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JD94

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Everything posted by JD94

  1. JD94
    Yeah I watched him pitch multiple times in college and you pretty much nailed it. He looked way more electric, fastball velo was better, less control. I imagine you can chalk this up to working off the rust. Hopefully the velo can tick back up in the 97-98 range. I’ve seen him touch triple digits in college. Not that he can’t be effective at 95, it’s more the fact that I know there was more in there pre TJ. I’m more than fine being patient before saying this is who he is now though.
  2. JD94
    That’s true, but from 2012-2019 (I use 2019 because that’s when Machado and Harper got the ball rolling on the “mega” deals) the only real mega deal signed was Stanton. Votto, Cano, and Pujols signed 10 year deals, but they were all $240M or less (yes, inflation, I know). My overall point is those 10+ year deals and $300+M contracts are much more common now since Machado and Harper signed theirs in 2019 than they were previously. They traded for Betts and locked him up in 2021, as you said, not long after those type of deal became more normal. From 2012-2024 the dodgers have been lower than 4th in payroll just twice, which was 2012 when their new owner took over and this year. They led MLB in payroll 6 of those years. In than same span, the Cubs have only had a top 10 payroll 5 times. So in that 12 year span, the Cubs have had less top 10 payrolls than the Dodgers have had #1 finishes.
  3. JD94
    Meh. I don’t know. There’s no consolation prize for finishing 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th whatever we were). Ohtani isn’t the first star we didn’t close either… or maybe even seriously pursue at all. Take any star player from Harper back in 2018 (?) up until Ohtani. We didn’t get any of them. Jed is on record that he’s pretty anti long term deal for big money like that. He seems set in his ways. He wants to build a homegrown team like a small market club but supplement with 2nd and 3rd tier free agents. We will see if not star chasing works for him. So far, no bueno.
  4. JD94
    Not saying you’re wrong, I maybe just missed it, or I chose to forget it. What was our offer to Ohtani? I remember (yes, consider the sourcing) that Nightengale said we balked at 10/500. If we weren’t even offering that, then that’s basically an insult to Shohei. He signed for $200M MORE than what was reported we wouldn’t even offer. If there was another offer that was made public, I apologize. From my perspective we did enough due diligence to say we tried while never actually being willing to give him what he ultimately got. Until I see the FO/Ownership actually go there with a super star, I’m going to choose to believe they’re never going to do that and all we can do is accept it apparently.
  5. JD94
    Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like Tom and even Jed, I guess, just get a pass from not even fishing in the Soto type waters. It’s like we just accept that they won’t do it and are okay with it. I mean I know Cubs fans rioting on Twitter isn’t going to change the way the FO/Ownership run this team, it’s just annoying how they get a pass from this. There’s no excuse for us to not have a single super star player we can market and help us win games. Now we have a generational talent hitting the open market and Jed will probably offer 6/250 and walk away when they laugh in his face.
  6. JD94
    He can’t be worse than what we have. Bring him up and grab Caissie on the way. Kidding, kind of lol
  7. JD94
    The Cubs are literally the only large market team that doesn’t have a single star player Yankees - Soto, Judge Red Sox - Devers (not quite a star, but consistently pretty dang good) Phillies - Harper, Turner Mets - Lindor, Alonso Angels - Trout Dodgers - Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, Smith Rangers - Seager
  8. JD94
    Want
  9. JD94
    Want
  10. JD94
    Was just coming here to post about Moore. He’s growing on me. And even if he goes before us, even better shot that pushes somebody else down to us like Tibbs.
  11. JD94
    I’m all for it. I’m a little scared of the injuries though. I guess it depends on what type of injuries he’s having. If it’s hamstrings and lower back issues and those types of injuries, it’s possible he’s just injury prone. If it’s baseball related injuries like injured wrist from sliding or jammed shoulder from running into the wall, then that’s the different type of injury I’m talking about. He played 145 games last year, but he’s been hurt most of this year, only played 98 games in 2022, and 68 in 2021. That’s concerning when you’re considering the type of headliner you would have to give up to get him. Again, I don’t know the types of injuries he’s had though without looking it up.
  12. JD94
    Totally agree. The FSU guys are super fun. Brecht is the definition of low floor but high ceiling. He’s so raw and may never consistently throw strikes, but that 99-102 fastball and nasty slider is fun to dream about. I don’t want us to go pitcher unless the draft just totally gets flipped on it’s proverbial head, but if we do, I like Yesavage.
  13. JD94
    I personally prefer to draft college bats early and buy pitching. Obviously there are caveats. Like I’m not passing on a Paul Skenes. For example if James Tibbs and Trey Yesavage are sitting there when we pick, I’m absolutely taking Tibbs. If we draft Yesavage, I’ll get on board. I think he’s a really dang good pitching prospect. I just love proven college bats. Again, this isn’t meant to be argumentative and I don’t want to debate it, just stating my personal preference. I’d be super stoked if Tibbs made it to us. I really like Cam Smith also as I said above.
  14. JD94
    We haven’t comfortably won a game in 19 games since May 15th in Atlanta when we won 7-1.
  15. JD94
    Can we just call Mo up now lol
  16. JD94
    I’d be really happy with Cam Smith at 14. There was swing and miss concerns after his freshman year but he was most outstanding player at the Cape last summer and really cut down on the swing and miss and that translated to this current season. He’s also 6’3 220 and has the size and strength to continue to hit for power. He should stick at 3rd with a strong arm. I know you never draft for need, but just in general, 3B is a semi blackhole across MLB. Only 3 players had a fWAR of 4+ at 3B last year. That makes Cam Smith even more interesting to me because he will stick at 3rd and play it relatively well.
  17. JD94
    Batted ball data and expected stats are nice. I generally like those stats. But I also like actual results. Pete gets actual results. We have a 6 year sample size saying you’re getting around 40 home runs, 3+ fWAR, and a 120+ wRC+. I’ve already done it, but making a 1:1 comparison between Busch and Alonso isn’t exactly fair when one guy has like 3 months of MLB experience and the other has 6 years. We don’t know what Michael Busch is or isn’t. There’s not enough sample. And why does it have to be an either / or? Let’s put the 40 HR bat in the middle of the lineup and figure out the rest later. It likely comes down to one of Busch or Morel playing 3rd and the other DH. I know, I know “but defense,” fact is, there isn’t any better options. Then you’re left with figuring out PCA, Tauchman, and Busch. Play the guy that’s playing the best. Simple.
  18. JD94
    He does not strike out a lot. His K% (19.3%) is well below league average (22.7%) compared to Busch who is striking out 34.5%. Busch’s overall numbers look solid although they are still inflated from that 6 game stretch where he hit 6 of his 8 HR’s. It’s been mostly bad outside of a hot week although admittedly he has looked a little better recently. I’m not writing him off in anyway, but I’m also not turning down a perennial proven 3-4 fWAR top 5 first baseman in baseball either. Alonso is a power hitting run producer that doesn’t strike out much. He’s never had a wRC+ under 120 in his 6 seasons. I think he would be a huge difference maker in the middle of our lineup. Trade for him and then pay him and keep him. At some point you have to take a leap and get proven major league talent that’s going to improve your team. I love prospects, but they aren’t all going to work out. We absolutely should be trading from our prospect depth to acquire proven big league talent.
  19. JD94
    Ideally I’d love Danny Jansen and Pete. That’s likely wishful thinking, but obviously would totally change our team. I’m not getting my hopes up. Jed has yet to take a risk and do something splashy unless you count trading for Busch. So until he does, I’m not expecting it. Sure you can argue it hasn’t been the right opportunity or they’ve tried, point is they haven’t. We heard all offseason how hard they were working on trades and all we did was do a prospect for prospect trade. Nothing Jed or Carter says scream urgency to make a move either. I know it’s easy for me to say “go trade for Jansen and Alonso” and it’s really not that easy, but that’s 1 & 2 on my wishlist regardless.
  20. JD94
    I’d love Pete Alonso. Adding a 40 HR bat to the middle of the lineup would be pretty nice.
  21. JD94

    PCA

    JD94 replied to thawv's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk

    Shaw is fine in AA. He has a 132 wRC+. Walk % is very nice. K % is around 20% which is more than fine. I mean his batting average is .239, but his BABIP is .283 which I’m assuming is below average for AA.
  22. JD94
    On a scale of 1-10. 1 being no concern. 10 being they probably shouldn’t be on the roster. Happ 6 Mastro 10 Madrigal 9 Busch 5 Hendricks 10 Morel 2 Amaya 4 Gomes 10 To be fair a lot of this is based on recency bias. Pittsburgh threw 4 good to elite starters at us. Atlanta threw 2 very good starters against us. It’s just been tough luck on the pitching matchups these last 3 series. It won’t always be this hard, but it would be nice if we showed a little more life in some of these games.
  23. JD94
    I’d definitely be cool if it was centered around Alcantara. But I’m not doing all 3 as Bleacher Report mentioned. Relievers are so volatile and he has a very small track record of being this dominant. I’d love for Jed to be able to pull it off, but if that’s the package, then I’d rather just piece the bullpen together with guys like Harvey from Washington as mentioned above, Nardi from Miami is interesting if you look past his ERA (although he’s under control for multiple years also), Yimi Garcia from Toronto, etc. There’s tons of solid relievers out there that you can piece the pen together with rather than going and trading big time prospects for a big name closer no matter how fun it would be having him in a Cubs uniform.
  24. JD94
    Bleacher Report has us as the favorite to land Miller. Their proposal has us giving up Alcantara, Caissie, and Triantos for him. Hardddddd pass for me if that’s the price.
  25. JD94
    Kind of don’t hate to see Horton face a little adversity. He has basically seen zero bad as a pro. Every start for him has been good to great. Obviously something is off with him at the moment, and you hate to see that, but your mechanics are going to get off at times and it’s a good thing to be able to figure it out and get back on track. Any idea on what Wiggins velo looked like? Was it still upper 90’s like he was in college?
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