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Chicago Cubs Thread - Playoff Push Pending

We did beat you two out of three, Brewers just refused to accept the favor.

Let's fuckin' go Bravos
 
The strength of Theo and the front office has been identifying and developing talent. Combine the players who have come up through the system with the prospects traded away and you have a powerhouse all star team. Trades and free agent acquisitions are a mixed bag. With the exception of John Lester, big money acquisitions have been disappointing. Secondary/minor league signings have produced some value. The core of position players is strong and still has the potential for improvement. A couple of key acquisitions could produce the balance the team presently lacks. Pitching is a different matter. There are some power arms with talent in the system. It might be time to give them a real opportunity.
 
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BlackjackMc said:
The strength of Theo and the front office has been identifying and developing talent. Combine the players who have come up through the system with the prospects traded away and you have a powerhouse all star team. Trades and free agent acquisitions are a mixed bag. With the exception of John Lester, big money acquisitions have been disappointing. Secondary/minor league signings have produced some value. The core of position players is strong and still has the potential for improvement. A couple of key acquisitions could produce the balance the team presently lacks. Pitching is a different matter. There are some power arms with talent in the system. It might be time to give them a real opportunity.
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I think on balance Theo and co. have been more right than wrong. Trading Soler for Davis hurts now, but Davis made the team a contender in 2017. He was the team's best player that year. Trading Torres for Chapman obviously hurts now, but you do that trade 100 times out of 100 in hindsight. No Chapman, no ring. Trading Jimenez for Quintana has to date been ok. And, to be clear, he completely fleeced Baltimore to get Strop and Arrieta and fleeced the Padres to land Rizzo. Frankly the Addy Russell trade was also brilliant in terms of how key he was in 2016. Zobrist was a great FA signing too. As was re-signing Fowler for 2016.

I do think the team needs a shake up now. You can still compete with the pieces you have and you need to cash in and grab some value.
 
Agree with the above completely. The Cubs had a bad run at the worst time of the year. Fix the bullpen, get another starter, get a 2B and/or OF bat and we will at least compete.

Rumors out about Schwarber, Bryant, Happ, Contreras all being on the block - honestly think Contreras is the one we definitely don't want to lose, Caratini has looked good in spurts, but not good enough to replace Willy. Moving any of the other three should get something decent to help the team in 2020 and potentially a prospect or two. Have heard they are trying to get Descalso to move into a front office role, that would be nice to move the contract into a different bucket, and he is terrible.

There should be a decent amount of early 30-something pitchers needing homes, and most aren't getting massive contracts - which should allow a buy low on someone that could see an NL bump or just need a change of scenery (Rick Porcello or Julio Teheran if his option isn't picked up). Darvish, Hendricks and Q should give us a decent top 3 - with Lester and fill in the blank being the real question marks.

Cards lose Wainwright, Wacha and Ozuna - can assume they will be in the same place next year 80-85 wins. Brewers lose Moose, Gio, Lyles and Thames - they should be in the same place, needing to drastically upgrade their starting staff, also 80-85 wins. Reds lose Iglesias, but thats not much, they could be better. Pirates bring back most anyone that contributed, but don't see them bouncing back. The central should be won with 90 wins again.
 
I'd rather see Bryant traded than Contreras. There are not that many catchers out there with his combination of offense and defense. Bryant still has good years left, but his fielding at 3rd is pretty spotty. I like Schwarber, but he should be moved if the Cubs can get value for him as part of a package deal. Low batting average and mediocre fielder.
 
Meh, Schwarbs gets a bad rap for some of his bad plays in left, but he is, at worst, a middle of the pack defender, with the potential to be at least slightly above average (2018 he had the second highest defensive WAR among left fielders).

Bryant is the consensus that people think will be traded. Still not sure we want to trade away the guy who has been (by far) our best player in 4 of the last 5 years and the 3rd best player in baseball since he got called up with 2 years of control left. But, gotta trust enough in Theo and Jed to do whats right - which they have done so far. Again, hindsight, Darvish, Morrow & Heyward look like bad signings, but he was filling the gaps the team needed at the time.
 
DeacMan said:
I think on balance Theo and co. have been more right than wrong. Trading Soler for Davis hurts now, but Davis made the team a contender in 2017. He was the team's best player that year. Trading Torres for Chapman obviously hurts now, but you do that trade 100 times out of 100 in hindsight. No Chapman, no ring. Trading Jimenez for Quintana has to date been ok. And, to be clear, he completely fleeced Baltimore to get Strop and Arrieta and fleeced the Padres to land Rizzo. Frankly the Addy Russell trade was also brilliant in terms of how key he was in 2016. Zobrist was a great FA signing too. As was re-signing Fowler for 2016.

I do think the team needs a shake up now. You can still compete with the pieces you have and you need to cash in and grab some value.
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Good points. I wasn't critical of the Soler, Torres or Jimenez trades. They were made to fill critical needs in effort to win now. My intention was to compliment the ability to identify and develop talent. Agree on Zobrist and Fowler and the trades you mention. However, LeMahieu, Castro and LaStella received nothing in return and fit the profile of what the team lacks. Keep mind that Theo's first free agent signing was Edwin Jackson. Chatwood and Descalso say hello as well, hence my "mixed bag" description.
 
Definitely a mixed bag for Theo. I rate Chatwood and Darvish better than some as Chatwood should be a key piece next year. Now will he realize his 39M value, doubtful. Darvish will likely be the Cubs #1 starter next year, so hard to say that is a bad signing yet.

I'm convinced Quintana could have been replaced by an Alec Mills and the Cubs would have had nearly the same outcome. If the Cubs had Jimenez now, the outfield would be much clearer. Quintana is also soft as can be and mostly implodes when the Cubs need him most. The ROI hasn't been there sans a couple great starts. Bad trade IMO and one we are paying for going into 2020 - it will also get worst as Jimenez develops.

Descalso is probably one of the worst signings in the history of baseball as he had to be the worst position player in the league in 2019.
 
I suspect Theo will have a lead off hitter or two join the organization. He blames himself for that shortcoming so I doubt that gets overlooked. Once a manager is on board, I expect the organization will identify clear objectives to be attained. At that point I expect that trades will depend on which players can return the players needed to accomplish their objectives. I'll take Theo at his word that there are no untouchables. If someone is willing to overpay for a specific player let them. Rizzo and Baez have the highest price tags.
 
Lemahieu was a throw away AAAA player when the Cubs got rid of him, kudos for making something of himself, but he wasn't going to do it here and he wasnt even a real piece in the deal. Castro and LaStella, they took what was avaialble. Zero problem with any of those players moving. If you want to say trading for Ian Stewart was stupid, I'll buy that, but it was a place holder for KB anyway cause what's his face from the Rangers took a ball to the eye and stopped being productive.

Quintana has been a top 25 pitcher since we got him. He has had bad performances, but he has been the same dude we traded for. Descalso is straight up garbage, but it's a 2 year $5 million deal, that's nothing. EdLose was a bad signing in hindsight - but a 29 year old pitcher coming off a handful of decent years signed at 4/$50 seemed like a good signing, hes a tough pitcher to evaluate because he didnt give up a ton of HRs, just a lot of contact - he would have benefited from better defensive teams.
 
We had to have been expecting more from Quintana. He was better across town by a significant margin
 
2018 was his worst year, this year and 2017 he wasnt much different than he had been in previous years. He was better than his normal stats showed this year, Cubs defense was horrible all around, and Q isn't a dominant strike out guy. ESPN is using bWAR, that's not the best judge of pitchers. Fangraphs has a better calculation.
 
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