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*****Official Cubs 2023 thread*****

Okay, Rossy, you've got a fresh arm and a low leverage situation. Will you run the new guy out there?
 
Greene was DFA'd, but are you hearing something else is coming? I don't think he's pitched for a few days. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Ross killed off another pitcher's elbow.
Was wondering the same. Saw pre-game they said he was available to pitch. Wasn’t sure if something changed.
 
Greene was DFA'd, but are you hearing something else is coming? I don't think he's pitched for a few days. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Ross killed off another pitcher's elbow.
There was some speculation, but not really sure why. Ross did say pregame that Adbert had been down the last 4 games, but that he was available today. Hopefully just getting him some needed rest. Some complained about Adbert not coming in yesterday to get the save, but Merryweather started the inning up 4, they werne’t going to pull him just because he gave up a solo shot.
 
Very nice organizational day. Wicks, Palencia, and Little all pitched, and all of them were in the minors at the start of the season. Wicks and Little fully home grown, and Palencia was identified and traded for, then developed.
 
1.5 games back in the division with the Brewers loss today. Cubs could be a half game out of the 1st WC if the Padres knock off the Phillies today.

Not to get ahead of ourselves, but....

The Cubs and Brewers have split their head to head matchups so far this year. So if we enter the final series of the year 1 game back, we can win the division by taking 2 out of 3.
 
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Very nice organizational day. Wicks, Palencia, and Little all pitched, and all of them were in the minors at the start of the season. Wicks and Little fully home grown, and Palencia was identified and traded for, then developed.
The Cubs farm system looks to be very strong. It seems that they are able to reach down and grab someone and he is very capable of filling in.
 
Thanks for posting this. I almost did, but thought I might be the only one who thought so. He's sung the stretch before, but that was crappy.
He was bad on the interview with Pat and Ron too. Everything he did was extremely hyper and over the top.
 
Interesting stuff on The Road To Wrigley tonight. Switching back and forth between three games with studio analysis. You can understand the hype for Jackson Ferris. Lots of coverage of his start, but also good looks at Ballesteros and Rojas on that team. Rojas has basically pushed Christian Hernandez to the side.
 
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I have plenty of posts in these threads and a podcast with 50+ episodes and not once will you ever read or hear me say that the Cubs should have kept all of those guys for any level of massive contracts. Feel free to go check. I’ve actually been pretty supportive of a lot of Jed’s moves, probably more so than a lot of Cubs fans. Again, I have 50+ episodes of receipts out in my podcast and hundreds of posts here.

If he's not a troll, he's one of those fans who almost seems upset when the team does well because it's going the opposite of their pre-conceived notions. Some folks just can't chill out and enjoy something, I don't really understand it. I find these types to just not be worth engaging even a little. I just put him on ignore and moved on, this thread is one of the few overall positive ones on the board and I'm not going to let that dweeb muck it up.

I haven't checked out your podcast yet, I'll make a point to give it a listen. I'm a bit of a podcast junky and always looking for something to play in the background while I work.
 
Interesting stuff on The Road To Wrigley tonight. Switching back and forth between three games with studio analysis. You can understand the hype for Jackson Ferris. Lots of coverage of his start, but also good looks at Ballesteros and Rojas on that team. Rojas has basically pushed Christian Hernandez to the side.
Jefferson Rojas has really exploded this year and could be a quick riser next year. He’s young and really impressive.
 
If he's not a troll, he's one of those fans who almost seems upset when the team does well because it's going the opposite of their pre-conceived notions. Some folks just can't chill out and enjoy something, I don't really understand it. I find these types to just not be worth engaging even a little. I just put him on ignore and moved on, this thread is one of the few overall positive ones on the board and I'm not going to let that dweeb muck it up.

I haven't checked out your podcast yet, I'll make a point to give it a listen. I'm a bit of a podcast junky and always looking for something to play in the background while I work.
Thanks in advance for the listen! I try to mix in an interview episode every month or so, now I have a couple lined up over the next 3-4 weeks.
 
My same friend wants to know if hitting .311 in the 7th-9th innings and hitting .250 (MLB average) with RISP qualifies as "succeeding more than once." He says that you would know, because you're really smart.

This same friend also apologizes for Happ's 2 bullet knocks and 2 runs scored so far today.
Just keep running your mouth. The goal is to win the World Series. As long as Happ and Suzuki are on the Cubs they aren’t winning the World Series.
 
Just keep running your mouth. The goal is to win the World Series. As long as Happ and Suzuki are on the Cubs they aren’t winning the World Series.
Then you might as well leave this thread and cheer for some other team, because those two are here to stay. You, and everyone else here, will be happier.

Bye!
 
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CB Bucknor might be worse than Angel Hernandez. He’s pretty consistently awful.
 
I can quibble with him not playing during the Cincy DH or coming in late in the blowout, but the Cubs are right in the middle of the playoff chase and every game matters. They get to expand the roster to 28. They were never going to suddenly grab a guy and put him right into a prominent role. He’s up to be around the team and see what being in a race is like.

That said, he should play at some point, but they are going to treat him like the 12th-14th member of the non-pitcher roster. I’d love for him to play, but other than Tauchman, not entirely sure where he’d be getting significant playing time. Happ and Seiya are both on good runs and nobody is benching Belli or Candelario. I’d love to see him play tomorrow, but not sure who is throwing for SF or what kind of matchup that is. I also support putting him in position to succeed. Workload isn’t a huge concern because the Cubs have already said Canario will play in the Arizona Fall League, so he’ll make up some of those ABs there.
I guess they were essentially required to pick another position player to call up. It just seems to me that recalling Mervis might have made more sense - he's still hitting pretty darn well at AAA, swings a bat from the left side like Tauchman (whom he would take most playing time from), has played a lot more 1B than AC has CF, and he has MLB experience (although underwhelming) that might make him a little more valuable during a pennant chase.

Good to see AC get his first MLB at-bat yesterday. That dude has a vicious swing! Can't wait to see him get a hold of one.
 
Full count too. Brewers already had a runner on 1st. LOL
Jerry Seinfeld Popcorn GIF by Sheets & Giggles
 
I guess they were essentially required to pick another position player to call up. It just seems to me that recalling Mervis might have made more sense - he's still hitting pretty darn well at AAA, swings a bat from the left side like Tauchman (whom he would take most playing time from), has played a lot more 1B than AC has CF, and he has MLB experience (although underwhelming) that might make him a little more valuable during a pennant chase.

Good to see AC get his first MLB at-bat yesterday. That dude has a vicious swing! Can't wait to see him get a hold of one.
I wonder if they picked AC because he’s going to play AFL, so the lost ABs in Iowa don’t matter quite as much. That said, I was a little bit surprised that, if they weren’t picking PCA and weren’t going to play AC much, that they didn’t go ahead and snag PJ Higgins just to get that extra versatility with the 3rd catcher. PJ has it fine at Iowa, but if he’s up, the Cubs have more flexibility to potentially run for Gomes/Amaya or use one of them as a PH to still have that emergency guy on the bench.

Whatever, though, they have their plan and I’m not going to argue a bunch given how well the team is playing right now.
 
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I’ve been thinking a lot about the Cubs ability to develop talent since Theo took over and I wanted to go back and compare where the Cubs are now to where they were in 2016 and then at the end of their championship run in 2019.

To do this, I broke the team into 3 categories:
  • Homegrown: Originally drafted/signed by the Cubs
  • Largely Developed Internally: Traded for or signed from another franchise, but had the bulk of at least 2 years in the Cubs system before coming up (basically in this era, that’s Hendricks, Palencia & Canari)
  • External (FAs & trades)
In the end, I did pull the first two groups together.

On the top line, the 2016 Cubs were 23.5% homegrown/developed (8 of 34 contributors), 2019 was 28.6% (12/42) and this year’s team is 43.2% (19/44).

Significant homegrown/developed contributors from each year:
  • 2016: Position Players - Bryant, Baez, Contreras, Almora, Soler, Szcur, Schwarber (postseason). Pitchers - Hendricks
  • 2019: Position Players - Bryant, Baez, Schwarber, Contreras, Almora, Bote, Caratini, Happ. Pitchers - Hendricks (note: Hoerner was up the last 2 weeks of the season)
  • 2023: Position Players - Happ, Hoerner, Morel, Amaya. Pitchers - Steele, Alzolay, Hendricks, Assad, Palencia, Wicks
I have a lot of beefs with Jed Hoyer - I think this team could be leading the division with a better Opening Day roster. He’s done a good job moving on from guys who just weren’t good enough, but I think a good number of games were lost early (especially in May) due largely to just not having the right kinds of pieces. All that said, he’s led tremendous positive changes in the scouting and development game. The number of pitchers who have contributed and the number that look to be potentially ready over the next two years is absolutely staggering, compared to where this team was throughout the Theo era - and it hasn’t happened at the expense of bats. Still really exciting position prospects on the rise as well: PCA, Canario, Shaw, Rojas, Alcantara, Caissie, etc.

The future really does look bright from here.
 
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Where does Brennan Davis and Matt Mervis fit in with the Cubs plans?
Davis will come down to health. He’s been playing well lately after coming back from surgery, but he hasn’t been through a full season since 2021. He does seem to be still universally viewed as really talented and he’s still just 24, so if I’m the Cubs I let it play out and see what happens. Trading him now would really make no sense, as his trade value is pretty depressed due to the injuries and lost time.

Mervis still has some cache as a future MLB power hitter. It didn’t go great for him in Chicago this year, but how many guys have had a bad 100 PAs to start a career and still wound up being good (Rizzo, for one). Mervis has put up great numbers at Iowa again, so his challenge is going to be the jump to the bigs. He’s not on many top 100 prospect lists, but you don’t see many 1B on there because the positional value is not nearly as high as pitchers, CFs and middle infielders, but Mervis is almost always there when you look at sources that list out 150. Depending on what the Cubs do this offseason (especially re: Bellinger), he’ll likely either get a good shot in 2024 or be packaged as part of a trade to fill another need.
 
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