Jump to content
North Side Baseball

Outshined_One

Community Moderator
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    27,699

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

 Content Type 

Profiles

Joomla Posts 1

Chicago Cubs Videos

Chicago Cubs Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

2026 Chicago Cubs Top Prospects Ranking

News

2023 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks

Guides & Resources

2024 Chicago Cubs Draft Picks

The Chicago Cubs Players Project

2025 Chicago Cubs Draft Pick Tracker

Blogs

Events

Forums

Store

Gallery

Everything posted by Outshined_One

  1. Outshined_One
    This FO is fantastic at scouting relief pitchers so long as those pitchers never played for the Astros.
  2. Outshined_One
    I misread it at first too, but he said Phil, i.e. Philadelphia.
  3. Outshined_One
    Great job, now he'll visit the Springfield Mystery Spot and will never be seen again.
  4. Outshined_One
    Yet.
  5. Outshined_One
    Gotta admit, your slow turn into "somewhat optimistic Bears poster" has been one of the pleasant surprises of the season.
  6. Outshined_One
    Thank you all for proving my point. Let's not take this into putting people into timeout territory, shall we? Enough with the personal attacks.
  7. Outshined_One
    I hate slow stretches of the offseason. The sniping and mindless arguing are almost as bad around here as it is during losing streaks.
  8. Outshined_One
    I admittedly have to disagree. And this coming from someone who pooh-poohed the pick when it was made. My issue with Kepley was his draft profile was an OF who was heavily reliant on contact and speed. However, he showed enough in-game power in his major league debut to suggest he might be more than another Brett Bateman. I can buy him as a Top 5 guy in this organization.
  9. Outshined_One
    Stuff, consistency, and durability. He's pitched 160+ IP each season since 2021 and posted 3+ fWAR in each of those seasons. I think it's best to think about Cease like Jon Lester when he was signed to a six year deal going into the 2015 season. The hope was that his production in the first half of the contract would offset the decline in the back half of his deal, and Lester delivered that in spades, even though he started to decline in 2017 and was next to worthless at the end of the deal. You're pretty much banking on a comparable result with Cease, with the added benefit of Cease is a bit younger than Lester was in 2015.
  10. Outshined_One
    The problem with that presumption is that Taillon is performing well enough to merit a team in contention giving up assets to acquire him. If Taillon is good enough to merit trade interest, I don't think the Cubs will want to trade him, especially given how injuries to the rotation sunk the team going into the playoffs.
  11. Outshined_One
    I kinda like it and kinda hate it. On the one hand, he's a guy with a year of control and the price tag is seemingly not outrageous, so the risk is relatively low. He's over two years out from TJS and he's apparently fully recovered from his shoulder injury, plus he seems like a bounceback candidate in 2026 for his contract year. Alcantara feels like a slight overpay, but not to the point where I'd immediately say no. On the other hand, shoulder injuries are always messy and he's never pitched more than 150 IP in a season going back to his minors days. This team is going to have a bunch of guys with checkered injury histories in the rotation over the course of 2026 (Horton, Boyd, Wiggins, Steele) and I feel like adding another to that mix wouldn't be the best idea, especially if the Cubs think he's the TOR guy they need. Put another way, if you told me the Cubs would walk away from this offseason with Bubic/Cease, Bubic/Imai, or even Bubic/King, I'd do this deal. If it's instead something like Bubic/Woodruff, I'd be disappointed.
  12. Outshined_One
    Me reading the lineup: Me reading the rotation:
  13. Outshined_One
    I get the sense we'll see Caissie/Alcantara traded in the offseason. PCA and Happ are locks for next season and I think the Cubs will want to keep Seiya around, so my guess is the Cubs will sniff around for a corner OF after Tucker makes it clear he's going elsewhere. Maybe Taylor Ward or Jo Adell? They could also go dumpster diving for someone like Refsnyder if they want to take that approach.
  14. Outshined_One
    The reason I don't think the Cubs will go into Opening Day with Caissie or Alcantara as a starter is this exact uncertainty. Put another way, does anyone here think Caissie or Alcantara will outperform Happ or Suzuki in terms of WAR in 2026, or 2027, for that matter?
  15. Outshined_One
    Oh, come on.
  16. Outshined_One
    We'd noticed that there had been duplicate threads in transactions and the main forum, particularly at the deadline, and the decision was made to merge the two to make life easier for everyone so you wouldn't have to jump back and forth between threads or figure out where a new topic belonged. As far as I can tell, you're the first person to notice this!
  17. Outshined_One
    I edited the thread title just in case, so, *shrug*
  18. Outshined_One
    The hard part for Shota is, what team is going to be willing to pay the draft/international bonus pool penalty to sign him if he declines? My gut is, if he declines, he probably heads back to Japan.
  19. Outshined_One
    Weren't there discussions about how he seemed ticketed for 1B due to defensive issues? If he can at least hack it at 3B, then I'd have some interest, depending on what the SP trade market looks like and how other teams view Matt Shaw. The Cubs wouldn't lose a draft pick in signing Murakami, and if they can fine-tune his approach, then it might be worth exploring. If he's 1B/OF only, then hard pass.
  20. Outshined_One
    I hate that every hinky/weird play in sports for the foreseeable future will come with the nagging thought of, "I wonder if this will be Exhibit A at a criminal trial for illegal gambling in a few years?"
  21. Outshined_One
    Wasn't that just a sour grapes leak from the Commanders camp when Johnson stayed with the Lions?
  22. Outshined_One
    I saw him as a defensive tweener type and was skeptical about how his contact profile and power would translate to the pros. I admittedly was a bit all over the map on that draft, but leading up to the draft I was leaning in favor of one of the college catchers, James Tibbs, or Christian Moore. For the record, I was happy with Cam Smith when he was selected.
  23. Outshined_One
    More a vibe than anything else as to Caissie/Alcantara. Note I didn't say the same about Ballesteros, who was the first to get the call when there was an opening. He acquitted himself well, so I think he'll stay in the system in 2026, even if it's to work on catching at Iowa. Injuries definitely derailed Caissie and Alcantara, but with the Cubs in win-now mode, it didn't seem like there was a priority on getting them playing time, even when Tucker's calf was mooing. I could see a world where the Cubs get middling starter like Refsnyder or Yaz as a corner OF backup plan and letting Caissie and/or Alcantara sink or swim, but this isn't a team that can afford to give 300 plate appearances to a corner OF who will likely struggle in adjusting to major league pitching.
  24. Outshined_One
    I've been thinking the Cubs might explore trade options to address Tucker's absence. I don't see them in on Bellinger or Schwarber (sadly), and the prospect of Yaz or Refsnyder is just depressing. Based on how the season finished, I get the lingering sense that the team isn't quite sold on handing a starting OF job to Caissie/Alcantara, and the idea of shifting Seiya to RF and having Ballesteros take over at DH doesn't quite seem right to me, especially since Amaya should be 100% healthy and ready to take the backup C role. There are some intriguing OF trade candidates going into the offseason. Jarren Duran will be the main name thrown around, but I don't think the Cubs match up super great with the Red Sox, so I'm wondering how this team would feel about someone like Steven Kwan or Taylor Ward.
  25. Outshined_One
    The "no compensation attached" angle makes me think the Cubs will take a harder run at him than we might expect. They've been stingy with draft capital under Jed, and Imai checks a lot of boxes the rotation will need going into next season.
×
×
  • Create New...