••• 2026 Official Chicago Cubs Thread •••
- Thread starter Cyforce
- Start date
This is so laughable Alcantara is 1 for 16. He is terrible. Also cost the team a chance to win the Giants Series at home when he got doubled off 3rd by just taking off for home. He should not be on this roster.
Easy to say with hind sight, but it would really nice to have Cam Smith still.
The question is how much of a discount? He currently makes $20M/yr and will be 32 in August. At his best Happ's a .240 hitter with around 25HRs. Which means 30percent of time he's a .280 hitter with great power and 70 percent of the time he's a .200 hitter.
Personally, wouldn't pay Happ more than $11M. I would rather pay for a solid starting staff and reliever group. IMO playoff winning baseball is about pitching and pitchers with velocity.
Seems like instead of scouring for reliever arms, Hoyer should be scouring for "overlooked" hitters. And spend Rickett's money wisely on pitching arms. And signing a guy like Skubal makes me really nervous based on recent history of big money free agents like: Burnes, Snell, Cole, Musgrove, etc. Over the long haul, I like the Brewers and Pirates approach of developing big arms internally.
Agree with you on Happ except I’d add he’s a gold glove fielder and is a switch hitter - there is value in both. Good clubhouse guy too. I’d say $15m seems about right.
Happ doesn’t have enough productivity potential to resign. He’s a great glove and a league average hitter. Suzuki is frequently referred to as the best hitter on the team. I’d try to pay Seya for four more years as guys like Shaw Ramirez and Conrad develop. Yes Conrad was finally activated.
If you let Imanaga. Taillon, Happ all walk. Sign Suzuki at market. Extend Rea and Kelly for same money. Get Boyd at a discount .You can afford Skubal.
Skubal, Boyd, Brown, Cabrera, Steele and eventually Horton is a great rotation. With Rea and Assad for depth and Wiggins at Iowa.
Dansby may have just saved this game with that grab on the liner. Amazing instincts.....
Thielbar has been terrible all year. They caught lightning in a bottle with him last year, but now yeah, he's washed. Mop-up duty only, please. Probably the same with Pomeranz, but I'm willing to give him a bit of a look before getting there. He has July to look decent, or he's gone by Aug 1.
I like being GM, will they hire me and fire Jed? LOL
Bullpen has been junky but give Webb credit for stepping into the closer role with all of the injuries. He’s been serviceable to good.
Pomeranz was looking washed up at times last season too which is why they didn't make much of an effort to resign him. Pomeranz is 37 Thielbar is 39 neither one has an upside anymore it's trying to milk every last bit of production you can out of them.
The bullpen is a mess right now with all the pitchers we have on the IL which the count is 13 and of that you could put together a decent rotation with Steele, Horton, Brown, and Taillon. Rea and Assad should be the long relief arms or Assad even being in Iowa stretched out as your next guy up for an injury in the rotation. Even with all the injuries they have managed to hold the pitching staff together with duct tape and keep us in a lot of games we could have won if the offense didn't go into a funk in June.
PCA is looking like an MVP front runner right now if he keeps this up. His splits since moving him to the leadoff spot are just ridiculous. He's hitting .373 when he bats leadoff with a .471 OBP and after tonight has now hit 14 of his 21 HR out of that spot too. He's taking walks now too, 23 so far this season at leadoff and last year he took 29 for the whole season. I've been critical of Craig's lineups at times but moving PCA to leadoff is what has sparked this comeback. We are still streaky on offense because we have too many flawed guys that go on a hot streak then follow it with an extended cold streak where they are a near automatic out. It's really fun with both the hitting and pitching are clicking and just hope that we are healthy and on a hot streak when the postseason arrives.
Regardless of what the Cubs do the rest of the season PCA emerging as a bona fide superstar is really fun to watch. Hopefully he keeps this up and makes a run for mvp. True 5 tool player.
Cubs have to shake up the clubhouse. Plus, NLCS caliber teams need stud players in the 3-5 lineup spots. PCA is playing at that level, but he may be too valuable as lead-off guy. Otherwise, guys like Suzuki, Happ, Busch are 6/7 spot players in an NLCS caliber lineup.
Cubs are paying Suzuki & Happ $40M. I would rather pay a stud corner OF $30M and find a productive bat at $10-12M for the other corner spot. Heck, I'd be OK with Shaw in one of the corner spots if it allowed for signing an elite slugger.
PCA is really looking like he’s going to turn into a guaranteed yearly .280 30+ HRs 100+ RBI player. Plus just insanely good defense and speed.
