Cubswin11

In this scenario I’d probably make Escobar one of my top targets although going after Donaldson to move KB to the OF would be interesting too as our bigger spend guy and then sign Mercer to be the utility guy. Whoever takes the cheapest 1 year deal of Lucroy, Rivera or Ellis would be my backup C choice, I don’t have a real preference other than we need one.

Jon does not have it tonight

Time for some regression then

I just don't know if either Machado or Bryant would be cool with that move, Machado has already been pretty adamant of bing a SS only. Maybe that changes once teams start making offers and talking to him, also idk how great of a full-time OF option Bryant is he looks a little shaky out there and he'd probably rate as a negative over a full season. But yeah I think this scenario would warm me up a lot more to Machado than having him be the full-time SS.

Jon and John got this

I will be perfectly happy if we get Machado and he's a plenty good player, but I won't be upset if they lose out on him. I'll only be upset if they lose out on Harper. I'd rather do other things than sign Machdo if we miss on Bryce and allocate that money elsewhere. Machado is plenty good like I said but I don't know if I'd be willing to commit to him the money it will take to get him, there's just some red flags to me that he's not truly elite. You cited those 6 war seasons but that was largely due to playing elite defense at 3B (a position we presumably aren't signing him to play) and offensively he's also never been this player before this year he's always been more of a 7% BB guy and not 10%+ like this year and while 7% is fine it's not great, he already has 2 major leg/knee injuries and a bigger body that I don't see him handling SS long term and he doesn't even handle it great now, Harper has elite on base skills and the power is probably better while Machado does have good power but not special on base skills, Harper's defense this year is also with him playing a lot of CF which I doubt he plays with us much at all he's fine in the corners and maybe even moves to 1B down the line in the post Rizzo years, just looking at their career numbers Harper is a elite bat that I'll be disappointed to miss on, Machado is a good to very good bat that I won't be all that mad to miss on for the money he'll cost. Machado has been a lot more like the player he's always been since his trade to the Dodgers too after his crazy start, which again is plenty good but idk if I'd pay the $300million to have that (.267/.333/.486 slash line, 8% bb rate and 18% k rate, wRC+ of 119). I'd just rather spend that money on some bullpen options, look to trade and maybe take on some money for a guy (idk who that may be but like Brandon Crawford maybe?), or sign other FAs like Marwin Gonzalez or Eduardo Escobar to fill SS/MIF. Again Machado is plenty good and I'd be happy to have him because he does make us better I just have some reservations on how good he actually is and don't necessarily think giving him the huge money deal is the smartest thing when we could allocate it better and probably make us as good in adding 3-4 other pieces with it.

I’m only going to be upset if we miss on Harper. I hope we whiff on Machado.

Didn’t they walk Harper that year because Harper was awesome and Zimmerman was having a terrible season? I don’t think it was because of the leverage, I think Zimmerman was borderline done in 2016 but then he came back and had a crazy year last year. Edit: Yeah he was worth -1.4 war that year and slashed .218/.272/.370 Yeah, but they walked Harper in some big spots to get to Zimmerman and we laughed at him for failing miserably in all of those big spots. Right, but I think it was more because Zimmerman was just a very bad baseball player that year vs them doing it because of leverage/clutch stats. Of course you pitch around and walk Harper when you can when he has a sub .600 OPS bum hitting behind him.

Didn’t they walk Harper that year because Harper was awesome and Zimmerman was having a terrible season? I don’t think it was because of the leverage, I think Zimmerman was borderline done in 2016 but then he came back and had a crazy year last year. Edit: Yeah he was worth -1.4 war that year and slashed .218/.272/.370

Well I guess we gotta rally behind Lackey being in attendance

I fully expected this when we hired Theo. He's done an excellent job so far. I feel a little bit bad we keep ignoring Jed and how he's basically an afterthought. He deserves some credit too guys.* *I have no idea how much credit Jed deserves for the Cubs success. I honestly know nothing about some good trade or move or acquisition he recommended. Maybe he's just "Turtle" in Theo's Entourage... There’s no way Jed doesn’t have a big role and deserves credit, same with Jason.

Holy horsefeathers Joe fucked that inning up

We still suck

My god, it’s torture they are making us play this WC game. Just get me to the offseason

Holy horsefeathers Cardinals

The Cardinals are getting BABIP’d to death tonight

So we’re going to hit .800 w/RISP in the playoffs

The VBs are sweeping the Tigers, they’re on a heater

HEYRIDE!!!! *I’m delayed

We should really stop having left handed Almora lead off

They have more hard hit balls than the VBs too

I just think our scouting reports/attack plan against these horsefeathers players

Oh look, we can’t get AAAA players out again

The Cardinals are smoking Chacin but getting BABIP’d to death