fun fact… Cubs didn’t have the biggest offer to Hayward. Two other clubs had bigger offers but he saw the future and signed with us.
Not so fun fact His lowest WAR before Chicago was 1.9 He did better than that just twice with chicago
I mean their team isn’t markedly worse than it was last year. I know their schedule is inherently more difficult, but this still isn’t a 100 loss roster. Not defending the offseason because it’s inexcusable, but it’s really really hard to lose 100 games in a season
respectfully disagree as they finished with 88 losses last season and that was despite going like 17-6 to end the year (fucking up their draft position along the way) while playing in a division with 2 teams that actually did lose 100 games... if the Reds or Pirates were to improve even moderately 100 losses is absolutely possible
As a reminder, this is the Pirates rotation: 1. Roansy Contreras 2. Mitch Keller 3. Vince Velasquez (lol) 4. JT Brubaker 5. Bryse Wilson Not sure you’re going to see moderate improvement from that roster. Again, me saying they’re not going to lose 100 games is not some high praise. If anything, this team is just directionless. They didn’t bottom out last year, and they’re not bottoming out this year.
I don't even want Swanson anymore. This is terrible and I hope we suck and at least see youth. I want to buy convention tickets to heckle the Ricketts but I'm not going to give them any $.
It’s hilarious we wasted the post World Series window because we had to save money to extend guys and then extended exactly 0 of them. But hey the ricketts real estate portfolio looks great
Not going to lie, 5 for 80 for contreras looks like a steal. Did they really think they’d get Correa for something like 6 for 180? Would love to know what the plan was
Cubs aren’t losing 100 games with the scheduled to go on stage the 14th followed by Hoyer. They should be boo’d to the point they can’t speak and have to walk off the stage in embarrassment. I understand last year… to copy and paste it this offseason is unacceptable.
Gdub was speaking on this during a recent podcast with Kap. I think I side with Kap in saying I agree with the breakup. That team wasn’t going to be much more than a division winner and early exit in the playoffs. It’s just a shame that they have shit the bed in the free agent market. You already tore the scab off with the selling of the core. Being active in the FA doesn’t stop the rebuilding of the farm.
Again, I’m not trying to cape for the cubs and Taillon is far from a splashy signing, but not sure if career WAR is something that should be held against him. He’s missed a ton of time due to two Tommy John surgeries and literally cancer, so it’s not shocking that he hasn’t accrued much WAR. It’s a little misleading to ding him for that, unless you’re criticizing his durability. He appears healthy now, so hopefully that’s not an issue
Wasn't so much a post about Taillon as it was about the Cubs doing jack fucking shit this off-season.
I agree if you’re not going to sign Bryant then why not get Harper? There’s countless big money free agents that have been signed. They told us they weren’t going after them in order to resign their guys. It was all a scam
This is from GDub on that same pod… but essentially he said the moment the Cubs sent Bryant down to gain that extra year he was never going to resign in Chicago. They never even attempted to speak with Theo to resign. And that Harper knew this because the two where so close and thus… That still doesn’t excuse last offseason or this…
While that’s true that it was marketing to avoid spending money in 2018-2020, signing the core when it was clear they were underperforming their requested deals would have compounded the cubs issue. If KB and Baez were on the cubs with their current deals, fans would be bitching about them too
again I’m not against not signing baez and Bryant who clearly were underperforming after 2016, it’s that they didn’t sign anyone else and when they did (Yu) they salary dumped him.
Hoerner 4.5 Happ 4.4 I understand the frustration, but he didn't want to resign with Chicago, and he wasn't our "only 3 WAR player".
So a lineup next year looks something like this. 2b Nico SS Dansby LF Happ RF Suzuki 3b Morel CF Bellinger 1b Mervis DH Wisdom vs lefties and TBD vs righties C Gomes SP Stroman SP Taillon SP Steele SP Sampson SP Hendricks or Wesneski If the rotation pitches like it did last half of the year and Mervis is legit we should have a shot at the Wild Card.
Cubs might have the best middle of the field defense in the league. With the shift coming to an end I feel good about that. I think we need another bat somewhere in this lineup either from FA or trade.
Hoyer being so against the risk really makes me angry. Theo would at least make one or two risky signings...
Definitely, that’s a contract I would’ve done. But he was never getting the 12 year contract with his physical state.
Correct, I get not wanting to play in the 12 year window. But 6... I bet Hoyer wasn't even willing to talk at 6
Law came out with his rankings of the farm systems today. Cubs came in at no. 10. Said he thought we’d be top five but that’s probably coming next year as there’s quite a few guys that are all one year away from proving they should be top 100 prospects. The NL central should be really interesting th 3-6 years. All teams ranked in the top 13 and were bunched together. Pirates at 6, Brewers 8, Cardinals 9, Cubs 10, and Reds at 13
What's everyone most interested in watching this year? For me it's: The young guys on the big league roster The farm Seeing if Bellinger can turn it around
Law’s top 20 prospects going into the season. He’s super high on Made compared to a lot of the other rankings out there. 1. PCA 2. Alcantara 3. Brennan Davis 4. James Triantos 5. Wesneski 6. Kevin Made 7. Amaya 8. Wicks 9. Cristian Hernandez 10. Horton 11. Ben Brown 12. Mervis 13. Jackson Ferris 14. Daniel Palencia 15. Owen Caissie 16. Alex Canario 17. Kohl Franklin 18. Porter Hodge 19. Moises Ballestros 20 Pablo Aliendo
Excited to see what Palencia does , probably has the best stuff in the system and he was a really late bloomer. Wicks should be called up at some point as well. I'm excited to watch the young arms. I think people forgot just how good Davis was before the injury. Hopefully he stays healthy. I think this team is clearly better than last year and am expecting us to stay in contention for a bit. Defense should be elite.
Also when you look at our sell-off a couple years ago we appeared to have done damn well. Obviously pca for baez was great but Alcantara for Rizzo and Palencia for Chafin , just solid. Even last year Ben Brown for Robertson.
Killian looked great… maybe a dark horse for that 5th spot. Apparently he hurt his knee and the feeling is that caused his awful performances last season.
Yeah, after reading that article about his knee last year, the command issues make a lot more sense. If he can hang around 96-97, like he was today, with the command he showed previously then he definitely seems like he could take that 5th spot.
Cubs have some excellent depth in our rotation. Especially if some of these young guys continue to trend up.