2013 Cubs

[CEValkyrie]

New 500 Million dollar Wrigley renovation.

[CEValkyrie]

Crazy week for the Cubs. 4-6 after 10 could easily be 6-4. I nearly broke my hand the night Marmol blew the save agains ATL. I'm glad I wasn't watching the Castro E that lead to four 2 out runs.

After twice thru the rotation the starting pitching has been very good even without Garza. The bullpen is an absolute mess. We need some freaking hitters. I can always hope for Cano  next year 

[Dan Michler]

What irritates me the most is not the bad bullpen or the poor hitting.  Those things aren't easy to acquire and many teams have the same problems.  What kills me is the fielding.  You can't give teams extra outs on a consistent basis.  It kills your pitchers in more ways than one.  There is no excuse for such a poor hitting team to be this bad in the field.  I mean, what do we pay those 8 guys for?  Be good at something!

[CEValkyrie]

The fielding is definitely an issue. Routine plays are key to baseball. Just checked the erros of the NL division leaders.
STL-4
ATL-8
SF-8
CHI-10

[CEValkyrie]

Unreal. I expected this team to be awful this season so losing is no surprise. So far this team has put them into position to win games and series. This team could easily be over .500. Woulda, coulda, shoulda gets you nowhere.

[CEValkyrie]

Theo was on the Score today.

I had no idea that small market teams got more draft picks than the larger market teams. You learn something new every day.

He stated all money allocated to payroll has been maxed. This isn't a good sign for future offseason free agent signings until TV revenue  changes or until Soriano's contract is done.

[Dan Michler]

Well they managed to dig some more money out of their wallet for Rizzo.  7 yr $41M.

I'm not completely sold on Rizzo, but I can see why they want to lock him up at a lower price right now at Age 23 in case his value were to shoot up in the near future.  Hopefully it works out.

Last season he slugged .463.  He's at .538 so far this season which is very respectable (2nd among NL First Basemen).  Hopefully his plate discipline will improve with experience.

We're now committed to Castro and Rizzo long-term.  I'm not feeling nearly as positive about Castro as I am Rizzo.  He's also 23, but has been in the league for 3+ years now and hasn't really shown any progression at the plate or in the field.  He's a poor fielding, free swinging SS.  He gets his fair share of singles and doubles, but won't take a walk and doesn't have the power to be a middle of the order guy.  His slugging% over his first 4 seasons.....408, .432, .430, .392.  He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who wants to make big changes in his approach.  He's a nice player, but not a great player that you build a franchise around like we were hoping.  If he were great in the field, I'd feel completely different.  I'm still hoping he matures and starts hitting for more power, but I don't feel as optimistic as I once did.

[CEValkyrie]

I read that this morning and thought 7 years at 41 million was a pretty good deal.

This Cubs team is bad but they are young and competitive. I'm pumped about Gregg. Hopefully he can continue to lock down games until the All Star Game. If that happens we should be able to get a prospect for him. Too bad Marmol lost off of his worth.

[pdga#7648]

How's bout them Redbirds you 2? pretty impressive huh?

[pdga#7648]

best in baseball on the road, 20-9, and overall record as well! and their #1 prospect Michael Wacha is being called up for Thursdays game. he is being the next Strasburg, minimum of 150 innings on the year. he already has 53 pitched in the minors!

[pdga#7648]

probably the best news CUBS fans have heard forever..... Soriano is a Yankee!!

[CEValkyrie]

I'm not a very big fan of this move. The chances of this pitcher that we got actually making an impact at the big league level are very low. We're paying 2/3rds of his contract to leave. I'd rather see him finish out his contract. He's by far the best hitter in this lineup and has become a pretty solid outfielder.

The one positive is we'll start seeing some new young blood out in the outfield. Hopefully one of these young guys works out and he'll be out there for years to come.

[Dan Michler]

I agree with Brett on Soriano.  From a fan's perspective it only makes the Cubs worse.  From the owner's perspective it saves you $6 mil, it weakens your team a little, but you weren't going to compete for a title anyways.  So I get that too.  Just don't think for a second that the trade in any way makes the Cubs a better team, because you'd be kidding yourself.  Soriano is well-liked in the clubhouse and performs at an above average level at the plate.  It's not a Milton Bradley situation where its worth paying him just so we never have to look at his face again.

It looks likely that that NL Central will be sending 3 pretty good teams to the playoffs.  The fact that the wildcard spots are only guaranteed a 1 game playoff will make the battle for the division title very important.  So, from that viewpoint I think adding this 2nd wildcard spot is working out okay.  Go Pirates!

Brewers giving a $10 voucher to all fans that show up to home games in August as an effort to pay them back for sticking with the team through a terrible season.  Thats a pretty good deal!  Would be nice if the Cubs organization would do something like this to pay back fans that have to put up with some of the highest ticket prices in baseball to see a team that hasn't competed in 3 years.

[pdga#7648]

and to think those 3 Central teams are not getting wins against the Astros this year. From a terrible division forever, to the best in baseball?? That's pretty impressive!
The Pirates are looking good, HURDLE gets MOY!

[CEValkyrie]

The Cubs are terrible but they do have some pieces to the puzzle.

Pitching
This team needs an Ace. Not sure where that's going to come from. We haven't had a dominant pitcher for some time. Adding an Ace would push Wood, Shark, & Jackson down. This Russin kid has looked pretty good. The  Cubs have 85 quality starts this season. The bullpen needs some serious help. Just a comparison. STL 81, Pit 76, & Cincy 92 have quality starts. They are ranked 10th in all of baseball for QS. Cubs rank 19th in ERA.

Batting
Across the board this team is bad. The Cubs are 26th in the league in runs scored. Unfortunately their top 10 home runs (164 total) has been wasted. No one is on base. Castro leading the team with a .243 average? Rizzo leads most of the other categories.  One bright side is Junior Lake. He's shown some flashes but who knows if he can keep that going. The minor league hitters better be coming up soon and produce or Theo's 5 year contract/plan will probably be over.

[pdga#7648]

very surprised Dan or Brett have not blown up a 2015 Cubs thread yet??

Lester will probably need Tommy John surgery here soon! 

I say with the talent they brought up last year, and the pitching staff now, they will contend for the CENTRAL division by 2016-17. Thinking anything farther than that is, as my buddy McManus would say, A Pipe Dream! 


Good luck.

[CEValkyrie]

It's pretty amazing in 3 seasons Starlin Castro will be the only Cub remaining from 3 years ago. Talk about burning the rats out of the barn.

It's exciting to finally have an ace of the staff. This team didn't score many runs but the were right there with STL & Cincy. Looking to see Bryant at 3B this season. Hopefully Lester can chip away at the 100 more runs they allowed.

I don't think this team is done. ESPN crew was just talking about how there was a plan a (Land Lester) and plan b (Don't get Lester). This winter has already gotten interesting.