I am all in on rebuild

Bud1234

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Would have liked to have kept Rizzo for leadership but production was diminishing and inconsistent. Jed got a good offer he couldn't pass up. Will root for Rizzo where ever he ends up.

Loved Bryant but His agent would never allow him to sign a somewhat club friendly extension plus there was the issue with the 1st year sending him to minors to start the season to get the Cubs another year that caused a bit of bad blood

I enjoyed Javy but how can you pay $25-30M a year to a guy with an on base percentage under .300 who strikes out 39% of the time. No matter how good the defense is.

Would have like them to also move Heyward but Cubs would have to pay a team $30M to take him with the 2 years left on his contract.

I would expect a couple of free agent signings this winter. Probably nothing huge. Next winter may bring a big signing or 2.

Bottom line - Cubs have under performed since the World Series win and you can't pay half your team $20-30M a year for average results.

Go Cubs Go
 

dchawks59

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In hindsight this should have started 2 years ago as everyone of these players underperformed plus the continued issues with Heyward, Happ, etc.. They went into this year with a core of players (now traded except for Contreras) who have not hit well on a regular basis, had ups and downs on D or been sidelined with injuries. They brought in a number of journeymen on 1 yr deals in the hope they would improve the overall team, did not work out. This is rebuild with a core that is now limited or at least questionable. Will Madrigal come back completely from ACL??? Will any of the Minor leaguers they got in trade be able to move up to MLB? What do they do with Heyward, Happ, Bote???? Is Wisdom for real? Ortega a regular? on top of everything else their pitching is very questionable in SP beyond Hendricks. Relief corps has now been decimated by trades and what they have left are journeymen. They did what they had to do but maybe 1-2 years too late, likely another 2(at best)-4 years before they are able to be a true contender.even with couple of FA's. Milw will continue to do well; Cincy is a sleeper with a pretty good core; StL helped themselves and likely will be better. Pitt went in complete re-build mode, whether they can do anything is questionable though they did get talent back for their system.
 

Chicagosports89

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In hindsight this should have started 2 years ago as everyone of these players underperformed plus the continued issues with Heyward, Happ, etc.. They went into this year with a core of players (now traded except for Contreras) who have not hit well on a regular basis, had ups and downs on D or been sidelined with injuries. They brought in a number of journeymen on 1 yr deals in the hope they would improve the overall team, did not work out. This is rebuild with a core that is now limited or at least questionable. Will Madrigal come back completely from ACL??? Will any of the Minor leaguers they got in trade be able to move up to MLB? What do they do with Heyward, Happ, Bote???? Is Wisdom for real? Ortega a regular? on top of everything else their pitching is very questionable in SP beyond Hendricks. Relief corps has now been decimated by trades and what they have left are journeymen. They did what they had to do but maybe 1-2 years too late, likely another 2(at best)-4 years before they are able to be a true contender.even with couple of FA's. Milw will continue to do well; Cincy is a sleeper with a pretty good core; StL helped themselves and likely will be better. Pitt went in complete re-build mode, whether they can do anything is questionable though they did get talent back for their system.
Madrigal doesn't have an ACL injury. Relief Corp can be turned over in an offseason. In fact they added 3 good arms post deadline. Milwaukee is fine but their lineup is shit. Cincy really doesn't have a good core, Castellanos will be gone in the offseason. What did the cardinals do to help themselves? They went all in to win this year and are a .500 team
 

dchawks59

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Madrigal doesn't have an ACL injury. Relief Corp can be turned over in an offseason. In fact they added 3 good arms post deadline. Milwaukee is fine but their lineup is shit. Cincy really doesn't have a good core, Castellanos will be gone in the offseason. What did the cardinals do to help themselves? They went all in to win this year and are a .500 team
Apologies, torn hamstring for Madrigal, my mistake. Do the comments mean cubs will be top of the heap next year since everyone "appears" to be terrible in the Div.? Factually, not sure what arms are left that could be called core as RP; maples above 5 ERA, closer ryan over 6, EVERYONE else above 4.22 era except for Winkler (2.72). So, where is that core? SP: Hendricks and then?????? Last I looked Milw. lineup is 12.5 games ahead of cubs, 3rd best record in NL; Cincy is 5.5 up on cubs and its "core' appears better than what cubs have left on their roster today; STL, still ahead of cubs by 3 and playing above 500 baseball; right now all of those teams are headed in a different direction than cubs. however, who knows cub fans for over 124 years have been "hopeful" every year, that is what makes the game go.
 

Chicagosports89

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Apologies, torn hamstring for Madrigal, my mistake. Do the comments mean cubs will be top of the heap next year since everyone "appears" to be terrible in the Div.? Factually, not sure what arms are left that could be called core as RP; maples above 5 ERA, closer ryan over 6, EVERYONE else above 4.22 era except for Winkler (2.72). So, where is that core? SP: Hendricks and then?????? Last I looked Milw. lineup is 12.5 games ahead of cubs, 3rd best record in NL; Cincy is 5.5 up on cubs and its "core' appears better than what cubs have left on their roster today; STL, still ahead of cubs by 3 and playing above 500 baseball; right now all of those teams are headed in a different direction than cubs. however, who knows cub fans for over 124 years have been "hopeful" every year, that is what makes the game go.
As far as the pen. We got Manny Rodriguez, Rucker, the kid from the Sox, Wick, and most of the arms from there pen this year were guys picked up off the scrap heap for cheap. So like I said, that can be turned around quick.

Idk if the cubs will try to compete next year or not, but surpassing the cards and reds wouldn't be too challenging.
 

NCChiFan

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In hindsight
Yes. It always appeared the Management was trying to Band-Aid together enough for just one more magical season and it never worked out. So yea, no issues with blowing it up. Earlier this year, they had a stretch of great baseball then it all fell apart as injuries mounted. It is time, over time in hindsight.
 

mattb78

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With such a dominating infield its tough to believe we at least didn't win a second NL championship, on the other hand how could one imagine to go to the playoffs consistently with a patchwork starting rotation.

Had we caught a break on one more stud starter it would have been interesting.
 

LongtimeCubfan

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Rizzo was not a leader. He was a great cheerleader, not a leader. The trio all had their strengths and weaknesses but their combined talent would never win a WS. They won in 2016 not because of them but because of the other 'leaders" on the team like Lester, Lackey, Fowler and Ross. Their leadership and others allowed the best traits of the just traded trio to surface. If you recall, because of his penchant to chase, Baez was batting 9th in the order but in the lineup because of his defense. That trait will never change for Baez. Bryant is a good player, but not a superstar and he comes up lame every time he falls to the ground. As I have posted before, the only "core" player who has leadership skills is Contrares which is why I hope they resign him. My only criticism of Hoyer is that he waited waaay too long to trade the trio as I think he could have received a much better return if he didn't wait until the last minute.
 

MDB111™

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With such a dominating infield its tough to believe we at least didn't win a second NL championship, on the other hand how could one imagine to go to the playoffs consistently with a patchwork starting rotation.

Had we caught a break on one more stud starter it would have been interesting.


Yu,Lester,Quintana,Hendricks,Lackey, Arrieta, Cole Hamels, was not patchwork.


The team forgot how to hit when it mattered.
 

Probie2429

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Bullpen is basically throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks year after year. That’s why guys like Tepera and Chafin get traded because they are more likely to be DFA’d next season. The only thing you want to nail down is the closer.
 

Diehardfan

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Yu,Lester,Quintana,Hendricks,Lackey, Arrieta, Cole Hamels, was not patchwork.


The team forgot how to hit when it mattered.
That was the whole problem with this team. Plus it went on for far too long. You would think that sifting through multiple hitting coaches would have told them something.
 

MDB111™

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That was the whole problem with this team. Plus it went on for far too long. You would think that sifting through multiple hitting coaches would have told them something.

It was strange too.
In 2015, they came together
won it in 2016 so you'd think Schwarber,Baez,Rizzo,Bryant,Contreras,Russell would have been murderers row. But they never got in sync. And had 3 more years to figure it out with decent if not damngood pitching.


It's never easy though. Those Dodger teams should have won more than just one last yr too.

Only one team getsto win andthe rest are forgotten failure
 

CSF77

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Pitching:

MLB Hendricks, Alzolay, Steel, Thompson, Mills
AAA Kilian
AA Marquez, Jensen
A+ Franklin, Wicks

That is what to expect with the staff with just doing nothing. Ya sure they could just push out this and let time fix things.

1-8
Ortega
Mad
Contreras
Happ
Wisdom
Heyward
Hoerner
Bote

This sucks at best.

So this is the reason to invest. I guess that Adbert started to use a change up now. We will see on him. This puts the priority on removing Happ and Bote. Wisdom has swing and miss but his OPS justifies a spot for now.

So Castillanos and a 1B. Done deal. Trade Happ for a bucket of balls and be done with it.
 

CSF77

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It was strange too.
In 2015, they came together
won it in 2016 so you'd think Schwarber,Baez,Rizzo,Bryant,Contreras,Russell would have been murderers row. But they never got in sync. And had 3 more years to figure it out with decent if not damngood pitching.


It's never easy though. Those Dodger teams should have won more than just one last yr too.

Only one team getsto win andthe rest are forgotten failure

What ruined it was Fowler leaving. Zobrist being injured.

Those two gave balance to a swing and miss line up. Happ and Javy replaced them and it pushed the line up into all or nothing mode.

That is the diffrence. Jed and Theo should have targeted a contact lead off and a contact middle of the order bat to split up the strike out prone hitters.
 

MDB111™

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What ruined it was Fowler leaving. Zobrist being injured.

Those two gave balance to a swing and miss line up. Happ and Javy replaced them and it pushed the line up into all or nothing mode.

That is the diffrence. Jed and Theo should have targeted a contact lead off and a contact middle of the order bat to split up the strike out prone hitters.
Forgot about those two as. professional at bats!
 

bamainatlanta

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Yu,Lester,Quintana,Hendricks,Lackey, Arrieta, Cole Hamels, was not patchwork.


The team forgot how to hit when it mattered.

It was a team full of Homer's but didn't have a Marge to set the table
 

CSF77

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This team isn't contending for awhile
If Jed goes into a full rebuild sure.

My opinion is to never be co dependant on the farm or free agents. You need both. Prospects are higher risk because they are not proven. But they offer cost control. Free agency provides stability at higher cost. You need to balance them to be effective.
 

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