***Official 2024 Chicago Cubs Thread***

[ISUCubswin]

I'm more and more convinced that the Ricketts aren't the problem. They let Jed go into the tax for this dreck of a roster.

I think it's Jed that doesn't want to lay out the money.

5 WAR Matt Chapman would’ve put us over the Tier I but remained under Tier 2.

But we went with negative WAR, unknown Christopher Morel.

Just BARELY going over the first tier alone is a cause for firing, much less failing, again, to make the postseason

 

[Rabbuk]

5 WAR Matt Chapman would’ve put us over the Tier I but remained under Tier 2.

But we went with negative WAR, unknown Christopher Morel.

Just BARELY going over the first tier alone is a cause for firing, much less failing, again, to make the postseason

I mean I think we all knew morel was **** not really an unknown

 

[isucy86]

This team underachieved for many, many more reasons than Christopher Morel's play. It's COMICAL a lot of Cubs fans are critical of the FO for not giving young talent a legitimate shot. But when the FO let's a young kid play and it doesn't work out they blew it.

Here are Morel's 2023 stats:

• AB 488
• HR 26
• RBI 70
• AVG .247
• OPS .821

Sure his defense was going to be a big question mark, but there are a lot of MLB players whose weak defense is overlooked because of their bat potential.

 

[Cyforce]

Just saw Morel and Perades' stats are worse with their new teams.

 

[isucy86]

Just saw Morel and Perades' stats are worse with their new teams.

Paredes has had a roller coaster of a year. Here is his BA by month:

Apr .291
May .299
Jun .237
Jul .136
Aug .165
Sep .281

Cubs gotta hope his Jul/Aug hitting was an aberration.

 

[ISUCubswin]

Per Baseball Reference, Morel has been a negative defensive WAR player his entire career.

PCA, Swanson, Hoerner, Happ, Belli. Saying you believe Busch has GG potential at 1B.

Letting Contreras walk primarily because he was a liability on defense.

You've built a defensive juggernaut team and then put a black hole in it.

It's like building an unsinkable ship and then ramming it into an iceberg. It's just dumb.

 

[ISUCubswin]

2024 Predictions:

- Shota will finish top 10 in the MLB in K's and along with Steele, will never hit the IL

- The Morel-3B experiment blows up in the FOs face. By May, everyone in the world hates it and is wondering what the **** we were thinking

- Belli and Hoerner take steps down

- Suzuki is a top 5 MVP finisher

- Along with Suzuki, Happ, and Swanson take steps forward with their bats

- We are flirting with .500 at the deadline but because they're more interested in 2025, no additions are made unless cap relief also happens

FINAL STANDINGS
Cubs - 85-77
Cardinals - 83 - 75
Reds - 83 - 75
Pirates - 79 - 83
Brewers - 75 - 87

My predictions on post 2 of this thread. Either nailed it or couldn't have been farther off.

 

[ISUCubswin]

What are questions the FO has to answer heading into 2025?

Off the top of my head

1) Do the Cubs trust they can get the same Amaya in 2025 that they got the last 2 months of the season, or do they nab a bigger catcher?

2) Is Michael Busch the 1B of the future? I like the bat, I don’t know that it’s a good enough bat for a championship-quality 1B.

3) Hoerner, Triantos, Shaw? What’s 2B look like?

4) Will the real Paredes please standup? Jed is yet to go into a season as president with a winner at 3B.

5) What do we want the starting rotation to look like?

 

[1UNI2ISU]

I think they're going to bring back catching as is and give Ballesteros every opportunity to make the club out of the spring and figure he's going to be up by June at the absolute latest and let him catch 3 days a week and DH the other 4 for now. You carry 3 catchers in that situation and use Bethancourt late.

You have to make Soto say no (and he will).

Steele, Shota, Taillon are locks. Then you find two more from the Brown, Wesneski, Kilian (out of options), Horton, Birdsell. I also think Hendricks is back on a minor league deal with an invite so he might be in the discussion out of spring.

I feel okay about the bullpen and there aren't any elite arms out there in FA anyway. Hodge, Miller, Pearson, Lopez isn't a terrible core and Little and Neely might be something too.

 

[isucy86]

Per Baseball Reference, Morel has been a negative defensive WAR player his entire career.

PCA, Swanson, Hoerner, Happ, Belli. Saying you believe Busch has GG potential at 1B.

Letting Contreras walk primarily because he was a liability on defense.

You've built a defensive juggernaut team and then put a black hole in it.

It's like building an unsinkable ship and then ramming it into an iceberg. It's just dumb.

It would be great to have a defensive juggernaut to prevent runs, but last time I looked an elite defensive team never scored a run! The reason the Cubs didn't make the playoffs in 2023 & 2024 is because the offense was highly inconsistent. When guys were hitting, the team was easy to love. When guys weren't hitting, they were painful to watch. Playoff teams are a balance of hitting, pitching and fielding and IMO in that order.

I'll take a black hole that might commit an error every couple weeks to have a 30 HR bat in the lineup. The other thing about Morel, sure he made errors. But with his quickness and superior arm- he also made plays that most 3rd baseman couldn't. IMO it's better to build an offensive juggernaut and then replace the "weak" links to become a better team.

 

[isucy86]

What are questions the FO has to answer heading into 2025?

Off the top of my head

1) Do the Cubs trust they can get the same Amaya in 2025 that they got the last 2 months of the season, or do they nab a bigger catcher?

2) Is Michael Busch the 1B of the future? I like the bat, I don’t know that it’s a good enough bat for a championship-quality 1B.

3) Hoerner, Triantos, Shaw? What’s 2B look like?

4) Will the real Paredes please standup? Jed is yet to go into a season as president with a winner at 3B.

5) What do we want the starting rotation to look like?

I would agree with all those points, but would add a few others:

1. The Cubs need to re-tool the offense and to do so FO needs to be able to trade away some guys with no-trade contracts. Especially if Bellinger comes back. IMO the FO can't roll with Happ, PCA, Bellinger and Suzuki as the starting OF & DH rotation.
2. There needs to be a plan to develop elite prospects in Chicago. The Cubs can't call-up prospects like Vazquez, Canario and then never play them. I hope the Cubs do better in the future. With the DH spot, primary starters can be be spot DH guys or sit and prospect backups can be given the chance to start 75ish games a year.
3. The Cubs have added a ton of hard-throwing relief arms over the past year. I really like the change in philosophy. But do they feel they have an elite closer or need to add one in the off-season?

Lotsa questions!! The good thing mostly tweaks, not a rebuild.

 

[Cyforce]

I think they're going to bring back catching as is and give Ballesteros every opportunity to make the club out of the spring and figure he's going to be up by June at the absolute latest and let him catch 3 days a week and DH the other 4 for now. You carry 3 catchers in that situation and use Bethancourt late.

You have to make Soto say no (and he will).

Steele, Shota, Taillon are locks. Then you find two more from the Brown, Wesneski, Kilian (out of options), Horton, Birdsell. I also think Hendricks is back on a minor league deal with an invite so he might be in the discussion out of spring.

I feel okay about the bullpen and there aren't any elite arms out there in FA anyway. Hodge, Miller, Pearson, Lopez isn't a terrible core and Little and Neely might be something too.

I see Ballesteros as DH 3-4 days a week this depends on the Suzuki Bellinger situation of course. then ph and replace the starter as needed.

 

[ISUCubswin]

It would be great to have a defensive juggernaut to prevent runs, but last time I looked an elite defensive team never scored a run! The reason the Cubs didn't make the playoffs in 2023 & 2024 is because the offense was highly inconsistent. When guys were hitting, the team was easy to love. When guys weren't hitting, they were painful to watch. Playoff teams are a balance of hitting, pitching and fielding and IMO in that order.

I'll take a black hole that might commit an error every couple weeks to have a 30 HR bat in the lineup. The other thing about Morel, sure he made errors. But with his quickness and superior arm- he also made plays that most 3rd baseman couldn't. IMO it's better to build an offensive juggernaut and then replace the "weak" links to become a better team.

We can agree to disagree, but I'd argue Morel was the most volatile offensive player in an already highly volatile offense.

He might hit 30 homeruns, but 8 of them are going to come in a week, followed by 5 weeks of hitting 6-92, all singles, with 72 strikeouts.

This year on the Cubs alone he went 18 games without a homerun, hit 6 over the next 12 games, then went 15 games without one.

 

[ISUCubswin]

I don't entirely hate the idea of going with Amaya/Bethancort going into 2025, but I'd rather make sure we're in a "guarantee this position won't be a failure" position, or keep ourselves out of a spot where we become reliant on Ballestros too early.

I wouldn't hate trying to swing a big deal with the A's to get Langliers and Miller. I wonder if Wicks, Triantos, Alcantara, and Aliendo would be enough to make it happen.

I would love, love, love to get ourselves in a situation where our bullpen was
7th - Ben Brown
8th - Porter Hodge
9th - Mason Miller

 

[CyState85]

Hoerner, Alcantara, and some cash for Mason Miller.

As of right now, this looks realistic for June 1st, 2025:

1) PCA CF
2) Shaw 2B/3B
3) Suzuki RF/DH
4) Bellinger 1B/RF
5) Happ LF
6) Paredes 3B/DH
7) Swanson SS
8) Busch 1B/2B?
9) Amaya/Ballesteros C

Shaw could easily be super-utility and play 150 games at 4 different spots.

 

[Rabbuk]

We can agree to disagree, but I'd argue Morel was the most volatile offensive player in an already highly volatile offense.

He might hit 30 homeruns, but 8 of them are going to come in a week, followed by 5 weeks of hitting 6-92, all singles, with 72 strikeouts.

This year on the Cubs alone he went 18 games without a homerun, hit 6 over the next 12 games, then went 15 games without one.

Also 30 home runs and 70 rbis is not really above average production for an everyday 3rd baseman.

 

[isucy86]

We can agree to disagree, but I'd argue Morel was the most volatile offensive player in an already highly volatile offense.

He might hit 30 homeruns, but 8 of them are going to come in a week, followed by 5 weeks of hitting 6-92, all singles, with 72 strikeouts.

This year on the Cubs alone he went 18 games without a homerun, hit 6 over the next 12 games, then went 15 games without one.

I agree, Morel was inconsistent. And it was a head scratcher that Morel didn't bat 7/8 in the lineup.

Inconsistency is a trait that Morel shared with other starters like Happ, Suzuki, Swanson & Amaya. And it's not just BA slump as you pointed out, guys batting in the middle of the lineup can't go 3 weeks without hitting a HR.

It's why the FO has to be aggressive in landing a Soto, Alonso, etc.

 

[RoseClone]

 

[CYdTracked]

Hopefully Kilian is going to get a start or 2 and not just bullpen work. He's finally healthy and has been pitching well in Iowa. Doesn't sound like any prospects like Caissie will be called up before the end of the season.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Hopefully Kilian is going to get a start or 2 and not just bullpen work. He's finally healthy and has been pitching well in Iowa. Doesn't sound like any prospects like Caissie will be called up before the end of the season.

I think he'll be the bulk guy tonight after Pearson goes an inning or two as the opener.