Tim

Eddie Jackson is kinda good.

Wrong thread?

Wait, we're going to win a non-Rutgers Big 10 game?

A slightly different take on a previous offseason post: 1) Sign Harper 2) re-up Hamels, Quintana & Strop 3) Shoot Duensing & Chatwood to the moon 4) Resign Chavez 5) Trade Happ + Russell + Kintzler for Pivetta + Neris after Philly whiffs on both Harper and Machado 6) Sign Asdrubal Cabrera On the trade... I read this blurb over at Fangraphs today: They've really struggled to get production from their OF and SS. If they miss (or don't play) on Machado/Harper, then they need to fill those holes with players who can stay there for at least a few years. I think their pitchers are undervalued somewhat as Philly literally had the worst defensive runs saved ever. Pivetta shouldn't be outrageously expensive after putting up era's of 6.02 and 4.77 in his first two years. But I think he's got a much better level of performance coming ahead, especially going from the worst defense in years to a pretty good one with the Cubs. Lineup: 2B) Zobrist 3B) Bryant RF) Harper SS) Baez 1B) Rizzo C) Contreras LF) Schwarber CF) Heyward Bench: Almora/Caratini/Cabrera/Happ/La Stella SP: Darvish/Lester/Hamels/Hendricks/Quintana/Pivetta Swing: Smyly/Monty RP: Morrow/Strop/Edwards/Cishek/Neris/Chavez/Morgan

What is it you don't like about Leclerc? Don’t his BB numbers scare you quite a bit? I see you mention him a lot and he had a great year but I’d assume they’d ask for a decent haul back for a guy who’s been Chatwood wild in the past. He’s had 6 stops across the majors and minors since 2015 of at least 15 innings and only in 2 of them he’s had a BB/9 under 5.8 and it was still in the high 3 both times. His career MLB BB/9 is just a little under 6. He’d scare me a ton, he also gives up a lot of flyballs. This article is where he first got my attention: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-best-reliever-season-you-havent-heard-about/ Are the walks a concern? Absolutely. But he also has one of the most unique pitches in MLB and five more years of control.

What is it you don't like about Leclerc?

Did we sign him yet?

I knew I liked OPR.

So, how much do we get penalized for tampering?

And Long goes down again.

Or if Bryce says he wants him there.

EDIT: Updated with the original MLB.com link. Just in case you're reading, Theo: Offense for entire season: .744 OPS Offense in Sept (with Murphy): .663 OPS I couldn't figure out splitting based on a particular date, so I don't have the splits before and after 8/22. But the offense as a whole was better without him than with him.

I like Jethro Tull as much as the next guy, but the dude is like 70 at this point.

If the Cubs were in a total blitz mode and didn't care an iota about being under the cap in the near future, I could see investing in Corbin and trading Quintana to add other assets. But I just don't see it happening in the real world

goony, I'm normally with you on most things. But you're flat out wrong here. Mitch still has plenty of room for growth left. But he is absolutely not "terrible".

It's so weird that you keep pushing this "Trubisky is terrible" agenda, when you were one of the most vocal Cutler supporters on this board. If Trubisky continues along the same terrible plane he's been on this season, he finishes better than Cutler across the board statistically. mitch had more talent and better coaching around him than cutler ever hadFor several years, Cutler had: Matt Forte Brandon Marshall Alshon Jeffery Martellus Bennett That's not exactly chopped liver.

On its own, I don't mind skipping the kick. They were against the wind and at the limit of Parkey's range. What upsets me about that, though, is it makes the decision down in Miami to kick after not even really trying to advance the ball much more questionable. If you know that your kicker doesn't have the leg to consistently make those long kicks, you have to try harder to advance the ball last week.

Some of those I understand. A couple he was just trying to get rid of the ball in the direction of a receiver. The throw to Burton was impacted by the defender raising his arm right in front of him and blocking the throwing angle. But there have also been a bunch of head scratchers.

Also, there's no way I'd give Britton a 3/36 contract at this point.

Well, we asked them and they said they didn't do it. Innocent until proven guilty. They're being treated like Kavanaugh. Totally unfair.

Mitch is part of the reason they didn't win. Howard is part of the reason they didn't win. Cohen is part of the reason they didn't win. (his fumble) Parkey is part of the reason they didn't win. The ref is part of the reason they didn't win. (stupid PI call) Nagy is part of the reason they didn't win. The shitty tackling is part of the reason they didn't win. You could say that each of those deserves some percentage of the blame for the loss. You could also make the claim that any single one of those is THE reason they lost. What isn't right is to say that any of those guys are blameless.

From my seats I saw an egregious missed TD early. And then a few others that missed guys who could have been caught. It's been a trend all year. He had some nice throws but he also has a ton of behind the line completions. Plus another off the back foot toss that would have been a pick 6 if the DB didn't slip. I believe the offense lost that game in the first half. The defense had to work too hard early to keep it close and in that heat they were going to wear down. You can't have a scoreless half coming off the bye. The dudes holding sun shades on the bench can only do something much. He’s going to miss some passes. If the expectation is that he needs to be perfect, you are going to be disappointed. We’ll all expected some growing pains and he’s clearly made big strides from the first 3 games of the season. He made several elite passes on Sunday - specifically both deep passes to Gabriel. His pass to Cohen hit him perfectly in stride over he middle and allowed Cohen to rip off a huge gain. He drove the team down the field and threw a TD to give them a lead with 3 minutes left to play. It’s frankly a bizarre take to blame this game of the first half offense when the defense missed 19 tackles, allowed a complete stiff to throw for 380 yards, and let a 35 year old running back run for 100+ yards. All the D needed to do was to keep a horsefeathers offense from marching 75 yards down the field in 3 minutes for a TD and they gave up a 75 yard TD on the first play of the Dolphins possession. They lost in OT. It's perfectly fair to say that any one of about 20 things lost them the game. Not scoring in the first half is definitely one of those 20.

So much for the elite defense

We can stop talking about throwing left, I think.

Turns out Illinois is still bad this year, huh?