Cuzi

Above expectations. But my expectation was maybe a couple wins better than last year. They surpassed that because I don't think anyone counted on Bellinger hitting like this. That man literally had this team on his back for a couple months. Having said that, I dont give them kudos for passing my expectations. They were so low to begin with and this season isn't anything that should be celebrated and the only reason it is being celebrated is because of how bad this team has been in recent years. But, a lot of what was good about this season is going to be walking out that door when the clock strikes midnight. At least Suzuki seems to have settled in and we can stop bitching about how not good he is when he's been 80-90th percentile in virtually every batted ball statistic sans the end result.

Ended with the same effort put into the roster by the FO.

If the Cubs lose tonight it would basically be a technicality of the Marlins having to get 3 outs against the Mets to eliminate the Cubs. I'm willing to call it officially over if they lose. Time to pop the champagne bottles and celebrate a monstrous 82(?), maybe 83(?) win season. Whoopty do, Basil.

I'd rather go to the number Juan beach in San Diego.

Might as well consider them a full 2 games back because the Marlins are sitting on a game that they are leading 2-1 with men on base in the 9th. They just don't know if they'll need to get the final 3 outs yet. I wouldn't expect Ross to play the rookies regardless, though. He's the manager that's willing to sink the company by keeping his friends employed even though they are bad at their job. He's admitted it on multiple occasions that he plays struggling veterans over rookies because the veteran has earned it purely based on years of service, like he owes it to them or some horsefeathers.

It was the first post I made on this forum. The 2023 deadline was embarrassing. It was the perfect defining moment on the 2023 season that sums how completely clueless this FO is on how to reach their goal. They aren't going to make long term commitments to players. So they turn around and sign Swanson to a 7 year deal. Then they follow that up by ignoring top of the market pitchers and going for a shorter deal with Taillon when we needed an ace, luckily for them Steele turned in a damn good season. They extended Happ and Hoerner for 3 years. Suzuki has 3 years remaining. We've got a 3 year plan with the majority of our roster. So we have Swanson on his 7 year deal but are half assing the first handful of years of it. Are we really trying to build a competitive roster or hope lightning strikes? They hoped lightning was going to strike with Bellinger to flip him at the deadline and that's exactly what happened. But the team was close enough to maybe being the last playoff team that the FO decided they were going to ignore the purpose of giving him that 1 year deal on a bad team. Ok, so be serious about making a legitimate push while you have this player on this 1 year deal. Nah... lets trade for "the best bat available on the market" because we didn't make the "best bat available." Lets also trade Velazquez for whatever reliever we can instead of putting him in a package for something better. Same goes for Stroman. Teams were giving up insane value for rental pitchers this year. Stroman was arguably the best one. Pass... He was also signed to a deal with the clear intent of flipping him down the line. Every other pitcher of his caliber was signing 5 year deals. He was the last available and got 2 with a player option and no NTC. They threw out their gameplan because of a slight glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Even if it didn't end with a spot in the playoffs, they wanted to say "We tried." Try harder...

This is Band of Brothers, only we are missing a Capt Winters that calls in Lt. Speirs to relieve Lt. Dike.

Ross is finishing up his 4th year as manager. I'm not going to comment on decisions he made last night because I couldn't watch the game, but if he's still learning on the job after 4 years you have to hope the Cubs find a new manager when they are in a better position to compete. I saw a clip of Counsel managing recently. He's on the dugout step watching his player bat with the bases loaded and he launches a no doubt grand slam. That grand slam turned the game into a non save opportunity. As soon as the ball is struck, Counsel is turning to run to the bullpen phone to get a different reliever warming up to rest his closer. Say what you want about Counsel's worth as a manager, but being that locked into situational baseball is something I dont see from Ross.

His chances are nil. My money is on Strider. When Kyle Hendricks came in third with the best ERA in baseball, it was Scherzer who got the Cy Young. Scherzer had the wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, and WAR. Strider has the wins, strikeouts, and WAR. Snell has the ERA. It'll be between those 2. Everyone else is pitching for 3rd.

When is he going to stop planning a rebuild before he gets punted himself? He's built himself a 3 year window before everyone but Swanson is looking for a new contract. Why would he still be kicking the can down the road at this point? If he's still rebuilding then he doesnt have a damn clue what he's doing because by the time he's done "building" a tornado is coming through to tear the bitch down again.

I said it after the clock struck zero... what was the point of that deadline? We virtually did nothing at the deadline. Hoyer sat out on a really good sellers market and avoided buying to make a legitimate push for a playoff run when the main reasons this team is even looking at potentially backing into the playoffs is because the NL is all around mediocre, minus 2 teams, and surprise revivals of guys that wont be around next year. We closed our eyes and crossed our fingers for the chance to say, "Hey look! We made it!"

Now that the Cubs are currently out of the playoffs, does "going with the guys that got us here" still apply? Or can we maybe see what the purpose of calling up our top prospects was instead of the plethora of average-below average hitters that plague the lineup?

I think Ross is a bad manager but he's not the sole reason for this teams mediocrity. Hoyer has built this roster by waiting on the final player in the group to have to settle for the best offer from the Cubs. Everyone wants to talk about how in hindsight he made the right decision to sign Swanson. I guess people forget this journey could and should have started a year earlier and that Corey Seager guy is pretty good. The difference between preseason projections and now is that no one expected Cody Bellinger to be this good offensively any more. He'll be gone next year. Stroman will likely opt out even though he probably isn't looking at getting as big of a deal as he was in the first half, he still should easily top a 1 year contract. Hoyers big deadline acquisition will be gone, and it wasnt that big to begin with. The Cubs are run by a man afraid of his own shadow. He talks about building a sustainable winner for the future but he'll be going into his 4th offseason now looking for the same damn positions sans SS because he's done nothing to put a sustainable player in these positions. He's afraid of signing a big money contract when he's got the Chicago Cubs bankroll and he's afraid to trade prospects with a manager that's afraid to play them.

Sounds like trading for an older Matt Mervis with more MLB failure when Matt Mervis is already on the team in AAA.

Because every name you just mentioned came with a mountainous minor league pedigree.

What evidence? You have 1 PA of evidence for a guy thats carried a 250+ ISO for 2 years in the upper minors. The Cubs are 28th in baseball at the DH position. There's quite literally nothing to lose.

His spot is pretty much filled in the outfield but how do we know he isn't our best option for DH? We have 2 hitters on the MLB roster with a .800+ OPS.

What the Cubs do after a trade for him has no baring on the initial price for the rental. Cohn may not care about the money, but he pretty clearly cares about turning the Mets into a winning team, and if Scherzer is to be believed for why he wanted out of NY, 2024 isn't in the cards for the Mets.

Keeping him makes no sense. They just traded the 2 TOR pitchers they signed to compete because they aren't competing. They'll get more value out of trading Alonso in the offseason than they would a QO pick.

I highly doubt the Mets get "significantly more" than Kevin Alcantara in an Alonso trade. Alonso is a great hitter. He's a great run producer. But we are still talking about 1 year of control for a 1B/DH. We aren't talking about an ace pitcher here. Freddie Freeman just struck a record breaking contract for the position at half the value of what the truly elite contracts are commanding. 1B/DH isn't a position teams are valuing that high. So while the Mets would be free to ask for whatever they want to ask for, they are unlikely to do much better than a top 60ish prospect.

I would absolutely consider trading someone like Alcantara for Alonso. Alonso is exactly what this team needs in the lineup. He's a 4 WAR MLBer who's going to mash 40 HRs and drive in 120 RBIs. Alcantara is in High-A and already taking up a 40 man roster spot.

It does not matter how its filtered. It's a stat that shouldnt be used beyond seeing who has better positional value on the diamond. Over that same time span, Alonso has +2 DRS. He's far from the best defender at 1B but he's also not as bad as you are trying to portray him when he's 5th in innings during that span and you are trying to compare him against guys that have played half of his innings.

Using Fangraphs "Def" stat as an argument against a player is a hilariously dumb position to take. Even Fangraphs says you shouldn't do it on their website. Def is a measure used for all positions. Paul Goldschmidt is only marginally better than Alonso on that list. Why? Because 1B is one of the lowest positions on the diamond for defensive value, so no matter how good a 1B may be defensively, he's locked into a negative number because his value is incomparable to a SS.

I see you picked up on why I put push his chips in in quotes. We made a move to say we made a move. I dont care about the prospects we gave up to make the move. We marginally increased the talent of this roster for 2 months for the sake of saying we did so. What's the point? Are we a legitimate contender now with Candelario? Is this singular move the excuse to sit out that sellers market on rental pitching?

Did we really buy, though? We upgraded 1 position for 2 months. If beating the White Sox bullpen and having a walk off catch against the Cardinals is enough for this PoBO to "push in his chips" with Candelario, then... I'm really scared for the future of this team as long as he is around.