JD94

Again, go Cubs. That one post told me you aren’t rational and I’m not wasting any more of my time on it.

Okay… this post told me all I need to know. I’m wasting my time going back and forth with you. Go Cubs.

It was a hypothetical to go along with the hypothetical I replied to. Obviously I don’t know that for sure. I do know I trust Jed in these trades. We’ve gotten extremely intriguing prospects back for rentals recently such as PCA, Wesneski, Alcantara, Ben Brown, etc. Our future basically lies in the hands of these prospects working out. So why stop trusting Jed now? It seems like a sellers market to this point. Giolito got a 50 FV back. The Mets are about to get a 50 FV top 40 prospect back for a very expensive and relatively bad 39 year old Max Scherzer who is set to make $43M next year also. So yeah… it’s basically me trusting Jed because he’s done very well in trades to this point and it appears to be a sellers market.

Looks like Luisangel Acuna (Ronald’s baby bro) is in the deal. Good get for the Mets if true.

We will just agree to disagree. If you tell me I can keep Stroman, Bellinger, and Gomes and have a 25% chance to make the playoffs this year with them, or you can trade them and get 2 guys under control for the next 7 years that are perennial 4 fWAR type players, I’m taking the 2nd option all day. Especially when I have a top 10 prospect in baseball that’s almost ready. I can just go and pay Cody Bellinger the most money to come back. I have a load of pitching prospects almost ready and a MLB ace already on the roster. And I also have plenty of money to spend in free agency. I’m hedging my bets on the next 7 years rather than my minuscule chance of sneaking into the Wild Card this year. I want winning baseball as bad as you and anybody else. I’m sick of selling and rebuilding. I also know the next 5-7 years are more important than this one year. If we were a lock to make the playoffs, but weren’t a very good team, I would agree. Don’t sell. I’m willing to give up on one year of hopes and maybes if it greatly increases my odds the next 5-7 years. I would consider 2 perennial 4 fWAR type players greatly increasing my odds for the future.

Trade is official. Scherzer to the Rangers. He waived his NTC. Still sorting out financials which will determine the prospect return. I imagine Cohen is trying to eat all the money for a better return.

I couldn’t care less what talking heads have to say about us selling. They don’t have the Cubs best interest in mind. They are just…. talking heads. What players would turn? Will they be disappointed? Sure. Dansby is the only one that has a huge financial commitment and he’s a vet. He will understand. Everybody will be disappointed, but what are they going to do… suck on purpose because they are mad and kill all their value for when they are free agents? Absolutely not. Free agents don’t care. Offer them the most money and they will come here. Dansby didn’t care that we traded Rizzo, Baez, Darvish, and Bryant when all the outside people you mentioned earlier thought the Cubs were crazy for doing. At the end of the day, this is a business. You have to do what’s best for it. You can’t worry about hurt feelings and mean words. If we make 3 trades and get 8 players back and 6 of them bust, but 2 of them work out and play a major role as we enter our next competitive window, I’d say it was more than worth it. That’s 2 young controllable assets playing a major part in sustained long term winning as opposed to hoping a praying a pretty mediocre team can sneak into the Wild Card one year.

Yep. It’s unfortunate in a way that this long stretch of 3 of the worst teams in baseball (Cardinals, WS, Nats) were all in a row 13 games leading up to the deadline. It’s done nothing but give this fanbase false hope. I get it. Everybody is ready to win again. As you said though, things are nowhere near as good as they are now. A week from now when the good teams start popping back up on our schedule and the loses pile up, reality will set back in. People are worried about Stroman being bad lately, but he’s the same pitcher he’s been literally his whole career. It all evens out over the course of a season. We can criticize Jed all day long, I’ll join, but what you can’t criticize is how remarkably well he’s done in trade returns for players a lot less talented than Stroman. Some of those guys are some of our top prospects right now today that we can’t wait to join the big league team. I trust Jed to get a pretty dang good return on all of our assets. He’s gained that level of trust in that aspect of his job. I’m having fun watching this team win. I jumped out of my chair fist pumping when Tauchman made that catch last night. I’m also still not fooled by who this team truly is. Which is a flawed team. Jed should sell, or really buy, and I’m not talking about CJ Cron and the Royals 8th inning reliever buy.

Can we post all rumors (not just Cubs related) in one thread rather than having to look through multiple threads? I’ll start: https://twitter.com/jonheyman/status/1685403077078093825?s=46&t=iRdezfuJVGBU0wPvMftX0w

On top of that, it’s a different ownership so none of that matters anyways… outside of Harper.

I don’t think the Cubs will sign him. I just find it interesting. I do have a small slither of hope after reading this that Bruce would say Ricketts won’t back down from his price. The Cubs absolutely can afford a contract like this though. They absolutely should be in on the top tier free agents. Maybe they are just more selective on who they give these too. It would have been easy to give $300M to Turner, Bogaerts, or Correa in the offseason instead of going the cheaper shorter route for Swanson, but now it looks like they made the right choice. I’m not willing to say at this point the Cubs won’t spend that type of money just because they haven’t yet. I think they would if the timing was right and the player was right. You have to remember that $300M contracts weren’t even a thing until like 5 years ago and we’ve been “rebuilding” for 3 of those years, so in their eyes, giving out that type of money probably didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Obviously Ohtani will cruise well past $300M, but the point still stands. I don’t believe it will happen, but I also don’t buy that the Cubs will never sign a player to $300M+ just because they haven’t yet.

Yeah I’m still in the camp of “I’ll believe it when I see it.” It’s just weird Bruce doubled down that Ricketts would absolutely sign off on that type of deal. It sounds like that information is straight from the horses mouth. It could just be wishful thinking though on my part.

Bruce Levine thinks they absolutely will and ownership won’t back down from his record setting asking price. Interesting. I’m sure we’ve all assumed the Cubs would not fish in those waters.

What? He will go to the highest bidder almost guaranteed. Doesn’t matter if it’s the Cubs, Yankees, or the Kansas City Royals. No way anybody can speak in absolutes either way.

I was blacked out tonight. Had to go with streameast. My ears were bleeding listening to Chip Caray. He’s so bad.

That DP by Nico and Dansby was just sick

What a catch Tauchman. Wow!! Also pretty sure I saw Madrigal in the handshake line? I’m guessing he will be activated tomorrow?

Never. Freaking. Bunt.

This is so dumb…

I guess it just depends on which position he’d rather play and who the 2 teams are (also assuming the money is equal). Getting paid as an elite CF and moving to 1B sounds pretty sweet to me lol. A lot easier position to play.

I just see zero scenario where the Cubs get Soto and don’t have to send PCA back. To your point about wanting ready / near ready players back, PCA will in all likelihood make his MLB debut next year, potentially early next year.

100% agree. Although we should target players like Juan Soto whether we technically buy or sell. The Cubs won’t do it though.

I agree 3B is a problem. I also know the underlying numbers and baseball savant page suggests Suarez should be better, but he’s still been meh. I’m not sure he ages well, so him being 32 is more of a concern to me than others players. I’m also not big on Chapman. IIRC he was white hot for a month and if you take that out, he’s been awful with the bat. That’s just my opinion though. I feel like we should shoot hire than Suarez to upgrade 3B. I don’t have the who or the how, but it’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

What’s the fascination with him? He’s 32 and has a 104 wRC+. He’s pretty meh and doesn’t really move the needle.

I mean you would be looking at Ohtani, Steele, Taillon, Smyly, Wesneski if you don’t go get another starter. I’d prefer Yamamoto or Nola in this hypothetical rotation personally.