Offseason Thread!

[waldo7239117]

I think Phil Hughes is a guy the Cubs could go after. And I wouldn't be oppse to it. He's only 28 and could be a good 4 to 5 pitcher in the rotation and be good when the Cubs contend.

 

[daddies3angels]

So, I don't get why some people think Castillo won't be on the team. The guy has over a .360 OBP and playing good d. He has also gotten better an better as the year goes on. He is a core piece going forward

For Cubs already having 3/8 of their core in MLB lineup they sure do suck at scoring runs. Castro, Rizzo, Castillo. Look at other teams around MLB that about how many homegrown core guys they have in everday lineup. Rest filled by FA or trades.

 

[Jntg4]

I think Phil Hughes is a guy the Cubs could go after. And I wouldn't be oppse to it. He's only 28 and could be a good 4 to 5 pitcher in the rotation and be good when the Cubs contend.

Haven't you said that each of the past 2 or 3 off-seasons?

 

[waldo7239117]

Haven't you said that each of the past 2 or 3 off-seasons?

No. He's a free agent now, so I can see it. He would seem to be a Theo Epstein/Jed Hoyer guy.

 

[CSF77]

Not sure how I feel about an OF of Soler/Almora/Schierholtz.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp...tebook_id=57603662&vkey=notebook_chc&c_id=chc

CHICAGO -- With the departure of plenty of notable names -- most recently David DeJesus -- fellow outfielder Nate Schierholtz said on Monday that he'd like to be a part of the Cubs' future. If he can continue to produce consistently, the feeling would most surely be mutual.

The right fielder has been a consistent contributor, after serving mostly in a utility/reserve role in San Francisco and Philadelphia for the first six years of his career, and he's taken his numbers to new heights. With 105 games under his belt -- he still gets the bulk of his at-bats against right-handers -- Schierholtz has 18 homers (his previous career-high was 9), 96 hits (previous high was 93) and 58 RBIs (previous high was 41). His .277 average is six points above his career mark.

"That was the way I got out of San Francisco," Schierholtz said. "I had the confidence that if I went somewhere with a shot to play at least almost every day, I'd be able to put up better numbers than I had. That's my goal, just to prove I can play every day."

Schierholtz went deep twice in the Cubs' 11-1 rout of the Nationals on Monday, driving in a career-high six runs.

The Cubs' outfield prospect pipeline is well-stocked -- two of their top three prospects, Albert Almora and Jorge Soler, are outfielders -- but they're short on veterans since DeJesus and Alfonso Soriano were traded away this summer. With guys like Brian Bogusevic and Ryan Sweeney expected to get looks, Schierholtz could be a presence the Cubs could count on possibly beyond this season.

"I'd like to be a part of the future here," Schierholtz said of the passing of the non-waiver Trade Deadline. "And I'm happy I'm not out of here."

 

[JosMin]

Not sure how I feel about an OF of Soler/Almora/Schierholtz.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp...¬ebook_id=57603662&vkey=notebook_chc&c_id=chc

CHICAGO -- With the departure of plenty of notable names -- most recently David DeJesus -- fellow outfielder Nate Schierholtz said on Monday that he'd like to be a part of the Cubs' future. If he can continue to produce consistently, the feeling would most surely be mutual.

The right fielder has been a consistent contributor, after serving mostly in a utility/reserve role in San Francisco and Philadelphia for the first six years of his career, and he's taken his numbers to new heights. With 105 games under his belt -- he still gets the bulk of his at-bats against right-handers -- Schierholtz has 18 homers (his previous career-high was 9), 96 hits (previous high was 93) and 58 RBIs (previous high was 41). His .277 average is six points above his career mark.

"That was the way I got out of San Francisco," Schierholtz said. "I had the confidence that if I went somewhere with a shot to play at least almost every day, I'd be able to put up better numbers than I had. That's my goal, just to prove I can play every day."

Schierholtz went deep twice in the Cubs' 11-1 rout of the Nationals on Monday, driving in a career-high six runs.

The Cubs' outfield prospect pipeline is well-stocked -- two of their top three prospects, Albert Almora and Jorge Soler, are outfielders -- but they're short on veterans since DeJesus and Alfonso Soriano were traded away this summer. With guys like Brian Bogusevic and Ryan Sweeney expected to get looks, Schierholtz could be a presence the Cubs could count on possibly beyond this season.

"I'd like to be a part of the future here," Schierholtz said of the passing of the non-waiver Trade Deadline. "And I'm happy I'm not out of here."

Schierholtz would be a fantastic 4th outfielder, but I'd question him as an everyday player. He's having a nice season, and would certainly command a raise in the modest salary he's getting this year. The fact is he's almost non-existent against lefties, but what's bizarre is that he's only had 43 ABs this year against lefties, but has drawn 33% of his walks against them.

 

[CSF77]

They should see if he can hit lefties IMO.

Still with Soler his arm was less then expected. Him in LF, Scherholtz in RF and Almora in CF. It could be a strong OF.

Seeing Castro bumped down to the 8 hole. About time. He was never a strong OBA hitter or a strong SLG guy. #8 is where he belongs. Now if they can upg 2B next year they are cooking with Gas.

Thinking Murphy 3B, Valbuena 2B myself. Murphy is growing on me. Might need to see a doc about that.

 

[czman]

Seeing Castro bumped down to the 8 hole. About time. He was never a strong OBA hitter or a strong SLG guy. #8 is where he belongs. Now if they can upg 2B next year they are cooking with Gas.

I see him more as a 6/7 hitter. In the 8 spot he is going to get nothing to hit and strike out even more.

Honestly, Castro and Rizzo should get Dale fired. Both of them have gotten worse the more time they have had with Dale and his staff. Teams don't pay the money they gave Castro to bat 8 and be a poor defender.

If Castro/Rizzo/Castillo are all core players they cannot be 6-8 in your lineup. 6-8 is not where core players go. The Cubs need to do a much better job of coaching hitters on the MLB level, especially young ones.

 

[CSF77]

Castro has never been a solid OBA guy. 2450 career PA, 120 career BB. 4.9% career walk rate. He is not a quality AB. He was a free swinger that had a knack of hitting balls out of the zone for singles. Call it luck or what ever. Dale etc tried to make a hitter of him but as we have seen he is a free swinging guy that reality set in.

He has not taken to instruction is all this says cause it aint clicking with him.

 

[SilenceS]

Castro has never been a solid OBA guy. 2450 career PA, 120 career BB. 4.9% career walk rate. He is not a quality AB. He was a free swinger that had a knack of hitting balls out of the zone for singles. Call it luck or what ever. Dale etc tried to make a hitter of him but as we have seen he is a free swinging guy that reality set in.

He has not taken to instruction is all this says cause it aint clicking with him.

He see's more pitches per at bat then any Cub on the team. There is a lot of variables going on with him. I would worry more about Rizzo then Castro. Castro has proven himself until this down season. Rizzo never has.

 

[SilenceS]

Theo was on MLB Network Radio doing an interview. This is what he said about some of our prospects.


Javier Baez:

Javy is an extremely impressive kid, our first round pick in 2011. The thing that jumps out right away the first time you see Javy play is his bat speed. I mean it is 80 bat speed. The name that most people drop as a comparison, just with the bat speed alone is Gary Sheffield. You kinda roll your eyes when you hear that but if you watch him swing the bat, it is reminiscent of Sheff’s bat speed and you can’t say that lightly. He’s got a chance to be a really well-rounded player. He’s just not bat speed. When he first started his pro career he was a little bit out of control and the bat speed was really the only thing that stood out. He probably took too big a swing; he chased too many pitches, little bit out of control in the field and on the basepaths. But he’s really worked hard on his game to get himself more under control in the batter’s box, tone down his leg kick a little bit, toned down his hips and lowered them a little bit. He’s now swinging at strikes and the ball absolutely jumps off this kid’s bat. He’s got 31 homers, 30-plus doubles between High-A and Double-A at age 20, and he’s really well rounded. He’s got great fielding instincts. We think he can stay at shortstop and also has the baseball mind and the athletic ability to move around the diamond. So he could play third, he could play second, he could probably play outfield, he could probably catch if we needed him to. But realistically he can play anywhere around the infield to and is really working hard. We are proud of the season he’s had developmentally.

Kris Bryant:

His performance and his development and how quickly he can work on his weaknesses will dictate that but we are really excited to have him in the organization. Raw power is so hard to find in the game these days. Not only Javy, but Kris Bryant too. They don’t have to hit all of the baseball to hit it out of the ballpark. They have the kind of power that can leave the yard to all fields. Bryant is pretty advanced. He was a college player that had a lot of success. Probably more success, in terms of power, than anyone has ever had with these bats they are using now in college. But there are still some things he needs to work on. He didn’t get pitched to a lot in college so see the better pitching and seeing the different attack plans that better pitching is going to have for him will be important. He’s 6-5 and a half. We think he’s got a chance to stick at third base but that’s going to come with a lot of work, especially to his left. There’s some things he needs to work on but another really hard worker and a great kid who had a lot of success in short-season. We have another third base prospect we really like who is 19 years old in Low-A named Jeimer Candelario. Rather than move Candelario up, who is having a really good season in Low-A, we wanted to leave him there because we think that is the appropriate level for him right now. We wanted to test Bryant to see if he could handle High-A. We thought it would be good for him. So far so good. He’s hit a few home runs; he’s hit some doubles and is seeing pitching. He’s seeing what it is like to see when they can throw three really good breaking balls at you in the course of an at bat and make adjustments. We are happy with the early returns so far from Kris.


And he said this about the payroll:

Back in 2011, the year before I got here, I think the payroll was around $140-$142 million. It is significantly lower than that now just because some of the obstacles we’ve run into. The renovation and having to pay for it ourselves and some other factors. I think clearly the first step is getting it back to where it was and then growing it significantly from there. And we should be able to.

 

[waldo7239117]

So, that says the Cubs can spend when they want too and on a player they want if one comes available.

 

[chibears55]

And he said this about the payroll:

Back in 2011, the year before I got here, I think the payroll was around $140-$142 million. It is significantly lower than that now just because some of the obstacles we’ve run into. The renovation and having to pay for it ourselves and some other factors. I think clearly the first step is getting it back to where it was and then growing it significantly from there. And we should be able to.

wow.. basically what some of us has been saying all a long, but a few knuckle heads just couldn't quite grasp it..

yes we all agree that they need to do both sign needed FAs and add their own best talent..

but when owners had payroll cut significantly by almost 40 mil., your not able to sign big name FAs.
so, what do you do over the couple yrs your cutting payroll ? you work on building up your farm system.

now that they have their stadium deals, etc., they know where they are at money wise and can start increasing payroll with significant FAs as epstein says.

 

[beckdawg]

wow.. basically what some of us has been saying all a long, but a few knuckle heads just couldn't quite grasp it..

yes we all agree that they need to do both sign needed FAs and add their own best talent..

but when owners had payroll cut significantly by almost 40 mil., your not able to sign big name FAs.
so, what do you do over the couple yrs your cutting payroll ? you work on building up your farm system.

now that they have their stadium deals, etc., they know where they are at money wise and can start increasing payroll with significant FAs as epstein says.

I really hope they are more measured than Theo was during his Boston days. Frankly, I don't want to see them spending on the top 5 FA's yearly. Whether it was Theo or Boston ownership, I feel like they got caught up in 1 uping the Yankees. And how many of those contracts worked out well for either Boston or NYY?

What I'm hoping is they give themselves maybe $50 mil a year to spend in FA max. That'd be 125% more than last year where they spent $40 mil. With that much you can sign 1 big FA or 2 medium tier guys and still have money to fill out the rest of the roster. For example, I'd rather have them take a chance on 2-3 guys for $10-15 mil than to drop $20 mil on one guy.

 

[chibears55]

What I'm hoping is they give themselves maybe $50 mil a year to spend in FA max. That'd be 125% more than last year where they spent $40 mil. With that much you can sign 1 big FA or 2 medium tier guys and still have money to fill out the rest of the roster. For example, I'd rather have them take a chance on 2-3 guys for $10-15 mil than to drop $20 mil on one guy.

i think that where he was heading towards with what he was saying..

i dont think he was saying their going to be dropping 20 mil per on FAs ito make a jump from 100 to 140 in just 1 off season..

first there is no one in that category in that next 2 yrs except for cano, and i dont see them going after him this off season..

i see them doing exactly what you said, adding a couple guys in the 10-15 range in needed positions .
i can see a starter and an OFer being added this off season via FA..
i know some dont care for him, but i just have a feeling jacoby ellsbury is their top FA choice this year.
he has come back from his injury last year and put together a solid season.. 500 ABs .295 AVG .355 OBP 45 SB as a leadoff hitter

 

[beckdawg]

i think that where he was heading towards with what he was saying..

i dont think he was saying their going to be dropping 20 mil per on FAs ito make a jump from 100 to 140 in just 1 off season..

first there is no one in that category in that next 2 yrs except for cano, and i dont see them going after him this off season..

i see them doing exactly what you said, adding a couple guys in the 10-15 range in needed positions .
i can see a starter and an OFer being added this off season via FA..
i know some dont care for him, but i just have a feeling jacoby ellsbury is their top FA choice this year.
he has come back from his injury last year and put together a solid season.. 500 ABs .295 AVG .355 OBP 45 SB as a leadoff hitter

I've said else where I think it's pretty clear that they will target Elsbury or Choo in FA. I've leaned toward Choo because I think he'll be cheaper and get a shorter term deal but either would give them something.