In season thread

[chibears55]

Baez should get plenty of swings with Soler on the DL.

Right. .

I think their using this opportunity to get LaStella extra AB now because he missed most of year and come Sept Baez gets called up and get his opportunity. ..

 

[2323]

Something would have to give for Baez to get a opportunity.

Right now they are in love with Coghlan. So I see Baez getting time in with the roster expansion to give the regulars days off. But come play off time I'm not sure that he will be added to the roster.

Now next year is when they will have to make some choices. Fowler is a F/A. Coghlan Arb 3. Denorfia F/A.

There is an opportunity to add him to the roster.

Looking at next years team they have Bryant, Russell and Soler as the main RH hitters. Rizzo, Schwarber and Montero as the main LH hitters. This covers 6 of the 8 positions. That basically leaves 2B and CF up for grabs.

Ideally you would want a table setter type. Basically resigning Fowler to lead off. That puts Castro, Coghlan and Baez fighting for 2B.

What I would do: Give the lion share at 2B to Castro this year. This should up his offseason trade value. Bring Baez up for giving days off but in general it is about seeing if Baez's adjustment play at the major league level.

Then next off season see if they can trade Castro to NYM for Neise strait up. Mets will need to shed a SP in a bad way. Cubs need to add a SP in a bad way. It is an ideal trade. This opens up 2B for Baez and puts Coghlan into a sub role. Which he is suited for.

There's something at stake now. Castro had his chance. And it's not even as if the upside was ever there. Are you absolutely certain they wouldn't be better off letting Castro watch the post season at home?

At this point, anyone trying to lobby for Castro is going out on an extremely long and flimsy limb.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Right. .

I think their using this opportunity to get LaStella extra AB now because he missed most of year and come Sept Baez gets called up and get his opportunity. ..

There are way too many variables to predict what they are going to do with Baez. He could conceivably play 2B, RF or 3B with Bryant moving to 3B. The issues with any of those is that they like Coghlan at 2B so he's likely to return there if/when Soler comes back and they're not likely to take playing time away from Coghlan if Soler is still out so RF/3B don't completely fit either. It's more likely that he gets some spot starts in all three positions and gets some AB off the bench. It's also not out of the question that they don't want to expose him in 2015 too much as they might be planning on using him as a trade chip in the offseason and want his AAA improvement increase his value as opposed to the possibility of diminishing it at the MLB level. Of course they could also consider him part of their September pans and he'll take over everyday duties somewhere. Way too options to predict what they're going to do with Baez and we don't have a lot of hints in which direction they go. We'll have to let it play out.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Didn't really know where to put this and didn't want to start a thread but did Denard Span just injure himself into being a 2016 option for the Cubs? 61 games and 3 stints on the DL probably don't equal a huge $80-$100 million contract over 4 or 5 years which had projected for him. This could be a case where he goes and looks for a 1 year deal, on a contender, to rebuild value and get the huge payday next year. I have no idea if he's a bet-on-himself kind of guy or if he would just sign a lesser contract for the years and security. Still, this kind of thing has happened before so it's something to think about.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

We're likely not going to hear anything until tomorrow but Schwarber's pain sure sounds like an oblique injury. That could be tough news as it could very well sideline him for the rest of the regular season just when he was starting to figure things out again. Fingers crossed.

 

[Parade_Rain]

We're likely not going to hear anything until tomorrow but Schwarber's pain sure sounds like an oblique injury. That could be tough news as it could very well sideline him for the rest of the regular season just when he was starting to figure things out again. Fingers crossed.

I agree. It looked like he was getting back in the groove. We'll see if experienced catching helps Hendricks, if this injury keeps Schwarber out for any length of time. Bummer overall.