Chicago Cubs 2018 Season
Brian Butterfield. Who I've never heard of.
Andy Haines was already in the organization, although I don't know in what capacity. He's replacing Hinske as asst. hitting coach/1B coach.
Chili Davis I remember as a player. Pretty decent with the Giants, Angels, etc.
Have no idea about him as a hitting coach.
Ok. After googling. Davis' work with Oakland and Boston is pretty impressive when you look at the before and after. He looks like a top flight guy.
Dave Martinez to manage the Nationals, per a report. I read some fun discussion online at the possibility of David Ross as the bench coach replacement.
Per multiple sources @fox5dc can report Dave Martinez will be the next #Nationals manager, won't be announced til after #WorldSeries
https://twitter.com/BrodyLogan/status/924375427208110080
Per multiple sources @fox5dc can report Dave Martinez will be the next #Nationals manager, won't be announced til after #WorldSeries
https://twitter.com/BrodyLogan/status/924375427208110080
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
Good for Martinez. Been interviewing for years. Dusty beat him out the last time.
Wouldn't be a bad thing to have Ross as the bench coach. Could serve as the bridge between the staff and the players.
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
Butterfield was a Boston guy I believe, on Farrell's staff. Heard that Farrell could become the bench coach for the Cubs as well. Heck, might as well try to hire Girardi for the bench coach to have around for when Maddon retires in a few years.
Martinez to Washington is officially official.
Curious to see if Mailee or Bosio end up in DC.
I thought Bosio was heading to Detroit? Perhaps that was a rumor.
No. You’re right. I forgot. Lot of jokes about him and Gardenhire being the same person. (They totally are.)
Starting to be some noise about a possible trade with the Giants. Heyward in exchange for Samardjiza and Melancon would be the main portion of the trade.
Thought there was some bridge burning with Shark trade when he left.
All in all an interesting trade. You'd be banking on Jeff being a 4/5 starter which is not awful, but I assume this would mean letting Davis walk and that means Melancon would be the closer.
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
Samardzija has had 5 straight years where he pitched more than 200 innings. There aren't many #4s better than him.
As for Melancon, he recently had forearm surgery, so banking on him to be the closer would be a bit premature.
If this trade happened, I would assume the Cubs would sign one of the top free agent left handers, Jake McGee maybe, and go into Spring Training with a competition between Wilson, Edwards, Melancon, Rondon and the free agent to see who the closer would be. If it doesn’t work out, in 2019 Zach Britton, Andrew Miller and Craig Kimbrel are all free agents.
And by the way, check out that 2019 free agent class. This is why the Cubs need to be smart with their money this year. That class is going to be absurd - Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, Manny Machado, etc.
Add Ohtani.
But in reality I doubt everyone hits the market, namely out of those three Machado. But it's possible. I think we need to shed Heyward before me make any real moves in 2019, though picking up the two Giants isn't really a step in the right direction.
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
And that's why I think they are considering that trade. All three of those guys have opt outs after 2018 (at least Heyward and Melancon do) and moving Heyward frees up bucks to be spent on Harper.
The only way Machado doesn’t hit the open market is if the Orioles offer up a Giancarlo Stanton-type of contract. Never say never I suppose for an Oriole franchise that seems like it’s in perpetual denial about its need to rebuild, but i think it’s more likely he gets dealt at the deadline after the O’s fall out of contention than he signs an extension to stay in MD.
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
As a lurking Cards fan, why would anyone want Heyward's contract on their books? He has an opt-out, but he would be a fool to take it. No one will offer him more and he has 5 (?) years left in the 20+ million range? He is not even a starter on the playoff roster.
He offers something thats criminally underrated--defense. Thats not nearly worth the 20m they are paying him, but their are plenty of managers out their that would love to have him on a roster for that alone.
Trading for him give you arguably the best defensive RF in the game, and a slight below average offensive threat that has shown flashes in the past. He's still young. THere's plenty to like about Heyward and teams like SF can afford the kind of luxury that he is.
The rumor with the Giants was because the Giants also had some bad contracts and they are woefully short on Major League outfielders. The Cubs would take the Giants' bad pitching contracts and the Giants would take the Cubs' bad outfielder contract. The rumored Samardjiza/Melancon for Heyward trade would have had the Cubs taking on more money than the Giants would have taken on.
There's no way for the Cubs to trade Heyward without taking on some other bad contract or sending tons of cash along with Heyward.
ETA: This looks like it's all irrelevant since sources out of Frisco deny the Giants are interested in Heyward.
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
Thanks, I'll go back again to lurking.
Illiniaaron
- Geneseo, IL
The Giant trade never made any sense to me from San Fran's perspective but I think they wanted Almora Jr. as well in the deal.
Shane Walsh
aka "Captain Oblivious"
- Cynthiana, Kentucky
Arrieta getting his monies worth from his agent, and I agree with every single word of it.
http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cu...sales-pitch-jake-arrieta-welcome-playoffville
http://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cu...sales-pitch-jake-arrieta-welcome-playoffville
It’s not about the money with Arrieta and the Cubs. It’s about the years. I think the Cubs would gladly pay Arrieta $20-$25 million per for three or four years. Just not for six. The risk is too great that they’d end up paying a 38 year old $25 millions dollars to suck.
That said, i really like Arrieta. If he signs a four year deal for less than $100 million elsewhere, i’ll Be pretty disappointed unless the Cubs score some other major pitching coups. But I suspect someone offers him 6 years at $20 million plus per. He’ll have deserved it and i’ll Root for him to do well whenever his new team isn’t playing the Cubs.
That said, i really like Arrieta. If he signs a four year deal for less than $100 million elsewhere, i’ll Be pretty disappointed unless the Cubs score some other major pitching coups. But I suspect someone offers him 6 years at $20 million plus per. He’ll have deserved it and i’ll Root for him to do well whenever his new team isn’t playing the Cubs.