champaignchris

I’m unreasonably annoyed by the pitcher throwing to first base when the runner is literally standing on the base. So, I’m all on board the 2 pick off moves rule.

Every time I’m ready to write off Sampson, he puts up a start like that. As a franchise, the Cubs shouldn’t have to get 145 innings out of 30-something AAAA starters like Sampson, Leiter and Farrell, but the innings they did get from them this year haven’t been the disasters they could have been.

I think Maddon is a more strategic manager than tactical one. He thinks on a series to series basis rather than an at bat to at bat basis. He’s more interested in making sure guys get rest or at bats, stay refreshed and focused, have opportunities to succeed when first called up, and so on. “Soft people skills” as stated upthread. It’s one or the reasons he’s so much better at being a regular season manager than a playoff manager when each individual at bat carries so much more meaning. I think most charitably, he’s trying to remind everyone that the players are humans and not robots. You can’t just dump a bunch of data in them and expect things to work out. I think least charitably, he’s that guy from Office Space trying to answer, “What exactly would you say you do do here?” “I’m a [expletive] people person!”

These last two seasons he’s been a Hall of Fame bat and an All-Star pitcher in the same body. It’s unbelievable what he’s doing. It’s even more unbelievable that the Angels have ridden a healthy Ohtani and Trout to a 59-76 record this year. Just 2 1/2 games better than the Cubs.

Be curious to see what kind of pace they can keep up with Gonsolin, Kershaw and Buehler all on the shelf and insane, probably unsustainable performances from 30-something journeymen like Heaney and Tyler Anderson. Of course, they just got Dustin May back, but I don’t know who their 5th starter is right now and I have no clue what their starting rotation will look like come playoff time. The funny thing is the 5th starter you're forgetting about is Julio Urias who has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball since the ASB. I wasn’t forgetting Urias. Him, May, Heaney and Anderson were the Dodgers’ four starters at the time. They’ve since answered my fifth starter question by bringing Kershaw back off the IL. Pretty nice when you can fill that hole in your rotation by slotting in this generation’s best left handed.

Be curious to see what kind of pace they can keep up with Gonsolin, Kershaw and Buehler all on the shelf and insane, probably unsustainable performances from 30-something journeymen like Heaney and Tyler Anderson. Of course, they just got Dustin May back, but I don’t know who their 5th starter is right now and I have no clue what their starting rotation will look like come playoff time. I still think I’d take a Mets team that can roll out a healthy DeGrom and Scherzer for 4 starts in a 7 game series even if the Mets are “only” on pace for 102 wins.

If Willson isn’t considered a catcher, his value goes down significantly. He’s a reliably good, not great offensive player in the 115 OPS+/wRC+ range. He’s an Ian Happ who only hits from the right side. Not without value, but not a $20 million a year player. Closer to a $12-15 million a year player.

This seems pretty steep for Contreras. Grandal got 4 /73 and Realmuto got 5/115. I don’t think Willson is as well-regarded as Realmuto. I think the Grandal contract is closer to what he’ll get.

What’s the most anyone has given up for a single season of a player? Could the Cubs mitigate some of the prospects lost by taking on a good chunk of the Rendon contract?

Cardinals have the second lowest K/9 in the Majors.

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.