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***Official 2023 Chicago Cubs Thread***

Cyforce said:
I'd try to deal Happ. You'll have have Tauchman, PCA, Suzuki, and Bellinger. Then you have Canario and Cassie in the system.

Mervis at first but Bellinger plays somewhere basically everyday. That's what makes him so valuable
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I'm not against dealing Happ but he's the Cubs player union rep and is a Pittsburgh and Cincinnati boy, so I just don't foresee him signing off on a trade.

Hand up, I liked the extension at the time, and still don't think it was a terrible deal, but I absolutely despise no-trade clauses unless it's a guy you know you'll never need to trade. With PCA, Canario, Davis, Caissie, and Alcantara, I'm not sure why they felt the need to add that clause in there.
 
Cubs could backload two major contracts next year if they wanted. If Bellinger is $30 million AAV, start it at $24 million and escalate it from there. 2025 has a lot of $$$ off the books.
 
ISUCubswin said:
I'm not against dealing Happ but he's the Cubs player union rep and is a Pittsburgh and Cincinnati boy, so I just don't foresee him signing off on a trade.

Hand up, I liked the extension at the time, and still don't think it was a terrible deal, but I absolutely despise no-trade clauses unless it's a guy you know you'll never need to trade. With PCA, Canario, Davis, Caissie, and Alcantara, I'm not sure why they felt the need to add that clause in there.
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I look at it this way. If you tell him what the team is going to look like and his playing time is going to be limited he'll want to go.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: isucy86
I grew up a Cubs fan (due to WGN after school) and adopted the Royals in ‘08.

Royals pitcher today faced cubs 12 yrs ago; royals tv announcers just listed the cubs lineup for that day. Some of those names were from a lifetime ago for me: Carlos Z, Kouskie F, Darwin Barney, s Castro etc.

Not as good of memories as from the WGN days of R Sutcliffe, The Hawk, Steve Buechele, Grace, Ryno, Slocomb, Randal Kirk Meyer’s, SS but still good memories.

Go royals.
 
CyState85 said:
Happ at 1B??? I throw it out all the time but I think he could play an average 1B
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Would like my 1B to have a little more HR production if he's not a high average/elite doubles guy.

For 2024 seems like the Cubs have to decide on Happ or Suzuki. They both have no trades, but guys want to start. If it means being a spot player with Cubs or be traded and start- my guess is each would be open to a trade. Cubs might have to eat some contract.
 
ISUCubswin said:
As I said yesterday, I'm not anti-PCA, but I'm curious what the teams philosophy is on getting him some time in the corner spots.

Suzuki is hitting .316 with a .632 slg in the month of August. I may be in the minority, but I'm not big on benching him, unless the idea is he becomes a DH.

Happ is hitting .217 since May and makes sense to be benched for PCA, but management has shown complete loyalty and zero interest in moving him from perhaps the most important run-producing spot in our lineup. I'd rather see Happ move to a 7/8/9 spot before being benched.

I did see a comment (Bleacher Nation, maybe?) that mentioned Bellinger wants to be a CF long-term. Maybe the move is to prepare for the offseason so you can promise that to Bellinger, but as we've referenced before, Happ and Suzuki have no-trade clauses. The "problem" with Bellinger in CF and PCA in a corner in 2024 is, if you make a play for Ohtani, Suzuki or Happ will be relegated to no role.
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I'm with you on PCA. I love him for the future but I'm fine if he stays down for the next month and then comes up.

That said, my biggest problem with them giving him time in the corners is he should never play a corner OF spot. He's just too good defensively. You might move PCA for 1 or 2 CF in the world and Cody Bellinger or Mike Tauchman aren't one of them, as much as I love Cody in CF.

Edit: And playing LF or RF in Iowa isn't even necessary. The only possible problems he'd have are with Wrigleys weird dimensions and no way to replicate that at Sec Taylor.
 
Monday and Thursday are big games. Brewers are off those two days.

Cubs have played two less games than the Brewers to date, so by Friday it will be even.
 
I think the most important day remaining in the season is September 1, DH w/ Cincinnati. Get their starter early game one and we'll tax their suspect bullpen all weekend. Getting 4 in 3 days puts us in position to over take Milwaukee in our series with the Brewers.

I know we've had 5 QS in a row but it seems like they're doing it with mirrors. Now Smyly's back in the rotation. Just can't have anymore turds like we have when you think it's starting to roll.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: GT25Ump
Was at the game today. Should have walked Witt with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Glad it worked out. Wouldn’t have been surprised if it didn’t. Most of these terrible teams have just one player to avoid. If someone else beats us, tip your hat and move on
 
  • Winner
Reactions: GT25Ump and CloneFanInKC
OPILCyclone said:
Was at the game today. Should have walked Witt with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Glad it worked out. Wouldn’t have been surprised if it didn’t. Most of these terrible teams have just one player to avoid. If someone else beats us, tip your hat and move on
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I had it on the radio and both Coom and Zach (it was the 5th so no Pat) were shocked he saw a pitch in the zone. They were surprised by the first one and had essentially conceded a walk after the 3 straight balls.
 
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Cyforce said:
I look at it this way. If you tell him what the team is going to look like and his playing time is going to be limited he'll want to go.
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He used to play infield when he first came up, I don't know what his defense is like these days if he were to move back to the infield but he could fill a Zobrist type role possibly? He does have 34 games at 3B, 67 at 2B and 11 at 1B in his career then has been mostly LF and CF with 69 games in RF too.

With the extension they gave him that included a no trade clause its going to be tough to squeeze him out even with a diminished role. The no-trade clause was just dumb to do but it is what it is now. I was ready to trade him last year at the deadline knowing we had all these OF prospects in the pipeline so either there was not much of a market for him last year or the Cubs botched this up both by not trading him when he was probably at peak value and by extending him.
 
CYdTracked said:
He used to play infield when he first came up, I don't know what his defense is like these days if he were to move back to the infield but he could fill a Zobrist type role possibly? He does have 34 games at 3B, 67 at 2B and 11 at 1B in his career then has been mostly LF and CF with 69 games in RF too.

With the extension they gave him that included a no trade clause its going to be tough to squeeze him out even with a diminished role. The no-trade clause was just dumb to do but it is what it is now. I was ready to trade him last year at the deadline knowing we had all these OF prospects in the pipeline so either there was not much of a market for him last year or the Cubs botched this up both by not trading him when he was probably at peak value and by extending him.
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Who would you want him playing over?
1B/OF Bellinger
1B Mervis
2B Hoerner
SS Swanson
3B Candelario
LF Tauchman
CF PCA
RF Suzuki

Have heard they plan to blow through the salary cap. If you do that why would Happ warrant playing time anywhere?
 
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