IST: Cubs @ Cardinals (9/7-9/9)

[Diehardfan]

The Cubbies are coming tra-la, tra-la......

 

[Shawon0Meter]

Since the Cubs hung on to win, I'll look at the Cardinals big inning as a positive. They got it out of their system before tomorrow's game

 

[FrankieLyrical]

The Cubbies are coming tra-la, tra-la......

And we have the British with us

 

[chibears55]

Damn tomorrow an early game..cant watch it

Lester gotta keep it going, he can't choke after seeing Haren and Hammel shut them down. .

Hopefully the offense dont fold up either. ..

 

[FrankieLyrical]

You guys are lucky we won, I was going to put the full blame on Chibears55 and start a hate campaign for him doubting Rizzo's ability to get to 500 HR's. But peace shall ensue... for now.

 

[FrankieLyrical]

Night fellas, hopefully we complete the sweep tomorrow!

 

[Shawon0Meter]

 

[SilenceS]

Well...."great" relatively speaking. But better.

Big HR tonight. Nice to see.

He has batted over .300 in over 100 bats now. I know his soft toss gets in the way


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TL1961]

Lmao.. ok ?


Castro get traded to mets, so he gone...


Epstein decides he wants Bryant to play RF not 3B in 2016
So ????? What do you think happens to Soler

Bet me.

 

[TL1961]

He has batted over .300 in over 100 bats now. I know his soft toss gets in the way


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Only when he actually fields the ball.

 

[SilenceS]

Couple of things, yes, Baez lost weight in the off season. That was a planned thing and not an accident thing. The other things. Maddon has shown he does not care about putting people out of position. They are tremendous althetes and I agree they can play anywhere.

Calm down on the trades because the Cubs are dead set on getting their value on a player or they aren't trading him. I said numerous times that I read many of insiders that say the Cubs will not give Castro away. They are open to trading almost anything but they want their value for it. The Cubs are in a absolute awesome position. They want to buy pitching and keep their bats. It has been the plan for a long time. They may trade in the off season but it will be for only what they want and not just getting rid of someone.

 

[TL1961]

Couple of things, yes, Baez lost weight in the off season. That was a planned thing and not an accident thing. The other things. Maddon has shown he does not care about putting people out of position. They are tremendous althetes and I agree they can play anywhere.

Calm down on the trades because the Cubs are dead set on getting their value on a player or they aren't trading him. I said numerous times that I read many of insiders that say the Cubs will not give Castro away. They are open to trading almost anything but they want their value for it. The Cubs are in a absolute awesome position. They want to buy pitching and keep their bats. It has been the plan for a long time. They may trade in the off season but it will be for only what they want and not just getting rid of someone.

Agreed. They won't trad just to trade.

 

[SilenceS]

Only when he actually fields the ball.

You give Castro an off season at second. He will dominate that position. Him and Russell range with Baez at third is a coaches dream. That is 3 SS range. Teams dream about that.

 

[beckdawg]

I get what your saying and anything possible. .

It just would be insane if they decide to keep him down in Iowa to polish up on catching and taking his bat out of lineup. .

Also, i think management prefers him in OF over C for the long haul. .

I don't know that I'd characterize it as insane. Counter Intuitive probably but not insane. But that's one of the perks of this front office. They often see the larger picture and definitely think outside the box. Admittedly, this concept I just tossed out there only works if you're pretty sure Schwarber can be good enough to catch in time. But if you're at say a 75% chance you think he'll end up at least being passable at catcher I think that it's a very interesting idea.

Think about it this way, I don't think they'd leave Schwarber down all year but for the sake of argument let's say they give him til june in the minors. Also for the sake of argument let's say that between this offseason and that time in the minors that gets him to the point where he's good enough to learn on the job at the MLB level. At that point you have ross who's up there in age and probably someone you'd like to start phasing out. But you also have a team that is super versatile especially if Alcantara plays well enough for a bench role. So, carrying 3 C wouldn't be a huge deal. You would essentially make all the pieces fit without getting rid of anyone. Now I admit that this is possibly being too cute. But, my argument would be what do you lose? If you don't do this you're likely trading Baez, Soler or Castro this offseason anyways to make the pieces fit. So that essentially becomes the question is Schwarber going to play better than the odd man out of those 3 during that time period? I think you could make the argument Schwarber would but I'm not sure the difference is big enough that it really makes a huge difference. There would of course be the player you trade them for to factor in as well but if we're talking Castro getting trade I'm not really sure how you'd get decent value on him and Baez/Soler have less compelling reasons for trading them.

On the flip side, if Schwarber works his way even to a bad defensive catcher with what he's shown as a hitter you're talking perennial all-star off just his bat alone at that position. So while I agree it would be some what surprising to people, I think this is definitely a case of the juice being worth the squeeze. Plus I feel like this covers you a bit. If Baez struggles again and you trade away Castro then you might regret that. If Castro regains his 2014 form and you trade him for pennies on the dollar you might regret that. And if Schwarber really can catch and you don't try to find out then you might regret that as well. This buys you time and gives you an out of it potentially working for all involved. Plus, while this is likely less of an issue it may save you some money with regard to super-2 on Schwarber down the road.

Regardless, Castro was one of the 75 best hitters in baseball last year and is on a team friendly contract so it sort of troubles me that some are so quickly willing to toss him aside. You generally aren't improving by trading away those type of players unless you're getting equal and probably better pitching given pitcher injury risk.

 

[SilenceS]

I wouldn't bet all my cards on any of the 3. Let it work itself out. Russell has struggles at the plate. Yes, he is young but so was Castro that people forget. Besides that beautiful homerun he has struck out a ton lately again. I wrry about that. I think he needs that to get power but I rather him only hit for 10 to 15 homers. The Cubs have a plethora of power hitters. I am looking for a guy to pu the bat on the ball. Im hopeful he gets there but sacrificing some power isn't always a bad thing.

 

[beckdawg]

I wouldn't bet all my cards on any of the 3. Let it work itself out. Russell has struggles at the plate. Yes, he is young but so was Castro that people forget. Besides that beautiful homerun he has struck out a ton lately again. I wrry about that. I think he needs that to get power but I rather him only hit for 10 to 15 homers. The Cubs have a plethora of power hitters. I am looking for a guy to pu the bat on the ball. Im hopeful he gets there but sacrificing some power isn't always a bad thing.

Russell's K rate is down from 31.1% in the first half to 25.7% in the 2nd. 25% is still too high but given that it's going down and given his age I'm not that worried about him though to be fair I should have also included him in my cover your ass talk when mentioning Schwarber possibly catching at AAA. To go from 25% down to 20% over a full season only ends up being around 30 K's so he's not that far off where you'd like him to be. To contrast him with say Baez who I believe I rightly was worried about, for Baez to go from 40ish% to 25% was cutting close to 100 K's off hence my worry though thus far he's way under so props to him.

Overall, I really just don't see how you get good value trading Castro this offseason. And even if you ultimately do end up trading Castro down the line I feel like having Baez at 3B gives you other outs with players such as Alcantara/Happ/Torres. Not to mention as you suggested having 3 SS's in the infield plus having a Bryant, Soler, Fowler/Jackson/FA/trade OF also probably ends up being a pretty good defensive OF.

Honestly, I'd love to see those 3 SS's play for awhile to get some data on the type of range they cover because as decent as Bryant has been at 3B you have to imagine that those 3 who all cover plus range would gobble up a crap ton of ground balls. MLB average on ground ball rate for pitchers is 45.3%. Arrieta is 54.0% this year, Lester is 48.9%, Hendricks is 51.3% and Hammel is 36.7%. I think you can make a pretty compelling argument that if the cubs were to bring in another ground ball pitcher that they would possibly be able to manufacture a TOR type with that defense not to mention the benefit they would also get out of Arreita, Hendricks and Lester who are all above average in GB rate. Coincidentally, Tyson Ross this season has a 61.9% GB rate which is 3rd best in the league. Of the other FA's, Price(40.5%), Cueto(41.6%), Greinke(45.8%), Zimmermann(42.1%), Leake(52.0 %), Samardzija(40.3%), Gallardo(50.1%), Wei-Yin Chen(39.9%) and Mat Latos(43.9%) only Greinke, Leake and Gallardo are above average in ground ball rate.

So, besides Ross who the cubs have been connected with there's a couple of cheaper names in Gallardo and Leake who they might be able to sign for 2nd tier money and get a better bang for their buck. It's an interesting angle I hadn't really considered when the talk of Ross came up at the deadline.

 

[Parade_Rain]

...

Regardless, Castro was one of the 75 best hitters in baseball last year and is on a team friendly contract so it sort of troubles me that some are so quickly willing to toss him aside. You generally aren't improving by trading away those type of players unless you're getting equal and probably better pitching given pitcher injury risk.

I was resigned to the trading away when he lost his starting job and didn't bounce back soon enough at the plate. If he can bounce back, there isn't any reason to trade him.

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

 

[chibears55]

Regardless, Castro was one of the 75 best hitters in baseball last year and is on a team friendly contract so it sort of troubles me that some are so quickly willing to toss him aside. You generally aren't improving by trading away those type of players unless you're getting equal and probably better pitching given pitcher injury risk.

Never said they should just toss Castro aside. .

My whole thing is, their going to make a decision on where to play Bryant after the season. .. either 3B or RF

If it RF, then it obvious they trade Soler. ..

If it 3B, then they have to decide between Baez and Castro for 2B..

One will get traded. ..


But whoever gets traded it wont be for nothing, it will be for a SP upgrade over Hammel or Hendricks. .

 

[TC in Mississippi]

I was resigned to the trading away when he lost his starting job and didn't bounce back soon enough at the plate. If he can bounce back, there isn't any reason to trade him.

Especially if, like most seem to believe, they have to send money with him to make up for the contract. If he can play a decent 2B and his hitting continues to improve they may be more inclined to keep him, at least until his value improves. That creates a logjam but maybe Baez is your Zobrist like guy playing all over the field. The nice thing is that are lots of options.