Old Time Cub Fan

Unfortunately I agree with your grades. Names are bigger and expectations are bigger, but performance lacks, especially consistent performance. Tired of Happ's ups and downs, His downs should include lower in order.

Thanks for the a great article about one of the great Cubs. I always felt he should have been MVP for the year and one could argue WS MVP.

Good fascinating article. Digging deeper than eye test really brings home the difference. Let's just hope that the next month innings problem we all worry about doesn't materialize.

If Shaw could become a Nico type with a bit more pop, that would be very good. I haven't given up on him,, I thought they brought him back to soon and initially I was wrong. I'm not expecting much this year, but next year I think we should expect at least a league average player and improvement from there. Turner has to go. Bench is terrible.

All good points. Pressly scares me, I don't consider him a lock down closer. You can't have a closer who only k's about 10% (I think this is correct)of batters. Formula for blown saves.

Very informative and detailed article that pointed out things I suspected, but didn't know for sure until now. Seems to be a trade-off between fastball and surgery. Jed sucks at most aspects of his job, but at bullpen construction he is all time terrible. My nightmare scenario is Cubs make playoffs and exit quickly, but Hoyer gets an extension.

Sorry, I forgot to say great article. It truly captures how many of us think about Sammy.

We all know what he did and that will always taint the numbers. However, he brought us great joy and he truly played with lots of enjoyment and effort. I'm glad he's back. I remember the sign!,

I've been saying when discussing Cubs off season with friends that they cannot trade Suzuki. Hoyer has put himself in a real bind to try and improve this team with the unreasonable adherence to the cap. Destroying the goodwill they have build up with Japanese players would be the worst mistake Hoyer has made in what I hope is his last season. If Rickets has any sense of the future for this team he will tell Hoyer not to trade Suzuki.

I was against the trade from the start. Time will tell how they both will perform. I'm still betting on Morel. I also liked Bigge and think he will be a quality reliever. A team having trouble putting its bullpen together shouldn't be giving up relievers.

It all falls on Jed. He keeps giving the managers a group of guys that usually fall one by one and they keep trying and trying until they find the right guys. Last year was a fluke finding two guys off waivers that all below them passed and one guy from AAA that didn't do that well at AAA. I'm looking at playoff teams and most of the relievers are no name guys that come out of nowhere. Very few guys can be counted on year by year.

I agree on Santander. However, I would go all in on Alonso. Biggest problem is I don't see the Mets letting him go. We can dream, so let's assume he leaves the Mets. If Cody doesn't opt out (I wish he would opt out) we would have 6 guys for 5 positions. Hoyer (my biggest wish is he gets fired) would never do that. I'd worry about getting rid of one of the six later. Hoyer has so locked this team in it is hard to improve the hitting next year without taking some risk and being creative.

Good points, either one would be an upgrade. Catchers are thin around baseball, I was not for letting Contreras go. I knew Gomes would not last too much longer, but thought Amaya would be better (he still could be). Not sure how much of a defensive upgrade Ballesteros would be.

Great article, well researched!. I don't completely understand the advanced statistics, but I know enough to see they are impressive. Have to hand it to the Cubs staff for pulling this off. Looks like they might have gotten a real jewel. Wonder why other teams weren't in on him. May they were, but Ferris was a big prize for the Dodgers.

Thanks for showing stats back up the eye test. No one knows where this is going, only speculation. At some point this season it will be interesting to see how Madrigal's subpar offense and drain on team measures against Morel's subpar defense and drain on team. Then of course, there is Wisdom in the equation.