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***Chicago Cubs Thread*** (3 Viewers)

Cubs were compelled to deal for Quintana.  The starting pitching slumped badly after the first 45 games when the team began 24-21.  Their rotation averaged 5.51 IP/game with a 4.27 ERA in the early going.  In the subsequent 44 games (20-24 record), the starters compiled a 5.16 ERA in just 5.19 IP/game.  

They've not been going deep into games, and they've not been effective in the time they've taken the mound to the tune of nearly an extra run allowed per contest.

 
Real shame they went out and got that schlub instead of some ace
I admittedly haven't watched him pitch much. Yesterday was a clinic.  Pumping strikes, but never in the middle of the plate. Working everything off his fastball. Beautiful.

Hahn probably could have fleeced Theo for more.  I'm excited he's a Cub through 2020. 

Here's to hoping Eloy reaches his potential for the Sox. 

 
It drives me nuts.  The constant swing and miss approach from Baez, Schwarber, Happ, etc. is baffling.  Even Bryant sometimes.  It makes me wonder if there's some kind of organizational philosophy condoning it.  Then I watch Rizzo choke up with two strikes and hit rockets all over the place and wonder why nobody else in the dugout tries it?  I'd be pretty sick of getting embarrassed falling down trying to hit sliders.  Maybe try something else?

 
They are set for the foreseeable future
:shrug:  

They're now spenders going forward. The developing stage has been mortgaged and im not sure it can be counted on for MLB talent, or tradeable commodities, for a few years. With payroll around $100m committed dollars next year, they're in a spot to do that spending, they just have to do it right.

IMO you're only comfortable with 6-7 guys going into 2018. Rizzo, KB, Contreras, Lester, Q, Edwards and I'll throw in Happ. 

Big question marks surround what they thought were parts of their core going forward.

Baez and Russell. The gloves play, the bats?

Schwarber, the glove sure as hell doesn't play, will the bat again?

Hendricks - Hasn't looked good all year. Velo and location off

Theyre saddled with Heyward and Zobrist

Going into 2018 they're only 2 deep in the rotation have no starting pitching prospects on the horizon. FA SP market is meh.

Not sure how rosy that makes Cubs fan think the future is, but I think their chances after this year take a significant hit.

 
Half the bats you've mentioned are still only in their 3rd year of MLB experience, and have room to grow....Schwarbers glove is much improved, and is still only in his 2nd full season

The rotation is at least 3 deep with Lester, Q, and Hendricks(abr eligible in 18)..Monty looks like a 4-5

id type more but I'm on my phone, and it's hard to drive, text, and drink my beer at the same time 

 
Please, by all means, break this down and show me where I'm reaching.
"Comfortable" with Rizzo, Bryant, and Contreras sells these players pretty short.  They're all potentially perennial MVP candidates.  Three guys on one roster.  Most teams are lucky to have one player in their vicinity. 

Lester and Quintana may not be the flashiest rotation duo, but they're certainly the most reliable.  Hendricks is one year removed from leading the league in ERA.  If they want Jake back or are interested in Yu they have the money to do so. 

Baez, Happ, Russell, Almora, Schwarber.  The veteran of this group, Baez, will be 25 in December.  Outside of Schwarber, who is improving, they're all excellent defensively.  There's a good chance they haven't all reached their peak offensively yet, right?

I hated the Heyward signing.  Can't stand him offensively, but he's been what we expected at the plate this year and has been exactly what they paid for in right field.  He saves a run in the outfield almost on a nightly basis.

Zobrist does seem to be in his decline phase, but he was an integral part of a championship team. 

The bullpen is pretty much set.  They have Edwards, Rondon, Strop, Montgomery, and now Wilson to close for next year.

Comfortable with only 6 or 7 guys is definitely a stretch.

 
Limp Ditka said:
The developing stage has been mortgaged and im not sure it can be counted on for MLB talent, or tradeable commodities, for a few years. 
Theo discussed this very topic: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/07/19/theo-epstein-cubs-farm-system-response-criticism/

If you reach a point where your entire farm system is in the big leagues, you’ve traded a couple guys for players who are now in the big leagues, you know what you do? You start over in your farm system and you keep developing the talented players you have. They become top prospects and you draft well and you sign well and they become top prospects. It’s not a static thing. It’s not frozen in time, where heaven forbid you trade a couple of prospects because you’re never going to have any again. No, you replenish and you move on. We’re hopefully in a long cycle of winning. We want this, you could say it started in 2015, we’d like it to last at least seven years. If we have an unbelievable run — which we haven’t accomplished yet and there’s so much work to do — but if we have a run of contention from 2015 through 2021, I guarantee you at that point we will have fully replenished the farm system, and the cycle starts over again.

 
Wrigley said:
Perennial may be a stretch 

it's not inconceivable for him to become one 
We're talking future seasons here.

Contreras is just now getting every day catcher playing time. His bat has taken off and we already know he has a rocket launcher attached to his shoulder.

Posey is about done behind the plate. Molina's own manager is saying how tired he is.

Contreras is the best catcher in the NL and is only rivaled by Perez and Sanchez in all of baseball.

 
The arm / defense mean virtually nothing when it comes to MVP.

Yadier having only 2 top 5 finishes, and never finishing in the top 20 during any other season, tells you all you need to know about that.

And if that doesn't convince you, IRod won one and never finished higher than 10th in any other years. The year he won? 35/113/116

Plus, one could argue, and quite easily, that he's not above and beyond Grandal or Realmuto. Neither of them are sniffing MVPs any time soon

 
The arm / defense mean virtually nothing when it comes to MVP.

Yadier having only 2 top 5 finishes, and never finishing in the top 20 during any other season, tells you all you need to know about that.

And if that doesn't convince you, IRod won one and never finished higher than 10th in any other years. The year he won? 35/113/116

Plus, one could argue, and quite easily, that he's not above and beyond Grandal or Realmuto. Neither of them are sniffing MVPs any time soon
I said potentially.  It certainly isn't out of the realm of possibility that Contreras could have a monster season or two in his future during a winning season for the Cubs.  The beginning of this discussion was your inference that the Cubs are somehow "desperate for tomorrow."  They have two players that are bona fide super stars and another, in my opinion, in Contreras who is on his way.  For most teams that's enough right there to contend, but they have plenty of other pieces in place on affordable contracts as well.  Their system is now depleted of top end MLB ready talent, but the big league club is stocked with it.  Isn't that the point?  To graduate your prospects to the bigs and win with them?  By the time this window is closed the farm will have reloaded. 

 
The starting rotation's ERA in the first 60 games was 4.65.  In the past 50 games, it's been 3.93, a considerable improvement that paced them to the division lead.

 
The next thirteen games are against last-place clubs, and the next twenty-four against teams under .500.

Milwaukee goes out west for nine games, with games against LA and Colorado. St. Louis has Boston and Tampa Bay upcoming, and then they go out west.

St. Louis and Milwaukee only have five games left against each other, and the final three are in the last series of September. The Cubs don't play either Milwaukee or St. Louis until the second week of September. 

This is the Cubs last big chance to put distance between themselves and the other two teams. I would hope they begin September a minimum of five games ahead, with gravy being anything over eight.

 
Jake had to leave the game in mid-inning with a leg injury. He seemed to slip on a pitch to Josh Bell. Hope it's just a cramp or strain.

He's been awesome since the All-Star break, was named the August pitcher of the month.

 

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