Tim

TREE???

If I had to pick one of the line items to give up, it would be Bellinger. Assuming we could get Soto without giving up PCA, that is.

I like my plan better.

Here is what I posted in the other thread... Trade for Soto now Sign Ohtani this offseason Extend Bellinger Sign one more SP (I do like the idea of signing a 24 year old Yamamoto) Exercise the option on Gomes Sign a couple of higher certainty relievers - but not closers since Adbert is the real deal I'd extend Soto right after the trade. Between him, Ohtani and Bellinger, that's very likely over a billion dollars in commitment, but it sets us up to be a great team for a long time. Yamamoto being the other starter may even allow us to stay on the first tier of salary cap violation. It would also be nice to add some more certainty in the bullpen than going the usual bargain basement shopping. I'd see how open Soto would be to a shift to first base (and how well he could play there). I'd also have Morel commit to third base and nothing but third base. Assuming those worked out, we could have a lineup of something like this: 1B - Soto (L) 2B - Nico (R) DH - Ohtani (L) SS - Dansby (R) CF - Bellinger (L) 3B - Morel (R) LF - Happ (S) RF - Seiya (R) C - Gomes / Amaya (R) That's one heck of a lineup. The rotation would be something like: Ohtani Steele Taillon Yamamoto Smyly / Brown / Wesneski / Wicks We just need Jed to put on his big boy pants and make it happen.

Yeah, I put Soto at 1B when I expanded the idea in another thread

Amaya gets hbp more than Rizzo

I put this in another thread, but I'll expand on it here. Trade for Soto now Sign Ohtani this offseason Extend Bellinger Sign one more SP (I do like the idea of signing a 24 year old Yamamoto) Exercise the option on Gomes I'd extend Soto right after the trade. Between him, Ohtani and Bellinger, that's very likely over a billion dollars in commitment, but it sets us up to be a great team for a long time. Yamamoto being the other starter may even allow us to stay on the first tier of salary cap violation. It would also be nice to add some more certainty in the bullpen than going the usual bargain basement shopping. I'd see how open Soto would be to a shift to first base (and how well he could play there). I'd also have Morel commit to third base and nothing but third base. Assuming those worked out, we could have a lineup of something like this: 1B - Soto (L) 2B - Nico (R) DH - Ohtani (L) SS - Dansby (R) CF - Bellinger (L) 3B - Morel (R) LF - Happ (S) RF - Seiya (R) C - Gomes / Amaya (R) That's one heck of a lineup. The rotation would be something like: Ohtani Steele Taillon Yamamoto Smyly / Brown / Wesneski / Wicks We just need Jed to put on his big boy pants and make it happen.

Screw it... Trade for Soto now Sign Ohtani this offseason Extend Bellinger Sign one more SP (I do like the idea of signing a 24 year old Yamamoto)

I saw somewhere today that the Cubs have only ever gone 10 games below .500 and then come all the way back to .500 in their history. Both other times, they reached .500 again at exactly 51-51. That's incredibly weird.

On first viewing, I thought for sure Walker knocked that out

He also tried to hit him high on the first pitch.

Whoever it was that was pointing and laughing was awesome

I also don't think you're going to get Bellinger on a 4-5 year deal if he keeps hitting.

That's fun with the position players. I'm hoping some of those guys get to MB or SB after a quick tuneup in AZ.

I'm not very big on "the will to win" or "knowing how to win" in baseball. There's probably some small amount of value there, but I don't know that it compares to improving the overall talent within the organization.

Quick rant: An MLB GM/President shouldn't need these last four games to tell him whether to buy or sell. He should understand what he has in the organization, the state of the competition, and so forth already. I get that there's a potential swing in the standings from those four games, but the depth of the hole we're in is the only factor that's going to change between now and 8/2. And even that's not likely to change radically. I really hope he's aggressively pursuing a strategy behind the scenes and just not signaling to the media which way he's going. Because this looks like wishy-washy indecision to me.

If he ends up at DH, the bat is very interesting.

If it makes you feel any better, I think the Cubs strength and conditioning coach either worked with Wiggins at Arkansas or at least still knows people in the program very well.

Wow...Adbert's just flat out better than they are.

Still got him ranked behind Hearn?

Yep, Greg with his usual excellent work.

He can now choose to accept the assignment to Iowa or choose to be a free agent.

Why be neutral, though? All 19 other guys are signed already, so this has no impact on anyone else. Let's get that super high-risk, high-upside arm in the system.

That just ended up being me, Chuck, and the Ducross Brothers

Would you sign him to a Nimmo-size deal? The statcast numbers freak me out when thinking about making a long-term commitment. I think I'd opt on the sell-high side of things if the offer is out there.