CUBZ99

Wow a 21 year old 1.3 WAR player at 2B is sure killing the team. I mean seriously are you just that dense or are you trolling? Let me simplify this. We have every logical reason to believe Castro peaked, the league adjusted to him, and it's downhill from here. We also have every logical reason to assume Russell will continue to improve and surpass Castros current value as well as his futures. I mean is this [expletive] rocket science? This isn't even a subjective topic to me. It should be obvious. I'll let your middle school insults slide. I realize that some people feel they have to insult others to make themselves feel better about themselves. If your life is so miserable that you need to name call, fine. But seriously, please try reading and comprehending prior to responding. I never said that Russell wouldn't improve. I'm just pointing out that he is not helping the team. His WAR is entirely predicated on his defensive value which is far from being an exact measure of value of a player. There is no reason at all that they should have rushed him to the big leagues this year. Offensively, Russell has been as bad as Castro.

I guess we will never know what the offers were before the game, but the no hitter definitely didn't hurt the return for Hamels.

At 21 Castro hit .307/.341/.432 over an entire season. At least he has shown the ability to hit in the big leagues at some point in his career. I'm not saying Russell is going to suck forever, but he is killing the offense and was brought up way too early.

So 1 player is hitting .233/.306/.353 and the other is .237/.272/.306 and people can't wait to get rid of one but seem to think the other is going to be fine? IMO both Castro and Russell are killing the offense. Russell was brought up to early and should be sent back down until he can't get his offense together. It is amazing to me how many people are willing to give Russell a pass, but hate on Castro. Out of the two, Castro is the only one that has had sustained success at the big league level.

Looks like Wada was pulled from his IA Cubs start tonight and Pevey stated it was not due to injury.

It seems like most of the free agency money was spent to fix the defense. With as many holes as the Bears have, I guess they have to take BPA.

haha take that dumb ass beat writers i was right (not that i necessarily had a strong opinion on what should happen one way or the other) If you were reading between the lines, Maddon was pretty upfront about Baez making the team early in camp. It seems clear that Baez has been instructed to work on specific things and over the last 4-5 games has walked 3 times and gotten on base at a much better clip. Sure, it was more fun last year to see him launching more home runs in spring training, but I think he is due to go on a tear in the near future and his potential is much greater than any other option they have at this point. I love Maddon showing confidence in him and letting him work through his problems.

I would take my chances with Cutler over any other QB available this offseason. Sure he is unpredictable, but he gives the team a better chance to win.

Why would Fox come to Chicago to develop a QB and waste half of his contract, with a rookie QB?

Benching Cutler at this point is dumb, unless they are worried that the OL is so bad they don't want him to get hurt in meaningless games.

Lester should schedule a press conference with a Red Sox and Cubs hat in front of him and announce which team he is going to.

I'm getting my hopes up. This will be pretty depressing if the Cubs don't get him at this point.

Yes, please. Maybe Valbuena and a B prospect gets it done. Does Grandal have more upside than Castillo? Just looking at Fangraphs and it looks like Castillo is currently the better hitter and throws out more runners than Grandal. Is the thought that Castillo and Grandal would platoon? Noticed Grandal's numbers batting from the right side are pretty terrible. It seems that Valbuena is under appreciated.

It's a fake account Ahh, thanks.

So Crasnick(sp?) says a source tells him the Cubs offer is 6/$144MM *never mind fake account. :(

That would be kind of funny if the father-in-law was just messing with him and stringing him along.

The infatuation with spending is based upon the Cubs being a team with large resources. Your argument is the ultimate cop out. Sure you could get lucky year after year by signing reclamation projects, but history has not shown that method to be feasible. Case in point, after 3 years with that method, the Cubs have had how many winning seasons? Sure the players are more important, but to think that FA players aren't important is beyond ignorant.

Where have you gone, Cubs Den - Cub Nation turns its lonely eyes to you? Never thought I'd see the day. Fact is, I think Arguello is pretty on-point here. As I posted a few months ago, Theo's philosophy of "we set the value a player is worth, and if they go over, we pass" sounds fine on paper. But the practical impact is "we're not going to sign any free agents coveted by other mid-market or large-market teams". Because the reality of FA is, the really desirable guys get overpaid. They get more than they're worth on the back end of their deals. If you're not willing to live with that, you may as well not even bother with first-tier FAs. Rather than this manifesto, Theo really needs to go in saying "this is a guy we really need, and unless things get insane, we're willing to overpay to get him". That's just how FA works. Martin's deal looks like an overpay (Fangraphs says it isn't, FWIW) and I'm not specifically saying we needed to match it. But at some point Theo needs to prove the Cubs are serious - prove it to the rest of baseball, to the fans, and to the guys in his own organization. And that means at some point he has to overpay to get the guy he thinks can really make a difference. If he doesn't, and the Cubs come out of another off-season signing only castoffs and second-tier guys like Hammel or Masterson, there's no reason to take the Cubs seriously as a team that's willing to do whatever it takes to contend. Until Theo actually proves it, it's all talk - and talk, as they say, is cheap. I can anticipate the rebuttal to this - the straw man that Theo just needs to be committed to the plan, and he shouldn't trash it by selling out to go crazy on a big-name FA. Except that overpaying for a FA isn't selling out the plan, and it isn't selling out the future for the present - it's making the commitment that the organization is willing to be bold and take financial risks to support what they've done with the farm system. In point of fact trading elite prospects for Hamels would be selling out the future a lot more than overpaying for Lester. The reality is, Jon Lester has become a very important figure for this organization - not just in baseball terms (where he's huge) but symbolically too. And like it or not, that matters. I agree with Arguello for the most part and agree that if you are going to sign a top free agent, you are going to have to pay market price. I don't mind Theo/Jed being cautious, but the Cubs are not a small market team and should have tons of flexibility to overpay for certain team needs.

Almora's OPS in over 100 abs since All Star break is .903? :shock: AND in 74 abs in July he was OPSing .998. I did not realize that he had adjusted that well. Guess it shows how good the Cubs system really is.

If Theo/Jed would have added a few decent bats to go with the pitching staff this year, the Cubs could really have something.

Besides Kris Bryant, which player that was drafted are you most impressed with in the Theo/Jed era?

I hope so. I love the White Sox draft so far. Disappointed that the Cubs seem to be going cheap.

A college senior that might end up in the bullpen? A cheap sign? :banghead:

He looks like Vogelbach. Not liking the Jason Kubel comp.

Better be a serious under slot deal.