••• 2026 Official Chicago Cubs Thread •••

And then we get to watch the A's outfielders play leapfrog in the Wrigley outfield. Need to be better, Cubs.
 
Starting to feel like this team is who they looked like at the beginning of the year.. a borderline wildcard team.
 
A bunch of Veterans that show no care. This is who they are an average team with no Slug and no clutch hitting. The offense is the reason this team is 32-29. No life. Oh it’s early ho hum. Take on the image of their over paid manager. Where his former team still owns the division and the Cubs
 
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I have been starting to wonder that at what point do we question if Counsell is the right manager. We paid him a lot and made some big moves with the assumption he could take this team to another level and he really hasn't done any better with the resources he's had than Ross did. I also blame Hoyer and Hawkins as well as they constructed the roster and build the farm system.

The Cardinals are basically playing with house money on a season everyone expected them to tank and we are seeing what a good minor league system can do when you want to do a quick rebuild. They are just some pitching acquisitions away from competing again and they have a lot of good team controlled position players on the roster much like the Cubs did when they build the team that won in 2016.
 
Cubs management keeps ‘halfway committing’ to winning…they won’t pay for ANY premium free agents but they’ll make a move each offseason to overpay a second tier veteran for past accomplishments..that is NOT the recipe for winning championships. They won’t commit to contact or slugging but won’t pay for the best at either. They’ve also done an awful job with the farm system whether that be in scouting talent or development or both.
 
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I guess if you want to spin something positive at least we didn't pay Kyle Tucker what the Dodgers did. Maybe he finally heats up at some point but right now he's not exacly living up to the contract he signed
 
I guess if you want to spin something positive at least we didn't pay Kyle Tucker what the Dodgers did. Maybe he finally heats up at some point but right now he's not exacly living up to the contract he signed

Yes and no. Sure, it sucks to pay a star and have them not live up to the contract (see Soriano) but it sucks way more to not even try.

IMO, the Cubs have been chasing the high of finding Jake Arrieta and Chris Hendrix over the more traditional path of just paying the Jon Lester's of the world or drafting the Baez/Bryant/Schwarber group.

They need to ******* stop with the bargain bin shopping and get out of the discount area of the free agency superstore. Even with their "big" signings they were looking for a discount (see Swanson)

They won't of course, they'll keep spending just enough to keep the people coming through the gates. I'd be curious to know what they spend compared to their peers on non luxury tax eligible items like scouting and player development. You can tell the Dodgers spare no expense in that department as well. The Cubs results in those departments have been pretty poor so I'm wondering if they've squandered those resources or if they haven't been provided those resources.
 
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Yes and no. Sure, it sucks to pay a star and have them not live up to the contract (see Soriano) but it sucks way more to not even try.

IMO, the Cubs have been chasing the high of finding Jake Arrieta and Chris Hendrix over the more traditional path of just paying the Jon Lester's of the world or drafting the Baez/Bryant/Schwarber group.

They need to ******* stop with the bargain bin shopping and get out of the discount area of the free agency superstore. Even with their "big" signings they were looking for a discount (see Swanson)

They won't of course, they'll keep spending just enough to keep the people coming through the gates. I'd be curious to know what they spend compared to their peers on non luxury tax eligible items like scouting and player development. You can tell the Dodgers spare no expense in that department as well. The Cubs results in those departments have been pretty poor so I'm wondering if they've squandered those resources or if they haven't been provided those resources.
He built a farm system completely based on signing first round picks under slot and going with quantity over quality and hoping that he gets somebody to break out at their 80th percentile outcome.

It's just been a disaster. You can't be so risk averse that you're paralyzed.

Giving a year old Bregman the additional two years he didn't even ask for last cycle at the money you gave him is just an asinine decsion.
 
He built a farm system completely based on signing first round picks under slot and going with quantity over quality and hoping that he gets somebody to break out at their 80th percentile outcome.

It's just been a disaster. You can't be so risk averse that you're paralyzed.

Giving a year old Bregman the additional two years he didn't even ask for last cycle at the money you gave him is just an asinine decsion.
Yeah those last couple of Bregman years could be VERY rough.
 
I guess if you want to spin something positive at least we didn't pay Kyle Tucker what the Dodgers did. Maybe he finally heats up at some point but right now he's not exacly living up to the contract he signed
He will get hot and finish the season around.260-.280, 20-30 homeruns, and 80-100 RBI. He is a good player but not a superstar.
 
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Yes and no. Sure, it sucks to pay a star and have them not live up to the contract (see Soriano) but it sucks way more to not even try.

IMO, the Cubs have been chasing the high of finding Jake Arrieta and Chris Hendrix over the more traditional path of just paying the Jon Lester's of the world or drafting the Baez/Bryant/Schwarber group.

They need to ******* stop with the bargain bin shopping and get out of the discount area of the free agency superstore. Even with their "big" signings they were looking for a discount (see Swanson)

They won't of course, they'll keep spending just enough to keep the people coming through the gates. I'd be curious to know what they spend compared to their peers on non luxury tax eligible items like scouting and player development. You can tell the Dodgers spare no expense in that department as well. The Cubs results in those departments have been pretty poor so I'm wondering if they've squandered those resources or if they haven't been provided those resources.
I'm sure most here are perfectly fine not paying Tucker $60 mil a yar after how last season played out. Not sure he has the makeup to be your star player on the team which is why the Dodgers can take that chance and keep him out of the spotlight a bit with all the stars on their roster.

I'm not sure who else you could have gone after in this past free agent market that would have filled a need. Bregman was ranked #2 after Tucker on MLB.com free agent rankings and Cubs. I guess Schwarber but $30 mil a year is a lot to pay a guy that is mostly a full time DH now. Go down this list and tell me how many of them you'd rather we signed instead of Bregman as the fits likely didn't make much sense with a lot of those guys.

I am fully onboard with paying for quality starting pitchers in the free agent market, but the problem right now is we don't have the caliber of position players coming up through the minors like we did with the 2016 roster build. We don't have a group like Rizzo/KB/Javy/Schwarber knocking at the door like we did when we signed Lester. We do have a ton of money coming off the books after this season that we can hopefully go after some of the big starting pitchers on the market. But who do you replace Happ and Suzuki with as the OF free agent options are not exactly plentiful and this article actually has them ranked as the best available OF MLB free-agent rankings: In the 2027 class, it's Tarik Skubal at No. 1 and everybody else - Yahoo Sports. We are pretty much locked up for the foreseeable future in the infield spots. And with the lack of MLB results lately with our own prospects not sure just how other organizations view our farm system if the Cubs were to go after a big acquistion in the trade market too.
 
This team is so ******* frustrating to watch right now. When the pitching is on the offense can't do ****. When the offense gets going a little the pitching can't hold up. Finding ways to lose so much lately.
 
Who is this team’s mandatory all star?…nobody on the entire roster’s numbers reflect that they deserve to be one.
 
Just gotta shrug at this point. Hard to fathom how a team can be so good and yet so terrible within the span of a few weeks.
 

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