Yeah maybe they feel like two 12 million dollar players would be a better investment.
He’s 24th in the NL in that stat, closer to Heyward than to Yelich and Bellinger. He’s paid to be better than he’s been.
That was awful. The removal of Darvish was bad too. Joe knows the bullpen is absolutely brutal. Darvish just completed a 1-2-3 7th with 2 K’s and 9 total pitches. He was at 92 pitches at the end of 7. Joe then took no responsibility by saying Darvish said he was done. Sure seems odd that a SP would “breeze” through the game, dominate the last inning he was in and then wave off for the next inning. That’s $126M for a guy that can’t throw more than 92 pitches? He had another inning or at least a few batters. Not buying it, but Joe always has an explanation for unusual moves.
Agree that Happ and Bote, who committed an error to get that inning under, should have been replaced. But all they had on the bench was Kemp and yet they have their best fielding infielder stuck in Iowa.
Harper is on pace for about 4 fWAR. At $8M per WAR, he’s worth about $32M this year. The AAV of his deal is about $25M.
Wow.... giving up so soon? Do you want to trade places in the standings with my Reds? We finally decided as a fan base that the season ended this week too after the unfortunate split with the Cubs (we have bullpen issues too) and then an ugly sweep in DC. So, for Cubs' fans to give up already is kind of ridiculous. But I understand the frustration.
Who in the Central is going to beat them? St. Louis? They're more Jekyll and Hyde than the Cubs. The Brewers? Maybe, but they are up and down too. The Reds and Pirates are out of it. I think this is still the Cubs' division to lose. Now.... can they beat the Dodgers.....?
Cubs remind me of the 85 Bears. Champions with a young core that were supposed to be multiple title winners, but fade away without fulfilling that promise. Something clearly is missing and it’s just not a horrible bullpen.
Trust me, the Cards are not a threat.
This is a fair point. Great talent is a “build versus buy” decision, and while the Phillies would have preferred to have, say, Acuña, Albies, Soroka, and Pache in their pipeline, they, uhhhh, didn’t. (Guys, the Braves are fun.)
Easy to criticize when you aren't paying attention. Baez was sick, and Heyward was hurt. Kemp and Lucroy were the only available bench players, and Kemp had already been used to pinch-hit for Darvish. Madden had no other options. You can't blame Madden for the bullpen's inability to hold a 5-run lead for two innings. It would be like blaming Fitz for the QB fumbling the snap on a victory formation play.
Don't do this to me. I am emotionally exhausted from jumping on and off the Reds' train this season. The problem with the Reds is that as soon as they start to make some noise and the games get meaningful, they choke. Case in point this past weekend. They were on a roll and starting to close the gap in the NL Central. They had the division leading Cubs in town for the biggest 4-game series in years for the Reds. They promptly crapped the bed in the opener to blunt some of the excitement. But, they then turned it back on and took the next two games in exciting fashion including a pretty dominant 10-1 win. They went into a huge Sunday game with their ace on the mound. Things were looking good - up 3-0 with their ace doing pretty well. Then the wheels fell off. The Cubs battled back and then punished the inept Reds' bullpen to steal a 6-3 victory. The Reds followed that up by getting thoroughly embarrassed in a 3-game sweep in DC that pretty much ended things.
oh, my error. he's definitely worth it then. Otherwise, they'd be 12 games back instead of 8. But they are in the hunt for the prized wild card!!
He’s #41 in fWAR, which is fangraphs’ version that includes base running and defense.
Yes, but that opened up a spot to call up The Punisher!!
Clearly they had a surplus of OF. Good move to get Bauer by using Puig as part of the deal.
Baez sick with a high fever. But he was seen in the dugout, which I don't quite understand.
Harper could have been a Cub but as we all know the Ricketts family is "broke". Hell he even named his dog, "Wrigley"!
Silly Willy, the Cubs are at $203 M in payroll, which puts them one middling veteran reliever away from the luxury tax. Then there’s this thing about getting Baez, Bryant and Rizzo signed to long term deals (the first two guys are in their arbitration years).
The issue is they had to overpay in the free agent market to plug holes, primarily in the starting rotation. The Cubs haven’t developed any SP except Hendricks. I think Lester was a pretty good signing because they needed a leader of the staff on and off the field. Darvish and Chatwood both have very bad contracts. JHey was way overpaid. They traded their 3 top prospects (Torres, Jimenez, Cease) for pitching. All 3 would be starting for them next year. Cubs are now paying the price for the rental of Chapman. It’s hard to blast that trade in that they finally got a ring with Chapman closing the door.
Yup. They certainly benefitted from all those terrible seasons in terms of draft position, and picked well. But the 5 man rotation alone accounts for $85M in payroll this year. That exceeds the total payroll in Pittsburgh and Miami, and is just $3.5 M shy of what the Rays are paying. Wow.
Back when Theo was a genius, he was lauded for his “draft hitters because they’re reliable prospects” strategy. Baez, Bryant, Schwarber, Almora (ish) are all high picks that became solid players. It’s just that the trade/free agent arms haven’t worked out...
I have listened to many Cardinal fans complain about Bill "de wallet" DeWitt not jacking payroll up to $200M to sign [insert your favorite pricey FA here]. They seem to forget that the owners shelled out $365M of their own cash to build a stadium (borrowed about $300M of it), and have maintained a top 10ish payroll despite being a smaller market team with limited media value. Most importantly, they have 2 championships under his tenure.
