Bertz
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Everything posted by Bertz
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Yan Gomes had a career 89 wRC+, and for most of his career was shielded with platoon duty. Ariel Armas had a 95 in high A last year, which accounts for league not ballpark. Add in South Bend's park-specific factor and we're probably in the black. He also got stronger as the year went on, 117 from 6/1 onward and 131 from 7/1 onward. Like yeah sure most prospects don't play 12 years and put up 17 career WAR but like you could say similar about anyone we discuss here?
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Losing Neely seems silly with how much other fat is on the roster. Like he's probably nothing but Trevor Megill was probably nothing and Jeremiah Estrada was probably nothing. We can't just hoard every live arm on the ~10% chance they pop but why are we dumping a live arm before we dump Justin Dean or Ben Cowles. Speaking of Ben Cowles, why isn't he just taking the Kingery spot? I assume the point of Kingery is basically that Shaw will probably not play 9 innings in a lot of games early. He will either get subbed out for offense (Conforto) or defense (Carlson) until he proves himself more. So you need another infielder in case Shaw gets swapped out and then god forbid like Nico pulls a hammy later on. But otherwise that guy is just gonna rot on the bench, so why can't it just be Cowles? Or hell it's just a week call up Ramirez and be like "hey man you had a great offseason and a great spring training hang out in Chicago for a week and collect a big league paycheck"?
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Small potatoes but this is dumb
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Armas is legit. He was IIRC called the best defensive catcher in the country in that draft. The fact that he's showing even a little life with the bat is huge. Like it's probably not a star profile but no reason he can't be Yan Gomes or something thereabouts.
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FWIW it currently looks like rain is supposed to hit in the early evening tomorrow. So the game looks safe but things don't have to shift a ton for that to change.
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This is the team yelling into a bullhorn that they believe PCA's a superstar
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Really strong contact and chase #s this spring too. Exciting stuff.
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Question of the week: how many games will the Cubs win in 2026?
Bertz replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk
I said 91+ I don't think it's going to be way plus, I expect a similar output to last year. Last year we had an elite position player group and an okay pitching staff. This year I expect both groups to converge and end up good. There is upside beyond that. The pitching staff in particular I won't really argue with the 50th percentile projections where they are. But at the same time it's obvious that basically every SP beyond Taillon and Rea provides an easy to see a path to providing more. -
PCA leading off to get that standing ovation, I see you Craig
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I'd guess with where payroll is it kicks in for 2026, but yeah Happ and I believe Hoerner worked like you said and started after the season they were signed.
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One of the catchers if it's just a random day off, Long gets called up if there is an injury. All they said about Austin is "months" for his knee to recover so I'm assuming June or July. That said with adding the three bench guys to the roster an Austin 60 Day IL move is an obvious lever to pull, so if they don't it says he's expected back before Memorial Day.
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Would seem to indicate either Kingery made the team or they're about to make a small trade
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Great read without all the histrionics coming from a lot of corners. Smart money IMO is a repeat of last time. Owners dick around until around Valentine's Day and then negotiations start slowly getting more reasonable. Calendar flips to March and things actually get serious. Deal gets done plus or minus a few days from when it would impact the regular season. A late dramatic "breakdown in talks" is a given.
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You're better off arguing with a lamp post
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The non-rational part of my brain does not like the offense getting red hot right before they go north. You're wasting bullets.
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Ethan Conrad Out a Month with a Back Injury
Bertz replied to CaliforniaRaisin's topic in Cubs Minor League Talk
Gets worse -
Not that there's no fat to trim off the 40 but adding all three of Carlson, Kingery, and Conforto feels wasteful. Just call up Cowles to warm the bench for a week.
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Yup
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By process of elimination sounds like Carlson and Brown made the team. Pretty surprised Snider is willto go to Iowa.
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No, it sounds like he'll go to Iowa so he can play every day and come up mid-season if there's some runway due to injury. I suspect if we hadn't gotten Bregman he would have made the team. But Bregman pushed the bulk of Shaw's playing time to the outfield.
