Clark_Addison

Why do so many people write articles about these topics with such small sample sizes. (and yes you mention the small sample size at the end and its not just this article but so many filling up space on websites this time of year) One swing can skew the numbers. Batters don't swing all out on every swing. Some swings are full power swings and some are just trying to do something with a tough pitch, some they just get fooled and have a bad swing. Overtime these average out, but after so few AB's this is a waste of time to even consider anything from it.

So missing 2 starts or 6 weeks…..do you have any info or just making it up as you go.

Alcantara’s floor is that of a 4th OF so his 8 year contract would be $10-$12m if paying for his floor. His ceiling, which he has small chance to reach, is that of a superstar. Alcantara would take 8/50m fast and then I doubt he would ever reach his ceiling for sure.

I can see them doing this and using Alcantara this season as the 4th OF starting against LH's. But I think he needs real reps and needs to dominate AAA a little more before they do it. Plus, he has also shown to heat up with the temperatures so having him start the year in Iowa seems to be the right call. So I could see him being called up once the weather decides to stay on the warm setting instead of bouncing back and forth. They need to find out if he is a good option for LF or RF with both Happ and Suzuki about to be FA's.

I think we can all agree Shaw is not an OF and will take lots of time to get where he could be considered even a real option to cover LF on a regular basis. Conforto is not a great defensive OF either and bat looks done. But what about Carlson? Really surprised he hasn’t been given a start with Suzuki out and he is the best defensive OF option we have to cover for Suzuki.

If you watched a replay you can see that wind blew back to the direction he was coming from and led to the miss. Mike Trout missed a routine fly ball and players drop pop ups. I think I will give him this one and still award him the Gold Glove.

So many good articles you put out and then you guys go to stuff like this that is just awful. Plus adding in PCA not catching that ball as the single biggest individual mistake....what was the catch probability on that one....because I bet it would have made PCA's Top 10 catches reel for this season.

Not sure this is a major surprise as Hoerner has been very open about wanting to stay in Chicago and Jed has always talked about how much they like Hoerner. Just because Jed didn't do this during the unofficial "rebuild" doesn't mean he didn't want to do things like sign a big free agent, extend a young prospect, or extend a key player before he reaches free agency, its all about the timing of when to lock up these roster spots and future payroll. Happ and Suzuki will be different as hard to see them bringing more than one back and I would expect the Cubs would want a 1 or 2 year deal max with Shaw, Conrad, Alcantara let alone Kepley and Hartshorn at lower levels.

Crazy it didn't load right, refreshed and there it is #5! I like the mix of arms in the bullpen and Brown could be great as a reliever, especially with a 3rd pitch finally. Opening Day is here!!

Now this is a great article with good points. Dansby has a year or two left at SS until he needs to move to 2B, which is a great questions when you consider we all want Hoerner to be extended. Where will both play if that happens as Nico will be 31 in 2 years so would seem strange to swap them then. Could the Cubs switch them next season? Will Nico jump at the best opportunity to play SS, which would likely pay him more if a team views him that way. Tyler Chatwood....such a disappointment. I never watched video of him before seeing him pitch in a Cubs uniform and the first pitch I saw I was like what is he doing. So obvious that he had basic flaws that HAD to be corrected in his mechanics. Cabrera on the other hand passed the eye test very well. I have wanted Cabrera on the Cubs for awhile and can't wait to see how he does with an elite defense behind him and an infrastructure behind him like the Cubs (vs the Marlins). I believe PCA has a chance to be an elite bat, but he has to learn the strike zone better and learn to swing at pitches he can do damage with and not pitchers pitches that he can get to (and yet not just get to but crush some of those). I really didn't get why any pitcher was throwing him strikes after a few months last year. If he learns patience and how to work counts he is going to get better pitches to hit as a walk can turn into a double or triple so fast with his speed. Shaw is a ballplayer and I expect he will be good moving around but will fans give him any leeway when he does make a bad play which is going to happen, especially at positions he has very little time playing. Did I miss #5? Don't see it. Maybe it didn't load right.

Unreal.....last guy on the bench is a utility guy.....how many teams have the last guy on the bench that should be a starter on another team...pretty rare....yet you have found a way to complain about it. Suzuki will be back shortly and Austin got hurt. One spot is always a catcher, right? So out of 4 non catcher bench spots - 2 spots got taken away with those injuries. They could have went with Ben Cowles, would you have complained as much? Still just a utility guy. They could have went with Alcantara and had him start in RF for a week, would that have been good, but what if he was on the bench, would that be ruining him? Could have put Dean on the bench for a pinch runner chance each game. Instead they went with Kingery to give a little more flexibility the first week or so in case they need someone to play infield late in the game (hopefully because we are winning by a lot). Over the whole season this is nothing. Can you believe how bad the Dodgers are at building a bench....they have all this money yet Santiago Espinal is their last guy on the bench....he had a negative WAR last.....below replacement of a AAA player by 1.4 wins (serioulsy -1.4 WAR last year, is it possible to find a worse player) . His line 243/292/282 This is the Dodgers....man do they not know what they are doing.

They can extend a player and have the new contract start next year, and not affect this years luxury tax number. Next season they will almost for sure be below the luxury tax (depending on the changes to the CBA).

Bullpen does NOT have optionality Palencia - not going down unless he is bad. Maton, Harvey, Thielbar, Webb, Milner, Rea don't have options and that is 6 guys for 8 spots with Palencia likely not going anywhere that is 7 of 8 spots where you need an IL stint to open a spot. The last spot is it. Assad could take that spot or start everyday in Iowa. Brown, Hodge, Hollowell, Little, Martin, Neely, Roberts, Rolison, Wicks are the other 40 man guys and have options but only 1 spot there. IF, they add a SP they will be locked without injuries on the pitching staff. All that means is if one of the guys without options is bad they get released. But they will let a guy go longer before releasing than they would if they get optioned. But no way this pitching staff has optionality going. It is actually just the opposite.

I love how you take 125 wRC+ and say only 25% better and then say batting a little above league average.....yeah if little above is a Top 40 bat. We get you don't like Bregman, don't like the signing. Maybe after watching him daily you will change your mind. Also Bregman is better defensive player than Shaw. Shaw got to his very high level of 3B defense differently. Bregman has an arm and is more natural 3B that can play differently than a Shaw who had to cheat in on plays to make his arm play 3B. Shaw fits way better at 2B. I like Shaw and think he will do great in the Ben Zobrist role.

Shorter version - Pitchers arms can break (See Justin Steele) and prospects traded can end up good Pitchers arms can win playoff games and prospects fail more often they they become All Stars

Also more than Phil Maton.....technically you are right but spinning untruthfully. Maton is getting 5.5m in 2026 is true, (0.5m is not a substantial difference though) but he is guaranteed 14.5M for his 2 year deal with $3M of it as a buyout of a 3rd year club option) So he is either getting 2/14.5 or 7.25m per year (which is more than 6m) or he is getting 3/20M or 6.67m/year (which is also more than 6m). I highly doubt Maton would like to trade contracts. Also how much did Jed tell you his budget was for 2026? Oh, he didn't, so you are guessing based on the past what it is for this year. It might be the 1st level of luxury tax, it might be $230m, it also might be $260m. The fact is they don't tell anyone, as they don't want other teams or agents to know how much they have left. My guess is they rarely spend it all, nor do we ever know as it is really hard to fall exactly on your budget. Some years they go under and some years over as the Cubs do operate in a carry over system versus a corporate america use it or lose it system. I think we will have a much better understanding in about a week or so as Imai and Okamoto have to decide and then based on if they sign either (or both) they will be done or move on to someone like a Bregman or one of the other top SP's or even the trade market. Best part is they don't have to add, we would like them to add some more but they don't have any huge hole they have to fill, just ones we would like to see an upgrade at the top and push everyone done a spot to make the whole team better.

Why don't they spend money......they spent how much to get a middle reliever.....such a bad take. Harvey is good when healthy and that is what this is, a high risk/high reward move that only costs $6m for a guy who (if healthy, I'll agree) is an 8/9 guy with velocity and K's. Let's hope he is finally healthy (he has to pass a physical), because if so, this will be a steal.

I can see both Caissie and Ballesteros on the roster using a one guy sits everyday between those 2 and Suzuki and Happ. I could also see Ballesteros getting an occasional start at 1B and possibly getting up to a start a week catching if there is any thought he could be one of the 2 main catchers starting in 2027. I could also see each of them rotating through Iowa to keep them both playing everyday and playing whichever one is hitting better in Chicago.

Part of the reason for so many spots is the influx of prospects already. If some of them would have moved slower, they would just now be being added and we would have more older vet types on the roster still. This goes with people saying we have slipped on prospects. But right now we have PCA, Shaw, Busch, Amaya as regulars already and players like Ballesteros, Caissie, Alcantara already having been up with the big league team plus players like Cam Smith that was traded. Not as much on the pitching side but Horton moved pretty fast even with losing most of 2024 due to an injury. There will be free agent signings that will be on the opening day roster along and a volume of minor league deals for RP's that will need 40 man spots if they make the opening day roster (or when they get called up). This is not a negative, most teams are loaded with roster filler types they don't want to cut but have no choice when they add a FA.

Yes we used that 26th spot so well last year and go so much "surplus value" out of it to not want a RH power platoon bat to go with a guy like Tauchman (just one example). Are you really arguing over the 26th roster spot being so important that we can't use it to platoon a spot? Happ has had surplus value, doesn't mean we couldn't have spent that money better. Surplus value, WAR etc, all good stuff but you can't say that we wouldn't have been better having another RH power bat in the lineup last year. We struggled against LH's and Turner was not a power bat anymore.

Crusade....that's funny. I like Ian Happ, is a very good player. Don't hate him at all. You are taking one option they could have gone and that I made an example of to show another way and running with it (really, really far to prove your thought....) It could have opened up many other options. Bottom line spending on LF is not a smart way to allocate budget dollars. Spend me another novel if you must, but it is not the best way to do it unless your team is spending $300m or more can justify it.

Add less than $10M to Bregman's offer and the Cubs would have been better last year with Tauchman and a RH bat platoon partner and Bregman vs Happ/Shaw. Probably still enough to have added money somewhere else to improve. LF is just not the place to spend big money.

Let me give you a perfect example. We had Mike Tauchmann. Good OBP decent overall numbers and we could have kept him and started him in LF the last 3 years and platooned him with a RH power bat for far less money and then used the savings to pay for Bregman or go another SP. I would take Mike Tauchmann and will use a recent name Refsnyder as the RH bat if we could just replace them with Happ for 2026 and use that money to go the extra needed to get Tucker, Bregman, Imai, Cease. One reason we can't spend the extra to get these top FA's is we have so much payroll locked up in guys like Happ. Happ is a very good baseball player and if he could play 3B (I wish they would have tried at some point as he was a middle infielder) that contract would be fine.

I didn't like paying that much for a LF and committing that many years. Left field is the easiest position to fill on the baseball field and I would rather use it for a rookie like Owen Caissie, or a vet on a 1 year deal or 2 vets to platoon in LF. Has he overall outperformed his contract sure, but would rather commit those dollars to another position.

Such a bad take on all this.... Teams directionless path....seriously I would say just the opposite. I don't think Jed walks on water (and I never liked the Happ extension at all) but to say he has set this team on a directionless path is crazy. Lots of big league ready prospects with veteran presence all over the roster and lots of payroll room to last years payroll (let alone to luxury tax level) is a good combo and sounds like excellent planning. What Jed does with it will be the real question and his long term legacy will be based on it as well. The fact you write an article about trading Happ and don't completely say this is a nonsense article as Ian Happ has a full NTC and loves Chicago and the chance of him waiving it is near zero. Would I like them to find a way to trade Happ this off-season....yes. Do I think it will happen? No! I would say less than 1% chance and it would take Jed going to him and telling him he would be in a platoon next season and he should expect to start 80-90 games for Ian to say ok, then trade me. I honestly think there is a better chance that Jed extends Happ this off-season (please don't do that Jed) then trades him.