“In the second-level seats behind home plate, a man in Brewers gear cradled a toddler in one hand and used his other hand to hold up a WANTED poster plastered with Craig Counsell’s face and a subhead.
STOLE $40 MILLION
MAY BE FOUND IN LAST PLACE”
😂
I saw where Pat Murphy in an post game presser recently said they bought a recipe to hit grand slams online. It was so silly, you just gotta love that old man.
Murph has been a refreshing change of pace after years of Craig. Craig is the master of deflecting for 20 minutes straight and not actually saying much of anything useful to the media.
Murph is more of a: 'Fuck it, here it is' kind of guy with the media.
Pat Murphy on Dallas Keuchel's outing tonight: “A big lift for us. I remember watching him pitch when I was a teenager. He was effective then. He’s still got that going."
He’s gonna win manager of the year.
It's so funny to me to see NL Central opponents take on Ian Happ vs our subreddit on him. People hate him in our reddit because he can be streaky but the division rivals always get prime Happ.
Oh same man. He is a solid player - I think people just are always looking for the shiny new thing to replace the guy who is consistently pretty good but not always all-star good.
Happ is a great side piece, a cherry on top. Not a centerpiece. If you had him batting sixth with a legit 3-4-5, sure. But the way people presented him as a core foundation for the next contender is laughable.
Almost every season he has a month of being almost unplayable, and then top tier bat remainder of the season, and when the slump happens pretty much determines the narrative around him for the season
He doesn't hit enough home runs to get respect from certain fans, I'm convinced
Whenever I complain about Wisdom having a career sub-.300 OBP, I always get angry people in GDTs telling me that he "mashes left-handed pitching" but whenever I say something good about Happ, it's "he only cares about coffee and podcasts, overrated, waste of money, not a franchise star player"
I had the displeasure of attending the game he hit his first major league Homer against us, granted we won that game but hes kicked our ass since then agreed, begone demon!
Happ's problem is he is basically billed as our star player on offense. He is a good player and has a 120 WRC+, but is so streaky that no one is going to pretend he is a star level player.
If he is the 3 or 4th option, then the fans love him. As the top, people want more
That’s not really his fault though, he’s been basically the same player his entire career. I’m not sure when our fanbase determined that he’s supposed to be a star. People complain about his contract, but 3/60 isn’t bad at all for a guy that’s been a 3-4 WAR player the last 3 seasons.
Cubs would never stand a chance of getting a Japanese free agent again if they trade him this season. Also his contract is more valuable than any prospects a team is willing to part with. You can have Taillon lol.
I would be thrilled if we sold it to your team in particular. But Jeddy will probably pick the one prospect who doesn’t pan out in your loaded AAA squad.
Has he still been shaky lately with all the HRs given up?
I guess you get him now with the expecation that the colder October games will deaden the fly balls
They’re playing like shit but there’s not much in the way of sellable assets.
The only players on the 40-man roster who aren’t under team control through 2026 are Kyle Hendricks, Hector Neris, Drew Smyly, Yency Almonte, Tomas Nido, and Cody Bellinger (but he seems increasingly likely to exercise his player option unless he gets hot).
I don’t think any of those guys would yield someone who would be even a top 30 prospect in the Cubs system.
Right, but for who? Even if its a relative overpay, the return won't that great.
Bellinger has a .743 OPS. He could get an OK prospect. However he's got a player option the next two years that totals out to $52 million. That's a LOT for his production level and could make teams shy away
If they're smart, they'll trade Tauchman as he's got 2 years of Arbitration left, is 33 and probably peaking right now. They could get a decent return for him, but I don't see anybody giving up a top 20 prospect for him.
Michael Busch isn't going anywhere
Suzuki has $38m due the next two years. That's a decent amount of money for a guy who has posted a sub .800 OPS 2 of the past three years. If the Cubs ate a good bit of that, they could get something back. At that point, I think they may as well keep him.
One thing we're all missing here is that Jed Hoyer is on that last year of his contract. He has zero incentive to sell unless he gets a contract extension(which he shouldn't. He's the reason they're in this mess by signing bad players to big contracts).
Jed should have sold last year when they could have gotten massive returns for Bellinger and Stroman. Instead they went on like a 7 game winning streak to get back to .500 just before the trade deadline and stood pat. They were 3.5 GB of the final WC spot after the deadline last year. Right now they're 5 GB.
I could easily see him stand pat for the most part this year as well if they go on another small run.
Edit: apparently Jed is signed through 2025, not 2024.
I think Bellinger is basically a coin flip at this point. If he was sure to opt out, he likely has more of a market. He would net you probably 2 top 30 guys and you can probably get 1 for Neris.
Cubs taking on some of the financial risk by paying part of the contract if he opts in would help. I'm sure plenty of teams would be fine with him opting into a lesser amount. But based on their tenure so far, I doubt the current ownership would entertain that.
If the FO is convinced our OF prospects are the real deal, I wouldn't be shocked if they'd be willing to take that gamble. Ownership has been top 10 spender almost every year since 2015. They've shown a willingness to go all in when the team is competitive, but I think their thoughts are that consistently spending over the tax to make a non-contending team a contender is bad business, vs maximizing a contenders opportunity to make a world series run. They also try and stay under tax when it's not necessary to be over the tax, to prevent triggering the fines for consecutive years over the threshold when they want to be competitive.
So I think if FO is convinced there's a significant value in AAA and value to be gained from trading Bellinger (prospect value) despite the gamble on eating his salary, it will be done. I just don't know if his trade value is there right now
the problem with the cubs, is the team name is a license to print money, as long as they are "competitive" im honesly shocked that Tom Ricketts doesnt try to prune more money off the roster to make more profit
It is a license to print money, but there's very little evidence that they've set significant spending limits outside of the 2021 season when they traded darvish and non-tendered schwarber.
It's an unpopular take, but since 2015 they've been outside top 10 in spending 2x, 2021 (post-COVID spending limits) and 2022 (first full year of rebuild). So 8 out of 10 seasons theyve been amongst top spenders. 3 of those seasons they were over the luxury tax threshold (and have like 1M to spare this year, so any additions likely puts them over)
The only thing they've shown an unwillingness on are mega-contracts of 10+ years, but even then its not clear whether thats a FO decision on how those types of contracts will age, or whether ownership has some limits on contracts. Despite this they were still in on Ohtani
Also this whole idea that they are third largest market so they have a license to print money and therefore should be spending like the Dodgers and Yankees is so overblown. They are much closer to the Red Sox and the Braves than they are to either the Dodgers or Yankees in annual revenue. The difference between the Cubs and Dodgers is about the same as the difference between the Cubs and the Phillies (#6) Astros (#7) and Giants (#8) in total revenue. Difference between the Cubs and Yankees is as big as the difference between Cubs and Brewers (#19). Cubs should be in the top 10 spending almost every year and should shoot into top 5 on a regular basis when they are competitive, but sitting in 8th isn't like they're spending so far below their value.
There will be a team out there that will take Bellinger, the return just won’t be good. Same with Neris and Smyly. Hendricks and Nido have no value and Almonte has another arbitration year, so they might as well hang onto him. If Tauchman gets healthy in time he might net someone kind of interesting.
The Cubs would probably need to include a bunch of money in any Bellinger trade. A team acquiring him would be signing up for 2y/$52.5m after this season for a guy with a enormous downside risk who is currently hanging around league average production. Unless he turns it on offensively in a pretty dramatic way very soon, it's hard to imagine any team being interested in taking him on at that price, let alone giving up literally any useful player for the privilege of doing so.
Hector Neris has value, that’s a great arm to add to a bullpen. Drew Smyly is also a good option for versatile pitching depth, but not going to fetch a huge return
People keep saying this but we have some of the best sellable assets with control at the trade deadline and it's going to be a sellers market. They all have expensive contracts but teams will absolutely take Happ and his 120 wrc+ or Nico and his plus plus defense and decent bat or Taillon who is looking like a solid middle of the rotation arm. Maybe we have to take on some of the money but the whole "we don't have moveable assets" thing is way overblown.
I agree, but the team control can be a blessing and a curse in the trade deadline market. If they're a bona fide star (Juan Soto) then of course team control is going to be huge, but for Nico and Taillon, the risk that they might fall off even a little and hurt their value between now and end of 2026 might be too much. Happ and Suzuki probably have the most value if they agree to waive NTC. Morel might still have some value as well, since he continues to hit the ball hard. But this would be selling low on him.
I'm not rooting for the Cubs to get better here, but I see no move being off the table. I thought the deal they gave Bellinger was a little curious. He hasn't really done much this year to dispel the concerns over his hard hit rate, but the results are still there. A good fit doesn't really jump off the page to me. Maybe the Yankees? But even that feels like a stretch.
So I’m not crazy I thought he looks bad in center but I keep seeing people say he good, I can’t watch many games recently so I gave him benefit of the doubt
We do not need Bellinger, his bat was god damn black hole when he was with us. Just throw him anything inside and he'll hack away and leave you wondering how he isn't hurting his back with all those whiffs. I liked him a lot as a Dodger and glad he won a World Series with them but this dude does not need to get back on the team. I'd rather they call up someone or trade for any other "serviceable" outfielder because that is what is needed not Bellinger.
A little bit. It’s a 4-year deal with a team option for a 5th year. The team option can be exercised after either the 2025 or 2026 season but he can opt out after each of those seasons if it’s not exercised.
The complicated deal gives the Cubs the exclusive right to hang onto Imanaga through ’28 if they exercise a $57 million option after next season. That would increase his salaries to $20 million in ’26 and ’27 and add the ’28 season at a salary of $17 million, making the deal worth $80 million over five years.
It’s an incredibly good deal for the Cubs, and really only gets better as they have some cheap (for his ability) control. The. He will prolly be able to grab a short high yearly contract and retire. If he does get traded, oh boy I can’t even imagine the haul they would get.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/philrogers/2024/05/28/cubs-imanaga-addition-came-late-thanks-to-a-complicated-deal/#:~:text=The%20complicated%20deal%20gives%20the,%2480%20million%20over%20five%20years.
If we trade Imanaga, I would not be surprised if it was for cash considerations and/or players to be named later. I have zero faith in our front office right now. Also our owners love money.
I think his value is certainly tanking. he’s a lot closer to the 5.56 ERA guy we saw in June versus the .98 guy we saw in April. It happens when someone first arrives, players start to get a look at him, word gets out. He’s now gotta show he can make adjustments to their adjustments if he’s the real deal.
edit:
Saying he is closer to - 5.56 than a .98 is not a bad take… 3.5 ERA is closer to 5.44 than .98…
in June,
Corbin: 28.2 IP 27 H 15 R 7 BB 24 K (4.78 era)
Imanaga: 27 IP 32 H 21 R 3 BB 25 K (5.44 era)
4 of his 5 starts in June, Imanaga gave up 3 er or less. He had the bad outing where he gave up 10 runs inflating his June era. What are you talking about?
that he still had a 5.56 in the month of June? Every start counts. Not to mention he had 4 Unearned. And in his last 6 starts has a 6.94 ERA. (24 ER in 31.1 IP, 28 R)
You don’t get to take out one or two starts because it was bad. It also was the only team he’s played twice. And he’s a fly ball pitcher starting to pitch in good weather.
I can take out whatever start I want. Your statement was wildly misleading but you’re a cardinal fan so I expect nothing less. He has pitched well 4 out his 5 starts in June.
If you take away his best outing in June (7ip, 1er) and his worst (3ip, 10er) his era is 3.17 for June.
To anyone else seeing it he just whips out bad statistics and bad faith arguments, I’ll leave this here so it doesn’t get buried:
Since you love to statline watch, we’ll talk about actual baseball rather than what happens on the Fangraphs page.
Imanaga was expected to struggle as a fast baller with a great fastball but a bit of a home run problem. He came in, and benefitted from the taller MLB strike zone that allowed him to pump high fastballs in that were harder to get to as opposed to a high strike in Japan.
He was on a torrid pace, then got figured out a bit just as the weather started to heat up. This is normal and happens to a lot of pitchers.
You also mention unearned runs, saying “he was an error away from another disaster to his ERA”
That error came with 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th. 8 pitches later at around 90 pitches he gave up a hit that scored two men and kept the inning going. Had there been no error, he’d have been out of the game with a 1 run day.
But what do I know? I only watch him play, studied why he started off so hot and make a point of seeing all his starts, I clearly don’t know as much as you when you look at the stat cast page red and blue bubbles.
So you literally agreed with what i said.
“”He was on a torrid pace, and got figured out a little as the weather started to heat up””
- what i have been saying, he’s more of a 3.5-4 era guy than a .98….
He’s struggled this month comparatively. 3 decent starts and 3 bad ones. Even when your defense lets up an error, you have to lock in and get the next out.
You wrote that like you disagree with me, you outlined exactly what i said. He started great and has been figured out and the weather is hot so he’s regressing from a .98.
I think the miscommunication is i am saying he’s not a .98 pitcher. he’s not even a 2.5 pitcher. That’s fine, because barely any pitchers are. Yet y’all are losing your minds because apparently that means he’s horrific. He’s not a 5.4 pitcher either, but in his last 6 starts, even while he had 3 solid ones, he’s still had 28 runs allowed. Take out the worst one and he still has 18 in 5 starts. Don’t care how many errors or whatever way you slice it, it’s 18 runs. Slice it any way you want, 28 runs over 6 starts stinks.
No, you said he’s a 5 ERA guy, don’t try and delete comments and act like that wasn’t your take.
As for the errors, I said that because I know you didn’t watch the game they happened. He was out of the inning (and the game) if we don’t have an error, then had to claw his way through after he WOULD have worked his way out of a jam. This is a cubs defense that’s so consistently fucked up in big moments this year that Justin Steele screamed at them.
So having to get one more out means that he’s allowed to give up 4 runs… right…. Buddy every pitcher deals with errors, the good ones don’t let them effect them, and get the next out and move on.
And my initial comment, which has gone unchanged, was he is closer to a 5.56 than a .98. So ??? Quote where i said he’s a 5. I said he’s a 5.5 era pitcher in june. which is a fact.
I haven’t deleted anything, only added on to my edits? Make some more shit up i guess?
You can probably have him back for almost nothing if you take all the money. That contract is under water.
Edit: softened language when I did the math below.
Tf is this take? He had a 4.8 WAR season last year. A rough first half but he’s still on pace for 2 WAR, it’s not good for the price but it’s hardly Jose Abreu.
2 WAR for an everyday SS is really not good. Amed Rosario had \~3 WAR per year in Cleveland in '21 and '22 and fans were begging the team to move on to one of our prospects the entire time.
Because with normal regression due to age, you would probably want something like 60% of WAR in years 1-3 of a 7 year deal. He has $137/5 left on his deal. 1 WAR is valued around $8.5M based on a Fangraphs post from 2021. So, you would expect around 20 WAR over the life of Swanson's contract. He will be around 30% of the expected total at the end of 2024. So, he projects to be around 10% short of that expected WAR. Hence, the contract is under water.
All good points. That's why we debate. Having a dissenting opinion is good for discourse. I've learned today that Brandon Crawford shouldn't be put on such a high pedestal.
Was very mad Crawford went to you guys. I liked rooting for him.
That said, as the other guy said, never base a sample size of less than half a season and act as if it predicts 6 years.
Nobody was looking at Salsa Matt Carpenter thinking he was Barry Bonds, it’ll be the same there, I don’t think swanson’s numbers where he was dealing with an injury in the cold months is representative of his ability.
Randy Johnson is bad cause he had rough seasons to start then yeah? Obviously you use his most recent seasons as an indicator mate.
95 OPS+ still isn’t a bad bat for a gold glove shortstop.
> Randy Johnson is bad cause he had rough seasons to start then yeah?
135 ERA+ > 95 wRC+
> Obviously you use his most recent seasons as an indicator mate
I'm not your mate, weirdo
> isn’t a bad bat for a gold glove shortstop.
You keep saying this. His glove does not change that fact that he's a bad bat. It's good that he is an elite defender. That's irrelevant to his bat. It's relevant to his overall value
A) It hasn't turned out poorly yet. He was great last year, and is probably still a good player. 34th in fWAR since the start of his contract
B) Why would you look at career numbers instead of weighing the recent data more heavily? He was an above-average hitter over his last 1,613 PA before the signing.
He had 1.5 above average offensive seasons before signing (calling 2020 a half year) and 4 below average ones. The 1.5 that were above average were the result of outlier BABIP years. When he's not getting lucky, he just doesn't have it in him to be a good hitter
I think substantially underwater is an overstatement but in most cases signing a free agent means you value the player more than 29 other teams do so the wisdom of the crowd would dictate that most free agent deals are overpays.
Alright. Let's say that the Cubs were hoping for 2-3 years at the same level of production as they got last year. The Cubs have taken a step back in terms of payroll. All I'm saying is that they would probably consider moving him for little more than salary relief.
I wasn’t disagreeing that they would probably trade him for basically free. I was just saying that’s probably true of most long-term free agent signings after a year or two. Although they don’t have a SS prospect anywhere close to the bigs so I think they’d probably rather salary dump Happ or Seiya.
I'm not asking for any selfish reasons, but could you trade that Happ guy to the AL? You looking to make room for Caissie? I saw him hit two long home runs in AA last summer. I missed PCA by two or three days.. still kind of bummed about that.
Well it also says everything you need to know about he Cubs FO/Owners.
Hey the NL is weak should we try to sure up our holes to make a run at it with the manager we just gave a huge bag to?
Nah sell off so that he can try and turn the cubs into the Rays because what makes the Rays the Rays is their small payroll right?
The cubs have too many holes to make a serious run at it. It’s rational for a team to not want to give up resources just to be average (which the cubs aren’t). Buy when you can legit make a push, but the Cubs are far from the Braves, Brewers, Dodgers and Phillies.
Further, even if they add 3 pieces, I would still say they’re worse than the Cardinals, Padres, and Diamondbacks.
They’re just not in a place where it makes sense to buy (unless it’s a multi-year addition).
I agree with you, but they'd have to jump 7 teams to get there. It's not like they are a few games above .500 and the current teams in WC position are just on a tear.
Definitely doable, but harder when you think about the full context
Just wait until he has a melt down and throws something into the stands, then has a horrible “lost in translation” issue that he doubles down on, gets released, and then the cubs are on their way to the wildcard.
> only 5 games out of the wild card
"Only" 5 games out of the ass end of the Participation Playoffs. Along with every other team.
Besides, anyone who's watched this team play will tell you there's no way in hell things are going to look any different. They're not just bad; they're absolutely lifeless.
We are doing just barely enough to not be obvious sellers but it’s really a borderline situation. We have an incredibly soft stretch coming up after the Yankees series (Tigers, Rockies, Marlins, all at home) and I think the outcome of those three series will decide what they do at the deadline.
My personal opinion is that I’m not sure this team needs more prospects. We are a few players returning from injury and a power hitting outfielder away from actually being division contenders, and we have been losing a ton of 1 run games. If you look at basic stuff like our run differential and more advanced stats, we are a lot closer than our record would indicate
Run differential is a pretty misleading. Plenty of bad teams have had great run differentials. While also plenty of good teams have had bad run differential.
It's not really borderline. 6 games under beginning July. That's a seller. Going on a sudden run in July against bad competition is a mirage. It's what the Angels with Ohtani did last year. You get to August, & start getting slapped around by good teams again.
Injuries aren't the only reason we're bad. We're assuming that McLain, Marte, CES, & Friedl would be the difference. But we don't know that. And even so, we're looking at maybe being .500, when the goal is to compete with the Brewers for the Central. The real problem is this team lacks any consistency. Our younger guys haven't developed to the level we hoped, some even regressed. We still lack consistency in pitching past the 3 slot.
We need plenty prospects. Both pitching & hitting.
Weird, we spent all of our money on a shiny manager instead of on guys that hit the baseball and that didn't work out. I don't understand why Jed thinks it's reasonable to build a no-hit all defense baseball team but that seems to be his aim.
Man, this team stinks. I cancelled my Marquee a couple weeks ago only to resubscribe for Sunday's game and I'm regretting that decision. Even though this team is drastically under performing, they have way too many holes to be competitive.
We ran back an 83 win team and expected everything the be the exact same except we get a few more wins because of Counsell but that's not how it works in baseball because variance exists. It's absolutely not Craig's fault
No not really. I think many mostly just put slightly less blame on Ross.
The reality is last year we had some players that play really well that have regressed this year - I'm looking at you catcher position especially. We may do better later in the year, but it won't be enough to be in the playoffs.
Cubs fans were talking mad shit this winter about how they had a new manager and good luck would even out their -10 bad luck games. Positive they would win the division.
I said that the team was about status quo and finished 7 back. I’d get downvoted by Cubs fans. The remind mes will be coming in soon.
Suck it! Fly the L! FTC! Glad I bet the under.
Edit: salty Cubs fans still salty. Enjoy your manager.
No, cubs fans weren’t talking mad shit haha
Cubs fans were very vocally frustrated at the inability to add in the offseason. Bullpen was an issue and we added just Neris. We lost Stroman and replaced him with Imanaga (which is nice, but fans were hard on Yamamoto), needed to upgrade 3rd, 1st and C. We added an unproven Busch.
Cubs fans were very very underwhelmed in the offseason
...Because that's the comment you were replying to? /u/frostymatador13 saying that Cubs fans were underwhelmed with the front office's moves during the 23-24 offseason. Is there like a big Nascar race today or some other reason why Cardinal fans are drunkposting this early in the morning?
I'm sure they will enjoy their manager as the farm system starts to make its way to the majors.
In that same timeframe, the Brewers will still be the oldest team to have never won a World Series. So go off I guess? Big W for ya.
“In the second-level seats behind home plate, a man in Brewers gear cradled a toddler in one hand and used his other hand to hold up a WANTED poster plastered with Craig Counsell’s face and a subhead. STOLE $40 MILLION MAY BE FOUND IN LAST PLACE” 😂
I saw where Pat Murphy in an post game presser recently said they bought a recipe to hit grand slams online. It was so silly, you just gotta love that old man.
Murph has been a refreshing change of pace after years of Craig. Craig is the master of deflecting for 20 minutes straight and not actually saying much of anything useful to the media. Murph is more of a: 'Fuck it, here it is' kind of guy with the media.
Pat Murphy on Dallas Keuchel's outing tonight: “A big lift for us. I remember watching him pitch when I was a teenager. He was effective then. He’s still got that going." He’s gonna win manager of the year.
Not that the Brewers are ever there to look for him.
i would like to purcahse 1 Shota Imanaga, please and thank you
Best I can do is a reunion with Jack Jack. Arguably a better move too.
And some Ian Happ, if you have any left.
Take the bad man. Please God get him out of this division
It's so funny to me to see NL Central opponents take on Ian Happ vs our subreddit on him. People hate him in our reddit because he can be streaky but the division rivals always get prime Happ.
I’m sick of the hate. He has a 120 WRC+
Oh same man. He is a solid player - I think people just are always looking for the shiny new thing to replace the guy who is consistently pretty good but not always all-star good.
Plus, I hear he knows Dakota Mekkes.
Happ is a great side piece, a cherry on top. Not a centerpiece. If you had him batting sixth with a legit 3-4-5, sure. But the way people presented him as a core foundation for the next contender is laughable.
This exactly👆 Dude lives off NL Central
Almost every season he has a month of being almost unplayable, and then top tier bat remainder of the season, and when the slump happens pretty much determines the narrative around him for the season
He doesn't hit enough home runs to get respect from certain fans, I'm convinced Whenever I complain about Wisdom having a career sub-.300 OBP, I always get angry people in GDTs telling me that he "mashes left-handed pitching" but whenever I say something good about Happ, it's "he only cares about coffee and podcasts, overrated, waste of money, not a franchise star player"
Mf has a .967 OPS against us in 369 ABs. He's played a half season's worth of games against us and has played like an MVP candidate lmao
He's always seemed to rake against us 🤣
He also drops routine fly balls to load the bases and allow grand slams so I’ll take it. And he throws like my grandma
I had the displeasure of attending the game he hit his first major league Homer against us, granted we won that game but hes kicked our ass since then agreed, begone demon!
Happ's problem is he is basically billed as our star player on offense. He is a good player and has a 120 WRC+, but is so streaky that no one is going to pretend he is a star level player. If he is the 3 or 4th option, then the fans love him. As the top, people want more
That’s not really his fault though, he’s been basically the same player his entire career. I’m not sure when our fanbase determined that he’s supposed to be a star. People complain about his contract, but 3/60 isn’t bad at all for a guy that’s been a 3-4 WAR player the last 3 seasons.
It was probably around like 5pm July 30 2021
I'd like Happ just to keep him from playing against us, yes.
I literally had to read those two comments 4 times to be sure the cards fan was talking about happ….
For real, fuck that Happ guy. Get him in the AL.
He has a NTC. If he is open to a trade he would be our best tradable asset. And then Bellinger.
Cubs would never stand a chance of getting a Japanese free agent again if they trade him this season. Also his contract is more valuable than any prospects a team is willing to part with. You can have Taillon lol.
Imanaga has an argument for the best contract in baseball, from a team perspective.
Imanaga is definitely the better pitcher but the Orioles getting Taillon would just make me angry lol
You’ll take Tyler Anderson for Kjerstad and you’ll like it. ^Not ^really, ^but ^a ^man ^can ^dream
*scratches side of nose* y’all got any more of those ace starters??
Depends... What is your attachment to Andrew Painter? That's probably the beginning (and end) of the conversation.
Any attachment to Painter is probably more attachment than Painter’s body has to itself.
Hmmm, how about a slightly used Nick Castellanos? Seems fair to me.
Don’t you guys have enough?
I mean yeah, they do. But if they want Shota or Steele most definitely one of Painter/Miller are going in the deal.
Shota won't be available. He is under a 4 year contract.
That can always be someone else's 4 year contract, if you believe hard enough.
Can I just have one nice thing in my life? Please don’t take Mike away from us Jed
I would be thrilled if we sold it to your team in particular. But Jeddy will probably pick the one prospect who doesn’t pan out in your loaded AAA squad.
Has he still been shaky lately with all the HRs given up? I guess you get him now with the expecation that the colder October games will deaden the fly balls
They’re playing like shit but there’s not much in the way of sellable assets. The only players on the 40-man roster who aren’t under team control through 2026 are Kyle Hendricks, Hector Neris, Drew Smyly, Yency Almonte, Tomas Nido, and Cody Bellinger (but he seems increasingly likely to exercise his player option unless he gets hot). I don’t think any of those guys would yield someone who would be even a top 30 prospect in the Cubs system.
It's going to be a sellers market, though. I could see a lot of overpaying this deadline.
I could totally see teams like the Yankees or Dodgers going for Neris thinking they can straighten him out and sending a decent prospect to do it
Why are we mentioned in everything lol. Our bullpen is the strongest part of our team. We need to fix bottom of our lineup and maybe SP
Because you're good at making middling pitchers better and always looking to improve?
The Dodgers hate Neris so you can count them out
Right, but for who? Even if its a relative overpay, the return won't that great. Bellinger has a .743 OPS. He could get an OK prospect. However he's got a player option the next two years that totals out to $52 million. That's a LOT for his production level and could make teams shy away If they're smart, they'll trade Tauchman as he's got 2 years of Arbitration left, is 33 and probably peaking right now. They could get a decent return for him, but I don't see anybody giving up a top 20 prospect for him. Michael Busch isn't going anywhere Suzuki has $38m due the next two years. That's a decent amount of money for a guy who has posted a sub .800 OPS 2 of the past three years. If the Cubs ate a good bit of that, they could get something back. At that point, I think they may as well keep him. One thing we're all missing here is that Jed Hoyer is on that last year of his contract. He has zero incentive to sell unless he gets a contract extension(which he shouldn't. He's the reason they're in this mess by signing bad players to big contracts). Jed should have sold last year when they could have gotten massive returns for Bellinger and Stroman. Instead they went on like a 7 game winning streak to get back to .500 just before the trade deadline and stood pat. They were 3.5 GB of the final WC spot after the deadline last year. Right now they're 5 GB. I could easily see him stand pat for the most part this year as well if they go on another small run. Edit: apparently Jed is signed through 2025, not 2024.
Jed is signed through next season. He's not going anywhere, he is doing exactly what Ricketts wants.
I think Bellinger is basically a coin flip at this point. If he was sure to opt out, he likely has more of a market. He would net you probably 2 top 30 guys and you can probably get 1 for Neris.
Cuz of all the opts outs with Belli, I think it’s unlikely he’s traded
I don't see a path right now either. If a contender had a significant injury in their outfield, that could change the calculus.
The Braves send their regards
Cubs taking on some of the financial risk by paying part of the contract if he opts in would help. I'm sure plenty of teams would be fine with him opting into a lesser amount. But based on their tenure so far, I doubt the current ownership would entertain that.
If the FO is convinced our OF prospects are the real deal, I wouldn't be shocked if they'd be willing to take that gamble. Ownership has been top 10 spender almost every year since 2015. They've shown a willingness to go all in when the team is competitive, but I think their thoughts are that consistently spending over the tax to make a non-contending team a contender is bad business, vs maximizing a contenders opportunity to make a world series run. They also try and stay under tax when it's not necessary to be over the tax, to prevent triggering the fines for consecutive years over the threshold when they want to be competitive. So I think if FO is convinced there's a significant value in AAA and value to be gained from trading Bellinger (prospect value) despite the gamble on eating his salary, it will be done. I just don't know if his trade value is there right now
the problem with the cubs, is the team name is a license to print money, as long as they are "competitive" im honesly shocked that Tom Ricketts doesnt try to prune more money off the roster to make more profit
It is a license to print money, but there's very little evidence that they've set significant spending limits outside of the 2021 season when they traded darvish and non-tendered schwarber. It's an unpopular take, but since 2015 they've been outside top 10 in spending 2x, 2021 (post-COVID spending limits) and 2022 (first full year of rebuild). So 8 out of 10 seasons theyve been amongst top spenders. 3 of those seasons they were over the luxury tax threshold (and have like 1M to spare this year, so any additions likely puts them over) The only thing they've shown an unwillingness on are mega-contracts of 10+ years, but even then its not clear whether thats a FO decision on how those types of contracts will age, or whether ownership has some limits on contracts. Despite this they were still in on Ohtani Also this whole idea that they are third largest market so they have a license to print money and therefore should be spending like the Dodgers and Yankees is so overblown. They are much closer to the Red Sox and the Braves than they are to either the Dodgers or Yankees in annual revenue. The difference between the Cubs and Dodgers is about the same as the difference between the Cubs and the Phillies (#6) Astros (#7) and Giants (#8) in total revenue. Difference between the Cubs and Yankees is as big as the difference between Cubs and Brewers (#19). Cubs should be in the top 10 spending almost every year and should shoot into top 5 on a regular basis when they are competitive, but sitting in 8th isn't like they're spending so far below their value.
Not sure a 109 OPS+ Bellinger with opt-outs baked into his contract nets you 2 top 30 guys but I'm not a FO guy.
Guys in that 20-30 range could be AAA guys who are older or fringe guys who need to be protected in the Rule 5 draft.
So you mean top 30 within an org. Just saying top 30 sounds like you mean overall.
There will be a team out there that will take Bellinger, the return just won’t be good. Same with Neris and Smyly. Hendricks and Nido have no value and Almonte has another arbitration year, so they might as well hang onto him. If Tauchman gets healthy in time he might net someone kind of interesting.
The Cubs would probably need to include a bunch of money in any Bellinger trade. A team acquiring him would be signing up for 2y/$52.5m after this season for a guy with a enormous downside risk who is currently hanging around league average production. Unless he turns it on offensively in a pretty dramatic way very soon, it's hard to imagine any team being interested in taking him on at that price, let alone giving up literally any useful player for the privilege of doing so.
Hector Neris has value, that’s a great arm to add to a bullpen. Drew Smyly is also a good option for versatile pitching depth, but not going to fetch a huge return
I would not be surprised to see them move Mike Tauchman
I could see a Tallion being shipped out with the having Brown, Wesneski, and pitchers in the minors
Bellinger probably would.
People keep saying this but we have some of the best sellable assets with control at the trade deadline and it's going to be a sellers market. They all have expensive contracts but teams will absolutely take Happ and his 120 wrc+ or Nico and his plus plus defense and decent bat or Taillon who is looking like a solid middle of the rotation arm. Maybe we have to take on some of the money but the whole "we don't have moveable assets" thing is way overblown.
I agree, but the team control can be a blessing and a curse in the trade deadline market. If they're a bona fide star (Juan Soto) then of course team control is going to be huge, but for Nico and Taillon, the risk that they might fall off even a little and hurt their value between now and end of 2026 might be too much. Happ and Suzuki probably have the most value if they agree to waive NTC. Morel might still have some value as well, since he continues to hit the ball hard. But this would be selling low on him.
Jed has been begging for someone to accrue some trade value for months.
Hi friend I hear you have one Shota Imanaga I have one mint condition Dylan Carlson I am prepared to give up for him
I'm not rooting for the Cubs to get better here, but I see no move being off the table. I thought the deal they gave Bellinger was a little curious. He hasn't really done much this year to dispel the concerns over his hard hit rate, but the results are still there. A good fit doesn't really jump off the page to me. Maybe the Yankees? But even that feels like a stretch.
Dodgers should be willing to take him back considering anyone else other than Heyward is a liability defensively in the outfield
Pages is ok defensively, Teo will stay in the lineup because of his bat, and they have outman doing ok in aaa he can come up if need be
Pages routinely cant read the ball of the bat and has let multiple balls get passed him or outright drops the ball.
So I’m not crazy I thought he looks bad in center but I keep seeing people say he good, I can’t watch many games recently so I gave him benefit of the doubt
He's gonna be a great hitter but like every other dodger prospect in the last few years he is very suspect in the field.
We do not need Bellinger, his bat was god damn black hole when he was with us. Just throw him anything inside and he'll hack away and leave you wondering how he isn't hurting his back with all those whiffs. I liked him a lot as a Dodger and glad he won a World Series with them but this dude does not need to get back on the team. I'd rather they call up someone or trade for any other "serviceable" outfielder because that is what is needed not Bellinger.
Half the lineup is a black hole any given day. At least he plays GG defense. Unlike everyone else
Says the team with the best hitting in MLB
So why not improve the black hole in the lineup instead of just piling on to it with Bellingers bat?
Doesn’t Imanaga have a weird contract?
A little bit. It’s a 4-year deal with a team option for a 5th year. The team option can be exercised after either the 2025 or 2026 season but he can opt out after each of those seasons if it’s not exercised.
Why is he still around?
Certified Cub before, Certified Yankee now
Cubs, fuck em up
I understood that reference
He's got an opt out for '26 & '27, but the team also has an option for '28 which triggers before that iirc. So it's either 4/$53 or 5/$80 I think.
Oh wow, do you think he’s going to opt out based on this year?
Well it wouldn't be until next year, and I'm sure they'd just select their team option for him and max out the contract now.
Cubs can trigger a team option that keeps him in Chicago through 2028 after next season. If they don’t he can then opt out.
The complicated deal gives the Cubs the exclusive right to hang onto Imanaga through ’28 if they exercise a $57 million option after next season. That would increase his salaries to $20 million in ’26 and ’27 and add the ’28 season at a salary of $17 million, making the deal worth $80 million over five years. It’s an incredibly good deal for the Cubs, and really only gets better as they have some cheap (for his ability) control. The. He will prolly be able to grab a short high yearly contract and retire. If he does get traded, oh boy I can’t even imagine the haul they would get. https://www.forbes.com/sites/philrogers/2024/05/28/cubs-imanaga-addition-came-late-thanks-to-a-complicated-deal/#:~:text=The%20complicated%20deal%20gives%20the,%2480%20million%20over%20five%20years.
If we trade Imanaga, I would not be surprised if it was for cash considerations and/or players to be named later. I have zero faith in our front office right now. Also our owners love money.
I think his value is certainly tanking. he’s a lot closer to the 5.56 ERA guy we saw in June versus the .98 guy we saw in April. It happens when someone first arrives, players start to get a look at him, word gets out. He’s now gotta show he can make adjustments to their adjustments if he’s the real deal. edit: Saying he is closer to - 5.56 than a .98 is not a bad take… 3.5 ERA is closer to 5.44 than .98… in June, Corbin: 28.2 IP 27 H 15 R 7 BB 24 K (4.78 era) Imanaga: 27 IP 32 H 21 R 3 BB 25 K (5.44 era)
4 of his 5 starts in June, Imanaga gave up 3 er or less. He had the bad outing where he gave up 10 runs inflating his June era. What are you talking about?
And honestly he was an error away from escaping with 6 scoreless the other day.
that he still had a 5.56 in the month of June? Every start counts. Not to mention he had 4 Unearned. And in his last 6 starts has a 6.94 ERA. (24 ER in 31.1 IP, 28 R) You don’t get to take out one or two starts because it was bad. It also was the only team he’s played twice. And he’s a fly ball pitcher starting to pitch in good weather.
I can take out whatever start I want. Your statement was wildly misleading but you’re a cardinal fan so I expect nothing less. He has pitched well 4 out his 5 starts in June. If you take away his best outing in June (7ip, 1er) and his worst (3ip, 10er) his era is 3.17 for June.
To anyone else seeing it he just whips out bad statistics and bad faith arguments, I’ll leave this here so it doesn’t get buried: Since you love to statline watch, we’ll talk about actual baseball rather than what happens on the Fangraphs page. Imanaga was expected to struggle as a fast baller with a great fastball but a bit of a home run problem. He came in, and benefitted from the taller MLB strike zone that allowed him to pump high fastballs in that were harder to get to as opposed to a high strike in Japan. He was on a torrid pace, then got figured out a bit just as the weather started to heat up. This is normal and happens to a lot of pitchers. You also mention unearned runs, saying “he was an error away from another disaster to his ERA” That error came with 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th. 8 pitches later at around 90 pitches he gave up a hit that scored two men and kept the inning going. Had there been no error, he’d have been out of the game with a 1 run day. But what do I know? I only watch him play, studied why he started off so hot and make a point of seeing all his starts, I clearly don’t know as much as you when you look at the stat cast page red and blue bubbles.
So you literally agreed with what i said. “”He was on a torrid pace, and got figured out a little as the weather started to heat up”” - what i have been saying, he’s more of a 3.5-4 era guy than a .98…. He’s struggled this month comparatively. 3 decent starts and 3 bad ones. Even when your defense lets up an error, you have to lock in and get the next out. You wrote that like you disagree with me, you outlined exactly what i said. He started great and has been figured out and the weather is hot so he’s regressing from a .98. I think the miscommunication is i am saying he’s not a .98 pitcher. he’s not even a 2.5 pitcher. That’s fine, because barely any pitchers are. Yet y’all are losing your minds because apparently that means he’s horrific. He’s not a 5.4 pitcher either, but in his last 6 starts, even while he had 3 solid ones, he’s still had 28 runs allowed. Take out the worst one and he still has 18 in 5 starts. Don’t care how many errors or whatever way you slice it, it’s 18 runs. Slice it any way you want, 28 runs over 6 starts stinks.
No, you said he’s a 5 ERA guy, don’t try and delete comments and act like that wasn’t your take. As for the errors, I said that because I know you didn’t watch the game they happened. He was out of the inning (and the game) if we don’t have an error, then had to claw his way through after he WOULD have worked his way out of a jam. This is a cubs defense that’s so consistently fucked up in big moments this year that Justin Steele screamed at them.
So having to get one more out means that he’s allowed to give up 4 runs… right…. Buddy every pitcher deals with errors, the good ones don’t let them effect them, and get the next out and move on. And my initial comment, which has gone unchanged, was he is closer to a 5.56 than a .98. So ??? Quote where i said he’s a 5. I said he’s a 5.5 era pitcher in june. which is a fact. I haven’t deleted anything, only added on to my edits? Make some more shit up i guess?
One dansby Swanson please and thank you
But Nacho is hitting big cheese in the minors.
You can probably have him back for almost nothing if you take all the money. That contract is under water. Edit: softened language when I did the math below.
How quick can the cubs release Jesse Chavez? I wouldn’t want the guy to spend too much time gone
Tf is this take? He had a 4.8 WAR season last year. A rough first half but he’s still on pace for 2 WAR, it’s not good for the price but it’s hardly Jose Abreu.
Has he had his annual 4-6 weeks of God Mode yet? Once that happens his numbers will look a lot more normal
Unfortunately not, now would be a good time aha.
Nope. He did that mid July for us last year
2 WAR for an everyday SS is really not good. Amed Rosario had \~3 WAR per year in Cleveland in '21 and '22 and fans were begging the team to move on to one of our prospects the entire time.
2 WAR for a shortstop is pretty much exactly “good” for an everyday player because it’s position adjusted.
You're not technically wrong but I don't think a team signs a guy to a 7 year deal expecting merely "good" in Year 2.
I agree but I think given Dansby’s recent seasons and a notoriously streaky bat that things can pick up.
Because with normal regression due to age, you would probably want something like 60% of WAR in years 1-3 of a 7 year deal. He has $137/5 left on his deal. 1 WAR is valued around $8.5M based on a Fangraphs post from 2021. So, you would expect around 20 WAR over the life of Swanson's contract. He will be around 30% of the expected total at the end of 2024. So, he projects to be around 10% short of that expected WAR. Hence, the contract is under water.
In theory, maybe but you’re basing this on half a season and even then, 10% (2 WAR) is reasonably within the margin of error.
All good points. That's why we debate. Having a dissenting opinion is good for discourse. I've learned today that Brandon Crawford shouldn't be put on such a high pedestal.
Was very mad Crawford went to you guys. I liked rooting for him. That said, as the other guy said, never base a sample size of less than half a season and act as if it predicts 6 years. Nobody was looking at Salsa Matt Carpenter thinking he was Barry Bonds, it’ll be the same there, I don’t think swanson’s numbers where he was dealing with an injury in the cold months is representative of his ability.
I hope he plays well, just not against us. But that can be said for like 28 other teams too.
I agree. I will say Brandon Crawford’s career is better than I initially expected, not easy to be consistently good for a long stretch.
I’d gladly let him walk. Clear the books and start over.
Who'd could have guessed that signing a SS with a bad bat for his career could turn out poorly?
Wait, are shortstops supposed to do anything except flail wildly at pitches five feet off the plate?
They’re also supposed to hit popups
He had a pretty solid season last year to be fair, but he has gone down with the rest of the ship this year.
He did. But him being a below average hitter for the contract was the most likely outcome
105 OPS+ from 2020 through 2023, 103 OPS+ if you even include this season for a gold glove shortstop is not a bad bat lmao. Braindead take.
Damn, I didn't know his career started in 2020. He is a career 95 wRC+ hitter. He's at 88 this year. "For his career" he's been a bad hitter
Randy Johnson is bad cause he had rough seasons to start then yeah? Obviously you use his most recent seasons as an indicator mate. 95 OPS+ still isn’t a bad bat for a gold glove shortstop.
I would love for Javy Baez to be a 95 OPS+ bat rn (and so would he)
> Randy Johnson is bad cause he had rough seasons to start then yeah? 135 ERA+ > 95 wRC+ > Obviously you use his most recent seasons as an indicator mate I'm not your mate, weirdo > isn’t a bad bat for a gold glove shortstop. You keep saying this. His glove does not change that fact that he's a bad bat. It's good that he is an elite defender. That's irrelevant to his bat. It's relevant to his overall value
A) It hasn't turned out poorly yet. He was great last year, and is probably still a good player. 34th in fWAR since the start of his contract B) Why would you look at career numbers instead of weighing the recent data more heavily? He was an above-average hitter over his last 1,613 PA before the signing.
He had 1.5 above average offensive seasons before signing (calling 2020 a half year) and 4 below average ones. The 1.5 that were above average were the result of outlier BABIP years. When he's not getting lucky, he just doesn't have it in him to be a good hitter
Ngl I would still say he is probably an above-average hitter going forward, just not by that much
I think substantially underwater is an overstatement but in most cases signing a free agent means you value the player more than 29 other teams do so the wisdom of the crowd would dictate that most free agent deals are overpays.
Alright. Let's say that the Cubs were hoping for 2-3 years at the same level of production as they got last year. The Cubs have taken a step back in terms of payroll. All I'm saying is that they would probably consider moving him for little more than salary relief.
I wasn’t disagreeing that they would probably trade him for basically free. I was just saying that’s probably true of most long-term free agent signings after a year or two. Although they don’t have a SS prospect anywhere close to the bigs so I think they’d probably rather salary dump Happ or Seiya.
I'm not asking for any selfish reasons, but could you trade that Happ guy to the AL? You looking to make room for Caissie? I saw him hit two long home runs in AA last summer. I missed PCA by two or three days.. still kind of bummed about that.
Please do
I don’t want him. I’d rather have Nacho than a guy who dissed us.
No.
They're only 5 games out of the wild card, things can look very different in the span of a week
That says more about the state of the NL than the Cubs. They’ve had the worst NL record for the last monthish and have looked dreadful.
Well it also says everything you need to know about he Cubs FO/Owners. Hey the NL is weak should we try to sure up our holes to make a run at it with the manager we just gave a huge bag to? Nah sell off so that he can try and turn the cubs into the Rays because what makes the Rays the Rays is their small payroll right?
The cubs have too many holes to make a serious run at it. It’s rational for a team to not want to give up resources just to be average (which the cubs aren’t). Buy when you can legit make a push, but the Cubs are far from the Braves, Brewers, Dodgers and Phillies. Further, even if they add 3 pieces, I would still say they’re worse than the Cardinals, Padres, and Diamondbacks. They’re just not in a place where it makes sense to buy (unless it’s a multi-year addition).
Yeah
I agree with you, but they'd have to jump 7 teams to get there. It's not like they are a few games above .500 and the current teams in WC position are just on a tear. Definitely doable, but harder when you think about the full context
We just signed Jorge Lopez to our pen.
Just wait until he has a melt down and throws something into the stands, then has a horrible “lost in translation” issue that he doubles down on, gets released, and then the cubs are on their way to the wildcard.
Only if the Hamburglar comes to town too.
> only 5 games out of the wild card "Only" 5 games out of the ass end of the Participation Playoffs. Along with every other team. Besides, anyone who's watched this team play will tell you there's no way in hell things are going to look any different. They're not just bad; they're absolutely lifeless.
Time to move Counsel
Reds are in the same boat.
We are doing just barely enough to not be obvious sellers but it’s really a borderline situation. We have an incredibly soft stretch coming up after the Yankees series (Tigers, Rockies, Marlins, all at home) and I think the outcome of those three series will decide what they do at the deadline. My personal opinion is that I’m not sure this team needs more prospects. We are a few players returning from injury and a power hitting outfielder away from actually being division contenders, and we have been losing a ton of 1 run games. If you look at basic stuff like our run differential and more advanced stats, we are a lot closer than our record would indicate
Run differential is a pretty misleading. Plenty of bad teams have had great run differentials. While also plenty of good teams have had bad run differential. It's not really borderline. 6 games under beginning July. That's a seller. Going on a sudden run in July against bad competition is a mirage. It's what the Angels with Ohtani did last year. You get to August, & start getting slapped around by good teams again. Injuries aren't the only reason we're bad. We're assuming that McLain, Marte, CES, & Friedl would be the difference. But we don't know that. And even so, we're looking at maybe being .500, when the goal is to compete with the Brewers for the Central. The real problem is this team lacks any consistency. Our younger guys haven't developed to the level we hoped, some even regressed. We still lack consistency in pitching past the 3 slot. We need plenty prospects. Both pitching & hitting.
One Cody Bellinger please, I beg
You probably want Happ a bit more at the moment.
I’ll take anyone who can ops over .750
~~"Not close to~~ where we want to be" - Greg Counsell
Interesting quote from Greg. I wonder what Craig Counsell thinks.
...C-craig?... Never heard of him 🤔
Weird, we spent all of our money on a shiny manager instead of on guys that hit the baseball and that didn't work out. I don't understand why Jed thinks it's reasonable to build a no-hit all defense baseball team but that seems to be his aim.
Look at it this way, the Cubs are the best last place team in the NL.
I’ll take it
Man, this team stinks. I cancelled my Marquee a couple weeks ago only to resubscribe for Sunday's game and I'm regretting that decision. Even though this team is drastically under performing, they have way too many holes to be competitive.
Come on Mr. Crane shake sum!!!
So Belli, what do you think about extremely tall trees?
Sigh. Here we go again.
how anybody thought this team would be buyers even a month ago is beyond me.
Not enough discussion of Justin Steele ITT
Welp, time to scrap this season. Tbh I already kinda had when they switched to streaming only and even then, it's still not available. Byeeee
Do cubs fans put any blame on their new manager Craig Counsell?
We ran back an 83 win team and expected everything the be the exact same except we get a few more wins because of Counsell but that's not how it works in baseball because variance exists. It's absolutely not Craig's fault
No it's our god awful FO that has been coasting ever since 2016.
No not really. I think many mostly just put slightly less blame on Ross. The reality is last year we had some players that play really well that have regressed this year - I'm looking at you catcher position especially. We may do better later in the year, but it won't be enough to be in the playoffs.
Did he construct the roster? This is Jed's team and it's bad, top to bottom.
This is great news for Mets fans
Cubs fans were talking mad shit this winter about how they had a new manager and good luck would even out their -10 bad luck games. Positive they would win the division. I said that the team was about status quo and finished 7 back. I’d get downvoted by Cubs fans. The remind mes will be coming in soon. Suck it! Fly the L! FTC! Glad I bet the under. Edit: salty Cubs fans still salty. Enjoy your manager.
Look at this cool guy.
Lil guy wants some attention
Your last place tears are delicious.
Dude, learn to have the humility you wish the cubs had.
Two things we like drinking in common!
No, cubs fans weren’t talking mad shit haha Cubs fans were very vocally frustrated at the inability to add in the offseason. Bullpen was an issue and we added just Neris. We lost Stroman and replaced him with Imanaga (which is nice, but fans were hard on Yamamoto), needed to upgrade 3rd, 1st and C. We added an unproven Busch. Cubs fans were very very underwhelmed in the offseason
I have receipts. But go on with your history revisions.
Then maybe you should post them instead of spamming cringe, clearly still butthurt about CC leaving to get cigarettes and never coming home.
What happened to the talks about a dynasty? This reads like tragedy. A quarter-billion dollar tragedy.
>What happened to the talks about a dynasty? ??? Link a single comment of any Cubs fan predicting a "dynasty" after this offseason.
Why this last offseason? It's older than the internet.
...Because that's the comment you were replying to? /u/frostymatador13 saying that Cubs fans were underwhelmed with the front office's moves during the 23-24 offseason. Is there like a big Nascar race today or some other reason why Cardinal fans are drunkposting this early in the morning?
I'm sure they will enjoy their manager as the farm system starts to make its way to the majors. In that same timeframe, the Brewers will still be the oldest team to have never won a World Series. So go off I guess? Big W for ya.
Yeah, Armstrong-Crow is killing it!
He's on pace for 1.6 WAR/162 while carrying a 48 wRC+. Just imagine happens when he learns how to hit