***Official 2023 Chicago Cubs Thread***
- Thread starter BigJCy
- Start date
Bellinger's leadoff double sets up the whole 9th inning. I sure hope Ricketts opens the wallet for this guy this winter. With PCA on the way, the Cubs could put Belli at 1B full-time and have 4 gold glovers out there, pretty cool.
For our Spanish speaking Cubs fan board members:
I signed up for the standalone Marquee Network streaming service on Saturday and watched most of the last 3 games and thought I’d see them lose all 3. That bottom of the ninth was fun.
The other thing that can catapult a team into a winning streak is playing the Royals, Tigers, and Pirates the next ten games. Personally, anything worse than 7-3 would be pretty disappointing. And the Brewers have one more against the Dodgers, then the Rangers, Twins, Padres for the next ten.
And all of that is to set up and absolutely humongous series to end August with the Brewers coming to town. The next couple weeks of baseball are going to be a blast. Being in a divisional race is so much more fun than sucking
Yup, I expect he's done for the year and this is going to mess with the payroll available next year as he probably will opt into his 2024 year now. There is a lot of good starting pitching that will be hitting the free agent market too that he could be replaced with. Maybe the front office doesn't change course and is still aggressive with their spending realizing it's just 1 more year of him on the books but who knows... If he opts in then they probably will not pick up Hendricks $16 mil option. Other options for 2024 that will have implications:
Gomes: $6 mil club option
Barnhart: $3.25 player option
Mancini: $7 mil player option - even though he was cut he cleared waviers so he is going to be dead money next year regardless
Heyward: $5 mil a year in deferred money through 2027 but at least its not the $22 mil hit this year
Also have several players arbitration eligible they will need to make offer decisions on.
Last night was crazy. I thought the Cubs were going to lay an egg & roll over:
3 incredible plays:
- Fulmer strikes out side with bases loaded. AND his pitches were filthy!
- Madrigal's homer
- Morel's 3 run dinger after looking pathetic on first 2 pitches of at bat. Pretty much a miracle Morel touched all the bases while undressing and running at same time.
I think they try to add a top of the rotation guy and keep Stroman.
New guy, Stroman, Steele, Taillon and the young guys for the 5th spot seems pretty salty.
Having Gomes one more year seem perfect.
Heyward has played well enough that we should be able to subtract a league minimum from that 5 mil.
Yeah I think Stroman picking up that option would be great. Especially if you assume they keep Hendricks if Stroman opts out. He's not being paid a ridiculous amount of money and you can add the new guy at the top.
Plus Horton is a top of the rotation guy, he just needs more seasoning. It's possible he's the guy they decide will replace Stroman in 2025.
