing is on the opening day roster. Not that I’m any more confident in them but I bet his spot is the Iowa shuttle spot for Webster, Wick, Mekkes, Maples, Rosario, Ryan, etc. But yes, we need to add at least 1 real option there yet.

This looks pretty cool [tweet] [/tweet]

The SP needs reasoning has already been laid out and I agree with it. But picking up Hamels option also let us dump $7 million with trading Smyly (the Rangers were on the hook for the buyout of Hamels option for $5-7 mil). I really look at that as it’s own deal and Hamels only costing $13 million. We couldn’t have just dumped Smyly’s $7 mil this year for nothing, imo, had we not excercised Hamels option it would have cost prospects or something to move Smyly. So we still would’ve been stuck with his $7 million + however many millions it would’ve cost for a SP FA and in the end we probably end up spending around $20 million for Smyly + FA starter (I doubt we’d go in to the year with Smyly/Monty as the 5/6 starters). Lance Lynn got $10 mil a year, Harvey got $11 million, etc.

https://theathletic.com/759967/2019/01/10/rosenthal-the-question-lingers-how-far-would-the-nationals-go-to-sign-bryce-harper/ So either Theo and the FO is leaking this to publicly put pressure on the Ricketts for such a move (which is a whole other issue if there’s division between the FO/Theo side and ownership/business side) or they are playing it like this to throw other teams off the scent or something? Or I guess Rosenthal’s “source” doesn’t know what he/she is talking about or is made up/Boras.

Or Bryce is happening and they're waiting for the convention to announce it... please? Harper is meeting with the Phillies in Vegas on Saturday, so this isn't happening. Convention is next weekens, right? He’s meeting this Saturday with the Phillies.

Good move for them. With his elite framing and their devil magic he improves them a ton since C was so weak for them last year. I would assume this is their one big spend, they will be at $120 mil with this move which has historically been as high as they go when they are competitive from the late 00’s/early 10’s.

Officially, official. I know the Cubs prospect guy and some other twitter guy had it a few days ago but first I’m seeing a national guy say it.

He doesn’t make much money, so they shouldn’t have to move him for that reason. Given his injury history and splits I’d assume he’d just move to a platoon OF’er with Taylor/Robles (could even keep Robles in AAA for a while to work on things/use as trade bait down the road).