Offseason Stuff

[CSF77]

Well if you are not concidering that all signs are pointing to a tax reset you might as well go for max output.

With in tax I see some baggage cut and the 5 internal. Pen internal.

Nothing to see here. Biggest noise this off-season will be the fate of Bryant and if Javy extends. Rest will be oh hum.

 

[TL1961]

Ummmm, their payroll in 2016 was 5th in MLB. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/2016/ .

Bottom half of the Top 8.

 

[beckdawg]

Rosenthal was on mlb tv a couple of days ago and i caught a clip on youtube. What i found kind of interesting was he mentioned the red sox probably having issues moving Betts for fair value so they might try other ways to fix that. One thing he mentioned was packaging Price with Benintendi.

Price has 3 years at $32 mil per year left. Benintendi is project at around $4.25 mil in arb. So, you'd be taking on around $36 mil next year. But that's sort of compelling to me. Ideally, I'd like to get like $15 mil back as well to put Price more in that ~$25 mil range per. But the cubs need a starter. And Benintendi is exactly the type of lead off hitter you'd want and he can play CF. If you could make that move cheaply prospect wise and maybe give them Chatwood to replace the loss of Price you'd be looking at adding about $19 mil in payroll for next year minus any other money they chip in while filling 2 pretty big needs.

IDK just struck me as an interesting play. I'd much rather them do something like that then go after Merrifield.

 

[beckdawg]

Something else I was thinking about is that the cubs have been pretty good in trades since theo came over. You obviously had the big obvious ones in Rizzo and the Arrieta/Strop deal but there's also been some sneaky good ones that people forget like Fowler and Monty. So, given they seem likely to make their impact moves via trades rather than FA where their track record is spotty at best.... i guess maybe I'm just more optimistic. Then again I've always found trades more interesting than FA.

 

[beckdawg]

Arizona nontendred Taijuan Walker. He'd be an interesting guy to give a shot at the back of the rotation.

 

[The Bandit]

Blake Treinen needs to be on their radar, bullpen help is needed and Treinen is definitely an interesting arm to look into. Sure he will be in high demand though.

 

[beckdawg]

I've been thinking on something and I honestly would be happier if the cubs really stayed away from FA for awhile. I feel like FA in the way most fans view it is pretty inefficient. Obviously I'm not saying you entirely stay away from it but to me I think I'd avoid the top end unless a perfect storm player hit. That is to say a position of great need in a year where you are clearly in the hunt and it's one of the better players in the sport.

What I'd like to see instead is for the cubs to get into more of a developmental team. To me I always think of atlanta like this. That is to say a mid market team who's always pretty good. Teams like Atlanta and Cleveland spend like 60% or whatever of the cubs and field a team 90% or so as good. I'd like to see the cubs think like those teams do rather than trying to think like Boston/Yankees.

But here's the wrinkle I would add. You can approach your budget like ATL/CLE but you're going to have more room than those teams. Typical thinking has always been you just buy more FAs but I'm starting to wonder if that isn't the smartest way to do things. If you look at the current market there are so many teams urgently trying to ditch players to save money. There's even some willing to give you decent prospects to do so. And it's that area I think there's some interesting value to be had.

For example, how badly does Boston want to move David Price right now? And the thing is Price isn't *really* that bad. Chances are they'd attach someone pretty good with him to get rid of him. It reminds me a bit of Beane trading for guys past their prime like David Justice on bad deals where he got the yankees to eat a bunch of his contract except that a big market team doesn't need a cheaper player. They can instead use the leverage to get prospects which are harder to acquire which would again feed into the whole developmental team aspect.

So, seeing as the cubs may be limited in FA again this year... I guess what I'm trying to say is maybe that's not a bad thing.

 

[Castor76]

I hear what you'e saying, but recent history doesn't really bear that out. Because Sportrac only goes back to 2011, I used the end of season payroll rank of the team who won and lost the Series. On average, Winners has a payroll ranked #7 while losers ranked #10. The lowest ranked winner was the 2017 Astros, at #17, and losers has two teams tie at #18.

 

[SilentLurker]

Id love to see Kevin Pillar out in CF.

 

[Steve_A]

Arizona nontendred Taijuan Walker. He'd be an interesting guy to give a shot at the back of the rotation.

Blake Treinen needs to be on their radar, bullpen help is needed and Treinen is definitely an interesting arm to look into. Sure he will be in high demand though.

Id love to see Kevin Pillar out in CF.

Treinen / Walker / Nelson might be worthy pick ups

Pillar isn’t the premium defender he once was and doesn’t get on base enough so I think no. (He still will be better than Almora but no for the price tag)

 

[CSF77]

Treinen / Walker / Nelson might be worthy pick ups

Pillar isn’t the premium defender he once was and doesn’t get on base enough so I think no. (He still will be better than Almora but no for the price tag)

40 man stands at 36. So I see them adding 4 players.

Pitchers

#		Name	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
73		Adbert Alzolay	R/R	6'0"	179lbs	3/1/95
32		Tyler Chatwood	R/R	6'0"	185lbs	12/16/89
—		Jharel Cotton	R/R	5'11"	200lbs	1/19/92
11		Yu Darvish	R/R	6'5"	220lbs	8/16/86
28		Kyle Hendricks	R/R	6'3"	190lbs	12/7/89
24		Craig Kimbrel	R/R	6'0"	210lbs	5/28/88
34		Jon Lester	L/L	6'4"	240lbs	1/7/84
36		Dillon Maples	R/R	6'2"	230lbs	5/9/92
—		Tyson Miller	R/R	6'4"	215lbs	7/29/95
30		Alec Mills	R/R	6'4"	190lbs	11/30/91
57		James Norwood	R/R	6'2"	215lbs	12/24/93
—		CD Pelham	L/L	6'6"	235lbs	2/21/95
62		Jose Quintana	R/L	6'1"	220lbs	1/24/89
—		Colin Rea	R/R	6'5"	235lbs	7/1/90
—		Manuel Rodriguez	R/R	5'11"	205lbs	8/6/96
56		Kyle Ryan	L/L	6'5"	215lbs	9/25/91
74		Justin Steele	L/L	6'2"	205lbs	7/11/95
51		Duane Underwood Jr.	R/R	6'2"	210lbs	7/20/94
50		Rowan Wick	L/R	6'3"	235lbs	11/9/92
38		Brad Wieck	L/L	6'9"	255lbs	10/14/91

 

[CSF77]

Catchers

#		Name	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
—		Miguel Amaya	R/R	6'1"	185lbs	3/9/99
7		Victor Caratini	S/R	6'1"	215lbs	8/17/93
40		Willson Contreras	R/R	6'1"	210lbs	5/13/92

Infield

#		Name	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
9		Javier Baez	R/R	6'0"	190lbs	12/1/92
13		David Bote	R/R	6'1"	210lbs	4/7/93
17		Kris Bryant	R/R	6'5"	230lbs	1/4/92
3		Daniel Descalso	L/R	5'10"	190lbs	10/19/86
16		Robel Garcia	S/R	6'0"	168lbs	3/28/93
2		Nico Hoerner	R/R	5'11"	200lbs	5/13/97
44		Anthony Rizzo	L/L	6'3"	240lbs	8/8/89
—		Zack Short	R/R	5'10"	180lbs	5/29/95

Outfield

#		Name	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB
5		Albert Almora Jr.	R/R	6'2"	190lbs	4/16/94
8		Ian Happ	S/R	6'0"	205lbs	8/12/94
22		Jason Heyward	L/L	6'5"	240lbs	8/9/89
4		Tony Kemp	L/R	5'6"	165lbs	10/31/91
12		Kyle Schwarber	L/R	6'0"	235lbs	3/5/93

 

[CSF77]

Blake Treinen is a solid upgrade to Wick as the 8th inning man. Heavy sinker most likely got exploited by the juiced baseball.

Walker would be a upgrade to a list starting with Chatwood.

I don't see the Boston connect Beck. Cubs have pretty much said that they are keeping under tax this year. That would go against that.

Lead off is another area of need. Rizzo is a monster hitting #1 though. In that stint Schwarber filled in at #3 and hit .364/.500.727

To me this just feels like a natural solution and they really just need to run with it vs toy with it.

 

[Omeletpants]

I wanna cut Kimbrels fucking Lincoln beard off then put it in my garbage can

 

[Steve_A]

Blake Treinen is a solid upgrade to Wick as the 8th inning man. Heavy sinker most likely got exploited by the juiced baseball.

Walker would be a upgrade to a list starting with Chatwood.

I don't see the Boston connect Beck. Cubs have pretty much said that they are keeping under tax this year. That would go against that.

Lead off is another area of need. Rizzo is a monster hitting #1 though. In that stint Schwarber filled in at #3 and hit .364/.500.727

To me this just feels like a natural solution and they really just need to run with it vs toy with it.

One thing I don’t understand is them keeping Descalso around. Why burn a roster spot on him?

 

[Omeletpants]

One thing I don’t understand is them keeping Descalso around. Why burn a roster spot on him?

cause his contract is guaranteed for 2020

 

[CSF77]

One thing I don’t understand is them keeping Descalso around. Why burn a roster spot on him?

He was injured also and was playing through it.

I'm not saying to keep him at all.

 

[beckdawg]

Descalso is someone you cut in ST not now. You're paying him anyways so you may as well see what he has in ST before you make a decision.

 

[SilenceS]

Blake Treinen is a solid upgrade to Wick as the 8th inning man. Heavy sinker most likely got exploited by the juiced baseball.

Walker would be a upgrade to a list starting with Chatwood.

I don't see the Boston connect Beck. Cubs have pretty much said that they are keeping under tax this year. That would go against that.

Lead off is another area of need. Rizzo is a monster hitting #1 though. In that stint Schwarber filled in at #3 and hit .364/.500.727

To me this just feels like a natural solution and they really just need to run with it vs toy with it.

Nothing about the juiced ball. He was just throwing meatballs. Trust me. He cost me a good bit of money on bets during the season. Guy was throwing hot garbage up there. Worth a look as the season could have just been an anomaly, but he was putting balls on a T.

 

[Steve_A]

Descalso is someone you cut in ST not now. You're paying him anyways so you may as well see what he has in ST before you make a decision.

Understand that but a lifetime .230 avg / .330 obp guy.
Is he really someone you need to think twice about was my point.