Jump to content
North Side Baseball

squally1313

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    11,298

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    28

 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

2026 Chicago Cubs Draft Tracker: Picks & Bonuses

Blogs

Events

Forums

Store

Gallery

Everything posted by squally1313

  1. squally1313
    Scott Kingery/Tim Anderson/Jorge Soler as your 1-2-3 is peak February spring training. Also Cam Smith only went 1/3 with a single AND a strikeout, so we're back to winning the trade.
  2. squally1313
    Lineups are funny because I obsessed over them as a kid playing video games and little league and what not and have those old school notions hard wired into my brain. I realize now that it doesn't really matter at all and to just give the best hitters the most PAs and leave it alone, but I still feel the need to endlessly tinker with them (Hoerner and his contact skills in the 2 hole! PCA as the 'second leadoff hitter!').
  3. squally1313
    You don't want to put too much importance on two games, especially with the disruption in whatever build up/rehab is going on, but just optically having Workman and Berti in the Opening Day lineup would be a bit depressing so if Shaw could just show up at full speed that would be great.
  4. squally1313
    I think it's pretty common practice for ownership to sign off on 9 figure deals regardless of the budget situation, especially in a lame duck year for Hoyer. You can be $25m under budget and still need 'special permission' to offer someone over $30m/year. Have they explicitly said, recently, they are at the top end of the budget currently? My view is Ricketts hasn't meaningfully moved from his comments about staying at/right below the first luxury tax line. Bregman would have put them over that line and was a big enough contract regardless that he needed to talk with ownership. After that fell through, he apparently doesn't see anything out there worth getting. It's not necessarily a mistake on his part to not throw that money at Jose Quintana and a bunch of relievers that don't improve the team. But it's a mistake on his part, in the aggregate offseason, to end up not using the financial resources allotted to him.
  5. squally1313
    typo, hopefully?
  6. squally1313
    Some version of 2023 Jordan Wicks would go a really long way with our current pitching depth.
  7. squally1313
    And runs and fields at an absolute elite level. He puts out one of these articles every six weeks and Hoerner just continues being the 4 win player that he is.
  8. squally1313
  9. squally1313
    I mean, knowing what we know now about his complete arc as a Cub, of course there were better times to try and trade him for value. But that's a dumb road to go down. He got passed by PCA and Alcantara, the corner spots didn't open up, and he ran out of time. It happens.
  10. squally1313
    Kenny Lofton
  11. squally1313
    it's like you almost figured it out and then just couldn't help yourself
  12. squally1313
    Have we talked about how Workman's middle name is Tater
  13. squally1313
    Alcantara looks like he might be a keeper. I'd already rather have him than PCA.
  14. squally1313
    I can certainly see the reasoning. If I wanted to wade into the conspiracy/anti-FO waters, I'd be a little worried he becomes the guy they point to as the reason for not going full bore on a Tucker extension. But worrying about finding a spot for Alcantara seems very pre-mature.
  15. squally1313
    Talking about this in the Transaction threads, but if Tucker signs up to be the back up CF (and potentially take some starts against LHPs), then the last spot is Workman, if they need outfield help, it's Brujan.
  16. squally1313
    Yeah I forgot just how little he's played there. Seems like it would be easier in Wrigley than in Houston but still hasn't touched the position in a few years. Would solve the Seiya 'complaints', gives you a lineup that, besides Shaw and with Kelly, would be filled entirely with above average hitters v LHP based on 2024 results. If you can get Tucker on board (and maybe sell it as something that he could point to in his free agency), maybe it's Turner for PCA against LHPs in Wrigley, Turner for Busch on the road against LHPs.
  17. squally1313
    Could Turner be his platoon partner?
  18. squally1313
    Forgot he didn't have the 6 years of service time, good call, probably would have been $2m-$2.5m? I get your point but also think they're leaning towards a second bench person with the ability to play 3B/SS/2B, especially given Hoerner's health status and Shaw having 0 PAs. Having Shaw/Dansby/Hoerner/Berti to cover three positions feels a little thin.
  19. squally1313
    Yeah on February 19th you'd probably love to throw a pile of cash his way, enough to get him comfortable with being a 5th outfielder at best. But he's done enough to warrant more PAs and went and got that opportunity. Go trade for him in a couple months if need be.
  20. squally1313
    Yeah, as someone who is probably considered 'too married' to the raw numbers, with all this extra cash lying around bringing in a guy who can also double as a hitting coach to the Shaws of the world certainly can't hurt. You could tell how excited Happ, Hoerner, etc were yesterday.
  21. squally1313
    And they still signed more 2024 fWAR in major league contracts than the Brewers did.
  22. squally1313
    The era where he didn't opt out and the Cubs were stuck with the remaining years of his contract?
  23. squally1313
    Yeah that's fair. This is tricky to articulate, but we've all been under the assumption that the budget is the first tax line. I don't think Ricketts gets trashed across the baseball media for being willing to spend to the first tax line. Assuming that's actually the budget, being $30m under going into the year is....mostly Jed's fault? Like, yeah, at this point don't go and sign five terrible starters to use all the money and then cut them all in two months, that's just wasted playing time. But being the guy at the auction draft who ends the night with 15% of their budget isn't how you draw it up. I'm not sure where I'm at on this aversion to long term deals, 2026 lock out thing. All this unused cash and now media pressure just adds to the Tucker extension importance, and signing that contract ends all the lockout speculation. If they let him walk, there's more reasons to be angry than all the CBA stuff.
  24. squally1313
    I think we should be able to take a levelheaded view at the ability of a particular player relative to their peers without automatically being accused of being in bed with ownership. Bregman had the 54th best wRC in baseball last year. 37th over the last 3 years. 30 teams have had four months to sign him to a deal. Ricketts, specifically, gets trashed at this exact moment (and not for being a non-factor in Soto, missing on Ohtani/Roki, not even being linked to Burnes/other top starters even though we're clearly missing one, etc), is just a weird time to make the point that obviously should be made. Bregman is a good player but looking at the entirely of the offseason he was not the big miss.
  25. squally1313
    I think there's a little bit of grey area that these teams and players are obviously trying to exploit, and it'll probably be an evolving issue as states work to close loopholes like this. Like, take Ohtani's contract. Couldn't it theoretically be written that he's obligated to perform consulting/marketing work (remotely, obviously) for the Dodgers during the time when he's actually getting paid? And so it's like....for the next 10 years he gets paid $10m or whatever to play baseball, and then the 10 years after that he gets paid $70m/year to work remotely for the organization. Obviously it's a sham, but I don't know if states, especially states like California, want to start weeding into what is 'fair' compensation for services and how it should be taxed.
×
×
  • Create New...