Outshined_One

It's Tom, better to let it slide than go down the rabbit hole. Also, in fairness, Hernandez's production this season is making that comp slightly less laughable. Not saying I agree with it, but dude seems to have turned a corner.

Freddie Freeman is a better 1B than Alonso, is under contract through 2027, and Jackson Ferris had a unicorn profile as a HS LHP power arm who might actually stick as a starter. Hope was also a nice addition. They traded from depth to improve their overall system, kind of like what the Cubs should do with their current glut of OFs.

You pretty much answered your own question here. In fairness to the Cubs, there isn't a single team that's unlocked the secret to developing superstars internally., and those guys are few and far between Most superstar-level guys were either high draft picks or bonus babies (Soto got $1.5m as a 16 year old), and even then, you sometimes get a Kris Bryant, and you sometimes get a Mark Appel. Considering the Cubs have picked three times in the top 10 of the MLB draft over the last decade (Schwarber, Happ, Horton), they've done a pretty darn good job of building a high quality farm system. Where we agree is that Jed needs to look externally for the superstar bat when there are no internal options, and it's unlikely that he either will have the financial backing to do it or that he'd be willing to part with the pieces needed to acquire those guys. That being said, I'm fully on Team Ballesteros. I can't tell if he's going to eat his way out of the league or what, but he's a hell of a hitter.

It's hard to say how much trouble Jed is in at this point. On the one hand, the farm system and team appear to be stocked for young players to develop and/or trade for the foreseeable future. It's not like we're back in the final days of the Hendry era, where the farm system had been burned to the ground and there was zero hope for any sort of playoff run in the foreseeable future. Setting aside the hard numbers (more on that in a second), you can talk yourself into thinking the rotation and position players being good and being good for a few years. Additionally, part of this team's problem stems from player production rather than roster construction. No one is having a career year on offense. Guys like Bellinger, Swanson, Nico, Seiya, and Happ *should* be producing at high enough levels, above and beyond what we've seen from them to this point of the season. We've also seen the underlying data to suggest that they've run into bad luck and that there should be a correction. They shouldn't be actively bad, much less kinda mediocre. I don't know how much of that can be placed on Jed. However, there have been two historical issues with Jed that have been problems for this team, that continue to be problems with this team, and that haven't been addressed yet. First, this team needs a superstar-level bat. I can't think of anyone who was projected to be an MVP-caliber bat coming into this season or coming into this past season. Bellinger was a nice get, and Seiya's a good piece, but imagine if this team had Juan Soto or Ohtani. Presumably that bat will eventually come from the farm system, but guys like PCA and Ballesteros and Alcantara weren't going to be ready to produce at that level this season. Second, this team's bullpen construction has been garbage. We all know this problem by now, so, the less said, the better. Admittedly, those two problems can be chalked up to ownership being cheap to varying degrees, but I feel like a better bullpen could have been assembled at the same price of the current pen. There's something off about how this team evaluates relief pitchers in free agency and the trade market. The cracks in the facade are there for Jed, and Ricketts might want to take a make a change, but it's exceedingly rare to see a front office guy get canned pre-trade deadline. I think it's unlikely Ricketts makes a change this offseason, but 2025 will be do-or-die for Jed.

And they all turned into pumpkins after getting traded!! Contreras is the only guy who'd be an upgrade at this point. Not Baez, not Bryant, not even Rizzo.

Who knows, maybe the Giants have a dude who throws 98/99 and someone can randomly make contact for a basket shot.

What do we think, bullpen blows it or they miraculously pull off the walkoff?

Welp. We're boned.

Sigh.

Welp, there's your runs for tonight. Good luck, everyone!

Honeycutt seems like the only hitter projected to go in the first round who has a true 80 plus-plus-plus-plus tool. I just don't know if the Cubs are equipped to get the contact and Ks to a reasonable level. I'd be excited to see him drafted at 14, but I don't really want it to happen if that makes sense?

I'm mostly intrigued to see what the defensive reports will have to say about him. The Cubs aren't exactly flush with MIF prospects at the moment, and it'd be awesome to find out he could stick at SS long term.

Few things in sports are as delightful and unexpected as a fat guy triple.

Rodon.

What's the ceiling on Tibbs? Something like Kyle Schwarber with higher contact rates and slightly better defensively?

It's hot stove season, so this is to be expected. Moreover, this could be coming from non-Cubs sources as a way to drive up the value of guys who might be available. Plus it's exceedingly obvious that this team needs a catcher. There's no one ready in the minors, Amaya has been decidedly meh, and Gomes is horrendous. The sooner they plug that hole, the better.

Nicky No Dingers broke his hand a day or two ago.

I tend to agree with this POV, but this draft has me kinda cool on most of the college bats that should be available around 14. It feels like most of those guys have swing-and-miss issues, don't have particularly loud tools, and/or are ticketed for corner OF spots. The only exception to this is there have been some really interesting catchers inching their ways up draft boards over the last two months, with Moore, Janek, and Lomavita all looking like possible 1st round picks.

I see David Ortiz, and I'm okay with that.

Welp. Guess we can remove Hodge from the Circle of Trust.

Happ had an interview on The Score earlier this week that I found really interesting. He discussed how matchups and lineup construction have evolved so much in recent years that it was no longer just about lefty/righty matchups or velo vs breaking stuff, but it's now also about pitch shapes and locations. It's not just about whether a guy can generally handle velo, but instead about analyzing how pitchers utilize sequencing, location, spin, etc. and how hitters respond to it. In this instance, Busch and PCA might be able to handle velocity the similarly, but PCA is the better matchup against Greene.