UMFan83

I read somewhere on Twitter that the Braves were asking for names like Bryant in exchange for Miller so this doesn't surprise me.

Stop trying to steal our thunder assholes

Oh god Brendan Ryan

Please give us at least 2 very good seasons before falling off a cliff.

I'm guessing the FO values his contact ability among other things. Saw on Twitter that he had the 11th best contact rate in baseball last year

Trading Castro to sign anyone other than Heyward is dumb at this point. To sign Zobrist is a complete head-scratcher. I don't think this would be something that takes them off Heyward. I think it's just them trying to upgrade 2B. At a cost of $9M in payroll

Word from Nashville is Zorbrist is close to an agreement with the Cubs to play second base. thanks! (CR, David, Tim) i feel...conflicted (#toonster) on this. but excited to see how this all plays out and i trust this FO completely. Look, I love the FO as much as the next guy, but I don't completely trust them on big time FA transactions.

Am I missing the part where we need to jump into the Zobrist bidding war? Don't get me wrong, he had a wildly productive run from 2009-2014, but his offensive production dropped last year (at least in terms of WAR). He will be 35 in May and expected to play important defensive positions. I could be on board with a reasonable contract, but ~16 mil per for a guys age 35-39 seasons seems insane. Furthermore trading Castro, an inconsistent but mostly productive SS on a reasonable contract in order to make room for him seems strange. Please sell me on why I'm dumb and this makes sense

[tweet]https://twitter.com/JulieDiCaro/status/674331522107854849[/tweet] Yes please

Attitude aside, he seemed like he was always playing with maximum effort when out there until this past week when he looked disinterested, although that could be the injury. #1 memory of his time as a Bear is Jay finding him in the corner of the end zone to beat the Vikings with under 20 seconds left in Trestman's second game.

Also this cannot be right. If it is, Heyward is getting like $30m per [tweet] [/tweet]

Not sure which one of threads this belongs to so i'll just put it here [tweet] [/tweet]

Other teams think its the Astros. The Cardinals have a really strong feeling it's the Astros

.300/.350/.500 season coming right up Oh wait we slayed the red devil and don't need to make these jokes anymore. Disregard.

I don't think the Bulls are all that good (meaning 41-45 win team). I've been feeling that way for awhile but have been waiting to see if the play picks up before deciding. Could be wrong I just don't see it so far. That was a team coming in having lost 8 of 9, and were trailing by 16 heading into the 4th quarter. Gave up 42 in the 4th. Blah

You forgot the part where they choked under the pressure of their 6 year title drought

Is that suggesting Soler and Baez or Soler or Baez? Is Gausman as an elite prospect still a thing? His numbers so far havent been terrible by any means (3.79 career FIP) but not up to his hype level and hes 24

Is this going to hurt the Cubs relationship with Bryant? I doubt it but just my first thought that popped into my head. I'm guessing the worst that comes of this is they add a year to Bryant's service time (which is quite damaging but not necessarily in the short term). Edit: Nevermind, it looks like the grievence was filed way back in April. Doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

Totally spot on. The people who have a right to bitch are the ones who are in their 90s and early 100s. Otherwise, being a Cubs fan means you are no different than an Indians, Brewers, Pirates, Mariners, Astros or Rangers one. I mostly agree but... Indians: At least they can watch video highlights of their team in the World Series...in color. They have memories of their team winning 5 World Series games in the 90's. They have AL Champion banners Brewers: Same but to a much lesser extent. Pirates: They've won a title, they had fun memories of "We are family" and Stargell hitting a HR in game 7 of the world series. even if they weren't alive, they can connect with those memories, similar to how Bears fans can with the 85 team even though someone like me was too young to remember Mariners: OK they can compete with us Astros: Again they have a recent experience of winning a pennant and playing in a world series. Heck they can watch their pennant winning celebration in HD Rangers: Same plus they won 4 WS games within the last 5 years Obviously winning a World Series is the end goal and ultimately the only goal that definitively matters, but the Cubs have a longer pennant drought then any other team has a world series drought (among teams that have won a world series)...we don't have 100 years of pain, but we carry 100 years of baggage as fans whether we want to or not. Some people it doesn't bother, others it does. This post is almost unbearably lame. it's soooooooo um hah, when I posted this, I was thinking 'I bet mojo and/or david will think this post is lame and comment'. Thus I gave you both hearts.

thank you if anything, that drought that i didn't experience like 80% of, adds a little intrigue. i'd rather win championships, but my desire to win a WS has just about nothing to do with eliminating the "curse" thing, outside of the cool element it would add to the narrative (i'm sure theo loves this part). i mean, yeah, it sucks that they haven't won one in that long, i guess, but i wouldn't feel any better about the cubs had they won one in 1969 or something (or even 84). i'd almost rather have the drought than a random championship somewhere along the way there...but either way it doesn't matter much. Totally spot on. The people who have a right to bitch are the ones who are in their 90s and early 100s. Otherwise, being a Cubs fan means you are no different than an Indians, Brewers, Pirates, Mariners, Astros or Rangers one. I mostly agree but... Indians: At least they can watch video highlights of their team in the World Series...in color. They have memories of their team winning 5 World Series games in the 90's. They have AL Champion banners Brewers: Same but to a much lesser extent. Pirates: They've won a title, they had fun memories of "We are family" and Stargell hitting a HR in game 7 of the world series. even if they weren't alive, they can connect with those memories, similar to how Bears fans can with the 85 team even though someone like me was too young to remember Mariners: OK they can compete with us Astros: Again they have a recent experience of winning a pennant and playing in a world series. Heck they can watch their pennant winning celebration in HD Rangers: Same plus they won 4 WS games within the last 5 years Obviously winning a World Series is the end goal and ultimately the only goal that definitively matters, but the Cubs have a longer pennant drought then any other team has a world series drought (among teams that have won a world series)...we don't have 100 years of pain, but we carry 100 years of baggage as fans whether we want to or not. Some people it doesn't bother, others it does.

I'm not sure Leake should go to Arizona, they take a hard stance on petty crime there. Just ask Gracie how fun the tents are.

I'm sure there will be some NRI's brought in...Theo and co are generally pretty good at adding back end rotation depth options each year. The Cubs had a bunch last year (Jaxon, Wood, Turner, Wada, Dubront were all starting options in camp), they just all got hurt, cut or were moved to the pen). So there will likely be depth, if not all that exciting.

Giants need to acquire Taylor Teagarden in response