It was expected. Instead of spending money on quality relief pitchers, we got over the hill Pressly, Flexen, and Pomerantz
*** Official 2025 Chicago Cubs Thread***
- Thread starter Cyforce
- Start date
Offense is not in a slump. We are squandering opportunities. No situational hitting is catching up with the Cubs.
Pressly is not a major league pitcher. Unfortunately, I have zero confidence that we more than picking up more cheap scrub pitchers to replace the cheap scrubs on the team today.
That's the problem though, the Cubs just don't draft and develop top end starting pitchers through their farm system. They sprinkle in some good relievers over the years but have mostly missed on starting pitchers. Look at the 2016 rotation, Hendricks technically came up through the minors but he was acquired as a prospect in the Dempster trade. Arietta, Lester, Lackey, and Hammel were all signed or traded for. Other than Steele and Horton can you name any other guys that have been mainstays in the rotation that were drafted and developed in the Cubs farm system since then?
Go through the guys that made starts over the past 10 years and find me a home grown guy that panned out. We traded a few away as prospects like Cease that turned out to be good for other teams but going back to when Theo took over this front office strategy has been to draft the best position players they can build a roster around and have cost controlled for multiple years and add pitching through free agency and trades when the team is competitive.
Right now the farm system is loaded with good position prospects that are mostly blocked at the moment by players in Chicago. If they don't use some of this prospect depth to acquire some impact pitching to put this team into contention down the stretch then what is the vision they have for this roster going into 2026? If you resign Tucker then Caissie and Alcantara are still blocked for another year without somehow getting Happ or Suzuki to waive a no trade clause. Ballesteros feels like another Schwarber situation where you have no logical spot to put him defensively and even with the DH now that is likely blocked with the OF logjam. Swanson and Hoerner block Rojas and Triantos and Long is blocked at 1B too. What is the point of stockpiling position players if there is no path for them to help the MLB team in the near future? It may hurt a bit but they are just prospects without MLB experience at this point so sell them while they have value instead of letting them waste away in the minors then potentially turn into AAAA players that have no trade value like the Cubs have done too many times over the years with other prospects.
I said it early this season when he was the closer, he reminds me of Rod Beck. Was good in his prime but has lost it now and can't throw clean innings even when he does get 3 outs. Hoyer's phone is probably ringing off the hook right now with anyone that has pitchers to trade that the Cubs are interested in. "Watching your game right now Jed. The asking price just went up, my guy sure would look good in your bullpen right now from what I am seeing."
FWIW I think Horton, Wiggins, and Birdsell all have top of rotation potential. While I liked Breslow at the time, I've come to find that he was actually quite ****** at his job and our pitching infrastructure the last two years is in much better hands.
Somewhat agree that the pitching staff needs help. And maybe that is on the way with a trade and the additions of Taillon, Hodge and Assad.
Runs scored over the season is nice, but somewhat meaningless. It's all about trending and the Cubs bats are slumping:
- Mar-May - 5.86 runs per game
- Jun- July - 4.65 runs per game
4.65 runs per game is still pretty good. Yes they are slumping, but you have to be careful what you give up for a team that is not struggling to score runs over the course of the season.
Agree. Or bat 2nd. That's where adding an impact bat like Suarez might be what this lineup needs;
PCA
Horner
Tucker
Suarez
Suzuki
Busch
Kelly
Swanson
Happ
Still pretty good, but a drop of 1+ run per game is huge in baseball. The first 3 months the Cubs had the best offense from a runs/game perspective. The 4.65 runs per game is around 10th. And for perspective 4.24 runs is ranked 20th.
So 1 run gave the Mar-May Cubs a huge margin of error.
I agree. But that margin of error is increased when you don't have a bullpen you can depend on. I'm not saying you don't get a bat, but if you get a bat before you get pitching, you fail.
Am I the only one that doesn’t want Suárez? 34 years old, 248 career hitter, led the league in strikeouts twice. What is the attraction here? We really going to give up a prospect for that? I get it, he hits home runs. I just am not sure it’s worth a prospect for that when it’s probably a defensive downgrade. Maybe I’m wrong.
Well I believe originally the attraction was you’re getting a guy who would lead your team in homeruns to take over the worst 3rd base production in the MLB but now it’s more someone who can add depth and lengthen a pretty dog **** lineup right now
He has 36 HR and leads the league in RBI. What is our fans‘ obsession with current prospects? Caissie strikes out 34% of the times. He is not even top 50 prospect.
I’m to the point of hoping they don’t do a ton. This squad isn’t a few guys away from being a World Series contender.
