We Got The Whole 9

I imagine this will almost kill FA altogether. Teams are gonna have to really over-pay for mediocre players.

Well that will probably take several good names off the market before FA starts

Pretty fun lineup for opening day

No, he was traded mid-season, so he wasn't elibible for the QO.

Not really.

Big Mo got a shout-out from Ben Clemens in his less-heralded hitters he likes. His list has a common thread of short guys. Relevant Stats: Ballesteros turned 20 in December after spending 2023 tearing through the minors. He simply looked too good for Low- and High-A as a 19-year-old before ending the season with a brief Double-A cameo. He walked nearly as often as he struck out, laced doubles to all fields, and ended up with double-digit home runs. He did all of that while catching at least passably well. What I Like: He’s a 20-year-old catcher who can hit against older competition. It’s not exactly complicated. He’s another little guy, though with the thick frame you’d expect for a catcher, but he cranks out ludicrous power. I’m cheating a little bit by including him here, even; he made the tail end of a few Top 100 lists this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s on ours in a mid-season update. Hit the ball as hard as Ballesteros does, at such a young age, and you almost certainly have the raw power to make it work in the majors. Do it as a catcher with plus batting lines against older competition, and you might be a star in the making. Warning Signs: (Lack of) proximity is the biggest one. There’s plenty of time for Ballesteros to wash out at catcher, or for his approach to run out of steam against tougher competition. He hits the snot out of the ball, with impressive batted ball data even if you ignore how young he is, but that kind of power from someone his size always feels a little tenuous, and if he isn’t a catcher, he’s a positionless defender, which means his bat will have to carry a huge burden. I think that’s a manageable risk, but it’s undoubtedly a risk.

Point taken

Through his first 2 full seasons Garcia had a 5.8 BB and 29.6 K% with a 102 wRC+ and 207 ISO. It's actually a really solid comp.

I literally don't pay real attention to anything until after the combine. All the mocks are pointless before then IMO. The combine really kicks everything off. The next couple months should be exhilarating for Bears fans or Poles screwed the pooch.

I'm guilty of this but we are too sympathetic to Jed. He is given a budget approx 20-25% higher than any other team in the division and hasn't won a proper division title in 5 years. He's mostly done well in the last few drafts and trades but he's chosen to barely fish in the deep waters and it's certainly cost them a lot of elite talent.

I would much prefer this approach of starting them late and never hitting the innings cap until the trophy is raised, over letting them pitch all year and shutting them down after a few months and hoping they can ramp back up in case of a postseason appearance.

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Poles needs to hit FA hard this time around. Surround your QB with weapons and upgrade the horsefeathers out of that line. All the pieces are in place for the team to make the major step forward and win the division. Or at least beat the Packers maybe.

Had the Cavs on the ropes again but again couldn't close them out. They keep eeking toward 500 and getting smacked right back down. Vucevis now shooting 28% on 3s for the year. By year: 20-21 .400 21-22 .314 22-23 .349 23-24 . 275 Of course that horsefeathers happened.

Because they believe that they had a playoff spot last year if they had Counsell. They believe the team was better than their record. They believe Counsell will be amenable to breaking rookies in and more instrumental in player development.

Agreed. And Tauchman is a decent stopgap. Even if we acknowledge that a bit of his line was carried by an uncharacteristic 200 ISO in July, he still got on base really well in every month - the lowest being 338 in june - and he had a much better 2nd half than 1st, posting a 373 OBP, closing strong as the league adjusted to him. He's a reasonable bet to be a slightly above average bat. I would start PCA in AAA.

If they don't win the division in 2024 it isn't the end of the world. Life will still be awesome.

We literally covered this a couple weeks ago. The Cubs offense was consistent with pretty much every top offense but the Braves. I think Atlanta was the only team in the MLB to have fewer than 60 games where the offense scored 3 or fewer runs. The Cubs were pretty much average in that respect.

You think Canario is enough to get Kim and another piece? I don't see that.

This just completely ignores the many good hitters the team still has and the overall speed of the roster that dominates the basepaths.

If you ignore the fact that they steal a shitload of bases, take a shitload of extra bases because they are a fast team, and have 6 positions that project to have above-average bats, sure. They horsefeathers scored the 6th most runs in baseball last year. I feel like some of you guys completely ignore this fact. There's a lot of ways runs can be scored. The Cubs are not lacking in offense. They're not this super-inconsistent offense either; just a couple weeks ago the argument that they had too many games of 3 or fewer runs was put out to pasture. They're no more inconsistent than the best offenses in baseball. They have good hitters and even one of the generally-perceived weak positions was actually pretty strong. Now they have actual options at 1B and DH and the upper-levels of the farm system are packed with viable replacements waiting for a chance to prove themselves. They're in a good position to let those positions work themselves out rather than paying FA ransoms.

It's very possible we don't. Those 2 players don't need to do a whole lot, the roster has a strong foundation you can rely on already. It's a lot different from asking 5-6 rookies to carry an offense. This is why I'm so amused at how fervently opposed to playing 2 rookies you are. You act like those players need to absolutely ball out or the team will have no shot at the division. The reality is that, if they could theoretically provide 4-5 WAR between them, it would be far better for the team than locking up one of the 2023 4 win players for 5-6+ years and 10% of the 'cap'.

VW will post the exceedingly rare quadruple double one day. 10 blocks tonight. 10 blocks from a rookie is horsefeathers crazy.