Cubs offseason rumors/transactions

[CSF77]

Honestly they should have signed a closer by now. Which leads me to believe that they are holding all of their trade chips until Ohtani is resolved.

Say they lose out on Ohtani. They will still need 2 SP and a closer. They have added 1 LH LOOGY type and have Maples. They cleared 6 mil with Rondon thus far. So in reality they can go into the meetings aiming for Cobb in F/A then they can decide on a potential closer.

On Closers: I personally like Anderson the best. He is a set up that has closed. Which is stability for a pen. And I believe Maples ends up the closer and Anderson as a 8th inning looking ahead is just smart baseball.

That really puts a trade into a #5 starter and it is not worth trading for. The Cubs are building towards pitching right now and I really don’t see the point.

So as of right now their hat is tossed into the Ohtani sweepstakes. If they land him then you can just sign Anderson and go internal on the 5. By far a cheap off season. Which helps with Retaining Bryant and making a play for Harper next offseason.

 

[beckdawg]

Honestly they should have signed a closer by now. Which leads me to believe that they are holding all of their trade chips until Ohtani is resolved.

Say they lose out on Ohtani. They will still need 2 SP and a closer. They have added 1 LH LOOGY type and have Maples. They cleared 6 mil with Rondon thus far. So in reality they can go into the meetings aiming for Cobb in F/A then they can decide on a potential closer.

On Closers: I personally like Anderson the best. He is a set up that has closed. Which is stability for a pen. And I believe Maples ends up the closer and Anderson as a 8th inning looking ahead is just smart baseball.

That really puts a trade into a #5 starter and it is not worth trading for. The Cubs are building towards pitching right now and I really don’t see the point.

So as of right now their hat is tossed into the Ohtani sweepstakes. If they land him then you can just sign Anderson and go internal on the 5. By far a cheap off season. Which helps with Retaining Bryant and making a play for Harper next offseason.

Who the eff is Anderson? Tyler Anderson? Chase Anderson?

 

[CSF77]

My bad Addison Reed (29)

 

[beckdawg]

My bad Addison Reed (29)

That's kinda what I thought you meant but wasn't sure haha.

 

[CSF77]

Ya. Was on the treadmill at the time and was working off memory.

I like the fact that he is on the right side of 30 and honestly is Davis lite.

I wouldn’t make a trade from the core right now to be honest.

Baez is high value but they have no back up SS.

Happ is a sell high and again he is protection for Almora and Schwarber.

Schwarber is sell low. Right now we are not sure if he is a full time player. Selling now would be a huge mistake as his value more likely goes up next year.

Almora is a role player right now. He has a good shot at becoming a full time player if he hits RHSP better.

I wouldn’t deal myself unless they sign Ohtani and need OF AB’s. That point the logical choice is Happ as he performed better than projected and is a sell high move.

But as far as adding a SP and a CL there is no need to trade. The market has equal talent to those trades with out losing talent.

Saving payroll is foolish. Avoiding on Jake’s potential payday is smart. They got his best years at a below market rate. He will never earn what Boras is looking for. So to get that level of pitching would cost Darvish or a high amount of talent. Cubs don’t have those chips and too be honest they already made that deal when they got Q.

So I’m in on Ohtani. Plan B Cobb.

Closer Reed with Maples developing into the long term solution.

2nd SP Butler or Mills. If both are flat then rent Lackey for a few months to let Tseng get ready.

Anyways I feel they are better off building trade weight for the deadline. Use F/A now. This team is not poor.

 

[anotheridiot]

I just think Tseng lacks confidence, and to me, the best confidence they can give him is starting with the team, either pen or in the rotation out of spring training.

 

[CSF77]

I just think Tseng lacks confidence, and to me, the best confidence they can give him is starting with the team, either pen or in the rotation out of spring training.

That was 1 game. He came out in the pen after And dominated

 

[chibears55]

Check out @Vitalian_3’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/Vitalian_3/status/938432897408819200?s=09

Schwarber looking good

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[Bigfoot]

Check out @Vitalian_3’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/Vitalian_3/status/938432897408819200?s=09

Schwarber looking good

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

Looks leaner.

 

[Omeletpants]

Looks leaner.

Thank god, thought he was going to end up like Sabathia

 

[beckdawg]

Looks leaner.

Thing to remember is he wasn't even cleared to play outfield until spring training last year. So, typically a lot of the work you'd do to get in better shape he likely just couldn't do. Not saying that's the only reason he was bad last year but it certainly wouldn't have helped matters.

 

[CSF77]

Meh thinks his power went bye-bye with his arce

 

[beckdawg]

Meh thinks his power went bye-bye with his arce

? Not sure what you're implying here. If you're implying Schwarber lost power with his ACL... i mean his ISO was higher than both Bryant and Rizzo last year. Even if he loses some power he has plenty to spare.

 

[CSF77]

? Not sure what you're implying here. If you're implying Schwarber lost power with his ACL... i mean his ISO was higher than both Bryant and Rizzo last year. Even if he loses some power he has plenty to spare.

Less mass = less force.

He looks more like Almora now.

I would be shocked if he has equal power. I guess it is a fair trade off if he becomes a top end lead off.

But he looks around 200 lbs now

 

[beckdawg]

Almora weighs 190lbs. Schwarber was listed at 235. If Schwarber lost 45 pounds I'd be amazed. And less mass doesn't equal less force. How hard you hit has more to do with your bat speed. Baez is also 190 pounds and no one would confuse the kind of power he has with the kind of power Almora has.

 

[TL1961]

Only 30 HRs in part time duty.

 

[CSF77]

Almora weighs 190lbs. Schwarber was listed at 235. If Schwarber lost 45 pounds I'd be amazed. And less mass doesn't equal less force. How hard you hit has more to do with your bat speed. Baez is also 190 pounds and no one would confuse the kind of power he has with the kind of power Almora has.

You are funny. I used to be a spray hitter then hit the gym hard sophomore year and put on 20 LBS. my SLG jumped. I always had a good eye and went with the pitch. After adding that weight I naturally starting to drive the ball. Sure hand eye has a part in it but don’t tell me a guy dropping 35 lbs is not going to lose power. Not even real.

But look at his face. It doesn’t even look like the same guy anymore. That is a huge drop in lbs and muscle is going to be part of that drop

 

[beckdawg]

You are funny. I used to be a spray hitter then hit the gym hard sophomore year and put on 20 LBS. my SLG jumped. I always had a good eye and went with the pitch. After adding that weight I naturally starting to drive the ball. Sure hand eye has a part in it but don’t tell me a guy dropping 35 lbs is not going to lose power. Not even real.

But look at his face. It doesn’t even look like the same guy anymore. That is a huge drop in lbs and muscle is going to be part of that drop

You're assuming he's losing muscle. He very well may have put on bad weight by not being as active as you would normally be because he wasn't cleared to play the OF until Spring Training. That's not a difficult thing to believe. If all he did was get leaner without losing muscle then he's not going to lose any power.

Sorry but just adding weight doesn't give you more power. You could argue adding muscle does but just look at Schwarber last year. He wasn't exactly a chiseled 235.

 

[CSF77]

You're assuming he's losing muscle. He very well may have put on bad weight by not being as active as you would normally be because he wasn't cleared to play the OF until Spring Training. That's not a difficult thing to believe. If all he did was get leaner without losing muscle then he's not going to lose any power.

Sorry but just adding weight doesn't give you more power. You could argue adding muscle does but just look at Schwarber last year. He wasn't exactly a chiseled 235.

Depends on his training method. Looks like he is going heavy cardio with fast twitch drills. That adds to movement and reaction speed. It really is not power lifting as he looked like before. Most likely from his football days.

Just on raw power he should loose power but his hand eye/reaction speed should improve.

Honest prediction is SO % major drop to 20%
BB should stick around 12%. That bit shouldn’t change.

Big change should be OBA increase and SLG decrease. More gap power and able to hit to LF easier with out the extra mass to push.

But in raw power I just don’t see these 450 bombs happening which is perfectly fine if he becomes a prototypical lead off

 

[beckdawg]

Depends on his training method. Looks like he is going heavy cardio with fast twitch drills. That adds to movement and reaction speed. It really is not power lifting as he looked like before. Most likely from his football days.

Just on raw power he should loose power but his hand eye/reaction speed should improve.

Honest prediction is SO % major drop to 20%
BB should stick around 12%. That bit shouldn’t change.

Big change should be OBA increase and SLG decrease. More gap power and able to hit to LF easier with out the extra mass to push.

But in raw power I just don’t see these 450 bombs happening which is perfectly fine if he becomes a prototypical lead off

Well even if that's the case just take a look at what Rizzo has done with 2 strikes. He knows he has enough power in his bat that he can choke up and still have more than enough. If what you're suggesting is the case with Schwarber and to be clear I'm not convinced your right but I'll humor the argument, Schwarber has more power than anyone on the cubs. So sure he may not consistently hit 450+ HRs but he doesn't need to.

And frankly, if he is leaner and quicker that helps with one of his biggest issues as a player. He's not a bad defender in LF because of his arm or because he drops balls. He's a bad LF because he had limited range. if he's dropped let's say 20 pounds you have to imagine he's at least a little bit faster and has a bit more range. And honestly he can always add more muscle later if he needs to. I'd much rather that he gets rid of any bad weight he had first.