Going to see, likely, my last game with this current team this coming Thursday. Might get to Wrigley this Summer but unlikely at this point. Does anyone know when tickets for the summer games go on sale?
Team sucks everyone is terrible then you got a guy like Duane underwood who can't do shit here gets traded to the pirates and has 20k's in 13 innings with a 1.2 fip. We have nobody with any potential in the rotation , and we're not giving people like corey abbott a chance. The fast riser in ryan jensen can't even pitch above A ball. These motherfuckers are going to be 27 before they get a call to the big leagues.
player development is a huge issue from the minors on up. Especially on the pitching side of things. From reading articles of the last year or so they seem to admit to that problem and gone to a new system of player development. Doesn’t seem like much has been fixed early on outside of the bullpen being a little better.
Fair point. I feel like at this point the emotions are gone from my system. The front office went the route of insanity thinking doing the same thing over and over would lead to a different result. These guys clearly can’t hit the fastball and stopped working counts and putting the ball in play. We score 12 runs in a game and turn around and score 12 runs in the next 15 games. It’s been this way since 2019. Were broken and just riding the shit show out. Theo put a culture in place that was amazing. We were a family in ever sense of the word from the top down and it paid off with a title and a good run. But when Theo needed to go from Dad who would hang out with his sons and drink beers to dad who needed to put his foot down and lay the law down he couldn’t. He kept the roster in place with no turnover for to long.
Maybe that doubleheader sweep yesterday gives us some momentum/confidence/swagger/whatever for a few weeks and we can get it going. Just kidding, we suck.
Article on mlb.com polled executives about which players are most likely to get moved before the deadline. Bryant and Trevor Story topped the list. They also said they think Bryant gets moved sooner rather than later due to his injury history and hot start so we'll want to move him now to make sure we get top dollar.
I’d hate to see him go, because I believe he will be a very solid piece for years to come. It if we can move him and get a haul of prospects I’m good with that. It’s like we are stuck in purgatory, arnt good enough to win it and not bad enough to rebuild.
We can blame ownership for that. Our offense had a rough start but with a healthy KB we definitely have enough firepower to win if our pitching was good enough. But ownership shipped off our ace in a salary dump and since acquiring Kimbrel we haven't done a single damn thing for our bullpen. I hate seeing him go but there's no point in tanking halfway. If your goal isn't to win until 2023 or 2024, which is what it looks like they're aiming for with our current roster and farm system, then you need to dive right in. Dump KB for more prospects, preferably some pitching and outfield as 5 of our top ten prospects right now are SS, 2B, or 3B.
If you truly believe those moves aren't because ownership is telling the front office to spend as little as money as possible, that's fine. But everything out there has indicated that Ricketts isn't wanting to spend right now because of how much money has been spent on the Wrigley renovations and the pandemic lost revenue.
2016 -14th 2017-10th 2018- 4th 2019 - 2nd 2020 - 6th 2021- 10th Yes its our cheap owner that wont spend money that is the issue. Why would we keep Yu? This roster is going to go through a complete overhaul where we will see 75% of the players in uniform today gone. All proven player for prospect deals are for "magic beans". Remember that sure fire stud Addison Russell we traded for? or how about that Jake Arrieta we took a flyer on... Yu should be moved, Bryant, Baez you name them all should be moved. If they aren't part of the long term plans (and at this point you would think if they are or aren't) then you trade them. This team hit its ceiling in 2016 and its been all downhill since. The narrative that its all Rickets fault is lazy and stupid. As much as we all love Theo he fucked this shit up. He should've revamped this roster after 2018 and not given Joe one more year. It was clear baseball was changing and this roster wasn't built for the high volocity arms race that was taken place. Player development shit the bed and Theo hitting on prospect after prospect came to a crashing stop. The Cubs don't have a top 50 prospect in baseball and and haven't for some time. Rickets has his blame in this as well but this lack of spending narrative is a cop out for Theo and Jed wanting to keep this core together believing a few new pitching, hitting coaches and a new voice in Ross would fix everything.
What do you call trading a legit ace and not getting a top 50 prospect in return, why you call that a cap dump
Do not like taking out Hendricks there. He gave up a soft grounder because of the shift and then Rizzo bobbled the ball. Also hate that he brought in Nance in that high leverage situation. Give him a little more time.
He handled it great... Amazing story behind Nance. Kid has filthy stuff. This pen is filled with some crazy arm talent
I still don't know what's the best way to approach this season. The lineup is filthy when it's on and as of late that's been more often than not. All the position player acquisitions this offseason look like major wins for the front office. Meanwhile all the pitching acquisitions look to be questionable, not that they had high expectations anyways. According to fangraphs WAR for teams the Cubs have a top ten offense, a top five bullpen, and the worst rotation in baseball. In fact we're the only team in baseball with a negative WAR from the rotation currently at -.1, closest team to us TOR at .9.
Hendricks seems to be turning it around. So that could help the rotation numbers. Davis has been shit. He can’t even get through a lineup twice. I’m still not buying this team because the offense is all over the place. The trade deadline will be very interesting
Yeah but now we have a tough stretch coming up and some injuries are starting to pile up. Just play .500 ball over the next 2-3 weeks and I think we will be sitting pretty by all star break.
Yeah I think the front office will use June as a barometer to what degree they sell (or if they sell at all). It’s a pretty difficult schedule, so if they come out the other side of June within 3 or 4 games of first, I don’t think they sell. But we’ll see, it’s hard to tell what Hoyer’s plan will be.
That Patrick Wisdom guy seems pretty good. It's pretty remarkable how well this team has played the last month with so many guys stuck on the IL and a bunch others on and off it repeatedly. If we go .500 or better this month I think we have to be buyers at the deadline.
Another series win. We've won every series since the beginning of May except the short 2 game one against the Indians. The make up of this team is strange. Bullpen now only ranks behind Mets for best in baseball, lineup is top ten and rotation is still dead last. Crazy to think what we could be if we didn't just give away Darvish.
I don't know what has happened off the field but this Cubs team is starting to do what the dodgers and some other teams where doing and that's taking guys who didn't pan out and turn them into productive players. The pen is filled with them this year and Wisdom also has blossomed. I'm pretty shocked at the turnaround. And it's paying off on the field.
Can we get a thread name change? Also... This Ben Zobrist stuff is truly awful. What a great dude to have something this awful to happen to him
Still kinda want them to blow it up. Or at least trade KB before he walks and we get nothing in return. Not going to happen as long as they’re in first place/contention obviously but this team isn’t winning it all so the best move IMO is to trade some guys and retool. Give me some thread title suggestions.
Tough pill to swallow. Agree there’s very little chance of selling when we’re in first, is it worth pushing back the timeline on a rebuild to lose in the NLDS? Probably not but still what likely ends up happening.