Tim

I had Bell being the target instead of Mancini in my original post. Then I looked at his stats for this season and figured he's probably going to get overpaid by some team thinking this is the new normal for him. I agree I'd prioritize a left-handed hitter, but just grabbed the first name that represented an easy upgrade, but would come pretty cheap. My lowkey favorite option for #2 on your list is Schwarber. If Philly decides that their "ignore defense entirely" approach didn't work and looks to re-tool the roster, he should be available for players on the back half of our 40 man crunch. Unfortunately, if Dombrowski is still in charge this winter, I don't think that'll happen. My *hope* is that Mervis continues to really force the issue for the rest of the summer. First base is just sitting there waiting to be claimed. It's really hard to have a winning team with negative offensive contributions from 1B.

If you're talking about us trading prospects for pitchers, then there's a problem. The issue is the willingness of other teams to part with the players. How often have you seen any good, established, pre-arbitration pitchers being traded for prospects? I'm sure there's been some, but I can't think of any right now. If you're suggesting that the Cubs should prioritize getting MLB-ready (or established) pitching in return for Willson, Robertson, etc., then I somewhat agree. I'm hoping for the maximum amount of talent in return. I'd prefer for that talent to be on the pitching side, if possible.

These Brewers hitters are awful. And yet they're the 11th best offense by WAR.

As bad as this year has been, I don't think we're that far off from being able to field a really good team next year. Probably not a 100+ win team, but certainly one good enough to make the expanded playoffs and build from there. On offense, the Cubs are almost exactly average even with large negative contributions from Heyward, Schwindel, Simmons, Villar, Hermosillo, Madrigal, Bote, Frazier and Rivas. That's around 900 at bats given to players who were ranged from really bad to god awful this year. There are some good pieces in place moving forward with Hoerner, Happ, Wisdom, Morel and Suzuki all being players I feel really good putting into a starting lineup for next year. A Gomes/Higgins tandem at catcher isn't great, but it probably won't hurt much, either. So that's six of nine positions spoken for with positive contributors. It is relatively easy to get better overall performance by replacing the bad players with league average ones. Doing something like signing Mancini to play first base would be a big improvement to the team (though he wouldn't be my particular pick). We should also look to consolidate some of our young players into a trade for a pre-arbitration big leaguer at a position of need to avoid losing people in the coming 40 man roster crunch this offseason. I'd really like us to buy this trade deadline in addition to our selling. What the group lacks from all of the activity above is star power. As much as I'd love to get one of the big shortstops on the market this offseason, I just don't see Jed committing the 7-10 years it would take to sign Bogaerts, Correa or Turner. Intellectually, I can buy into that. Very few of those contracts ends up being an overall win for the team signing the deal. We'll probably need to develop our own superstar in the coming years, which is why I see the outlook as becoming a much better team, but not a great one for at least a couple years. On the SP side...it's not quite as bleak as I thought it would be. I think Stroman will be fine. Between Steele, Thompson and Killian, we should be able to settle in on a quality pair of starters there. So that's three rotation spots filled with decent to good quality. Hendricks is likely on his way out at this point. If he comes on strong in the second half, so much the better. But I wouldn't plan on him being important next year. There are a whole bunch of starters up and down the quality range in FA. They should sign at least one bigger name to compete for the top spot in the rotation. They should sign/acquire at least one more SP that can eat innings at a reasonably effective quality. Additional SP help could be coming from the farm, but it wouldn't be until the second half or even 2024. But at that point, there's a pretty decent pipeline starting to build up. They'll need to restock relievers, as well, but that's one area where I have absolute confidence in this front office. Payroll should be available as they only have around $108M committed so far for next season. It shouldn't be too much of a challenge to bring in a few league average (or better) players at 1B, CF, 2B and/or DH. There should be plenty of cash to bring in a high-quality and a mid-quality starter. The farm is already starting to produce better and that should continue to ramp up in coming years. I can easily see them as an 88-92 win team next year by making these fairly modest improvements. Then they could continue to ramp up after that for future seasons.

Is Morel bunting on his own or are those being called?

Given the B1G's emphasis on both academics and athletics, plus adding TV metros, and enhancing rivalries; I'd like to see: - ND (with USC joining, most of their traditional rivals are here now) - Pitt (biased after paying $100+k for my daughter's degrees, but the rivalry with PSU would be great) - UNC and Virginia (Mid-Atlantic) - Georgia Tech (Atlanta) - UCLA & USC (Southern Cal market) - Cal Berkeley & Stanford (lock down the bay area) - Oregon and Washington (PNW) Yep - I went to 26. What the hell at this point. All AAU schools except ND, but they're still stronger academically than several other members. I thought about raiding the Big 12, too. But I couldn't find AAU schools that I wanted as much as the Pac10 or ACC schools.

Ha - relegation to create a "Big 10" and "Little 10"?

Of you could say that Ross subbing everything got us six runs to come back from five behind and take the lead.

We have nine walks and only four k's? Can't remember the last time that happened.

he was thought of as high upside, but low likelihood

I think we may have possibly underrated Morel.

Did we actually sign Gallinari?

What happened?Collision between him and Hoerner where he got hit square in his reconstructed shoulder.

lol - they threw Wisdom another low fastball.

You would think pitchers know better than to throw a low fastball in the zone to Wisdom by now.

That was an okay at bat from Wisdom, too!

That's a tremendous at bat for Happ.

Same thought went through my head

Don't normally see stolen bases thrown out by quite that much.

Yeah, I don't like it, but I get it.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10040457-rob-manfred-says-mlb-will-likely-introduce-automated-strike-zone-system-in-2024 (summary: rob manfred says mlb will likely introduce automated strike zone system in 2024) Maybe we should extend Willson

Both teams are pretty bad.

He sure looks pretty darned good. Also...I had no idea India was blowing so hard this year.

I'm honestly not that mad at Ross for continuing to play Heyward while he's on the roster. As much as he's a respected leader on the team, it could easily hurt the clubhouse to stick him at the end of the bench. The answer is that the decision shouldn't be in his hands and Heyward shouldn't be on the roster.

Remind yourself of the .441 BABIP Sure a fair amount of it is probably good fortune, but in the minor leagues a lot of BABIP "luck" is a reflection of being too good for the level. Maybe not in this case to the same degree that a guy with a .250 BABIP in low A may not have the hit tool, but still. Even if you hacked off 70 points he'd still have a .360ish wOBA. Plus regardless of luck, hitting .390+ for 3+ weeks is remarkable on its own. He's definitely been hitting the crap out of the ball. Given the COF profile and the lack of another carrying tool such as power, he's going to have to continue that to be valuable. The 4.x% walk rate is also not ideal, though guys often don't walk much when they're hitting that well. Let's just say I would be happier having him in the lineup right now than Heyward. At least we can still dream on Hill.