According to Jon Heyman on Twitter, the Cubs are close to a deal with RP Brandon Morrow.
Chicago Cubs 2018 Season
Sounds like it’s 2 years + a team option at $10-11 million a year.
Interesting guy who’s dominated since he got moved to the pen and figured out how to manage his diabetes.
I expect them to also sign a lefty for the pen. Jake McGee would be my choice.
Interesting guy who’s dominated since he got moved to the pen and figured out how to manage his diabetes.
I expect them to also sign a lefty for the pen. Jake McGee would be my choice.
Lefty P Drew Smyly to the Cubs on a two-year deal.
Coming off of Tommy John. Probably won't pitch this year until September at the earliest.
Probably part of the rotation in 2019.
Which could mean that the Cubs are looking at trading for a 1 year rental for 2018.
Possibilities for 1-year rental starting pitchers would be...
Patrick Corbin (rumors are that D-Backs are trying to trade a starting pitcher)
J.A. Happ (If the Jays decide to punt)
Matt Harvey (If the Cubs think they'll have better luck with him than the Mets)
Edinson Volquez (Could probably be gotten from the Marlins for a used bag of baseballs)
Patrick Corbin (rumors are that D-Backs are trying to trade a starting pitcher)
J.A. Happ (If the Jays decide to punt)
Matt Harvey (If the Cubs think they'll have better luck with him than the Mets)
Edinson Volquez (Could probably be gotten from the Marlins for a used bag of baseballs)
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
Matt Harvey would be veeeeeeeeeery interesting. I have no idea what to make of him right now, but there was a point in time where he was dominating. So many of the top closers were former starters that just didn't cut it for one reason or another. I wonder how open to that role Harvey might be at this point. His average fastball velocity is down 2.0 mph from a couple years ago, pitching out of relief might help improve that particular number and his overall effectiveness.
There is also the matter of actually getting him from the Mets. Alderson doesn't sound too keen on trading him with his value so low, but that could just be a bargaining ploy.
Cardinals get better with a trade for power OF Marcell Ozuna from Miami. #FireSale
I see Harvey as almost a 0 probability. This front office does place value on the locker room chemistry. With Harvey’s past I can’t imagine them bringing him into the fold.
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
I hope they overpaid for him. He's definitely due for some regression this year.
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
Maybe, I am always skeptical that this is a major factor. We traded for Chapman and won a World Series with an assault charge hanging over his head.
I would love to be a fly on the wall for the Matt Harvey conversation between Theo and Jeb.
Good point on Chapman. Harvey just strikes me as an abrasive guy in general. Chapman, while with his apparent flaws, seemed to be well liked enough as a guy in the clubhouse and cared about the team. Harvey seems to be a me first guy. Don’t think the front office will go for that. If these rumors about Montgomery not being happy with his role are true I wouldn’t be surprised to see him shown the door too.
I think the Montgomery situation is being overblown a bit. It's almost as if he peaked his head out the door and said, "Hey, it would be cool if I started a bit more" and all of sudden that mindset might be bad in the clubhouse? I see it as a competitiveness thing from Montgomery, more than anything else.
This situation is far different from Harvey, who for all intents and purposes is a diva.
The updated fangraphs predictions has Ozuna moving the Cardinals from 8 games behind the Cubs to about 5.5 games behind the Cubs.
Obviously, neither team is done yet. The Cubs are going to try to get more pitching and the Cardinals are going to try to get more bats. But, on paper, I expect the difference between the teams to stay in the 5 to 8 game range.
Cubs sign sidewinder Steve Cishek to an unknown deal, per Ken Rosenthal.
https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/941311129409728512
https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/941311129409728512
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
Never hurts to have guys in the pen with previous closing experience.
Hoyer and Epstein are meeting with Yu Darvish today.
They may have stopped trying to be clever and decided to throw brute force (money) at the starting pitching question. We’ll see.
They may have stopped trying to be clever and decided to throw brute force (money) at the starting pitching question. We’ll see.
South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
Dodgers, Dbacks, Nats activity this hot stove season
can one of you baseball junkies inform the rest of us exactly what the teams above have done this off season ?
I know the Dodgers have lost Morrow to us and seem likely to lose Darvish , but who else have they lost / acquired and what have the other teams above done?
and have the Brewers lost anyone important?
The Cards are always competitive, but I haven't heard of them improving themselves that much either. am I wrong on that?
can one of you baseball junkies inform the rest of us exactly what the teams above have done this off season ?
I know the Dodgers have lost Morrow to us and seem likely to lose Darvish , but who else have they lost / acquired and what have the other teams above done?
and have the Brewers lost anyone important?
The Cards are always competitive, but I haven't heard of them improving themselves that much either. am I wrong on that?
The Dodgers haven't signed anyone as of yet. As you mentioned, the Cubs already signed Morrow from them, and they may lose Darvish, but they aren't positioned to lose anybody major from their core. They did trade Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir, and Brandon McCarthy for Matt Kemp. It's been rumored that Kemp will soon be dealt to an AL team where he can DH.
I think the only move the Nationals have made is resigning reliever Brandon Kintzler, who they traded for at the deadline last season.
The Brewers won't be losing anyone significant this offseason, but have been mentioned as a potential destination for Arrieta.
The Cardinals have been among the most active teams this offseason: 1) signing reliever Luke Gregerson, 2) Aledmys Diaz traded to Toronto, 3) OF Piscotty was traded to Oakland, and 4) All-star OF Marcell Ozuna was acquired from Miami.
Though the winter meetings have come and gone, there are plenty of high quality free agents available, notably Darvish, Arrieta, Wade Davis, Lorenzo Cain, JD Martinez, Eric Hosmer, among others.
Lastly, Jesse Rogers from ESPN helped circulate a ridiculous trade rumor of which I wouldn't touch with a 39 and a half foot pole that would send Manny Machado to the Cubs sending back Addison Russell (and likely others). Machado has one year remaining on his contract and wants to play SS again. That said, I think this would be a foolish endeavor to deal Russell, who has 4(?) years of affordable control with a monster free agent class coming up (1 Bryce Harper, please).
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The Brewers signed Yovani Gallardo, pretty much signaling that they were out of the running for any of the top-flight (or even second tier) starting pitching FA’s. They were settled for starters anyway except that Jimmy Nelson is going to miss most likely the whole season with TJS. They were looking for a stop gap.
By the way, I think the Brewers are due for some major, hard core regression this year. They had a lot of pitchers out perform their entire careers last year and it probably won’t happen again.
And that trade Jesse Rogers pulled out of his nether regions... even IF you think that 2017 was a fluke and the Cubs would be getting 2015 or 2016 Machado, and even IF you think that Addison Russell has topped out in production at age 23, you’re still talking about one 6 WAR season of Machado in exchange for four 3 WAR seasons from Russell.
It might makes some sort of sense if the Cubs window to compete for a WS was closing. But even then, upgrading from a good shortstop to an elite shortstop isn’t a particularly effective upgrade. Maybe he adds three wins in the regular season. Probably not the difference between making the playoffs or not. He would probably be worth half a win in the playoffs. At most. Not the difference between a WS or not.
Standing pat and hoping for better luck has a better chance of working out for the Cubs this year than a Russell-Machado trade. (Not saying the Cubs should stand pat. Just there are far more effective areas to improve the club.) And a Russell-Machado grade would certainly hurt the Cubs chances in future years.
South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
Cubs have ZERO reason to change anyone in the infield.
It wont sell more tickets and it most likely wont win you any more games.
Few teams have the luxury of having C-1-2-SS-3 constant over 2-3 years, let alone 4-5. Lets not ever downplay the importance of that chemistry.
The only positions Im okay with "adjusting" are LF-RF. We need guys who can hit doubles and homers there. Im willing to live with Schwarb's fielding issues if he can hit .275 and bash 32-36 homers. I think its possible and time will tell if a 2018 , 25 lb slimmed down version of him can make us forget about what a similar fielding handcuffed Gary Matthews could do there in 1984. No one cared about his fielding then -- I was there.
IF KS can hit as many of us think he can, we can live with Heywards bat. It was only when both those guys averages combined were under .300 that it was obvious it was costing us a run or two a game. You cant hide both those batting averages from 2017 in the same lineup day after day.
I say they are doing the right thing by focusing entirely on pitching. If we didn't lead the league in walks allowed, we were realclose.
It wont sell more tickets and it most likely wont win you any more games.
Few teams have the luxury of having C-1-2-SS-3 constant over 2-3 years, let alone 4-5. Lets not ever downplay the importance of that chemistry.
The only positions Im okay with "adjusting" are LF-RF. We need guys who can hit doubles and homers there. Im willing to live with Schwarb's fielding issues if he can hit .275 and bash 32-36 homers. I think its possible and time will tell if a 2018 , 25 lb slimmed down version of him can make us forget about what a similar fielding handcuffed Gary Matthews could do there in 1984. No one cared about his fielding then -- I was there.
IF KS can hit as many of us think he can, we can live with Heywards bat. It was only when both those guys averages combined were under .300 that it was obvious it was costing us a run or two a game. You cant hide both those batting averages from 2017 in the same lineup day after day.
I say they are doing the right thing by focusing entirely on pitching. If we didn't lead the league in walks allowed, we were realclose.
All of the concerns about Schwarber's bat come down to a 41 game stretch from April 12 to Jun 2 last year. He looked clueless at the plate and hit .152/.264/.305 over 174 plate attempts.
In all the other at bats at the MLB level both before and after (playoffs included), he's hit .250/.354/.532 in 661 plate appearances.
Critics only seem to want to look at those 41 games when criticizing Schwarber and ignore everything he's done both before and after. All indications seem to be that when he's not recovering from a knee injury, he's an .850+ OPS batter with 40 home run pop.
You can live with his defense with that kind of production especially if the Cubs have gold glove candidates at CF, RF, SS, 2B, 1B and C.
I would also add that if you look at advanced fielding metrics like UZR, Schwarber is hardly the worst LF in the league. He falls pretty much in the middle of the pack. I think his bad reputation comes from the fact that he looks awkward out there and he's made a couple of really bad plays in front of national playoff TV audiences. He actually has a superb arm for a left fielder.
Both the awkwardness and the arm come from the fact that he was a collegiate and minor league catcher. He's only 25. There's no real reason to believe that he won't get better with more reps at the position.
Ehhh, you could do fun with selected endpoints with a lot of guys with <1000 PA's. Jorge Soler springs to mind.
Schwarber has things to prove at both ends of the field. If the right offer came along I would still be willing to move him, I still just have a hard time seeing him becoming someone who's not giving a ton of their bat value back in the field.
Starting to sound like Darvish to Cubs.
Sounds like Cobb got too expensive and the Cubs decided, “Well, if we’re going to spend that much money, might as well...”
If Darvish happens, it would probably vault the Cubs over the Dodgers in fangraphs’ win predictions for the year. Cubs are 2 Behind the Dodgers now, and Darvish would probably net them plus 3.
Sounds like Cobb got too expensive and the Cubs decided, “Well, if we’re going to spend that much money, might as well...”
If Darvish happens, it would probably vault the Cubs over the Dodgers in fangraphs’ win predictions for the year. Cubs are 2 Behind the Dodgers now, and Darvish would probably net them plus 3.
If this does happen I hope they keep the years down. Anything over 5 is a real bad decision.
The Rays trading Longoria suggests they'd be willing to trade Archer. The Cubs would have to take from the major league roster to make a deal work, but that could potentially be more appealing than Darvish/Cobb because of his deal which locks him up for the next four years super cheap.
If the trade ends up making the Cubs look light on bats, the free agent market is currently overloaded with them, available for less-than-usual prices.
If the trade ends up making the Cubs look light on bats, the free agent market is currently overloaded with them, available for less-than-usual prices.