***Official 2024 Chicago Cubs Thread***
- Thread starter CycloneErik
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A split would be good enough this week. 3-1 and we’re not in a bad spot at all going into the ASB. Sucks that Belli will be out for awhile but this series showed the bats have the ability to get the job done and our starting pitching is just unreal right now.
Dansby looks like he’s starting to figure it out at the plate which would be a huge boost as well as Seiya getting hot again. Michael Busch is starting to look like a steal. Him and Shota would be right there for NL rookie of the year if it weren’t for that Skenes fella.
Mastrobuoni doesn’t provide much with the bat but he has been unreal at third the past few games.
I’m happy again. Baseball is fun when the Cubs are fun
Dansby looks like he’s starting to figure it out at the plate which would be a huge boost as well as Seiya getting hot again. Michael Busch is starting to look like a steal. Him and Shota would be right there for NL rookie of the year if it weren’t for that Skenes fella.
Mastrobuoni doesn’t provide much with the bat but he has been unreal at third the past few games.
I’m happy again. Baseball is fun when the Cubs are fun
Need to steal one of the Hendricks, Smyly/bullpen matchups. Could use a Crash Davis i can get you a rainout Saturday.
It’ll be nice if the Cubs find a different option than Hendricks before the second inning if he’s still having back issues
I'm still not convinced that this series sweep is indication that the season will turn it around. Still feels much like last season did but this team has looked much worse at times than they did last year. Too many holes and flaws to be buyers and not much to offer as sellers unfortunately unless you entertain offers on some bigger pieces you were counting on for 2025 in return for a huge haul of talent.
I have a feeling the Cubs will not be active at the deadline, possibly some small deals to clear up some roster spots of guys they are not planning to have back in 2025 but I expect more of the status quo the rest of the season. I would love for them to kick the tires on some guys that have some contract left that could possibly fill a need for 2025. If you aren't going to commit to bringing up guys from the farm system and giving them a fair run then may as well try and trade some before you ruin their value. Canario is one of those guys they have mismanaged so far, either leave him in Iowa or when you bring him up start him nearly every day and see what he does. He's never going to adjust to big league pitching getting sporadic playing time with mostly pinch hits or a spot start every so often. I don't want them to do this to Caissie when it's his time for a callup too. They may be more valuable in a trade for a more proven MLB player than to crash and burn in our system with the approach we have taken with guys from the farm lately. This front office has been bad about not trading guys away at the right time then having to sell for less later or even let them go without a return and that goes for both prospects and veterans.
The big sell off of Rizzo, KB, and Baez is not looking as great lately.
Rizzo: Alcantara and Vizcaino. Alcantara is still unknown at this point but is still regarded as one of the better prospects in the organization. Vizcaino was non tendered in 2022 and don't think he ever got picked up by anyone.
KB: Canario and Killian. Canario hasn't been given much runway to do anything in Chicago so far when he's been called up and Killian has battled injury and control issues. Maybe 1 or both eventually pan out but neither look like they will be huge impact guys at this point.
Baez: PCA. The glove and base running skills are elite, hopefully he eventually gets his bat going at the big league level. He has taken some time to adjust at every level on his way up but he eventually got there. If he doesn't then he will essentially be a slightly better version of Albert Almora. I'm not close to giving up on him right now
I have a feeling the Cubs will not be active at the deadline, possibly some small deals to clear up some roster spots of guys they are not planning to have back in 2025 but I expect more of the status quo the rest of the season. I would love for them to kick the tires on some guys that have some contract left that could possibly fill a need for 2025. If you aren't going to commit to bringing up guys from the farm system and giving them a fair run then may as well try and trade some before you ruin their value. Canario is one of those guys they have mismanaged so far, either leave him in Iowa or when you bring him up start him nearly every day and see what he does. He's never going to adjust to big league pitching getting sporadic playing time with mostly pinch hits or a spot start every so often. I don't want them to do this to Caissie when it's his time for a callup too. They may be more valuable in a trade for a more proven MLB player than to crash and burn in our system with the approach we have taken with guys from the farm lately. This front office has been bad about not trading guys away at the right time then having to sell for less later or even let them go without a return and that goes for both prospects and veterans.
The big sell off of Rizzo, KB, and Baez is not looking as great lately.
Rizzo: Alcantara and Vizcaino. Alcantara is still unknown at this point but is still regarded as one of the better prospects in the organization. Vizcaino was non tendered in 2022 and don't think he ever got picked up by anyone.
KB: Canario and Killian. Canario hasn't been given much runway to do anything in Chicago so far when he's been called up and Killian has battled injury and control issues. Maybe 1 or both eventually pan out but neither look like they will be huge impact guys at this point.
Baez: PCA. The glove and base running skills are elite, hopefully he eventually gets his bat going at the big league level. He has taken some time to adjust at every level on his way up but he eventually got there. If he doesn't then he will essentially be a slightly better version of Albert Almora. I'm not close to giving up on him right now
That series was likely the best played by any team in the league this year. Outscoring the best team in the AL 21-2. 8 different relievers 8IP 0runs. 3 quality starts, 2 shutouts.
We have 2 power arms returning soon for the pen, Merryweather and Killian. 3 starters Brown, Assad and Wicks likely returning. Pitching wise we're in better shape then I've ever seen after we get to the AS break.
Offensively, Happ is on fire. Swanson is slowly getting back to what we expected. Morel has improved though the results may not show it. He's on.pace to hit 30 HRs. But more importantly his defense has gotten better, his contact rate better and now he's swinging aggressive again with far less chase.
We have 2 power arms returning soon for the pen, Merryweather and Killian. 3 starters Brown, Assad and Wicks likely returning. Pitching wise we're in better shape then I've ever seen after we get to the AS break.
Offensively, Happ is on fire. Swanson is slowly getting back to what we expected. Morel has improved though the results may not show it. He's on.pace to hit 30 HRs. But more importantly his defense has gotten better, his contact rate better and now he's swinging aggressive again with far less chase.
Hindsight 20/20 but here's a head scratcher - Yu, Baez, Rizzo, and Bryant were all traded with the top player in the return being an OF. 4 OF's, plus Happ, and the following offseason you get a long term OF in Suzuki. And at the time of the trades, you had a top 20 prospect in Brennan Davis. That's 7 OFs, yet it took 3 years for Jed to figure out 1B and we still have zero clarity what the future of 3B looks like. Morel? Shaw? FA?
The Cespedes BBQ Podcast said last week that during the winter meetings they met with an executive of an MLB team who told them Jed was elite at "finding the 5's," or finding the most average players you can.
All that being said, I like the trades. Bryant, Rizzo, and Baez combined in 2024:
151 games, .203 BA, 11 HRs, -2.5 WAR and $70 MM
I don't think there's any doubting that not re-signing Bryant, Rizzo and Baez was the right move. They have been horrible. I think the larger point was that Jed and Theo held on for too long when it was apparent that team was flawed. They waited until they were at the worst possible point for leverage to deal them, and the haul maybe wasn't what it could have been had they cut bait earlier.
I'd imagine the idea was to load up on the best possible prospects regardless of position to use as trade bait later on. But the teams just haven't been competitive enough to justify doing that yet. And while we've waited, some of them have lost their luster a bit.
I agree, at the time I liked the deals too and even today I am glad we are not stuck with those 3 as we'd be in an even bigger mess. And let's be honest if they had accepted the rummored extension deals they were offered they would be costing more than $70 mil too. What I don't understand is if you commit to acquiring OF prospects why do you keep blocking them by acquiring more OF? It's at that point now you either trade some of the MLB guys blocking them or trade the prospects to fill another need if there is not going to be a path for them to play in Chicago. The FO doesn't really have a clear vision or roadmap with the rebuild right now it feels like.
I'm hoping Assad starts Saturday he's really close but may just wait until after break. If he's healthy and we're still playing for this year we should pitch him
It all comes back to overvaluing our homegrown talent and going cheap in the offseason. We are where we are because of misplaced trust in average, homegrown guys, or in hoping that cheap FA signings would outplay their price point. What it leaves you with is a very average roster-- not so bad you want to sell off everyone, but not good enough to think you are one or two pieces away.
One more look back and the mess that could have been. Here were the rumored extension offers the big 3 got: Jed Hoyer Deserves More Credit for Not Overpaying Chicago Cubs World Series "Core" - Sports Illustrated Inside The Cubs
Let's just spitball what their average yearly salary may have been. For Rizzo let's say he took that 4 year $60 mil deal that's $15 mil a year. KB wound up signing a 7 year deal so let's say the $200 mil offer he got from the Cubs was for 7 years too (remember he is a Boras guy and it was rumored Boras was hoping to get much more than this) That's about $28.75 mil a year. Baez turned down $180 mil and signed a 6 year so let's go with 6 for him too (maybe the Cubs offered longer, I can't find anything concrete) which puts him at $30 mil. Would have been paying those 3 guys roughly $74 mil had they taken those offers and thank goodness we didn't sweeten the pot and wind up going over $80 mil for the 3 combined. This I give Hoyer some credit on not caving to their demands. Also need to factor in what keeping guys like Schwarber and Contreras around may have cost too. In hindsigh non-tendering Schwarber backfired on us but like with the big 3 they had their chances to trade Schwarber for a decent haul prior to his bad season. No one seemed too interested in giving much for Contreras at the deadline going into his free agency which raises some red flags. They should of traded Happ before they extended him with a NTC and there were multiple windows where he was playing well enough to get a good piece in return.
I just don't have a lot of faith that this current front office has a plan for getting things back to where they can compete regularly given the lack of direction and how poorly the current roster has been constructed. Agree with some of the comments about the lack of spending on impact players. It's a double edge sword as if you spend on the wrong guy you are stuck with a bad contract but also need to make a splash acquisition at some point to anchor the lineup. At least with Theo the plan was acquire talent at the position players and buy pitching once they were ready. I'm not sure what the plan is right now because we have some nice pieces but nothing is in place where you can say we are just a few pieces away from contending like we were when we spent on pitching going into 2016.
Let's just spitball what their average yearly salary may have been. For Rizzo let's say he took that 4 year $60 mil deal that's $15 mil a year. KB wound up signing a 7 year deal so let's say the $200 mil offer he got from the Cubs was for 7 years too (remember he is a Boras guy and it was rumored Boras was hoping to get much more than this) That's about $28.75 mil a year. Baez turned down $180 mil and signed a 6 year so let's go with 6 for him too (maybe the Cubs offered longer, I can't find anything concrete) which puts him at $30 mil. Would have been paying those 3 guys roughly $74 mil had they taken those offers and thank goodness we didn't sweeten the pot and wind up going over $80 mil for the 3 combined. This I give Hoyer some credit on not caving to their demands. Also need to factor in what keeping guys like Schwarber and Contreras around may have cost too. In hindsigh non-tendering Schwarber backfired on us but like with the big 3 they had their chances to trade Schwarber for a decent haul prior to his bad season. No one seemed too interested in giving much for Contreras at the deadline going into his free agency which raises some red flags. They should of traded Happ before they extended him with a NTC and there were multiple windows where he was playing well enough to get a good piece in return.
I just don't have a lot of faith that this current front office has a plan for getting things back to where they can compete regularly given the lack of direction and how poorly the current roster has been constructed. Agree with some of the comments about the lack of spending on impact players. It's a double edge sword as if you spend on the wrong guy you are stuck with a bad contract but also need to make a splash acquisition at some point to anchor the lineup. At least with Theo the plan was acquire talent at the position players and buy pitching once they were ready. I'm not sure what the plan is right now because we have some nice pieces but nothing is in place where you can say we are just a few pieces away from contending like we were when we spent on pitching going into 2016.
A lot of guys that make you say "he's fine," but a combination that doesn't say "they're fine." It's not an ideal way to build a team.
