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Chicago Cubs Thread - Playoff Push Pending

Yes he was. It is a pleasure to watch one of the best closers of all time pitch to his capability.

The bullpen seems to be improving and Ross is showing a willingness to give some new blood an opportunity to succeed. If the starters step up to their career norms this staff could be decent.
 
Cubs leave Detroit winning 2 of 3.

Lester starting for the Nationals tomorrow night in his return to Wrigley. Should be 24k fans attending to say thanks for six great years. 6:40 pm start should be worth a look.
 
Musical lead off man continues (Joc Pederson!), but the Cubs are winning. Ross should have a pitcher lead off just for Ss and Gs.
 
Musical lead off man continues (Joc Pederson!), but the Cubs are winning. Ross should have a pitcher lead off just for Ss and Gs.

He's been throwing Joc out there a bunch lately since he's been hitting. I would assume Happ will take back the leadoff spot once Ross feels comfortable moving him back.

Its been a good month of hitting. Cubs are over .500 with a SP ERA over 5 - the pen has been lights out (which likely means we are do for a big blow up soon), but the starters have struggled, across the board. Alzolay will be fine, Hendricks should be better - I think this is who Jake is now, eats up 6 innings with a 4.5 ERA kinda guy, which is fine. Davies has lowered his ERA with his last 3 starts and at least gave the Cubs a chance to win - Williams has been hit pretty hard in most games, not sure he lasts in the rotation all year, but we will see.

Cards series should be fun, hope we can take at least 2 and cut into the Cards central lead.
 
Joc is doing well at the Leadoff. I love when we best the Cardinals. Just ground it out until we could make them pay. I very much enjoy watching this team.
 
The team has played well this month. Scoring runs efficently. Pitching is improved. Decent defense. Good stuff, especially considering the rash of injuries.

The contact hitting of Duffy, Sogard and Hoerner has kept the team focused on situational hitting with positive results.
 
Javy with a jack when it counts. The bullpen continues to deliver. Leave St Louis win a series win. Good stuff.
 
Cubs schedule for the next couple of months isn't easy - need to take advantage of the next 6 games before the crazy run against the Giants and Pads before another series with the Cards.

There are a ton of stories coming out now about Kris Bryant and how his resurgence should net the Cubs a pretty strong return since his value is offense and defense and he could fill a hole on almost any team at this point. Same stories say Hoyer is also reaching out to Boras now, but kinda feel like it is way too little too late at this point. If the Cubs can stick with the Cards until the middle/end of July, will be interesting to see which way Hoyer goes. The Cubs system is starting to develop again - and Bryant & Kimbrel would bring back some pretty strong packages for rentals. But, if you think about it, the Cubs are 1 dominant SP away from likely leading the Central right now (maybe 2 SPs) - this team, even unchanged, can sneak into the playoffs, but still not sold they could do any damage against a healthy Pads or Dodgers.

There will likely be some big name pitchers available closer to the deadline as things fall out - Scherzer, Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray, Marquez and Jon Gray - I'm not sure the Cubs are going to want to spend what it will take to get any of those guys, but you never know if money becomes a factor, Cubs do have some wiggle room.
 
Why do we assume KB wants out? I think we are 1-2 pieces away from being a contender with our current roster. Selling KB and/or Rizzo and/or Baez isn’t going to do anything for us this season. We are 1.5 games back. We can win the division. And assess in the off-season. I don’t understand why we aren’t looking for rentals to strengthen us to full contention?
 
Because of KBs versatility. I would rather us sign KB and Rizzo. What do we think about trading Javy for Story?
 
I don't think KB wants out, he is just on record saying he isn't giving the Cubs a "hometown" discount, so as a guy who will be 30 when the season starts next year, he wants to get PAID. He's gonna ask for Arenado money (8/$260), which he likely gets pre-pandemic, not so sure now - as he is a year and half older than Arenado was when it was signed. The Cubs have some cap flexibility with everyone coming off next year and JHey being the only contract - but they can't afford to keep KB, Riz and Javy. The original thought was that Rizzo and Baez together would be the option because KB is "replaceable" as a bat first 3B - I think he's shown he isn't, or at least not easily.

Rizzo wants Goldschmidt money (5/$130) which I don't think he gets in this market, but I can't imagine the Cubs throwing $25+ at him for 5 years. Baez probably asked for Lindor money (10/$341), but hes a year older and probably valued slightly less than Lindor (and 2020 for Javy didnt help).

So, the Cubs clearly can't afford all that - the narrative pre-2020 has changed since a bit, but I would assume they would still love to resign 2 of these guys - which still would mean somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million per year for the next 4-5 years, assuming no opt outs. Does not leave a ton of room for resigning Willy or Happ when they come up or to fill in the rotation. If the Cubs see Adbert as a long term piece (probably) and Marquez (maybe) and Hendricks signed for 3 more years, it makes things a bit easier to swallow dropping huge money on the bats.

Honestly, no idea where Hoyer is going to land, seems just as likely the Cubs end up with none of them as they would 1 or 2 (or 3?). Rizzo is the key piece, I would think - he is the captain, heart and soul of the team player, he would hurt a lot more ways. Bryant and Rizzo resigning is probably the best "winning" option, as Nico can slide to SS and 2B is fillable with farm pieces or Bote or something (or any number of 20 year old MIFs the Cubs have). Brennan Davis is likely a 2023 additional, so OF will need another stopgap, Willy and Happ are signed through 2022 and 2023. But, the Cubs could just go full rebuild, send out anything that isn't bolted down and just play like its 2013 all over again.
 
Also, Story and Javy are both impending FAs, doesn't make a lot of sense to trade one for the other - and I don't think that would be a great trade for the Cubs anyway, Story isn't a great defender and his bat isn't significantly (or at all) better than Javy's right now.

If the Cubs do move Baez, the goal would be to get prospects versus win now stuff - unless the Cubs could flip Baez and something else to the Rocks for Story and Marquez, but there is less than 0% chance the Rocks would do that.
 
Do you think Bryant and Rizzo would have given the Cubs a home town discount if they made more of an effort earlier to resign them?
 
FWIW, I think Bryant, Rizzo and Baez have one shot at huge money and all of them will pursue it. Home town discounts and earlier pursuit never had a chance. These are top shelf players who accomplished a miracle championship 4+ years ago. Their time has come. The question is, does Hoyer shoot for one more championship or does he retool using his most valuable assets.
 
FWIW, I think Bryant, Rizzo and Baez have one shot at huge money and all of them will pursue it. Home town discounts and earlier pursuit never had a chance. These are top shelf players who accomplished a miracle championship 4+ years ago. Their time has come. The question is, does Hoyer shoot for one more championship or does he retool using his most valuable assets.

Feels like it would be easier to do with, IDK, Yu Darvish on this roster. With Kimbrel playing well, I wouldn't have minded rolling the dice on the 2021 team and then blowing it up.
 
Feels like it would be easier to do with, IDK, Yu Darvish on this roster. With Kimbrel playing well, I wouldn't have minded rolling the dice on the 2021 team and then blowing it up.

This is still the biggest question mark of the whole thing. I get that Darvish was cost cutting, but the 2020 Cubs won the NL Central behind strong pitching and no hitting at all. Removing Darvish and adding Davies hasn't been team breaking, but it likely has cost the cubs 2-3 wins and took away the only real strength the Cubs had (1-2 punch of Yu and Hendo) - and I would assume it would cost them at least 5-6 wins over the course of the season unless Davies goes on some crazy tear. 6 wins is a huge difference now, especially when the weakness is SP - which was a known thing since Darvish was traded - and now that the offense is clicking again.

Baez and Bryant both having really bad 2020s obviously hurt and Darvish having an amazing 2020 helped his trade value - but at that point, if you are trading away the teams expected biggest strength, why not just trade everyone? Maybe it has been smoke and mirrors the whole time and Jed is excited because he knows he is going to trade everyone away anyway and he is just biding his time.
 
Bryant's trade value has increased dramatically. Baez and Rizzo have also improved. If everyone was healthy, I would not be surprised to see Hoyer trade Bryant to maximize his return in trade and take a shot at a post season run with everyone who remains.

At present there is no bench strength among position players. Wisdom, Higgins and Martini can't replace Heyward, Duffy and Marisnick. Hoerner to the IL would make matters worse. Contreras would be a disaster. This is a thin squad without help within the organization. Hoyer's decisions could be determined by injuries.

I like this team with everyone healthy. Hendricks, Davies, Arrieta and Alzolay could provide a serviceable rotation. No confidence in Williams. The bullpen has been outstanding and has some depth in the minors. The starting lineup and bench is better balanced and more productive when healthy than the past few years. I'll hope for one more good year but won't be surprised if Hoyer makes wholesale changes. We have known it was coming.
 
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