champaignchris

Reminds me more of the 2009 Cubs. The 2004 team still won 89 games. 2009 they never got going, despite a garbage division like the WS this year. I like the 09 comparison. Piniella phoned it in for the last half of the season and slept-walked through the first half of 2010 before finally stepping away. As I recall, there were health issues in his family that may have drawn his attention away.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/drew-smyly-10664/ Sportrac seems to think it’s a $5.25mm mutual option, which I would assume Smyly will decline.

Nice game from Seiya today. That HR was crushed into a pretty stiff wind.

The Cubs have been +.500 for over two months. There have been about three 2-week stretches of really bad baseball. Outside of that, they’ve been a pretty decent team. I know, “Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln.” But still, more often than not, this has been a pretty fun team to watch when they aren’t in one of their stretches when they go 2-13.

Is it possible both the Padres and Brewers lost the Hader-Rogers trade?

Of the three, Kimbrel is really the dude I feel least strongly about. I left this out of the thread, but I really wonder if you could get Kimbrel cheaper than most other teams and so maybe it just makes sense to roll the dice. I’m leery of any pitcher the Dodgers can’t fix but maybe the Cubs really feel like they have the secret sauce. Britton and Estévez are really fun options and my personal favorites of the three. Kind of crazy that Kimbrel has been absolute garbage since the 2018 playoffs with the exception of 36 insanely good innings for the Cubs when we were looking to trade him. I know there's sample size stuff and ERA being a flawed stat but that 2021 Cubs ERA really jumps out 2019 CHC - 6.53 2020 CHC - 5.28 2021 CHC - 0.49 2021 CWS - 5.09 2022 LAD - 4.57 He was worth 2.5 wins during his 2021 stint with the Cubs and -1 win during the other 3.5 seasons. He’s basically been awful since the 2018 All Star Break for 4 different teams, with the exception of the 36 amazing innings he pitched for the Cubs in 21. At this point that looks like a pretty small island in an ocean of bad. Maybe the Cubs know the magic words to get him to being a good pitcher again, but I certainly wouldn’t want them to spend a lot of money to find out. Britten… that mid-teens Orioles bullpen was so nasty. Maybe he’s Mychel Givens. Maybe he’s Brad Brach. But I’d love to see if he has anything left in the tank.

I suppose they could both be true, if Hoyer was naive enough to believe they would never have an injury. There’s a lot of space between never having an injury and the top 6 starting pitchers in the organization at the beginning of the season all being on the IL at the same time, which was the case at one point in July. This has basically been a .500 team since Stroman and Smyly got off the IL. Which is not good enough and nothing Cubs fans should be happy about, but not the team that was on pace to be one of the worst teams in franchise history at the ASB.

“The team Hoyer envisioned at the beginning of the season never took the field due to injuries.” And “Hoyer did a lousy job of putting a competitive team on the field.” Can both be true.

.707 OPS with the Cubs .578 OPS with the Mets and Reds. It was clearly the Cubs’ fault.

Next 2 seasons. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe they have to decide on the 5th year option after year 3.

The way he's stripping the team down, Fields is going to be at the end of his contract before they ends up putting anything competitive on the field. its better than even odds he won’t be on the team by then Right. The most likely scenario is that Fields won’t be the starting QB on the next Bears playoff team. The timing just doesn’t work out. They’re going to have to make a decision on his fifth year option before they even get a chance to see him behind a competent o-line.

Today’s game one included, Hendricks, Stroman, Miley and Smiley have started 47 of 103 games this year. Consider what kind of disaster this season would have been if Thompson and Steele weren’t able to perform as well as they have.

What would have been the reaction if the Cubs had traded Contreras for the package the Red Sox got for Vázquez? Emmanuel Valdez looks like someone who could have vied for playing time at 2B immediately.

This is a better return than they got for either Tepera or Chafin last year.

And Alzolay assuming he’s still a thing.

Rivas optioned to AAA, McKinstry added to the roster.

McKinstry is very much in the Wisdom/Scwindel/Ortega mold of guys who put up good not great numbers in the minors, but never got much of a chance in the Majors.

Did the front office take that decision out of Ross’ hands? I’ve been wondering if the FO had the, “Are you injured or would you rather be released?” Discussion with Heyward. There really isn’t any place for him on the roster right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stayed “injured” until rosters expand in about 5 weeks.

Would Gabriel Moreno be too big an ask for Happ? Happ + Robertson? Moreno would fill a pretty obvious need.

I'm not sure that's any less representative of their future than playing all the best teams on their schedule for 2 months with 1.5 healthy starting pitchers Right. This was a team that was supposed to hover just under .500 this year, which is basically what they’ve done when they’ve had at least 3 of the starting pitchers available they were supposed to have heading into the season. ETA: Hendricks, Stroman, Miley and Smyly have only started 44 of 97 games this year.

The Astros' AAA team is in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston. The two ballparks are 22 miles apart. There are several like this. Atlanta’s suburban stadium is only about 30 miles from AAA Gwinnett (Lawrenceville). Seattle and Tacoma are only about 35 miles apart. Boston-Worcester, Philadelphia-Lehigh Valley (Allentown) and Detroit-Toledo are all 50-60 miles.

I keep waiting for the bottom to fall out. His past track record and current peripherals would seem to indicate that he can’t continue to be the 3.00 ERA guy that he’s been over 75 innings with the Cubs. But with three more years of team control and a minimal salary, there’s absolutely no reason why the Cubs shouldn’t ride him until his luck runs out. I suspect, like Alec Mills or Eddie Butler before him, his stats will eventually fall to match his talent.

Go Illini!

Don’t know, but the fact that Maddux, Walton, Dwight Smith, Grace, Mitch Williams and Dunston transitioned into one of the worst teams of the 90’s is pretty sad. Edit: and even Sandberg into the mid 90’s had he not quit for awhile. well, (aside from all of the bad moves those FOs made) part of that was that shawon dunston actually really sucked (i did not realize this at the time lol). like REALLY sucked. He was becoming a pretty consistent player until injuries eliminated what should have been his most productive years. He basically missed all of 92 and 93 and half of 94.

Doug Dascenzo, and Harry horsefeathering loved that dude. “Ya know, Steve, if you spelled Da-sinzo backwards it would be, Oz-nik-zode” My two favorites were Paw Paw, Michigan backwards is “wap-wap” and of course, Shawon Dunston backwards is “not-snud.”