Rcal10

After the Dodgers don’t they go to SD then come home to Arizona, Dodgers and Phillies? Why stop the “brutal stretch” after @ Dodgers? It keeps going.

Pecota seems to think they are. The updated wins has them at 93 with no one else in the division at .500. Cubs total is second best in BASEBALL to the Dodgers. Maybe they are good🤷. Maybe Jed made some good signings (Boyd and Kelly) and found a few guys on a dumpster dive as well.

I think you got it. Has to be Bowa

Pretty sure, actually, I am positive that was sarcasm by squally. Kind of sad you agreed with it.

Shaw is fine. You don’t send a guy down after 9 games when you expect him to be the everyday 3rd baseman. It isn’t like he is 0-30. He is fine, especially since coming back to the states. I think Sandberg was 1-31 to start his rookie year, AND he wasn’t as highly rated a rookie. And the Cubs stayed with him. Shaw is taking his walks, hitting ok and running the bases well. Yes, his defense has to be better. But no reason to be sent back to AAA. If the Cubs thought he was ready to handle major league pitching this spring, nothing that has happened so far should have them changing their mind after 9 game.

He does

So exactly how does a team look flat? I mean exactly what happened for you to come to a conclusion either team looks flat? I hear this comment from time to time, not just from you, and never really understand what people are watching. Typically it is when a team loses. And if it happens to be a day game after a night game, it is a convenient statement to suggest the losing team looks flat. But since the Cubs won big again yesterday can you please give examples of flat play by them.

So they are due to lose. 4-2 homestand would be great.

One horrendous inning away from a 6-1 road trip. Still happy with 5-2. Now they need to continue to hit at Wrigley.

Who are we getting from the Angels🤷😅? JK. I know what you are saying, and agree with you.

He certainly was laboring around 2nd😅

I realize this. That is why I answered as i did. Agree is is a very silly take on a slow start. Just another hot take.

Suzuki off to a slow start brings you to this conclusion? He did fine at DH last year. I don’t know, maybe give him 70 AB before coming to the conclusion his head is messed up because he is being asked to DH, and because of that he is going to be traded.

But how do you take him out? I think Kelly plays Tuesday.

I know it wouldn’t be easy. And maybe there wasn’t any options, as you suggested. But I don’t think the Cubs even tried. But, I also know the Phillies were interested in him too. Maybe eat his entire salary and trade for Sanchez or Suarez. I know Suarez is now hurt too. Another option would have been to keep Bellinger and instead add either Busch or Suzuki. You, most likely, do get something of value for either of them. Take $18M of Bellinger’s contract and trade for Clarke (also injured) instead of Poteet. This is obviously just spitballing ideas. I am sure if the Cubs went into a Bellinger trade not worrying about the salary they could have gotten something better for Bellinger than a straight salary dump. Or, as I said, keep him and deal either Busch or Suzuki for a pitcher. All of the above said, if they go with option 2 and at the deadline are aggressive with acquiring talent regardless of their salary, I am fine with them saving now. I just don’t have faith they will be aggressive.

It isn’t a question of keeping him. They should have traded him. Where would he play? But, maybe they should have gotten someone for him instead of worrying about saving money. I did a survey for the Cubs and had to say 3 words that describe the organization. I said cheap, mismanaged and frustrating. The Bellinger trade covers all of those words.

Anyone notice after almost hitting .500 this spring, Chiurio went 0-5 with 5 k’s today. Just an example of how little spring numbers mean. Chiurio is going to be great. Not suggesting otherwise. But his spring numbers meant nothing today.

Hoping for series win, but I would be happy with a split then 2 of 3 in Sacramento. Come home 4-5. That is fine by me.

East coast time zone sucks. I am a morning person. Used to live in Chicago area until 2022. Now in Az. As an early person I absolutely love this time zone. Most games are over by 8, instead of 10. So I can wind down after a game and still get to sleep around 10. Baseball is 100% of the time played with a 2 hour time difference. Football is 1 or 2 hours. Still like it. I honestly wouldn’t move to an eastern time zone because of my love for live sports. BTW, going to Sunday’s game.

No, I get that. It is just frustrating when owners act like owning a team is a bad investment. I get they can’t spend the money and it is unrealized gains until they actually sell the team. But it is annoying for them to cry broke as their investment gains value at a very high rate. Fact is the Cubs are a major market team. They should spend like kn. Fine if they aren’t with the Dodgers and the 2 NY teams. But they should be top 5, yearly.

As much as I hate the theory and hate ownership of it is their working theory, I tend to side with this idea as well. I think it is stupid and really have issues with the Ricketts for this way of running the club, but I believe it to be the case. On a similar note, the Cubs were valued at $4.2B by Forbes. Ricketts bought the team for $845M. How does that factor in to his “break even”, put all baseball revenues back into the team, catastrophic losses due to Covid, messages they love to spread?

Regardless of how good Smith turns out, if the Cubs had no intention of signing Tucker long term and also knew they were going to be $20M lower in team salary than last year, they shouldn’t have traded for Tucker. But once they did they should have done more to win in ‘25 or been aggressive in trying to extend him. As an example, instead of Rea and or Boyd, had the Cubs signed a better starter or traded Bellinger for a better starter and took that starters salary, it would have made more sense trading for Tucker. But trading for him to then not spend money to be good this year or to use some of that savings to extend Tucker just is pointless IMO. I have a much bigger issue with what they did after the Tucker trade than I do worrying the Smith will be a star. TBH, regardless of any results of all players traded, if they had no intention of either going all in this year or extending Tucker, the deal makes no sense to me. That said, we do not know FOR SURE that this is Tucker’s only year here. We do know they didn’t go all in, however. So only one chance to make the trade make sense and that is to keep Tucker beyond 2025. Then(if Tucker is here long term) regardless of what anyone the Cubs traded ends up being, IMO, the trade makes sense.

Yep, 100% he is saying he did what he could within the guidelines ownership allowed. The fact they basically pocketed Bellinger’s money saved is ridiculous. If they weren’t going to spend it they should have traded him for someone of equal value with a similar contract. Or ate his entire contract to get a quality arm back.

Maybe, but did anyone play night games today or yesterday? Aren’t all teams basically playing day games? I honestly do not know if the Dbacks played at night this week. I would think most teams would want to play a day game today to give themselves time to go wherever they needed to do to start the season. I realize the Cubs don’t have to go anywhere, nor do the Dbacks. But whoever they played did have to travel somewhere.

Agreed. He probably has a better chance at failing than he does becoming this star so many already have him to be. For fun, I looked at the top 20 prospects at the start of the 2019 season. Keep in mind, Smith isn’t even at that level. Anyway, some of the bats were Taylor Trammell, Robles, Senzel, Eloy, Kirilloff, Adell, Brendon Rodgers and Huira, Would anyone be upset if Smith turns into a guy like those guys? People are assuming he will be a star AND Tucker is only here for one year. 2 things that haven’t been decided yet. Personally think Smith is going to struggle. He has a lot of swing and miss in his game, only played about 25 games above A ball and is playing a new position. Astros are setting him up to fail, IMO. He may still hit some homers. It is Houston and the Crawford boxes. But he is going to have a hard time making consistent contact. Maybe he does turn into a solid everyday player. 🤷 But worrying about him being a star and criticizing the trade before all results are in is foolish. Especially because those who are criticizing it now will later praise it if Tucker does sign an extension or even leads the Cubs to the WS and Smith struggles. Houston wasn’t going to give Tucker away. There had to be a good prospect traded. They also got Paredes, who will do well in Houston. It was. and still is, a fair deal. It is the price you have to pay if you don’t grow your own star or spend on top FA, period.!