Cubswin11

Yeah I really hope they just move Rea to the bullpen full time, I think there’s a very solid reliever in him potentially and the SP ship seems to have sailed. As you mentioned he had that velo bump out of the pen and think his cutter also rated really well as a 1 IP guy.

Yeah I really like his bat fit and if 2B can be figured out to be league average there along with some LF/OF I like the versatility he brings to have a lot of different lineup configurations (kinda like Zobrist). He also lets you start Nico in AAA/use more as a platoon or backup guy in MLB but also doesn’t completely get in the way if Nico is showing promise. At the same time if we are trying to win and money is tight... ~$10 mil for Profar may go a longer way for 2 guys who can cover the OF/2B/utility role for $3-6 mil each since there seems to be a lot of guys in that range out there.

Tua horsefeathering sucks. Dolphins should take a QB with that Texans picks they get this year.

He gave up the walk off grand dong to Heyward. He shouldn’t be allowed back in MLB.

I refuse to root for this ginger haired fucked

If they don’t do anymore trading off and can add even 2-3 pitchers and 2-3 bats in the $4-10 mil range each we probably will have the best team in the division and really what they should be doing vs a full on rebuild and strip down.

Sounds like it will happen in season when they can face to face meet. I honestly don’t think it’s that big of a deal to go through the offseason without one. Jed/Kantroviz and whoever else can handle things. And taking a longer look at potential hires and really surveying things and meeting with as many people as possible is probably the smartest thing vs rushing in to a hire that isn’t overly necessary right now.

100%. He’s the Ricketts hatchet man. Mind you this return for Darvish was the "best" he could do, doesn't that make you all warm and fuzzy about the future? I do not like the return and not getting more certainty/closer to MLB guys. But there were some circumstances that made it understandable this was the best (assuming the ownership mandated moving him at all costs). Yu had a 12 team no-trade list, the Padres weren’t on it, if he picked the teams right that could’ve boxed them in. Basically if he picked all the other bigger markets/teams trying to win and they didn’t want to deal with a deal falling through to a NTC the Padres might have been the only team to deal with. It’s very easy the other teams not on the no trade list were basically the NL/AL Central teams, Marlins, Orioles, Red Sox, Rockies, Giants, Mariners, D’backs, Astros, As, Rays. None of those teams would trade for him.

I’ve held out some hope they’d run the team like a baseball team and care about the product after this year with money available. But it seems like they’ve completely turned to running things like a business and revenues and margins are now more important than whatever happens on the field. If enough things break right with development maybe we have a competent team by 2025!

I think Lavine and one of the other National guys like Sherman have also mentioned it.

Yes, but consider this. He’s a complete horsefeathering horsefeathers douche who only has 1 year over 4 WAR and is going to be 30 in a month. He can go horsefeathers himself.

The Rays literally just got two MLB ready guys in the Snell trade.

A top 20-50 prospect, some sort of MLB ready/current player (like a swing man/bullpen arm/platoon bat/guy making money), and probably some young lotto ticket like a Yu trade guy would be my guess. If we were trading for him as an example I’d say something like Amaya, 1 of Adbert, Nico or Bote and then a lotto ticket type guy in A ball. I still don’t mind the idea of something like Contreras and Kimbrel to the Phillies for Segura, Spencer Howard and some other stuff going either way. Phillies can 1 stop shop their catcher and closer need. We save some money on a yearly basis and get a competent major league IF for a few years (still have to field a MLB team and could flip him at some point), also get a young rotation piece and maybe something else.

I still trust them to develop bats decently. They have also traded away Eloy, Gleyber, Jeimer, and Jorge (maybe forgetting someone) but they largely developed those guys outside of the main core. Plus developed Vic, Nico and Bote in the last 2-4 years. And there’s enough bats the prospect guys seem to like it seems like they’re doing a decent job (you don’t hear prospect guys say they like Brennan Davis as an example but don’t like he’s in the Cubs hands). Strumpf and Amaya seem close to being something at the ML level too. All those guys you mentioned were either IFAs, drafted by another team (Vic), a 1st round pick (Nico) or in Bote's case, virtually the only player drafted after the 1st round under Theo that has produced any positive WAR. But in that case maybe the issue is identifying talent in the draft rather than developing that talent. Or its just a weird anomaly that the Cubs have had above average success developing IFAs, 1st round picks and other team's draft picks while having extremely below average success developing draft picks taken after the 1st round. List of (I think) every player to accumulate major league WAR with the Cubs that was taken after round 1: 2011: 14 - Maples (-0.6) 16 - Raul Lopez (0.2) 2012: 2 - Underwood (0.0) 18 - Bote (3.3) 2013: 2 - Zastryzny (0.2) 2014: 3 - Zagunis (-0.1) 7 - Norwood (-0.2) 2015: None 2016: 4 - Tyson Miller (0.0) 2017-2020: None Excluding Bote, the rest of the Cubs non-1st round draft picks since 2011 have yielded a combined -0.5 WAR for the Cubs. Anyways, I'm getting off topic. This is "look at this mildly interesting stat I uncovered all by myself" more than anything. Yeah, the point was more they were still developing bats, even recently, and I can’t imagine there are a ton of teams that are constantly turning out positive WAR from 2nd+ round picks. No doubt we’ve probably been at the bottom but I doubt there’s teams consistently doing it. I’m sure there’s an article out there somewhere studying this.

I still trust them to develop bats decently. They have traded away Eloy, Gleyber, Jeimer, and Jorge (maybe forgetting someone) but they largely developed those guys outside of the main core and should get at least partial credit. Plus developed Vic, Nico and Bote in the last 2-4 years. And there’s enough bats the prospect guys seem to like it seems like they’re doing a decent job (you don’t hear prospect guys say they like Brennan Davis but don’t like he’s in the Cubs hands as an example). Strumpf and Amaya seem close to being something at the ML level too. They hit an insane level early, then traded away a lot of other guys and also got good so they were drafting later/had less IFA money/rules changed. They had to correct some things with how they were developing, they fell behind. But that seems to be corrected to a degree and the prospects they had to develop were depleted and bad. They seem to be stocking up better players to develop the last few years and the pitching seems turned around a bit too.

Tbf, that's not crazy far from what the people have been demanding for years now (though 18-20 is likely a little young for the league's agenda, don't want to undermine the NCAA!). I think it's pretty cool the Cubs have a couple guys you can squint and see making a ML debut at 20 (Howard, Preciado) Howard turns 20 in 8 months and hasn’t played even a single minor league inning, he’s probably 3 years away in the most optimistic/fast track outlook. What the horsefeathers are you talking about being up this year?

I mean, after 35 year old pitcher, 28 year old catcher is the next logical piece to trade in a blow up right? What's Contreras arbitration/FA situation the next couple years? Controlled for two more years. Probably owed in the $18 mil range total.

I wouldn't underestimate the risk with Darvish. At 34 with a TJ surgery under his belt, dominating a 162 off a 60 is not a small ask. I'd imagine injury models aren't a fan when considering the expected leap in workload and high stress workload. The skillset is beautiful otherwise, but on the spectrum of trades this is more towards the A's trading Rich Harden than the D'Backs trading for Schilling (is how I've worked it out in my head since this trade happened) The risk is there, but the contract isn’t bad and the most recent performance the last 1.5 years has been near best in the league. You also took a decent amount of money back in Davies and included Vic. Sure Gore/top 1-5 prospect in baseball isn’t the return but there should’ve been a top 15-25 prospect in this that’s closer to MLB and/or a controlled ready piece like Paddack.

They were all top 20 guys for the Padres so maybe like 8-15 for us. But these guys have literally never played or have played very little. They’re all complete lotto tickets.

This move indicates to me, like I said, more moves are coming with the age of these prospects. While the NL Central may prop us up I still see picking top 7-10 on the horizon soon for a while. I mean, I would actually be slightly more relieved if this was actually the case. Because right now I'm envisioning them in Bears 8-8 hell for the next several years. No way, especially after this year with like the whole team hitting FA and their clear unwillingness to spend.