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Chicago Cubs 2018 Season
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<blockquote data-quote="champaignchris" data-source="post: 1406667" data-attributes="member: 26283"><p>Prior to this year’s offseason, the Cubs’ front office had prioritized a track record of arm health with their big pitcher acquisitions, both trades and free agent signings. It’s one of the reasons the Cubs have had one of the older pitching staffs in the Majors. They'd certainly taken flyers on low cost lottery tickets that had arm issues in the past (Hector Rondon being a good example of one that worked out), but when they've spent actual assets to get someone prior to 2018, they had been healthy. </p><p></p><p>But the front office completely threw that out the window this last offseason. Morrow, Darvish and Chatwood had all had relatively recent arm issues. As far as I know, Chatwood's issues aren't injury related. (In fact, I'd kind of feel better about him if they were.) But getting about 70 innings combined out of the guys you paid to be your 1/2 and your closer really hurts. </p><p></p><p>All that said, it's very hard to go back to last winter and reconstruct an off season that would have gone any better. </p><p></p><p>Pretty much all the alternatives to Chatwood have been awful this year, too. Lance Lynn, Alex Cobb, Mike Minor, Andrew Cashner, Jaime Garcia, Doug Fister... all have ERAs right around 5. If you were the guy screaming for the Cubs to sign Jhoulys Chacin, congratulate yourself. But even with 20/20 hindsight, Chatwood is still young enough to figure his crap out and maybe be productive for the last two years of his contract as opposed to everyone else on the list who are in their 30s. </p><p></p><p>Similarly, the closer options other than Morrow have basically all been awful. Wade Davis and Addison Reed have ERAs around 5. Bryan Shaw, Juan Nicasio, Anthony Swarzak and Jake McGee are all even worse. And Greg Holland cost the Cardinals a draft pick and $14M in exchange for 25 innings and an ERA close to 8. Tony Watson has had a nice year, I guess, but not as a closer. He's basically filled the Cisheck role for the Giants. Pat Neshek pitched even fewer innings for the Phillies before getting hurt than Morrow did for the Cubs. </p><p></p><p>As for Darvish, Arrieta was the only alternative. And I don't know how the Cubs could have signed Arrieta without significantly overpaying him. The Cubs offered him $100+ million contracts twice in about 24 months, after the 2015 season and in January of 2018. He declined both times. Arrieta took significantly less in guaranteed money than the Cubs offered him in January to pitch in Philadelphia. So even in retrospect, I'm not entirely sure what the Cubs should have done or even could have done there. The Chicago media had been assuming that Arrieta was going to depart via free agency for years, but never really said why. Outside looking in, it certainly feels like there was some personality issues somewhere.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="champaignchris, post: 1406667, member: 26283"] Prior to this year’s offseason, the Cubs’ front office had prioritized a track record of arm health with their big pitcher acquisitions, both trades and free agent signings. It’s one of the reasons the Cubs have had one of the older pitching staffs in the Majors. They'd certainly taken flyers on low cost lottery tickets that had arm issues in the past (Hector Rondon being a good example of one that worked out), but when they've spent actual assets to get someone prior to 2018, they had been healthy. But the front office completely threw that out the window this last offseason. Morrow, Darvish and Chatwood had all had relatively recent arm issues. As far as I know, Chatwood's issues aren't injury related. (In fact, I'd kind of feel better about him if they were.) But getting about 70 innings combined out of the guys you paid to be your 1/2 and your closer really hurts. All that said, it's very hard to go back to last winter and reconstruct an off season that would have gone any better. Pretty much all the alternatives to Chatwood have been awful this year, too. Lance Lynn, Alex Cobb, Mike Minor, Andrew Cashner, Jaime Garcia, Doug Fister... all have ERAs right around 5. If you were the guy screaming for the Cubs to sign Jhoulys Chacin, congratulate yourself. But even with 20/20 hindsight, Chatwood is still young enough to figure his crap out and maybe be productive for the last two years of his contract as opposed to everyone else on the list who are in their 30s. Similarly, the closer options other than Morrow have basically all been awful. Wade Davis and Addison Reed have ERAs around 5. Bryan Shaw, Juan Nicasio, Anthony Swarzak and Jake McGee are all even worse. And Greg Holland cost the Cardinals a draft pick and $14M in exchange for 25 innings and an ERA close to 8. Tony Watson has had a nice year, I guess, but not as a closer. He's basically filled the Cisheck role for the Giants. Pat Neshek pitched even fewer innings for the Phillies before getting hurt than Morrow did for the Cubs. As for Darvish, Arrieta was the only alternative. And I don't know how the Cubs could have signed Arrieta without significantly overpaying him. The Cubs offered him $100+ million contracts twice in about 24 months, after the 2015 season and in January of 2018. He declined both times. Arrieta took significantly less in guaranteed money than the Cubs offered him in January to pitch in Philadelphia. So even in retrospect, I'm not entirely sure what the Cubs should have done or even could have done there. The Chicago media had been assuming that Arrieta was going to depart via free agency for years, but never really said why. Outside looking in, it certainly feels like there was some personality issues somewhere. [/QUOTE]
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