JD94

As much as I’ve pushed back on this FO, I do have extreme confidence that they nailed this meeting and will nail the whole process. They are extremely good at these type of things. I need Roki like I need air. That guy is freaking electric.

Not sure if already posted, but Dom is tight with Happ, so maybe he knows something, maybe not. Figured I’d post anyways

It’s a tough spot. I don’t love Luzardo. I know it doesn’t really matter, but the idea of 4 lefties in the rotation is just weird to me. I don’t love Castillo. I like him fine, but the problem is I don’t want to give anything up for him. As Cuzi said, you could have just signed Eovaldi for money and gotten roughly the same production for the same money without having to give anything up. Cease is the one, but he will be expensive prospect wise and he’s another rental. I don’t see a world where the FO extends both he and Tucker. I would love for them to just pay up for Burnes, but they just aren’t going to sail past the LT. We already know that. Again it’s not an ideal situation either way you slice it. Interested to see what happens here.

Really need this trade to break. 2 full days I’ve been consumed by this now lol

If it’s Seiya AND Paredes, maybe. But this hasn’t gone this far down the road if they weren’t super close. There’s a lot of moving parts. Including the Bellinger side. Jed has to figure out if he will need to keep Belli. Trade Belli first. Will he need Warren for Belli to add to the Tucker deal? Just so much going on here that we can’t even grasp I would imagine.

Dream scenario imo. Would hate to lose Smith. Loved him on draft day and still do today, but if we can get Tucker without giving up Shaw, that’s a huge W in my book.

*If* hypothetically the deal involves Paredes and Shaw, where do the Cubs turn for 3B next season? Busch and go after Alonso to play 1st? Keep Belli and move Busch to 3rd? Possibly Bregman? Just curious what y’all’s thoughts are.

I understand that the Cubs just might not be able to resign Tucker if they trade for him. Things happen. He might prefer somewhere else. Might want to play closer to home. We might get “Cohen’ed” by somebody. Could be anything out of our control. That’s fine. My issue would be the Cubs giving up a ton of assets with no intentions at all to be willing to step out of their comfort zone and give a 10/3-400M contract out. I just don’t see the point. Yes. It would be cool for one year… but that’s just not the kind of risks I think this team should be taking at this point. I get the arguments. I agree with the “just get the star player and then see what happens.” My whole point is you have to at least be willing to step up to the big boy table when the time comes. If he signs elsewhere, at least you can say you took a shot, offered fair market value, but just missed out. At least we tried. But giving up 3 years of Parades, multiple years of Ben Brown (?), and another elite prospect (Shaw/Smith), just for one year of Kyle Tucker on a .500 team with zero intentions of getting anywhere close to his asking price in free agency would be as dumb as giving up Seyia & Parades & Smith. Trust me. I’m all aboard the acquiring Kyle Tucker train. I’ve refreshed Twitter constantly tonight hoping something breaks. Will watch it all day tomorrow. I just hope Jed isn’t stupid about this to try and save his job.

can’t tell if this is just Jesse assuming or what based on this FO track record. But if he’s correct and Jed has zero intent to try and retain Tucker, then what’s the point? We aren’t one player away. We’ve been a .500 franchise for years now and currently sit at the .500 mark as is going into next year. We aren’t in a position to trade away multiple year assets for one player that doesn’t put us over the top. I understand extending him can be tricky and maybe just completely out of Jed’s control, but if he isn’t even willing to put a competitive offer on the table, then what is even the point?

1) Would be pretty shocked if Jed traded both Seiya and Parades. 2) Would also be shocked if Jed did this while not being willing to do everything in his power to extend / re-sign him. He knows Kyle will be in that 400 range. If this trade happens, I would feel pretty confident Jed / Tom will be willing to finally pay up for a star player.

Yeah… I want Tucker as bad as anybody, but count me out on Seiya, Issac, and Smith/Shaw. That’s ridiculous.

Every year is boring. We are fortunate Soto didn’t drag it out until February honestly. Baseball free agency is the worst

Unreal

Lol

If Jed rolls out another .500 squad next season, does Ricketts actually move on from Jed? If so, what type of guy do y’all think they look for to replace Jed? A more aggressive GM like Dombrowski (just an example), or another Jed type that wants to build through prospects and smart spending like Jed. Would the Ricketts be open to a more aggressive GM that wants to spend like a large market team?

This is where I’m at. I get abnormally mad reading “but the Cubs won’t be in on him, so it doesn’t matter.” Like why is that okay? Why do we accept that and move along with our day? Sahadav said we should be top 5 in payroll yearly and I agree obviously. There’s no excuse to not flex our horsefeathers muscles for a generational, once in a lifetime type of player. Especially considering we are on the cusp and need a star player. I just don’t get it.

I know y’all don’t care lol, but that’s off Doug Nikhazy. Former Ole Miss great. Friday Nights aka “Doug Day” was electric. He was a monster in college. Cleveland took him in the 2nd round a couple years ago. Hoping he makes it. Just a fierce Friday night starter for 3 years in the SEC.

Almost nailed it haha

PCA > Robert

Jamo just throwing BP this inning

Nothing I said is wrong. Those guys (minus LOH) are average or a little below compared to others at their position based on fWAR. That’s…. fine. Those are the stats. Not some weird agenda you claim I have against these guys. They are average major league players. It’s fine. If that’s strong to you, then okay. We have different definitions of strong players. And what does “When you can't get specific beyond " almost ready prospects and big leaguers” even mean? You want me to give you some made up trade package? I don’t know. Almost any of our prospects would be on the table for LOH. & come on man. You know exactly what I’m saying when I say we have prospects ready. We have like 6 top 100 prospects in AAA. Do I have to spell the words out? It means we have enough good prospects to make that deal if the Angels were willing. Also I never shat on Moore. I simply said he was playing college baseball two months ago and you are the one that inserted him into the Los Angeles Angels starting lineup less than a year after being drafted and labeled him as a strong player. I mean… that’s something. Especially considering Matt Shaw has hardly struggled at any level and he still hasn’t made it to Chicago yet. I know you would continue this conversation for days, so I’ll bounce. We won’t agree. I’m not hating on Neto and Schanuel. They are fine. I’m not asking the Angels to give LOH away. I said basically any of our top prospects would be on the table to headline that deal. I have no idea if the Angels would do it or not. I said I personally see benefit from both sides. They are impatient and we are loaded with near ready top prospects that I imagine would interest them quite a bit. That’s all. There’s nothing to argue. Most of this is my opinion. If you disagree with my opinion, fine. The other part is backed by stats stating their infielders are average compared to the rest of the league. Will they get better? Sure. I guess. But so will other players. Will they pass them? I don’t know. All I have to go by is the stats they’ve put up so far in their careers.

No. You’re guessing they become “strong” players. They are all pretty average to below average minus O’Hoppe. Neto is 17th among SS in WAR. Schanuel is 15th. Renigfo is 26th. Moore was playing college baseball 2 months ago. I mean are we just assuming that every young MLB player will be a star because they are below average but have a couple tools? Some will, sure. But you can’t say they will take another step. This could just as easily be their ceiling. yes, they are still young. But again, it’s all a guess what they will become. Your word were strong next year and to be strong, they would all have to make significant jumps. Players developing and improving isn’t binary. Just because O’Hoppe took a leap, doesn’t mean they all will take a big leap and become above average over the offseason. Also I never said the Angels should trade him to us for a convenient price. I said we have a logjam of prospects and have the resources to trade from those prospects for a ready made big leaguer. I never said “hey the Angels should give us their best player for Matt Mervis and Brandon Birdsell.” They aren’t ready to compete. We are. We have multiple intriguing legit prospects. They have somebody that can help us now. I said it makes sense for both sides. I never said it would happen or they should do it. That’s not my decision. I just said it makes sense. And it does. The Angels need to look in the mirror and realize they are a mess. Horrible farm system and they are 14 games under even with all these guys. There is only 4 teams in baseball with a worse record than them. They need to tear it down. A prospect haul for O’Hoppe and drafting highly because they suck so bad would be a good start. Again, Moore could come up and put up a 7 WAR next season as a rookie, and it still doesn’t change the fact that they are a mess almost entirely with nothing (really) coming down the pipe to help and not an attractive destination for free agents while also having a ton of dead money on the books as it is for years to come.