Good point. I think they are in the process of being sold right now, though, so that might impact things. Really strange how the Angels have bungled having Trout and Ohtani and zero to show for it.
*****Official Cubs 2023 thread*****
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The Barnhart signing is official, and the Cubs have DFA'd P.J. Higgins to make room on the 40 man roster. Kinda sucks, I thought Higgins was good with the staff, and gave some flexibility. As the article mentions, unless there is a quality guy the Cubs can sign and stash at AAA, then they must be very confident that Miguel Amaya is healthy enough to be the call up when someone gets injured.
www.bleachernation.com
Cubs Make Tucker Barnhart Signing Official, DFA Catcher P.J. Higgins - Bleacher Nation
P.J. Higgins was a solid fill-in catcher for the Cubs in 2022.
www.bleachernation.com
I think you’re probably right. I’m still surprised a bit, but the roster is getting tighter with Rivas already DFA’d.The Barnhart signing is official, and the Cubs have DFA'd P.J. Higgins to make room on the 40 man roster. Kinda sucks, I thought Higgins was good with the staff, and gave some flexibility. As the article mentions, unless there is a quality guy the Cubs can sign and stash at AAA, then they must be very confident that Miguel Amaya is healthy enough to be the call up when someone gets injured.
Cubs Make Tucker Barnhart Signing Official, DFA Catcher P.J. Higgins - Bleacher Nation
P.J. Higgins was a solid fill-in catcher for the Cubs in 2022.
Agreed. Personally thought Higgins is an ideal bench player given he can play in the field as well and looked fairly decent at the o plate. Cubs def up the middle should be great; but I don’t think Barnharts metrics were that much better the past couple of years.
I’ll be curious to see if PJ clears waivers and accepts a spot at Iowa. He could elect free agency or take an assignment to Iowa. Like lucas said, this could be a sign that they’re pretty optimistic about Amaya.
Totally agree, I thought he played well and provided some versatility. Hope he finds his way back. I see, too, that they are interested In Hosmer, not sure how I feel about that.
You have to be a complete stat weirdo to think Hosmer has much of anything of value left in his bat.
Red Soxs won't deal him until out of playoffs. Or someone gives them a crazy offer. After what the market was this off season. He'd be dumb not to try and get 400 million.
Read an article last week that talks between Devers and the Sox aren’t going well. Better than 50/50 chance he gets dealt and lots of chatter the Cubs are the likely destination. Also heard that Devers is the kind of guy the Cubs could go long-term for with lots of money. The Red Sox are probably the worst team in the division and they can’t afford to let him walk.
The only reason I would bring him in is to be a positive clubhouse presence. I would much rather bring in Mancini.
If that's the case San Fran will swoop in with more money. And prospects. They'll go to the mat after the Correa snafu.
Hosmer is still a decent fielder and stays healthy. Trey is still a guy u don't know how many games he'll give u.
If they are even semi-committed to Mervis, Hosmer blocks him as a left handed bat. And if I’m going to add a left-handed bat, I’d look at Belt before Hosmer. If platoon Mancini, you don’t need him every day.
He would still get you decent production for a minimum salary. No real risk for wherever he ends up.
They're both just placeholders at best. At least look at someone with upside. Aguilar, Volt, Smith, or maybe Duvall he's played some 1B.
Mervis costs you the league minimum. Bringing in Hosmer only works if he was going to absolutely mash as a DH part time.
Because the Padres are still paying Hosmer he will only cost the league minimum as well. Not that I like Hosmer but if you get him and spend that saved 10 mil elsewhere I guess I can kind of see it.
I see no reason to not have both. With the new rules on shifts it would be good to be able to have the ability to throw out as many left handlers as possible. Mervis is going to get a shot...but I am not going to count on a guy with one year of production in the minors without having a backup plan.
As it is I would rather gamble on a line up that has Mervis, Moral, and Hosmer in it than Mervis, Moral, and Wisdom.
I am not a shill for hawkifann, I honestly suggest you listen to some of his podcasts.
I listened to the one with Mark Weisman last night, and it was very informative.
It was fascinating to get his perspectives on all that he does. He isn't just a S&C guy, he wears a lot of hats with the Pelicans. It's important to think about the fact that he's dealing with 19-22 or so kids, and they have a lot to learn. Some of them are bonus babies who have had access to proper nutrition and training, and some of them grew up in poverty in Venezuela or the DR. It's basically complete wellness training that he's trying to incorporate into their lives.
Beyond that there was a lot of deeply informative stuff about the day to day philosophy, technique, and practice of a S&C program. Good stuff about the Cubs mobile weight facilities. I am not sure, but when discussing how the Pelicans face a lot of challenges in finding good facilities on the road. When discussing using another team's facilities, it sure sounded like he said, 'It's at their discrepancy". HROT approves.
Good stuff about some individual players. I'm not a total minor league guru, but if you noticed Porter Hodge had an amazing season. He BLEW UP. Hodge was a big, throw hard guy, who dropped 20 pounds, and increased his velocity, and his endurance this season.
The Padres are paying him plenty. Hosmer will sign where he thinks he will get ABs. Whoever signs him just picks up the league minimum.
My concern is he takes away time from Mervis, if he is ready, and that after getting better at defense this offseason, Hosmer is a slightly below average fielder.
Thanks for the review! I loved the Weisman episode, even without the Hawkeye ties. Somehow my cloud doc with detailed questions and follow up points went *poof* right before the interview, but it was mostly in my mind since I had just been tweaking it up for the hour before the interview and Mark just went and covered pretty much everything I wanted to ask him about on his own. I’ll definitely bring him back again, I’d love to catch him early in the season or at the tail end of spring training to get his thoughts on his first full winter offseason in AZ and his 2nd spring.
I’m not that worried about it between 1B and the DH slot. I think the Cubs DO want to give Mervis plenty of runway, so I don’t think bringing in Hosmer would block Mash in any real way.
Yeah, there were a few gaps. And, I won't knock you for the production mishaps of the kids in the background, and what repeatedly sounded like a chair being moved and Mark moving something around on the top of a table.
It was a good effort. Lots of useful content.
We got lucky on production, actually. He was basically doing from his mom’s basement over a few days before Thanksgiving and I always get video and audio from interviews, but his signal was absolute garbage until he moved to his laptop, which had a damaged camera lens, so I went for the audio and scrapped video options.
I did chuckle at the end when he was talking about how guys have to buy in, or the organization will pass you by. Either a guy will outpace you, or the organization will just go get someone else. No hard feelings. Mark said something about being invested versus being committed, and made a eggs and bacon breakfast analogy. The chicken is involved by giving the eggs, but the pig is committed by giving the bacon.
You need guys to be committed.
You need guys to be committed.
Haha, yes, I liked that analogy also. Pretty sure in that case, I’d rather be the chicken, but I get what he was going for.
The Barnhart signing is official, and the Cubs have DFA'd P.J. Higgins to make room on the 40 man roster. Kinda sucks, I thought Higgins was good with the staff, and gave some flexibility. As the article mentions, unless there is a quality guy the Cubs can sign and stash at AAA, then they must be very confident that Miguel Amaya is healthy enough to be the call up when someone gets injured.
Cubs Make Tucker Barnhart Signing Official, DFA Catcher P.J. Higgins - Bleacher Nation
P.J. Higgins was a solid fill-in catcher for the Cubs in 2022.
Maybe someone can explain to me why they DFA'd Higgins and kept Mark Leiter, Jr. on the roster. I see very little value of him to the team, especially with the Box signing. I doubt he spends hardly any time on the active roster throughout the season (although I don't know his options status). Maybe they're hanging on to him until Heuer is ready to go, but they have so many other R-handed BP options.
And though I like Amaya and have been pulling for him, this is like his 8th or 9th year of professional baseball. I hope you're right that the organization has confidence in him, but at this point I'd be surprised if he made much of an impact at the MLB level.
40 man construction is tricky. I assume Leiter is probably the next guy to go.
I am also assuming that they want Higgins to agree to a minor league FA deal. Maybe he gets a little bit of money, and he fells comfortable sticking with the Cubs knowing if there is an injury he's the first guy up from AAA next season. If he sees a better option somewhere else, then the Cubs will sign a break glass in case of emergency catcher to stash at AAA.
It clearly shows that, and your manager is a former big league catcher too.
I guess if you don't value a catcher with a good bat then you are going to have to make up for that elsewhere in the lineup.
I think they’re largely evaluating position players and pitchers separately. Hard to argue Leiter Jr. vs. Higgins, really. Leiter is deep starter depth and he was actually quite good in the second half - 2.18 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 10 K/9. I think we saw the best of him in the 2nd half and I do hope he gets passed by other players this year, but he’s not a guy without value in the bullpen to at least keep into spring training to see what he looks like and how others are throwing. I think Rucker is another guy who is at risk for a DFA.
As for Amaya, it’s easy to forget that he’s STILL only 23 years old. If he still has the raw talent and gets healthy, he absolutely could re-emerge as a prospect. He’ll be interesting to watch in spring training.
Bleacher Nation story with a connection to a Tommy Birch article in the DMR.
A very promising update on Brennen Davis, a best we could hope for update on Alexander Canario, and a tepid thumbs up to Amaya.
https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs...rennen-davis-has-no-limitations-at-this-time/
A very promising update on Brennen Davis, a best we could hope for update on Alexander Canario, and a tepid thumbs up to Amaya.
https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs...rennen-davis-has-no-limitations-at-this-time/
