Stratos

No, what's best for baseball is the most viewership during the World Series. That means the most popular teams in the biggest markets, the Yankees and Dodgers, should be in the WS against each as much as possible and nobody else has much of a chance. Fans in e.g Cleveland, Baltimore, Minnesota can abandon their teams and buy Yankees and Dodgers jerseys and join the bandwagon like everyone else. The way to do this is getting rid of the luxury tax completely. The Dodgers spent 170m in luxury tax penalties last year, so they could then use that money to buy even more great players like Soto, Cease etc and ensure total dominance. Ram bigger sportsbooks into Yankee/Dodger Stadium and spraypaint Onlyfans ads across the OF grass so they can make even more money to spend. A truly fantastic vision for the game.

Don't know if you guys have seen Taylor's injury updates during the games but on Tues night she updated: Ben Brown : currently symptom-free and throwing, starting to build back up Palencia: starts rehab assignment early next week. Same with Hunter Harvey Cabrera: threw a bullpen and will start in Iowa today. Will need about 3 starts before being activated.

Unless they think the neck is a longterm issue that can't be fixed, I can't see the Cubs giving up Brown for him or any rental.

Or Jebediah Hartstone?

He might take us over the LT line. Tom's out.

To be honest I don't really have much trust in most rumors since any of them could be fed by teams to media contacts to try to increase their own negotiation leverage.

They only make sense from the perspective that we have a bit of a surplus in position players and significant deficit in pitching. Trading your main catcher midseason or 2nd best hitter seems nuts. We do have Mo in AAA though and at least Conforto to play RF until Shaw is back. Seiya has the NTC and in a walk year he'd be foolish to waive it.

Maybe. But even someone like Skubal plus Ben Brown and 2 of Shota, Boyd, Cabrera, Peterson (whoever are pitching best at the time) is a pretty good playoff rotation. I could see them wanting a TOR + dominant reliever plus some buy-low reliever they like and calling it a day. We have the prospects to match most teams.

Whoever reported the Mets scouts were seen scouting the Cubs AA players, the only significant prospect i recognize on their current active roster is Jefferson Rojas. Ed Howard also on the team.

Makes you mad that Steele and Horton aren't healthy, plus Palencia. That's every major piece we need besides maybe another reliever. I give credit to what Jed has built here. Plus one of the best skippers in MLB.

Yeah the Cubs have never even signed a top SP FA since Lester, and Jed has never done it and no real signs of coming close from my memory. Skubal FA seems a stretch. But Cubs have a bunch of money coming off the books this winter, lots of SP signings/trades incoming.

If you could get e.g. Skubal, Detmers, and a good closer-caliber reliever for any combination among our top 15 prospects, besides the top 3 or so pitchers, you do it. You'd probably like to also keep one of our top OF prospects, but not a huge deal. We have the best position players in baseball in terms of WAR this year. The team has serious WS potential with pitching help. If we were in first place I think Jed would be even more aggressive. He's mentioned that the 1st round bye is a huge advantage and factors into how hard you push in trade deadline decisions.

Gotta look past the ERA. The Angels suck, defense included.

Yeah Mo needs to catch next year to easily fit on the roster. I think they'll give him a shot with runway at C. Looks like he's split time 50/50 at catcher in Iowa this year. Ramirez has 45 innings in LF across all levels, including 1 inning in LF this year in MLB. I guess he's an option there next year., but he fits his current role better as you say. Though Shaw can probably play anywhere Pedro can but better defensively. They might prefer Shaw at 3b and Ramirez in OF or DH on the days Bregman needs a rest. IMO the ideal role for Shaw on this team is supersub. I think any of our current top 10 position prospects are expendable in trade & imagine the Cubs want to keep the pitchers if possible.

Definitely related to the chase improvements. Chasing those LHP breaking balls were killing him. He definitely deserves praise for the improvements. You can tell he's relentless and doesn't put any limitations on himself. I'm sure he could do anything on the diamond he set his mind to.