The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

[SidVish]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

you have to figure bullpen help would have already arrived if it wasn't for the injury snake-bite the team has been dealing with.

As soon as Soler returns, package him and Vogelbach and whatever for the best arms you can get...

I'm confident in an OF consisting of Fowler, Heyward, Bryant, Sczuzr, Almora, and Coghlan...They can produce enough to make Soler's big question-mark potential irrelevant.

I think they have to keep Baez.

I don't think Baez is going anywhere. He's way too valuable on defense. He's made some of the most difficult plays look routine. Anything he can give with the bat is a positive.

[BleacherBum2310]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

as soon as Soler returns get rid of Coghlan honestly. Also this stretch heightens how important TLS is off the bench.

Theo fixed the bullpen last year when it was in much worse shape i think he'll do it again.

It's baseball all teams go through rough patches this is the Cubs 1st one.

[CBoller1331]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

I read an article on Bleacher Report today saying that conversation w/ the Yankees about Miller will have to start with Schwarber. Yikes...

Didn't really say much about Chapman, so maybe he'd be a little cheaper being a rental....

I guess this still could change as the Yankees are still "pretending" right now. If they do fall out of the race further they'd have more of a reason to sell Miller and take a lower price.

[fugazi]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

Heyward has to go. I know the team is thin right now. Enough is enough, though. As soon as Fowler is ready to go, he needs to sit. I'll go with Fowler/Almora/Bryant/whatever.

It's a shame. It would be nice to see him succeed. But we're at the halfway point and he's still awful. He swung at two awful pitches against deGrom, and his bat is nowhere near fast enough ever for mid-90s stuff

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

Here's my shopping list for this month:

1 starting pitcher (Hammel's replacement)
2 bullpen arms (one lefty and one righty)
1 utility player

We don't really need a top-of-the-rotation starter or a middle-of-the-order-bat.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

Here's my shopping list for this month:

1 starting pitcher (Hammel's replacement)
2 bullpen arms (one lefty and one righty)
1 utility player

We don't really need a top-of-the-rotation starter or a middle-of-the-order-bat.

Let me retract this. With Arrieta turning back into a pumpkin lately, we probably do need a top guy.

[CBoller1331]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

Well, we might be struggling, but at least we have an unlimited supply of good young hitters in Iowa. Jeimer Candelario got the call after Coghlan goes on the DL.

I always viewed Candelario as a guy we traded before he made is debut, but he should provide some decent defense at 3B, and be a good switching option off the bench

Edit: He's starting at 3B today

[BleacherBum2310]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

Let me retract this. With Arrieta turning back into a pumpkin lately, we probably do need a top guy.

nah we still don't. Cubs need the ASB... they need Dex, Soler, TLS back.

[CBoller1331]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

nah we still don't. Cubs need the ASB... they need Dex, Soler, TLS back.

Agreed. This 24 games in a row thing is a lot harder than I expected. I wouldn't rule out another 'ace' though to be Hammel's replacement. With the Yankees setting a high price for Andrew Miller, it might not be a bad idea to look into Doolittle + Gray from the A's

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

nah we still don't. Cubs need the ASB... they need Dex, Soler, TLS back.

Yeah, we do. Those guys don't help our pitching any.

We need 3 top pitchers to have success against the Mets/Nats/Giants in the postseason. I am not ok with Lackey/Hendricks/Hammel as our #3 in the playoffs. Heck, I'm not sure if I like Arrieta as a #3 right now. When you take the league by the throat over the first 75 games and build a huge lead, you don't fritter it away by standing pat for the sake of standing pat.

[BleacherBum2310]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

Yeah, we do. Those guys don't help our pitching any.

We need 3 top pitchers to have success against the Mets/Nats/Giants in the postseason. I am not ok with Lackey/Hendricks/Hammel as our #3 in the playoffs. Heck, I'm not sure if I like Arrieta as a #3 right now. When you take the league by the throat over the first 75 games and build a huge lead, you don't fritter it away by standing pat for the sake of standing pat.

I am more than Thrilled w/Lackey as our 3. and yeah that's a bit dramatic on Arrieta it's been 3 rough starts and it wasn't until 2nd half last year when he found his command and his ERA is still only 2.33.

We knew the Pitching would take a bit of step back that's why the hitting was so important.. w/ Dex they were averaging 5.5 runs per game.

I would have no problem with acquiring a guy to push Hammel out but it's not a top of the rotation type guy. and no one's standing pat but it's probably more so for the bullpen than anything else this is not the type of front office that stands pat.

[fugazi]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

nah we still don't. Cubs need the ASB... they need Dex, Soler, TLS back.

What??

Dex "should" bring a boost when he returns...

but who sits for Soler? I'm not sure where the confidence in him is rooted...I'd rather watch Heyward suck at the plate and give good defense rather than watch Soler be horrible everywhere.

What is La Stella going to do that is so significant?

The team looks like absolute dog crap against anyone remotely good. The bullpen is toast. Arrietta got Dusty-Bakered last year and it shows. He needs significant rest.

The only reason we need Soler back is to trade him.

Given the trainwreck of the past three weeks, i think the likelihood of seeing someone surprising traded away increases.

[Negan]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

Better package somebody with someone else to get somebody else...

[Jr.]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

What??

Dex "should" bring a boost when he returns...

but who sits for Soler? I'm not sure where the confidence in him is rooted...I'd rather watch Heyward suck at the plate and give good defense rather than watch Soler be horrible everywhere.

What is La Stella going to do that is so significant?

The team looks like absolute dog crap against anyone remotely good. The bullpen is toast. Arrietta got Dusty-Bakered last year and it shows. He needs significant rest.

The only reason we need Soler back is to trade him.

Given the trainwreck of the past three weeks, i think the likelihood of seeing someone surprising traded away increases.

Except when they swept a 4 game series at Washington, took 3 of 4 from the Dodgers, and took 4 of the first 6 against the Cardinals.

I think they're just tired right now. In a stretch of 24 games in 24 days, with the mixture of day and night games that always haunts their schedule, the offense is struggling because of that, to me, more than anything.

You might be right about Arrieta. His stuff has been good until the Mets start where his velocity was down a bit, but the ASB should give him some needed rest. I would like to see them skip his next start and give him nearly 2 weeks of rest.

Soler is terrible defensively, but I do think he was turning it around at the plate. I remember his hard contact rate getting better before he got hurt. Hopefully he can return and continue that.

I also agree about La Stella. I really don't understand the love for him.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: The Friendly Confines: The Official Chicago Cubs Thread

Apparently the secret is to just keep playing the Reds. Good start to this one for a team that's 4-10 over the past 2 weeks and has been swept by the Cardinals and Mets.