Hopefully Brown gets sent to Iowa to work on being a reliever the rest of the way.
*** Official 2025 Chicago Cubs Thread***
- Thread starter Cyforce
- Start date
My thoughts on the trade deadline.
I liked each trade in isolation. That said, massive fail that Soroka is your only "SP" addition.
Literally every starter you have has question marks. You have one of the best offenses in baseball and you don't bolster the rotation?!?! Even if its just depth. Disgraceful.
Now, is this team good enough to win the division and/or go on a run? Absolutely. I hate that we are relying on so much to go right (Taillon and Assad getting healthy, Boyd and Horton to blow by previous inning numbers, etc), but its still a damn good team.
Lets go win a division!
I liked each trade in isolation. That said, massive fail that Soroka is your only "SP" addition.
Literally every starter you have has question marks. You have one of the best offenses in baseball and you don't bolster the rotation?!?! Even if its just depth. Disgraceful.
Now, is this team good enough to win the division and/or go on a run? Absolutely. I hate that we are relying on so much to go right (Taillon and Assad getting healthy, Boyd and Horton to blow by previous inning numbers, etc), but its still a damn good team.
Lets go win a division!
I could see the Cubs going to a 6-man rotation once Jay-Mo and Assad return from the IL. It would certainly help limit the work load of Horton and Boyd going into September and the playoffs.
Looks like Shota, Boyd, and Horton or Jay-Mo are your top 3 in the postseason. Got to keep Horton and Boyd healthy and as fresh as possible.
29 games in August, including 5 against the Brewers in 4 days. Pitching depth will be needed, and it will be tested.
Looks like Shota, Boyd, and Horton or Jay-Mo are your top 3 in the postseason. Got to keep Horton and Boyd healthy and as fresh as possible.
29 games in August, including 5 against the Brewers in 4 days. Pitching depth will be needed, and it will be tested.
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Health the rest of the way is a big concern.
Assad has already had one setback. Horton and Boyd haven't seen these innings in a while. Shota is still coming back from injury and we don't know how Taillon will bounce back from his injury yet.
From a September call-up standpoint, is there another guy that would be a rotation guy to help keep Horton and Boyd's innings down?
If you want anyone with MLB experience, the only options would be Wicks (who has flashed success in Chicago but obviously struggled this year) or Kenta Maeda. Maeda has tons of experience, but was terrible in Detroit last year and this year and been bad at Iowa.
That said, with Rea, Soroka, Assad, Taillon and maybe Brown, you've got enough back of the rotation arms that you could skip Horton/Boyd a time or two in the rotation and feel like you could survive if you absolutely NEED to manage a innings limit.
Just to keep on the positive side, since it looks like Caissie is a part of the long term plan, man it's fun to look at what he's been doing lately. Played in 84 games at Iowa this year, looked at the stats from the first half of those games vs the second half. The improvement is unreal...
Games 1-42
185 PA - .238/.341/.797 - 7HR, 19RBI - 33.5%K / 13.0%BB
Games 43-84
185 PA - .323/.416/1.087 - 13HR, 28RBI - 24.3%K / 13.0%BB
Just hitting the cover off the ball. Cut the K% way down while maintaining the BB%. If he can be a low 20's K% while keeping up an above average BB%, with the raw power he's got, that's an exciting player.
Games 1-42
185 PA - .238/.341/.797 - 7HR, 19RBI - 33.5%K / 13.0%BB
Games 43-84
185 PA - .323/.416/1.087 - 13HR, 28RBI - 24.3%K / 13.0%BB
Just hitting the cover off the ball. Cut the K% way down while maintaining the BB%. If he can be a low 20's K% while keeping up an above average BB%, with the raw power he's got, that's an exciting player.
Feel like this is an important take. The Cubs have a lot of arms that can go 4+ innings with: Boyd, Imanaga, Horton, Brown, Rea, Soroka and eventually Taillon and Assad. That gives Counsell the flexibility to go with a 6 man rotation. Or stick to a 5 man rotation and treat the back-end of the rotation as openers who go 3-4 innings instead of 1 inning. Play on the analytics of pitching through the line-up 1-2 times.
In the end, if the Cubs were going to add a SP at the deadline, he needed to be a guy with a high strike-out rate. Swing/Miss seams like a big part of what's needed in the playoffs and not of those guys was traded at the deadline. My assumption is the price was too much. Merrill Kelly is a solid pitcher- but his velocity is same as Taillon, Rea & Imanaga around 92mph.
The other curious thing was such an emphasis on relief pitchers at the deadline. Even teams making trades so they have 2 elite closers. Just wonder if that is a sign of the future. A de-emphasis on starting pitchers because of a rash of arm injuries and $30M+/year contracts.
Think this will manifest itself even more come playoff time. Last year starters only pitched 51% of the innings in the playoffs for all teams. So even teams with good rotations are relying heavily on the bullpen and that's even more critical for the Cubs given our lack of top end SP talent. Shorten the rotation to 4 in the postseason however (Imanaga, Boyd, Horton, Taillon) and you can carry 3-4 guys in Rea, Assad, Soroka and Brown that have had varying levels of success out of the bullpen and would have no issue pitching a few innings.
So one theoretical plan to cover some of starting issues come playoff time would be to almost piggyback your starters every game. Let your starter go a couple times through the lineup(3-5 innings), your "second" starter go through the lineup one time (~2 innings) and then handoff to your late inning guys.
This is all true. Where my frustration lies is the consistently cheap*** owner. This all traces back to Ricketts being cheap. They're keeping Caissie because they are too cheap to resign Tucker. But you know who doesn't worry about stockpiling prospects? Actual baseball teams. The Yankees, the Padres, the Dodgers, they don't give a **** about prospects. Why? Because they don't have to worry about hoping a guy becomes the next Tatis or Ohtani, because they are willing to sign the actual Tatis or Ohtani. Why worry about what a kid will be in 3 years when you are willing to pay the guys that are playing elite baseball now.
It's a small market mindset for a team worth 5 billion dollars and it's exhausting.
I have been watching MLB since 1983. I have never seen a player who is worse than Swanson with a runner on 3rd base with less than 2 outs
I don’t think it is mental. He doesn’t make any adjustments after 2 strike. Even true power hitters cut down their swing after 2 strike. Swanson on other hand, swing for the fence even after getting 2 strike
I wouldn't go as far as "disgraceful" but this is pretty much how I feel. Wish they would have added another starter but I'm also not upset we didn't unload our top prospects and think this team is also setup to compete next year, especially with more $$$ to spend.
Basically we didn't mortgage the future and put all of the eggs into the 2025 basket, although maybe 1-2 more eggs would have been better.
Compete without Tucker? Almost everything has gone right for the Cubs this year. Boyd, Flexen and Pomeranz(early in the season), Suzuki, PCA, and Kelly are having career high year or playing well above their career average. The window of opportunity to win the WS will likely close after this year. We should have done everything we can to trade for elite SP and relievers. Caissie might turn into next PCA, but more likely he will be next Happ or never see him in the major.
I didn't understand why some thought we should target Ke'Bryan Hayes to replace him at 3rd. Shaw is hitting better and plays really good defense and is only a rookie.
