Chicago Cubs 2026

#901      
Grandpa
Seppuku said:
Not sure I'd say "I like the Hayward signing," but it was definitely less bad, thus the comment ("worse than the Hayward signing by a mile").

The Bregman signing (and to a lesser degree Hayward) are proof of the folly of demanding aggressive actions and free agent signings by the owners for the sake of showing that they "want to win." Bregman is and has always been a fraud. He was probably the 6th best player on those Astros teams, and all of them benefited immensely from and padded their stats using that trash bin spy camera system. I would have rather the Cubs spent that money on a contact hitter (they already had tons of streaky "power hitters" who tended to fade and slump for extended periods of times) and/or a couple of arms.
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We can't say that until Bregman has been consistently bad for 5 or 6 years. I felt like he was the face of the cheating. He seemed to revel in it.
 
#902      
Mr. Tibbs
champaignchris said:
He just signed a contract extension less than 11 months ago.

Still, if they miss the playoffs, 1 appearance in 6 years is less than impressive.
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as long as they are drawing 37,000 per game and winning 1/2 their games , Hoyer isn’t going anywhere .

It’s clear Ricketts enjoys the deal as it is now . Winning 94 games is not a priority.

it is what it is
 
#905      
bdutts
Seppuku said:
He was probably the 6th best player on those Astros teams, and all of them benefited immensely from and padded their stats using that trash bin spy camera system.
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Who were the 5 better position players on the Astros?
 
#906      
EyeoftheIllini
Seppuku said:
Not sure I'd say "I like the Hayward signing," but it was definitely less bad, thus the comment ("worse than the Hayward signing by a mile").

The Bregman signing (and to a lesser degree Hayward) are proof of the folly of demanding aggressive actions and free agent signings by the owners for the sake of showing that they "want to win." Bregman is and has always been a fraud. He was probably the 6th best player on those Astros teams, and all of them benefited immensely from and padded their stats using that trash bin spy camera system. I would have rather the Cubs spent that money on a contact hitter (they already had tons of streaky "power hitters" who tended to fade and slump for extended periods of times) and/or a couple of arms.
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Oh boy, someone doesn’t like the Astros and Bregman. I didn’t LOVE the Bregman signing because of the length of the contract and I’ve always seen him as a good to good+ player rather than a great player outside of his first few years in the league.

Obviously, you’re entitled to your opinion, but the numbers don’t really support it. The trash can years were 2017 and 2018. His numbers on the road were better in 2017 and they were relatively close in 2018. It was 2019 when he had his big year, and he was much better on the road. Since then, the only season he’s been a lot better at home was 2022. All other years pretty much he’s been better on the road. That includes last year in Boston when he hit two-thirds of his homers on the road and had an .875 OPS on the road compared to .761 at home.

As for probably being the 6th best player on “those” Astros teams, it depends on what you mean by those, and if you’re only talking position players. Assuming just position players and the “those” refers to the trash can years, then you’re half right. In 2017, he was 6th in WAR on the team. But in 2018, he was first on the team and 7th in the majors. In all he had 6 seasons (out of 9) when he played a minimum of 100 games. For those seasons, on the team he was 6th, 1st, 1st (tied for 2nd in majors), 5th, 2nd and T-3rd in WAR.

I do agree with your thoughts on the folly of fans always wanting big splash FA signings, and wouldn’t have minded if they had spent the money in a different. But the latter supposes there were better strategies. Just because there were other FAs, doesn’t mean they would have signed with the Cubs unless, of course, they overpaid big time. And there is still plenty of time for Bregman to turn it around. Almost 60% of the games still to be played. I did like that he came out after the latest lost and put it all on him. Those kinds of things play well in the locker room, and are why he’s considered a great teammate.
 
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