Very quietly PCA seems to be learning how to hit the ball hard.
*****Official Cubs 2024 Thread 🚽*****
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Absolutely. He’s so clearly looked better and more comfortable at the plate. He’s stopped swinging at everything, he’s tracking breaking stuff, I love to see it. He still has more work to do, but this is such clear progress over the course of just a couple weeks.
They're more likely leaving a spot open for when they need to sign the next journeyman reliever when yet another pitcher has his arm fall apart. But, if they DO plan on bringing up a prospect, my prediction would be Caissie, since they already have 3 catchers on the 40-man and Caissie is R5D eligible this upcoming offseason.
Funny timing. The Cubs actually DID pick up a reliever off waivers from Boston to fill the last 40-man spot.
JD: "What a disaster of an inning"
I love it when commentators are brutally honest.
I love it when commentators are brutally honest.
All he has to do now is learn how to catch fly balls when he calls off his teammates...
I didn’t see any of the game, but Taillon clearly deserved better. From the analysis Hodge gets out of a minor scrape, but the defense imploded. A poor choice by Paredes, and more immaturity from PCA.
I’m so freaking pissed that the one game I picked this year to take my family and Kyle Hendricks is going to be on the mound.
Shoot me
Shoot me
11-4 Cubs, with Kyle going 7 strong innings. Book it.
PCA up to .200 with that double. He's going to be fun to watch if he continues to hit the ball like he has lately. Might become an XBH hitter. If he only singles, he can steal a base as long as no one is on base ahead of him.
If I’m Steele I’m running out to the bullpen and kneecapping Neris after this inning is over.
The dream won’t die!!!
I'll post it! Wild card percentage up to 8.6
Good to see the Cubs bounce back tonight. That Sat night loss was excruciating and it almost felt like things might unravel. Been a tough season but they're still in it. 84 wins probably gets a wildcard spot. 24 games left against teams out of contention. Bullpen finally pitching well and offense shows up now and again. 29-19 is doable.
Merryweather looked stout. I assume his elbow will explode in a week, but Counsel should go with him for awhile as the closer and see what happens.
It looks like Alcantara, Triantos, and Shaw are moving up to AAA.
Excellent news. They all could use a bump in competition for a month or so.
Excellent news. They all could use a bump in competition for a month or so.
After a bit of a rough stretch earlier in the season, Shaw is hitting almost .400 with OPS >1.000 in the 2nd half. He's going to be too good for AAA next year and the Cubs are going to have to make a decision on him. Hard to justify keeping him in the minors while you're fielding an historically poor productive MLB offense. I seriously don't know what the team will do if Dansby is hitting .220 with an OPS <.650 again at this time next season...
He always had pop in the minors. Hit 16 HRs across multiple levels in 2022 and 20 last year. Across all his time in the minors he slugged north of .500. Some of the slug is turning singles into doubles/doubles into triples, but he has some HR power, too. He has 8 so far this year (had 5 in 117 PAs in Iowa before coming up, which is a tick better pace than his 20 HRs in 500 PAs last year).
He’s never going to be seen as a real slugger, but he’ll definitely hit with some pop if he’s hitting.
That’s the needle Jed has to thread. Dansby’s D is truly elite, so you can afford to carry him, but you have to make it up elsewhere. That may well mean moving on from some other established guys. Dansby is all but immovable. Even at current production, his D makes him WAY too valuable to just DFA, eat the money and basically pay him to play for someone else for 5 years and it’s really unlikely that anyone takes on that deal in a trade.
I don’t know if he has been healthy this season. I don’t think this is purely wishful thinking, but a bad knee affected him this season. He should have gone on the IL earlier, and maybe stayed longer. We all love gritty grindy players who play every day, but I think the team catered too much to him, and maybe there was a determination he wasn’t going to make anything worse by playing. But, the end result was he wasn’t effective. This seems like a situation where it’s announced he has a clean up procedure after the season. It sure seems like he cannot plant and throw, and generate a good swing right now.
As Hawkifann mentioned with the defense we just need Swanson to get back to his norms and he very is valuable.
I’m thinking the same thing you are. I don’t think he’s been healthy and when he’s gotten rest, he’s played better. Just get him some regular rest. I’m not talking platoon, I’m talking a day off every 10-14 days. Pair an off day with a team off-day for a 2-day break. It’ll pay dividends and over the course of 162, he could still play 150. He’s 30 now - still very much in his prime, but his body isn’t going to take playing 160 games nearly as well as he could at 25-26.
You could actually see the moment where Alonso blew a tire out there. Also, why couldn’t the Cubs just get Campana a child sized jersey??
Definitely agree with you and Lucas about Dansby. Really wish we weren't so crowded with barely above average players right now, as Jed (or his replacement) is going to have to get creative to get the young guys playing time. Hindsight is always easy but really wish we would have skipped the shortstops and just rolled with Nico there, as that would leave 2B open for Shaw and Triantos (and Morel when he was here was actually a pretty decent 2B). I really like Nico as he seems like a great clubhouse guy, but the way things are now he might be the easiest to move to create room for the youngsters. Still not sure what they are going to do about the outfield prospects as Cody is almost assuredly going to opt in for the next couple years unless he gets extremely hot.
A couple counterpoints just to think about:
- I’d argue that the Cubs have too many below average players, not that they’re stocked with barely above average players. Seiya has a 135 wRC+, Busch 127 and Happ 117. The bigger problem is Nico at 93, Dansby at 82 and offensive black holes at 3B & C most of the year. Can certainly argue that Nico & Dansby are better than this and carry added value with baserunning and defense and it’s true, but the offense has been the biggest issue all year.
- While things feel boxed in right now with contracts in place, the Cubs are mostly full of guys on very fair contracts. They could get very aggressive in trades this offseason and not have any issues moving guys for value. Cubs also have a lot of strong prospects that are all but MLB ready. A couple of those guys could be packaged to get non-rental players who will help cover other gaps. Jed should only be limited this offseason by his own creativity
- Edited to add thoughts on Bellinger: Opting out seems unlikely right now, certainly, but I also thought there was no way Stroman would opt out until he did. It’s a balance between being happy where you are/liking teammates, earning a large AAV and future security. The idea of Bellinger getting a huge FA contract is pretty much over at this point, but there’s no reason why he can’t go get a 3-6 year deal somewhere worth less per year than he’d make next year with the Cubs, but what would give him more guaranteed money overall and more forward security. He has potentially 2/$50M left on the deal if he opts in both years. It’s not impossible to think he could go get a 3/$65M, 4/$75M or a 5/$85M, something like that somewhere. If he wants that security, he might opt out.
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I think it’s going to be bumpy for FAs this year and next. Too much uncertainty over TV money to create a big market. The big fish will eat up all the money quickly this offseason
Hendricks actually pitched decent but the bats were focking awful tonight
a few hard balls right at guys but a lot of K’s and weak grounders.
we had fun none the less
