BananaShampoo
Captain 'Paign
- Phoenix, AZ
Scherzer pitching a ni-hitter through 6 innings so far...
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Sent from my XT1526 using Tapatalk
Chicago Cubs 2016 Season
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Some days Max Scherzer is just gonna Max Scherzer.
ChiCityHoops34
- DeKalb IL
I'm as high on Almora as any of the young guys. He is going to be great.
ChiCityHoops34
- DeKalb IL
My heart can't handle heading into the playoffs with this bullpen as is.
Really hope we can put a package together for Chapman that isn't too damaging.
Really hope we can put a package together for Chapman that isn't too damaging.
This one was frustrating to watch slip away...twice.
So I have a question about Schwarber and injuries in general for a pro athlete. Does this year count as an active year on Scwarber's contract? We are basically paying him to rehab and so do the Cubs simply miss out on a year of his performance because "injuries happen, what can you do?". Or is there some sort of extension to help the clubhouse get their years out of him that they are paying for?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!
The short answer is that time on the MLB disabled list does count towards service time.
So, this year on the DL will be the first of six years the Cubs have of team control over Schwarber. Last year's partial season didn't count towards service time.
Schwarber will make base salary in '17 and '18. He'll be eligible for arbitration from '19 to '21 and can be a free agent heading into the '22 season. Of course, all this can be changed at any point if the parties agree to an extension.
Thanks for the explanation!
Home run party as the Cubs sweep the Pirates tonight, and with a Cardinals loss tonight, their NL Central lead is now at 12.5 games with a 3 game series at home coming up. Baez, Bryant, Rizzo, Contreras (on the first MLB pitch he's faced), and Russell all went yard.
Hendricks looked great, striking out 12 over 6 frames.
Any last shred of confidence in Clayton Richard is gone.
Hendricks looked great, striking out 12 over 6 frames.
Any last shred of confidence in Clayton Richard is gone.
Figure with the Matusz signing, Richard won't be with the team much longer.
Illiniaaron
- Geneseo, IL
Well the Pirates are done. With a Cubs sweep in the next three days the Cardinals will be done as well. What a prognostication by yours truly!
South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
Contreras starts tonite
with Almora in, Russell and Baez, Bryant and Rizzo, Heyward and Zobrist,
Lackey is the starter. I almost wish it was Hendricks tonite , just for age sake
overall, how many lineups in MLB are average age younger than that ?
with Almora in, Russell and Baez, Bryant and Rizzo, Heyward and Zobrist,
Lackey is the starter. I almost wish it was Hendricks tonite , just for age sake
overall, how many lineups in MLB are average age younger than that ?
South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
Well the Pirates are done. With a Cubs sweep in the next three days the Cardinals will be done as well. What a prognostication by yours truly!
Cubs are just about assured of winning 95 games. 100-104 wins is not only very possible, at this point its likely. The wheels would have to totally fall off for the Cubs to not have a post season this year.
One game at a time though.
The Giants and Nationals are on pace to win 102 and 99 games respectively. So the Cubs are a long, long way from having the best record in the league sown up.
But as far as the division goes, their magic number is already down to 83 with 95 games left in the season. If the Cubs go a fairly modest 52-43 (.547), the Cardinals would have to go 64-30 (.681) just to tie them. Sweep the Birds and the Cubs can play just over .500 for the rest of the season and win the division unless the Cardinals play .700 the rest of the way.
Wittsdream
- Chicago
Perhaps swap out Baez for Schwarber, and that is in all likelihood your opening day lineup for next season. Not sure what they do with Fowler. Do you really want to platoon him with Almora Jr. in CF and stunt Almora's growth? And the only way Baez starts on this club next season is with Bryant playing LF, which leaves Schwarber out of the equation, unless he platoons at catcher with Contreras (not a real option with Schwarbs coming off such a serious injury). Cubs have a real nice dilemma on their hands!
OTOH, playing devil's advocate, look at this season........Schwarber, Soler and now Fowler all go down with injuries. You can never have enough depth, and should have at least 5 players on your roster who can handle playing OF at any given time.
Next season, assuming the roster stays intact, you would have Bryant, Heyward, Almora, Schwarber, Fowler, Soler and Coghlan as potential OF options.
Not sure what's going to happen with Soler in the next 6 weeks as far as trades are concerned (he seems the most likely to be unloaded), and with Ian Happ waiting in the wings as a potential addition for next season (who can play both OF and 2B), the Cubs have another OF option who can hit for power, good OBP, very good BB/K ratio, and steals bases.
Though I would hate to see him leave the organization, I think trading Soler, along with another Top 8 prospect in order to land a lefty reliever of consequence is a necessary upgrade for this particular postseason.
When you have 5 starters who are pitching with such a high level of consistency as this current rotation is, Epstein must strike while the iron is hot, as they are unlikely to repeat this level of quality next season and thereafter.
I have close to zero confidence in the Cubs' middle relief come playoff time, and I'm not even sure about Strop at times (though he's obviously serviceable).
Fowler will probably opt out of his deal and be a free agent. Cubs will likely not re-sign him.
So, barring any trades, I think you're looking at Schwarber, Almora and Heyward in the outfield, with Soler and Szczur backing up.
Rizzo, Zobrist, Russell and Bryant are the infield, with Baez and LaStella backing up.
Contreras and Montero are your catchers, probably with Contreras getting the majority of the starts and Montero filling Ross's role.
In free agency, the Cubs might look for a backup catcher if they don't think Montero can do it any more or possibly a 4th outfielder type if they think they can find someone better than Szczur, but I think they'll probably not be very active in free agency.
I hear this about Strop all the time from other Cubs fans and I just don't get it. The guy had a bad first half of the year with Baltimore back in 2013, but has otherwise been about as consistent a middle reliever as there's been in baseball over the last 5 or 6 seasons.
His ERAs with the Cubs:
2013: 2.83
2014: 2.21
2015: 2.91
2016: 2.70
What exactly is there to complain about?
As for the rest of the bullpen, Cubs relievers are fourth in the league in ERA, a half run lower than league average. Rondon, Strop, Wood, and Cahill have all been excellent. They're all 28 to 31, in the prime of their careers. No real reason to think they'll fall off. It's easy to forget that both Wood and Cahill were All Star starting pitchers.
Grimm and Warren have both pitched below expectations. Given their talent level, past results, and the small sample size (about 25 innings) this year, they are both quite likely to pitch better over the course of the rest of the season than anyone brought in to replace them would.
Richard is just a place holder and it's only a matter of time before he's replaced by Matusz or someone else. He's pitched a grand total of 12 innings this year. It's not like the 1 inning every 5 or 6 games that he's pitched makes a big difference in the grand scheme of things.
Sure, getting a Miller or a Chapman would be awesome, but I don't know why anyone should have "zero confidence" in the Cubs middle relief.
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
This is the problem. Our bullpen looks so much better if we get another viable lefty out of the pen. I don't think its as simple as Matusz or someone else. We likely are going to have to make a trade for a strong option there, which is why Andrew Miller gets discussed so much. He isn't going to come cheap though, and I kind of hate the idea of trading a valuable piece for a relief pitcher. That may be what we have to do, though. If we want to win it all this year, we are going to need to improve our relief pitching and a strong lefty arm is going to be critical.
Deleted member 526137
D
Guest
If healthy and available, I think the Cubs will make a run at Jake McGee. The Cubs could control him through 2017. He won't cost the Cubs what Andrew Miller would cost them in salary or prospects. Maddon used to manage him so they know what they are getting.
I like McGee a lot. More than Miller, actually. I haven't had a chance to watch him this year, but he's doing awful for the Rockies after four great years with the Rays. He's giving up hits all over the place and stopped striking anyone out. The Rockies just put him on the DL with a knee injury. I have no idea how much of his troubles this year have to do with the injury or the altitude.
If healthy, he'd be a good bet to rebound, particularly in a different stadium, and it might be a nice opportunity to buy low.
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
This is great. A dude on Reddit posted yesterday that he was going to have lunch w/ Schwarber and could get one thing signed. He let Reddit decide what to get signed:
Original post
Today's follow-up
Original post
Today's follow-up
Shane Walsh
aka "Captain Oblivious"
- Cynthiana, Kentucky
That is awesome, thanks for sharing the lols.
Well, if the Cards (bleh) were going to make a run at the Cubs' top spot in the NL central, starting it with a sweep of the good guys in late June would be the way to go. Hopefully Jake can silence them today and we can get one game back from them. These last two losses have been tough to watch as we keep getting guys in scoring position in the bottom of the 9th only to come up short.
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