MLB: 2020 Chicago Cubs Season Thread
- Thread starter Cyched
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My thoughts exactly. If you want to do best of 3, fine, but you at least need to give division winners byes or something. It's just a bad, poorly thought out format.
Concern with Rizzo is I’m fairly confident his agent came out and essentially said they gave us a deal with his last contract so they’ll be looking to make a haul this time around
I think you need to lock up Rizzo and Baez. The other free agents you can work around - keeping some and moving others depending on the deals you can make. I think people undervalue a consistently reliable first baseman until you don't have one. So many throwing errors by Cubs defenders become outs because Rizzo is still able to make the play. Baez is just so much fun to watch defensively and on the base paths. I really wonder how many runs he has saved both with catching base stealers with the snap tag and the steal that is never attempted because he is back there.
That would surprise me a bit because this current deal he is on he probably got more money over the course of that than had they just went through arbitration. I believe that it was a 7 year $41 mil deal with team options for 2020 and 2021 which at the time that was signed was a pretty good deal for someone that didn't have much service time yet. More info here: https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/spo... a seven-year,the first baseman $16.5 million.
I'd love to have Rizzo retire a Cub but if it turns into a situation like the Cardinals had with Pujols where the years and money don't make sense financially. 1B is not a hard position to replace a player and they have some guys already on the roster that could be moved to 1B too if needed. Hopefully they come to terms on a deal because he's probably one of my favorite all time Cubs players.
I have no issue giving Rizzo a deal, as long as it's within reason. Great glove, great leader and will continue to have some power. Javy I'm torn on. He's been horrible this year, but he still has value. Do you move him while you still can, realizing you may look foolish if he starts playing at a higher level? I don't know.
KB you let walk. I wouldn't even toss out an offer.
KB you let walk. I wouldn't even toss out an offer.
Rizzo seems to be a clubhouse leader and the guy who helps to keep things light both in the same package. Heyward and Rizzo really seem to be leaders of the team.
Javy is worth a risk of extending at a reasonable contract for his glove and all out effort he gives plus the fan appeal because he is so fun to watch.. He was trending the right way at the plate until this year if you look at his batting average which has been between .273-.290 the past 3 seasons and it was just 2 seasons ago he posted a 6.3 WAR. I guess you could make a similar case for Bryant but I have more concerns about how Bryant always seems to be hurt lately plus as a Boras client you can throw any reasonable contract offer out the door because he's going to hold out for a mega deal or at worst Boras will find him a 1-2 year "prove it" deal somewhere that still pays a ridiculous amount of money for taking a short term deal. The fight over his service time is all you need to know about where KB stands on his next contract negotiations. He isn't going to cut the Cubs a home team discount. Really wished they had tried harder to move him before this season while she still had 2 years of control left which could have brought back more than now on his last year and coming off a poor season.
Couldn't tell, was that a send or did Willie blow through it? Watching it live you knew he wasn't going to make it on that....
He was sent. He got a late break making sure the ball wasn't caught. I like the send and forcing the play at home. Took a perfect throw and it was.
I'm normally all for being aggressive in those spots for the reason you stated, but like I said, watching it live it didn't even look like it would be close...
It was an aggressive call by 3rd base coach, but he is only out with a great throw by Joyce.
The next batter has maybe a 25% chance getting Contreras home. IMO Joyce's odds of throwing him out were less than 50%.
Bryant has at least had some good at bats this game. That last AB might have been a HR if the wind wasn't blowing in. Baez and Rizzo just look lost out there.
