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Everyone here knows he will go into a slump, just like everyone here knows the haters are anxiously waiting for it to happen so they can continue complaining about him as soon as it starts Yeah, every player goes through stretches like that; to talk like when it inevitably happens to Heyward it will be some kind of "ah-HAH"-moment is weird. Okay let me further explain that as meaning a deep slump or a long slump. Yeah, every hitter goes through stretches where they struggle and slump. It happens. I'm just not sold on Heyward being this productive. I hope I'm wrong guys. I'm not a "Hater" or someone who wants to see him struggle. Seems like a good dude and a great teammate.

I was critical of him after game 1 so I'll admit I'm pleasantly surprised by his uptick in performance. I still don't like the swing, but it's working for now. I still think he's gonna go into a slump and he hits too many groundballs, but at least he isn't striking out anymore. Call me crazy but I still hope he opts out just because I think the last few yrs are gonna be ugly and the defense will be in decline. Also, we could allocate that money somewhere else to someone better (probably).

It's still early, but I have to give credit where credit is due. J. Heyward is hitting the ball pretty well even if the swing is still pretty ugly. Hopefully he continues being this productive.

All we can really take away from this is Willson is probably the best catcher in baseball. And he fell to us out of the clouds. #PraiseTheo (probably should really be McLeod but let's keep his ego down so his stays around longer than he should). What :-s !?! Why should we praise McLeod for the success of W. Contreras? We didn't draft W. Contreras and this new Cubs regime under Theo & Jed didn't even sign him as an Int. Free Agent. As strange as it sounds, we should be thanking J. Hendry (or at least the scout under J. Hendry that recommended signing him). Realistically, most of the credit goes to W. Contreras for transforming from a non-prospect to a first-division C and possible All-Star selection.

If he goes 3-4 tomorrow I'll be very happy, but I won't say he's fixed either. I mean I don't know know when fans started saying there was something wrong with J. Heyward last yr before we all agreed there was definitely a problem. If you want to wait till June that's fine. Honestly I hope I'm wrong and you're right -- that I'm making a stupid judgement call based around video of his swings during the offseason, watching his AB's during ST and this first game against a very dominant pitcher. Even if he doesn't hit he does indeed provide value with his defense and baserunning, but we'll have to start benching him.

I never said his swing doesn't look different/any better -- I said it still looks messed up and his timing still seems way off. Of course, we need to wait and be patient to see if maybe this new swing mechanics might make a difference and make him more productive. That's obvious. I hope I'm wrong and that all those scouts who were mentioned in that article on ESPN are also wrong. I really sincerely hope that J. Heyward will return to being at least league-average. I just doubt that it'll actually happen. Especially watching his AB's in spring training and then watching him yesterday. I made the post because no one mentioned his struggles yesterday. Yeah it's just one game, but I think it's a sign of things to come... It's only one game, but Kris Bryant is going to set the single season K record this year. I'm not worried about KB. That quote "Yeah it's just one game, but I think it's a sign of things to come..." is in reference to J. Heyward. Please don't take my quotes out of context

I never said his swing doesn't look different/any better -- I said it still looks messed up and his timing still seems way off. Of course, we need to wait and be patient to see if maybe this new swing mechanics might make a difference and make him more productive. That's obvious. I hope I'm wrong and that all those scouts who were mentioned in that article on ESPN are also wrong. I really sincerely hope that J. Heyward will return to being at least league-average. I just doubt that it'll actually happen. Especially watching his AB's in spring training and then watching him yesterday. I made the post because no one mentioned his struggles yesterday. Yeah it's just one game, but I think it's a sign of things to come... It's only one game, but Kris Bryant is going to set the single season K record this year. I'm not worried about KB. That quote "Yeah it's just one game, but I think it's a sign of things to come..." is in reference to J. Heyward. Please don't take my quotes out of context

It seems to me that a lot of smart Cubs fans think he'll bounce back and be at least league-average. I was arguing with someone on here which contract I'd rather have on the Cubs payroll going forward: D. Fowler's 5- yr contract vs. J. Heyward's 7-yr contract. I said it was pretty simple to me. I'd easily take D. Fowler's contract assuming J. Heyward is not opting out. Some poster responded to me by stating that is assuming a lot of things: that Heyward won't return to his normal level of production, that Fowler's defense in CF will be average instead of below-average like in other years, etc. We can make a poll I guess: How many people think J. Heyward will be worth 1+ WAR, 2+ WAR, 3+ WAR, etc. or just return to his average career numbers?

I never said his swing doesn't look different/any better -- I said it still looks messed up and his timing still seems way off. Of course, we need to wait and be patient to see if maybe this new swing mechanics might make a difference and make him more productive. That's obvious. I hope I'm wrong and that all those scouts who were mentioned in that article on ESPN are also wrong. I really sincerely hope that J. Heyward will return to being at least league-average. I just doubt that it'll actually happen. Especially watching his AB's in spring training and then watching him yesterday. I made the post because no one mentioned his struggles yesterday. Yeah it's just one game, but I think it's a sign of things to come...

Does that make you hard? What lol? No. I'm a Cubs fan so it makes me worry and somewhat upset. That's a strange response friend...does no one else notice that? Is it just me (In regards to KB's struggles against the Cardinals) because the stats definitely back it up.

Does that make you hard? What lol? No. I'm a Cubs fan so it makes me worry and somewhat upset. That's a strange response friend...does no one else notice that? Is it just me (In regards to KB's struggles against the Cardinals) because the stats definitely back it up.

So no one wants to mention how Heyward looked last night? Yeah he got credited with a "base hit" but we all know if it weren't for the M. Carpenter misplay he would have been 0-4 yesterday... I don't want to harp on this, but his swing still looks messed up and his timing is still off. Maybe he'll break out and his new swing mechanics will work out this season. I just find it funny so many people here think last season was a fluke and that he would be at least league-average this yr. I doubt that -- I seriously doubt that now. To be fair to Heyward, a lot of Cubs players looked bad yesterday against C. Martinez. It seems like KB in particular really struggles against the Cardinals...

They would be SOOOO much better off playing Kelly and using that $18M/yr towards, say, paying half of Machado's annual salary once he hits FA. There is a potentially historic FA class coming up and they'll be paying $18M towards Molina each year. I don't think they'll be bidding on M. Machado when he becomes available whether they re-sign Molina or not. He'll be FAR too expensive for their conservative FO and the bidding will be pretty crazy if the NYY are set on signing him. I think it's all a pipe-dream for Cardinals fans that dream on signing M. Machado -- it won't happen. They're more likely to go after M. Moustakas next offseason. I won't be super psyched about the Cardinals re-signing an aging Molina. I'm more bummed out that they aren't saddled with the bad contracts of Heyward and/or D. Price. (Yes, I think the J. Heyward contract will end up being a bad contract even though he helped the Cubs win a WS and gave one hell of an inspirational pep talk during the infamous Game 7 rain delay)

If that is the eventual outcome I certainly won't be upset, but I continue to think it's a mistake to not give him starts from Day 1. The 2018 rotation is currently Lester, Hendricks, and mystery, and by hamstringing Montgomery with relief appearances you lower the certainty that you know 2018 Montgomery 1) is a guy you want in the rotation and 2) can handle a SP workload. There might come a point where they need to prioritize 2017 success over that 2018 certainty, but Opening Day certainly isn't that time. The fact that there's only one lefty isn't a big deal, it's that it's Montgomery. Like David said, Uehara has reverse splits(especially last year), plus Davis, Strop, and Edwards are all quite good against LH hitters. With only one LHRP you'd want to use them in a specific situation, which means Montgomery's multi-inning ability isn't a great match(plus he should be starting anyway). I forget exactly where I read it, but apparently MLB has told teams they're going to require increased documentation on injuries for DL stints, to avoid such shenanigans with the 10 day DL. No idea how strict they might be on that front though. Yeah I don't know how you can "require increased documentation on injuries". I mean only the players truly know how much pain they're in, and if the player is willing to go on the DL and the team physician signs off on the injury then there is nothing MLB can do. I mean as the season wears on every player gets dinged up and has some minor injury/sprain they're dealing with. All that said, this move (Duensing to the DL to start the season) clearly is being done to avoid losing Szczur on waivers. If MLB wants to avoid these DL shenanigans -- well, this would be the right time to do it.

Yeah I saw this earlier. Weird (to me at least) that they have J.B. Bukauskas going before A. Faedo. I like both pitchers, but I think once Faedo gets back to full strength he'll be the better pitching prospect. I'm worried that Bukauskas might end up only being a reliever (capable of being a dominant closer). Still, his mechanics are way better than C. Fulmer and he has more dominant stuff than S. Gray. I actually think he has a good changeup, too. We'll see what happens come draft time.

I can't envision a scenario where he gets a hit ever again I understand the sarcasm, but at some point don't we need to be concerned? I know ST stats don't really matter, but I am worried this new/old swing isn't the change we needed. I think they should've completely revamped his swing instead of getting him to return to his old swing circa 2012-13. I'm no swing mechanics expert, but I still don't like how he looks so far in the batter's box. The bat speed is fine, but his timing is still off. It is better than last year but...

Yeah, I completely concur. I don't understand why baseball doesn't just end or stop this pitching debacle. I believe most "real" baseball fans consider this pitching delivery illegal and don't like it. I wish R. Manfred or whatever committee would just come out and define what a legal pitching motion is, i.e. pushing off the rubber once without dragging your backfoot before delivering the ball. I used to believe your backfoot had to have contact with the pitching rubber on the mound up to the moment you deliver the ball out of your hand as a pitcher. I don't know exactly how to define a "legal" pitching motion in precise terminology, but whatever the hell C. Capps is doing is NOT normal and seems like cheating...

One of thew few owners who was a bonified fan. It's unfortunate he never got that World Series win. Indeed. I was rooting for them in the WS back in 2006, like the rest of us. He did seem like one of the few genuine, friendly good owners in an age where there seem to be more bad (if not evil) owners overall. PS -- All that said, "Little Caesars" is really shitty, low-grade pizza. Shouldn't be proud of founding that restaurant chain...

Wow. That article is first time I've heard a Cubs Front Office executive (J. McLeod) talk about S. Otani before. I know they've discussed him, scouted him and probably plan on targeting him when he becomes available. It's uplifting that what we believe to be the case is now confirmed. Just have to pray he decides to come over in a couple years, and not this upcoming offseason when we can only offer $300K...

Yeah, how the hell are the horsefeathering Miami Marlins worth $1,600,000,000 US dollars!?! I mean that's insane. The Chicago Cubs should be worth like $4-5 billion by that logic...

I completely concur -- this is a horrible idea that should have never come out in the public sphere. You want to discuss it behind closed doors, well, fine I guess...but don't expect fans or the media to really get behind this idea. It's dumb and pointless. I think it's pretty obvious where you can save time and speed up games -- limit all the later inning, time-killing pitcher changes. Make relief pitchers face a minimum of two/three batters before you can replace them to get the matchup advantage. Yes, this will kill some of the strategy inherent in the game, but big deal. Relief pitcher specialization has gone too far IMO. Also, create a damn standardized, automatic strike zone that doesn't rely on the (poor and inconsistent) judgement of temperamental shitty umps. That is what I most want to see implemented.

If he continues to struggle at the plate, yes, they'd have to eat a lot of that contract to move him. Of course, he's even more tradable if he returns to form. Obviously, that's the scenario I'm hoping for. Heyward hits along the lines of his career numbers, remains healthy and continues his GG defense in RF. The Cubs are able to move him with prospects for whatever they need at the time while bringing up Eloy at the league minimum to take his place. The defense takes a big hit, but if Eloy progresses as he has been, the bat makes up for it. The Cubs are able to open up some payroll and fill some needs at the same time. But a lot can happen between now and 2019/2020. It's just something to keep in mind when looking at the Cubs payroll options in the years ahead. if heyward "returns to form" i really dont see the cubs moving him to put Eloy Jiminez in his place. They'd probably just keep the 6 WAR outfielder. Well, again if he "returns to form" he probably would opt-out after the 2018 season right? I mean there is a wide-range of projections for what J. Heyward will do in the future. I don't believe the Cubs are especially optimistic that he'll be a 6 WAR outfielder ever again. He could still be a decent player, though. I do believe E. Jimenez is the future in RF (whenever he is deemed ready).

So the Cubs total pool money for 2017 MLB Draft is $7,099,300. So, by my math the Cubs have roughly $7.45 million they can spend before penalties (includes the 5% over the pool amount). Cubs picks and slot amount: #27: $2,260,100 #30: $2,080,100 #67: $858,900 #105: $487,500 #135: $364,100 #165: $272,200 #195: $212,000 #225: $167,100 #255: $141,400 #285: $130,900 #315: $125,000 There are a few other changes. Teams can spend up to $125,000 now before it counts against the team's pool amount. I was hoping that would increase to something like $200k, but whatever. I was hoping they would create a mandatory combine, where they could do physicals and drug-testing for the top 200 prospects in the draft. Never got around to it during the latest CBA discussions. http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/2017-mlb-draft-slots-bonus-pools/#uJw7dz8YRYSwffaY.97

Yeah, I was just about to mention this. If Heyward does not return to form and continues to struggle the Cubs may have to explore trades in 19' or 20' where they eat most of his contract, especially if E. Jimenez is ready to take over in RF. Kinda sucks that that is a possibility now, but we did get a WS Championship in year 1 of the contract...

Law said he was at least a 2. That's ridiculous praise. Yeah, I would be very nervous praising a Colorado Rockies pitching prospect that highly. I know J. Gray has looked pretty good so far, but it seems like every young pitcher breaks down pitching at that altitude/in that organization. I remember being really high on LHP - J. Francis back in the day...