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Outshined_One

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Everything posted by Outshined_One

  1. Outshined_One
    I tend to appreciate AAA as a challenge for players of PCA's type since he'll be facing pitchers with ML experience and also pitchers with more advanced secondary offerings and more advanced pitch sequencing than he might see at lower levels. It's one thing if you're facing a fastball/slider guy who flashes the occasional changeup, but AAA is where you see guys who actually have sharpened their secondary/tertiary offerings that can keep hitters off balance and be more than just a get-me-over pitch. Yeah, those pitchers tend to be filler guys and junk ballers, but I think there's still value in that.
  2. Outshined_One
    I feel like 5-7 years from now, I'll be experiencing the same thing with former Cubs pitching prospects I currently do with former Cubs position player prospects. "Holy crap, DJ LeMahieu is still playing?!" "Huh, Jeimer Candelario made it. Good for him." "Isaac Paredes made the majors?!" Needless to say, I'm really jazzed about the pitchers this team has in the upper minors and the depth they're starting to build out. I wouldn't mind seeing them use that depth in trades, either, considering attrition/injuries/developmental setbacks happen frequently with young pitchers.
  3. Outshined_One
    With the Prospect Promotion Incentive in place, the Cubs could easily pencil PCA in as their opening day CF in 2024 in the hopes that he can score them extra draft capital. I think AAA is huge for him. If he meets the challenge, this team will have a legitimate star in the making on its hands.
  4. Outshined_One
    Maybe this is coloring my opinion of how the Cubs should proceed, but I don't get the same feeling from this team's farm system that I did in 2014/2015. Don't get me wrong, I think PCA is an incredibly important part of this team's future, but after him, there's enough uncertainty to give me pause. There's definitely potential in the Alcantara/Canario/Caissie grouping of position players, but I feel like this team has recently struggled developing players with their profiles. I also really like Brown/Wicks/Horton/Wesneski, but TINSTAAPP always scares the crap out of me, even though this team seems to have gotten over its apparent inability to develop pitching. If there's a move that makes this team better this year and better in 2024, and the price is right, then they should absolutely pursue it, even if it means giving up someone like Alcantara or Brown.
  5. Outshined_One
    Best guess? Dead arm management, IP limits, and salvaging Smyly. The Cubs might be trying to keep Wes fresh come September/October, hence the unusual usage, and perhaps they might be dangling Smyly as a SP option for a team desperate for rotation help where Smyly might not have great value to the Cubs on a going forward basis.
  6. Outshined_One
    Given how often this offense relies on gifts from the BABIP gods, they're going to need Wesneski to have any hope of making an extended playoff run, regardless of whether they trade Stroman.
  7. Outshined_One
    They could easily do a piggyback with Wesneski and Smyly if they want to keep up this weird experiment with Smyly.
  8. Outshined_One
    Does this team even have a 3B worth a damn in the farm system who'll be ready opening day 2024? I'm fine with meh at 3B this season and next if it means going from "actively hurting the team" to "non-descript".
  9. Outshined_One
    There's also the forthcoming 40 man crunch that was going to make some of these trades inevitable, albeit originally in the upcoming offseason. I'm wondering if the Cubs will do something weird like trade Stroman, but also acquire a SP who's under team control through '24/'25.
  10. Outshined_One
    This season has been so freaking weird.
  11. Outshined_One
    Welcome!
  12. Outshined_One
    I did not have July 27th, 2023 in the "return to .500" pool.
  13. Outshined_One
    This is getting embarrassing. I'm just flummoxed. How the horsefeathers can this team claim to be doing its due diligence now when it spent tens of millions of dollars purchasing and demolishing a parcel, only to find out that Arlington Heights, Cook County, and Illinois wouldn't give them preferential tax treatment?
  14. Outshined_One
    If the Cubs are going to play the "sellers, but still competitors" card, I think it comes down to two factors with Stroman and Bellinger: Can the Cubs replace Stroman's spot in the rotation effectively? Wesneski probably has the inside track for this spot, but you're asking a lot of a guy who hasn't hit 100 IP in the majors yet. It's a huge roll of the dice, especially since I don't think it would be reasonable to hotshot the callups of guys like Brown, Wicks, and Horton. Unless the Cubs can pull off a trade for a SP with control, or they luck out with replacing Stroman in-house, trading Stroman would likely be a substantial net negative for 2023. Can the Cubs get a better package of prospects than they'd get with a QO with Bellinger? There's been a lot of discussion about calling up PCA to replace Bellinger (not a fan), but I think the OF can be restructured in-house without the offense falling to pieces without Bellinger in the lineup. Of course, if some team wants to be insane and do something like trade two Top 100 prospects for either, that would definitely alter the equation.
  15. Outshined_One
    Ballesteros is one of those prospects that makes me grateful the DH is universal now. I always felt as if guys like Schwarber and Vogelbach lost a significant amount of trade value simply because half the teams in MLB had nowhere to put them.
  16. Outshined_One
    Might as well start a new thread where we can track other big trades and complain about how the Cubs overpaid/should have gotten more in their own upcoming deals. Giolito and Lopez traded to LAA. Looks like Ohtani isn't going anywhere, unless someone ludicrously overpays.
  17. Outshined_One
    Remember those Cardinals teams that never, ever went away in the division races because they had magic pixie dust that turned garbage into gold and other teams would have obscenely dumb losses to them? That's the Cubs, now.
  18. Outshined_One
    I mean, sure, this team could make the playoffs by playing .667 the rest of the way because every other team decided to trying actively crapping their pants against the Cubs as a strategy.
  19. Outshined_One
    Go home, game, you're tripping on acid.
  20. Outshined_One
    Gotta play my veterans, dude.
  21. Outshined_One
    It's so weird to me that this team suuuuuuucked at producing in-house pitching prospects during the Theo reign, where most of their farm successes were either acquired via trade (Hendricks, Arrieta, Strop, CEJr) or were already in-system when Theo took over (Samardzija). Now? I can pretty much talk myself into loving the chances of any pitcher they draft.
  22. Outshined_One
    We could also be looking at a Willson Contreras situation where the market just isn't there for Bellinger relative to what the Cubs would get if they made a QO with draft pick compensation. Bellinger is really good, but if teams aren't offering prospects as good as or better than Jaxson Wiggins (who's probably a Top 20-25 guy in the system at the moment), then the Cubs might as well hang onto him.
  23. Outshined_One
    The thought of calling up PCA at this stage in his development makes me uneasy if the intention is to keep the Cubs in contention. Maybe it's PTSD from how the Cubs handled Corey Patterson back in the day, but I get a bit leery when guys with contact-oriented approaches and noticeable strikeout rates get called up too early, particularly if they get called up in the middle of a playoff chase where the pressure can sometimes result in guys developing bad habits.
  24. Outshined_One
    Bruce Miles no longer actively posts here, so YMMV. Also, welcome back!
  25. Outshined_One
    I really like the possibility of acquiring a reclamation project to hold down one of the rotation spots while the AA/AAA/AAAA guys sort themselves out. Given the Cubs' history in getting good mileage out of those kinds of guys, it's a worthwhile risk to take, especially if it helps sort out the forthcoming 40 manpocalypse. Again, with these articles, I don't think this is a trade deadline move given the current uncertainty with Stro/Smyly/Hendricks and the need for the higher level SP prospects to stay healthy and hit their IP limits, but in the offseason? I'd abso-effing-lutely love it.
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