*****Official Cubs 2020 thread*****
- Thread starter QChawks
- Start date
I saw a schedule on ESPN tonight and it looks like the schedule is kind of unbalanced. In their own division they play each team 10 games, but against Milwaukee and St. Louis they are home for 7 of the 10, and on the 7 out of 10 against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh the Cubs are on the road. They play 3 and 3 against the Sox, 2 and 2 against KC. 3 road games at Detroit, host the Twins for 3 games, and I think they are 2 and 2 against Cleveland.
Yeah, I was sick of people making him out to be a decent left fielder. He does have a decent arm but his first step and overall range suck. Surprised they couldn't trade him but they seem to love him for some reason
he was on a minor league non guaranteed deal this season. No real risk.
Why would they trade him at a point where they were bumping the cap? His last two seasons, he posted 115 and 120 wRC+ and 3.2 and 2.6 fWAR, which puts him as an overall 15-20% better than average hitter and definitely an above average player overall. Last year he made $3.3M and this year was going to make $7.1M before the pandemic. He has one more cost-controlled year. Depending on which estimate you prefer, the going rate for 1 WAR seems to be roughly $5-8M, meaning Schwarber could have been worth $12-20M each of the last two seasons.
It's pretty unusual to be able to trade a guy like that, who is not a superstar, but is productive and get more value back than you'd have by keeping him - and if you do deal him, you then have to fill LF/DH and replace his production for the same or less money without making the team worse.
For whatever reason, Epstein has kept him around even though he's such a "limited" player in the NL. There was a small window where he had trade value, but Theo missed it.
At some point, you have to acknowledge that just because it's "economical" to keep a guy... he might not be worth the little production you're getting. In a more competitive division... he'd have been moved a long, long time ago.
Can you provide the players the Cubs can plug into that spot to improve? Factor in how they would acquire them, pay them etc.
I guess that's your weak attempt at sarcasm. A corner outfielder in MLB is one of the easiest positions to fill.
Who knows how many options Epstein has had in the last 2-3 years? KS is an AL player, pure and simple.
This isn't complicated.
I guess that's your weak attempt at sarcasm. A corner outfielder in MLB is one of the easiest positions to fill.
Who knows how many options Epstein has had in the last 2-3 years? KS is an AL player, pure and simple.
This isn't complicated.
Is he still an AL player? I would argue that's no longer true.
I guess that's your weak attempt at sarcasm. A corner outfielder in MLB is one of the easiest positions to fill.
Who knows how many options Epstein has had in the last 2-3 years? KS is an AL player, pure and simple.
This isn't complicated.
No sarcasm here. Corner outfield is easy. However I haven’t seen many options presented that fit the production, the cost and wouldn’t cost any other pieces that were needed. Surely there is a large number of solutions so just throw a dart and pick a few(that was the sarcastic part)
I just saw the irony in the fact that the DH will be used in this abbreviated season. If, and that's a big if, the NL sees the light and adopts it forever... KS should absolutely stay in Chicago.
Listen, I'd love him on the Yankees roster. He's not a bad ball player, just a liability on defense.
Schwarber or Alfonso Soriano defensively in Wrigley?
That's like asking me about suicide by fire or drowning?
Better worry about your Yankees ...
I'm pissed he won't be able to drill that little fella from Houston.
Rizzo appears to be in midseason form. Sidelined with a stiff lower back.
He does get hurt a lot. Only averages 153 games played a year for the past 7 years
Wouldnt even care, they won’t finish this season anyway and there will likely be a long labor stoppage after next year. Baseball is going to lose a lot of fans in the next few years.
What's the labor situation? I assume the collective bargaining agreement is up but what's the beef?
Teams have realized they shouldn’t pay for past performance so big contracts to guys over 28 are drying up, the players are going to want major changes to the arbitration process, less years of team control. Plus there will be carryover from the negotiations to get the season started this year coupled with a massive loss of revenue from no fan attendance. It’s going to be a bad combination of factors.
Because they said in the Cub Way iirc that they wouldn't take a hit in the field for a bat which sounded good coming off that season we were one of the best defensive teams ever without him. And I just always thought he's a natural DH that some AL team might find appealing. When they said changes were coming I thought he was a candidate but then they did very little.
It's not like I'm upset he's around especially now that there's a DH. I'd just prefer somebody else in left. I've seen him do some clumsy stuff out there but I do give him credit for the improvement. He's got a pretty good arm, just want somebody faster. In hindsight I'm glad we didn't do much, very curious what difference Rossy makes
Full disclosure I'm a former pitcher so I'm biased towards defense
Last year was his lowest number of games since 2014. I believe most of that was due to a bad ankle injury, but, he has a history of back problems. Every year he misses some games due to "tightness", that never gets better with age. I have not seen many pictures of him this year, but supposedly he has dropped 25 pounds. That will help him out tremendously.
