Stratos
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Everything posted by Stratos
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They're bringing 17 pitchers coming and 14 position guys. The 26-man will have 13 pitchers and 13 hitters. Reese McGuire is almost certainly the backup catcher on the 5-man taxi squad, plus 4 pitchers TBD. Shaw then is for sure on the 26-man and likely Thompson DFA'd as you say. Taxi squad pitchers might be Palencia and 3 out of Wicks, Brown, Miller, Pearson, Morgan, Keller. I think Wicks probably starts in AAA barring injuries and Morgan is on the team.
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I think he'll get more than 33m AAV. They didn't even bother looking at any of the TOR SP this winter on a team with only 2 above-average SP. 95% chance they don't extend or resign Tucker.
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The goal of Ricketts isn't to be a great team and win the WS, he wants to spend just enough to be a competitive enough team every year to fill the seats and hopefully get into the playoffs and take their chances and hope to get lucky. He's satisfied winning 85-90 games. Signing a huge contract like Tucker is too risky for them, they think they can be competitive without committing all those dollars to one player.
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Little worrisome though if his next start is opening day.
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Savant says he averaged 92.5 on the 4-seamer last year.
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Wicks says he lost around 30 pounds in the offseason via diet.
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Happ, Seiya, Nico, Tucker will all likely be gone soon enough, so trades or comp picks should reload the lower minors. RIP our best players lol.
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Tyler Rogers is my favorite pitcher. Throwing a 83mph fastball from his shoelaces and puts up elite stats.
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Why not Cowles? Shaw might need some more PA's given his performance so far, though I haven't seen most of his AB's.
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If Amaya can be a 100 wRC+ hitter and close to a 1.5 WAR catcher i'd be very satisfied with that. Add Kelly and we could have 2.5 to 3 WAR out of catcher this year if things go well. That would be a big upgrade from negative total catcher WAR last year LOL. Would be great if PCA could improve the BB% at least a bit. He has zero walks this spring.
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Assad and Wicks look like BORP types with MORP upside, hard to expect them to be much better than Rea/Boyd. Brown is very promising. Horton's arm is a ticking time bomb, I could easily see him turned into a reliever in future seasons.
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Probably someone optionable like Pearson/Morgan.
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Someone in the rotation will get hurt inevitably. And the pen. Brown wouldn't be down long.
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Mark Belhorn
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Cubs 2024-25 Offseason Minor League Signings
Stratos replied to Seth Stohs's topic in Cubs Minor League Talk
They can only carry 4 bench players, and one will be a 2nd catcher. So 3 of Workman, Brujan, Cowles, Lopez, Cowles, Jankowski, Allen. The first 3 are on the 40-man. In Toyko I think they're bringing 5 backups to the 26-man in case of injury, so 31 total. -
Cubs 2024-25 Offseason Minor League Signings
Stratos replied to Seth Stohs's topic in Cubs Minor League Talk
I think Jankowski would need an injury to make the team, same with Allen. Probably Lopez as well. They're not on the 40-man also, the others are. -
He had knee surgery in late Sept because of tendonitis pain which he said was bothering him much of last year. He says he's feeling 100% right now, for what that's worth. He said he was able to pitch through the pain but that the knee strength may have compromised and affected his velo last year. I agree, hopefully he has a good year and returns to 2023 form. I watched a Caleb Thielbar interview too. He said his control issues last year were mechanical (started landing too closed), and he's been able to fix them this winter and his command is feeling better this spring.
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Killian looks like regular Killian. I think i remember him having a good curveball last spring too. He needs that out-pitch to generate chase. Also, it's very possible that whatever he did to increase his velocity contributed to his shoulder injury last year. Maybe he backed off afterwards. I don't have much hope for him unless he finds that good secondary.
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Patterson and PCA have a lot of similarities in their profiles, let's hope PCA can figure out a way to keep his hitting value (wRC+) at least near average. I think in the box PCA is a below-average hitter but has wheels, much like Patterson. Personality-wise they seem night and day haha, maybe his enthusiasm will help PCA continually improve.
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I'm getting a dead link for the rules wiki in the OP.
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2.1 IP so far, probably too early to conclude. 5 hits in 0.2 IP today and no HR probably takes some bad luck too.
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Converted catcher, learned under Yadier Molina with Cards
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This spring Counsell said they see Pearson as a reliever. A reporter asked the question. What could happen in Iowa though, who knows. But for the MLB team this spring he's a reliever.
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Well Justin Turner's bat speed has been horrendous the last 2 seasons, among the worst in baseball, but he has had excellent launch angles and doesn't chase or whiff and takes BBs, puts the ball in play etc. I looked up Freddie Freeman and he has a very similar profile, though 20th percentile bat speed, but elite launch angles that produce good results.
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Patterson
