Cubswin11

Just needs to be given more opportunities and playing everyday

We can hope he continues his torrid pace, driving up value. I have no idea what a return would look like but with a hard 7/31 trade deadline (ie no more 8/31 non waiver), this could speed up the process as well as the return. If the Cubs keep him for the remainder of the season and lose him, not sure how valuable the comp pick is vs the return they get in a trade. Sadly I wouldn't expect much of a haul now that it's only going to be half a season. Maybe a Many Machado type return. A guy in the bottom third of the top 100, a lottery ticket, an upside guy with injury history and a relief prospect. I'd guess something like a Matt Allen led package if it was the Mets. Francisco Alvarez and Ronny Mauricio would definitely not be on the table. Yeah I’d expect a Machado return for him more or less. Which was pretty bad. I’d rather just hold on to him and get the comp pick if that’s the best return be see what his market is in FA to maybe re-sign him.

How in the hell is this team just 2 games under .500? Because pretty much all of MLB is mediocre and the Cubs have faced the team they struggle the most against (VBs) for like 45% of their games.

Season back on

Give him whatever he wants, he’s their best player

Thompson looks intriguing. That Cutter/Slider plays and if he can be 94-95 as a starter, if he’s more a bullpen guy in reality you’d think he could be 97+ there with that cutter/slider and that could be a guy.

Kershaw was so bad you have to wonder if he’s hurt. He bounced some balls that barely got to the dirt.

Cubs are back

Lindor’s wRC+ is down to 49, which is bottom ~5 in the league. Yikes. Heyward is even over 60.

The game was a 6:30 start and they called it before 5. Don’t think any fans would’ve been inside yet. And I’m sure a lot of guys would’ve been at the park anyways today to get some work/treatment/whatever in, game or no game. I was talking about the doubleheader. MLB is concerned about the players, but not concerned enough to play a traditional doubleheader to avoid having a long break in between games.I’m guessing it’s to honor the tickets for tomorrow nights game since that was time people knew and planned/bought tickets for? You really can’t guarantee that start time for people without building in the ~5 hour gap.

Rodon will break soon enough, Giolito has been a little off so far and Kopech and Cease look more like RPs than SPs. Meh. And Eloy’s and Robert’s injuries seem like they could be long term things. Eloy’s especially and making him a full time DH and still having Abreu, Grandal and that other bat first prospect around. Robert’s injury is something that could affect his speed/athleticism permanently.

No idea how the tickets work but think they kept the 7-inning DH thing to help limit pitcher innings/fatigue off the shortened year. But they have no problem making players sit around at the ballpark all day to get that extra gate. The game was a 6:30 start and they called it before 5. Don’t think any fans would’ve been inside yet (fans aren’t allowed in more than 1 hour before first pitch as far as I know, that was the rule in Milwaukee when I went a few weeks ago). And I’m sure a lot of guys would’ve been at the park anyways today to get some work/treatment/whatever in, game or no game.

Rebuilds are easy

No idea how the tickets work but think they kept the 7-inning DH thing to help limit pitcher innings/fatigue off the shortened year.

Lol, he horsefeathering sucks

They’re mostly too long to people who don’t actually like baseball. It’s like saying that soccer games are too low scoring; that’s part of the game. The only REAL way to shorten games would be fewer commercial breaks, but that’s never going to happen No, baseball games ARE significantly longer, and it's mostly due to delays caused by pitching bull horsefeathers. I remember seeing several breakdowns comparing games from within the last 10 years to games from the 90's and 80's, and the commercial time difference was minimal. The biggest difference, by far, in terms of something they could actually (and pretty easily) do something about was the time taken by pitchers between pitches and batters. It often added something like an extra 20 minutes or more per game. Unleash the horsefeathering pitch clock. There’s no doubt games have gotten longer and pitch clock would make them faster to some degree, but does that matter/affect anything like viewership or games being more watchable? Is there some large group of people out there if games, on average, go down 6-20 min are suddenly going to start watching games or attending them in meaningful numbers? I don’t know the answer and would interested to see what info they have that it would matter or not matter. NFL games are long as horsefeathers and there’s literally 30-40 seconds of downtime before any action, baseball inherently is going to have down time between action and no action. MLB game length doesn’t really matter to me. A pitch clock could also bring injury risk in, potentially, obviously a study would have to be done. But forcing guys to throw when they aren’t ready or like in a 20+ inning within a set amount of time could have health/fatigue affects.

Generally agree with all this. I think 120-145 is the right amount of games, don’t hate the idea of designated off days. Don’t know about twice a week though league wide. I like having some baseball on every day of the year for a few months, maybe do something more like AL is off Monday’s and NL is off Thursday’s or do it by divisions or something if the scheduling could work.

Yeah the extra inning rule is really dumb. I’d rather they play with the old rule and then just have ties after 11-12 innings or something than this. I don’t really get the point, I don’t find it adding excitement and it doesn’t make games go quicker overall.

I would fully expect them to trade Kimbrel if they keep sucking. That extra year adds value, and they won't need him next year since they'll probably suck again, so they might as well try to find some rando to try and catch lightning in a bottle then trade for more than he's worth because he's racked up some saves Totally agree. I think if things stay on their current trajectory he's the most likely guy to be traded after KB. They should extend KB because they aren’t getting a better player back or likely getting one anytime soon and his price is still probably decent. His comp for a trade is probably Machado to the Dodgers a few years back? That was a garbage return. I’d rather do everything to extend him and if not get the comp pick.

No idea if the batted ball data backs it up, but Bote sure seems to be going to RF more lately.

Steele might be a thing, he has/had SP pedigree. Would be nice to have a guy like the Dodgers did with May/Urias/etc, or VBs with Woodruff/Peralta/Burnes out of the pen who can go 1+, 30-45 pitches at times. That’s a weapon. Not saying Steele has those guys overall SP ceiling but maybe could do some similar stuff out of the pen as those guys.

Acuna and not hurt (yet) Kris Bryant exist

Start Nico and Sogard since the regulars can’t hit Freddy/velo/VB good starters, please

I’m encouraged by the start too, but it’s 71 plate appearances. As long as he’s healthy this is what he is. A very good baseball player. Every stretch of him being bad was always tied to an injury. I want him extended more than anyone.