squally1313

This is getting to be historic ineptitude.

That’s not it at all. It’s this mock disbelief that people on the cubs message board are discussing the players who are currently playing for the cubs. You chose to click on a topic with a very clear subject that fits in pretty well with the purpose of the board. On the flip side, the Cubs actively chose to tank this year and put the fans in a situation where if they want to think about their team they have to discuss garbage players and whether those garbage players have a chance to play for the team next year. That sucks, it should be inexcusable for a fan base that provides a tremendous financial cushion to the owners who are acting as though they are the greatest victims of the covid shutdown. If a fan wants to express his frustration with the situation that the owners of the team chose to the put them into, then they should feel free to do so without being criticized by fans who think we should just shut up and accept the situation. More than one thing can be true at once. The Ricketts dealt Cubs fans an unnecessary, garbage filled hand. How people react to that is totally up to the individual. You can be pissed off at them, at the system of MLB, at capitalism, etc etc etc and still enjoy talking about the baseball team/players, and discussing how to theoretically improve the team (which, I believe, most everyone here still wants). It's like going into the minor league discussions and being like 'who gives a horsefeathers, the Ricketts are going to trade them anyways, why are you wasting your time talking about this'. A reasonable contribution is 'This guy sucks and has no place on a competitive Cubs team'. That's also, in this case, the correct contribution in my opinion. 'lol these guys all suck so stop talking about them' doesn't really do anything.

These are super fun posts to read, over and over, 2 weeks into this rebuild. We get it, the team sucks. Last I checked, Cubs message board, Cubs discussion. Just my opinion, but I see Schwindel as a guy who's rounding out the ML roster right now... nothing more. I'll be incredibly disappointed if he breaks camp next spring. Sorry if this post serves as a reminder of how bad this team is. Guess what? There's still 8 weeks of this crap ahead of us. Suck it up. That’s not it at all. It’s this mock disbelief that people on the cubs message board are discussing the players who are currently playing for the cubs. You chose to click on a topic with a very clear subject that fits in pretty well with the purpose of the board.

But last year was arguably the best year of his career. Only 50 games, but definitely not a 'half assed rebound season', especially coming off two 2 win seasons. Maybe he's broken, but also maybe these career minor league dudes just suck and it's better to shoot for another Heyward rebound. I don't think that we cannot take literally anything away from the 2020 season for anyone. Like for instance, from April 19, 2018 to June 30, 2018 Heyward recorded a 50 game stretch where he his .314/.363/.481/.844. Still finished with a .731 OPS for the season. I get that we cant assume that he would drop off in 2020 and comparing his entire 2020 with a cherry picked best 50 game stretch in another season is not totally fair, but its still a small sample that jumps out as an outlier from the rest of this Cubs career. He also had the highest BABIP as a Cub, and his average EV was at 2016 levels (though his LD% was much higher than any other season in his career). The thing I keep coming back is the walk rate, which he's flashed before (his rookie year/Atlanta years, 2019 was in the right direction). It's not like pitchers in 2020 were scared of his bat and pitching around him, but he was still able to produce an elite walk rate. This year it's a career low, as is his BABIP. To be fair, he's on the wrong side of the aging curve, and his soft hit % is close to a career high, LD% is down, etc. But Heyward came in with sky high expectations, he bombed, and then he turned into a league average starter, performed way above that last year, and way below that this year. We aren't going from this current roster to 8 above average starters next year. But he's not blocking anyone remotely regarded, and eating his contract when your current other options are an assortment of garbage doesn't make any sense to me.

that's a bit of a stretch compared to his braves/cardinals days. His rookie year, 2010 he had a .393 OBP. From 2011 to 2019, his highest OBP was .359. In 2020 it was .392. Looking at it again, he put up 5.6 fWAR in his one year with the Cardinals (of course) in 154 games, which is slightly better than 1.8 in 50 games last year. And most of his 2020 success was driven by a fantastic walk rate, which should age well. This isn't Jason Heyward vs some actually good free agent going into next year. This is Jason Heyward vs the Schwinder/Deichmann/Ortegas of the world for the next 7 weeks. Of those guys, Heyward has the best shot of contributing next year.

Prior to this year, which is terrible, he's been a 2 win player or better the last three years. When I say 'contend next year', I'm not talking about racing the Dodgers to 100 wins, but having a reasonable chance of winning a very average division. A two win player can definitely be a starter on that kind of team. He was also a 28/29/30 year old scraping together half-assed rebound seasons after back to back 1 WAR seasons. He's already 32 years old and will just be getting worse as time goes by. But last year was arguably the best year of his career. Only 50 games, but definitely not a 'half assed rebound season', especially coming off two 2 win seasons. Maybe he's broken, but also maybe these career minor league dudes just suck and it's better to shoot for another Heyward rebound.

This is a pretty dire statement, but considering we're on the hook for his contract regardless, and given the lack of any other options, if the goal is competitive in 2022, isn't it prudent to see if he can figure out how to be 2020 Heyward again? If the Cubs want to contend, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Heyward gets significant at bats and we still have a competent offense. We’ve basically seen how that plays out the past four seasons. Prior to this year, which is terrible, he's been a 2 win player or better the last three years. When I say 'contend next year', I'm not talking about racing the Dodgers to 100 wins, but having a reasonable chance of winning a very average division. A two win player can definitely be a starter on that kind of team.

These are super fun posts to read, over and over, 2 weeks into this rebuild. We get it, the team sucks. Last I checked, Cubs message board, Cubs discussion.

Giants record by year: 2020 29-31 2019 77-85 2018 73-89 2017 64-98 This is largely a board that wanted to blow up this team after winning the division last year, being in contention until the last week in 2019, and making the 'playoffs'/NLCS the two years before that.

This is a pretty dire statement, but considering we're on the hook for his contract regardless, and given the lack of any other options, if the goal is competitive in 2022, isn't it prudent to see if he can figure out how to be 2020 Heyward again? I dunno. His situation is opposite of Happ's. Prior to last season he had 2100 PAs of mostly below average hitting for the Cubs (.711 OPS). Do we trust that or the 181 PAs from a shortened season that had a lot of strange outliers across the league? If we somehow unlock 2020 Heyward next year, and the Cubs intend to compete in 2023, that gives us 1 year to "enjoy" this Heyward before he's a FA. So in my mind the chances of actually unlocking 2020 are not worth the limited benefit. If there's no obvious outfielder to develop? Sure knock yourself out. The last part is crucial though. He was a 2 fWAR guy in 2018 and 2019, and on pace for his best season yet last year. Even a pessimistic look at those three years gets you a roughly 2 win player, though obviously you factor in his age and current performance. Is there anyone in the system that you think realistically is going to eclipse that next year? Maybe Davis, but he'll get his chance next month if he keeps hitting. If the choice is Heyward or Deichmann the rest of the year...give me Heyward.

He's at full 10/5, I highly doubt the places that would trade for him and that he'd go to intersect at all... especially considering I have a feeling the places he'd accept a trade to is pretty close to 0 if not 0. Forgot about the 10/5. Was going to say he might move in a situation where we take an even worse contract (more years or more AAV). Do buyouts happen a lot in baseball? He's a great clubhouse presence and his defense is still solid (I think) so its not the worst thing in the world to have him as an extra OF on the roster as long as its clear he is not an everyday or even platoon starter for the next team that attempts to contend. This is a pretty dire statement, but considering we're on the hook for his contract regardless, and given the lack of any other options, if the goal is competitive in 2022, isn't it prudent to see if he can figure out how to be 2020 Heyward again?

Cool, works for me.

To be perfectly honest, I would like to see the Sox win it all unless they have to beat any of KB, Javy and Rizzo to do it. I don't really hate the Brewers the way some do but I also am not crazy about the idea of them winning a title. The thought Ryan Braun and his affliction t shirt collection having to watch the celebration from home after spending a decade plus in a town he almost definitely hated would be pretty comforting.

Woodruff/Burnes/Peralta/Williams are pretty great. But that doesn't come close to making up for the rest of the roster.

4 innings, 9 Ks on 42 pitches is some ‘playing the Orioles on rookie with Mark Prior’ horsefeathers

Tim, if you ever wanted to replace 'Easily the least terrible faction...' on the headline image.

You mention the bullpen, which is far from an easy to answer situation, but what about the rotation? It's really bad. You need 7+ starters to make it through a season, and it's probably 8 or more when you talk about a rotation with a group like this that doesn't have a couple reliable workhorses. When your bullpen AND rotation need an influx of help your season can slip away from you very quickly. Have you seen other rotations?

Great work adding '-lite' to this attempt to pat yourself on the back. Gives you the easy out if anyone correctly argues how shortsighted it is to compare these two trades. 'Well of course it's not actually the same, but...'

5 innings, 3 runs, 11 groundballs/5 flyballs in his first career start. We know he has the strikeout ability, this was encouraging.

Look, when someone who played major league games for the cubs goes on a hot streak, it’s a fluke, and actually he sucks. If it’s someone else, just extrapolate the 4 HRs in two games to a full healthy season of ABs and figure out the math accordingly.

I know they changed the rules on the PGA Tour a few years back to allow people to leave it in if they wanted and Bryson, etc decided to go that route. On the amateur level, last year there were signs saying to leave it in all summer because people thought Covid was a surface level thing, but seems like everyone just stuck with it this year. As someone who caddied for 8 years growing up, still feels weird to me leaving it in, but ultimately I know it doesn't really matter.

If Happ were on the open market, would you pay him $5M? If not, why even offer him arbitration? He has had plenty of time to figure things out, and he is terrible. Rafael Ortega is playing over his head for sure, but I would much rather let him fill the spot for the next year, whether that be as a 4th outfielder or as a placeholder starter. Sure I definitely would. Coming into this season he had a career .825 OPS in 1262 PA. Last year he had the 24th highest fWAR for a position player in baseball (yes SSS but still). $5m is worth trying to figure out what has gone wrong this season and whether he can go back to some semblance of the production he had in his previous 4 seasons. I'll trust the 1200 PA over the 300 PA this year, even if that 300 PA is the most recent data point. Hm, one bad season as a young outfielder after being pretty consistently an above average hitter. If only we had a similar situation we could look at to see how it played out.

9/10 on the Derwood scale

This Rockies/fan/mascot thing is straight out of Curb. Don’t want to describe it any more because I don’t want to give anything way.

Yankee Legend Rizzo tests positive