*** Official 2025 Chicago Cubs Thread***

One game or one week doesn't make a season.

Below are Happ's splits by month from Baseball Reference. When a player has an annual salary of $21M and a team leader, the fan expectation is more consistency from a BA and HR production.

I don't feel people hate Happ, just frustrated. Equally frustrated with the front office that makes changes in the margins and not really strong at roster construction. Bringing it back to Happ, a good baseball team doesn't have a .200 hitter batting lead-off.


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Agree, I don't think people hate Happ, it's just he is more something like a 7 hole hitter on a really good team and for whatever reason this team asks a lot of him like he is some superstar. He is what he is, a slightly above average all around player for a left fielder. Better defensively than average, switch hitter, but probably strikes out too much and he is never consistent at the plate. He's fine but he's never going to be amazing. And there is nothing wrong with that really.
 
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Ricketts has to be downright giddy about Tucker playing horribly. He was gonna be roasted for not signing him. Now Cassie can keep raking in Iowa and they can sell us on more optimism going into next year while a healthy Tucker hits .350 for the Yankees
What makes you think that he will hit .350? He never hit over.292 in his career and he is a lifetime.274 hitter.
 
I’ll wait until October to roll out my offseason blueprint but right now it includes trading Taillon largely based on similar reasoning to trading Bellinger.

You can lock in Boyd, Imanaga, and Horton. Taillon becomes SP4, at best. My guess is that 5th spot is Assad/Rea/Brown until Steele is healthy. Or they go out and get another Rea-like, very cost-friendly arm.

Would you rather go with that, or recycle that $17M and try get a higher ceiling arm?

The answer is pretty simple to me.
 
I’ll wait until October to roll out my offseason blueprint but right now it includes trading Taillon largely based on similar reasoning to trading Bellinger.

You can lock in Boyd, Imanaga, and Horton. Taillon becomes SP4, at best. My guess is that 5th spot is Assad/Rea/Brown until Steele is healthy. Or they go out and get another Rea-like, very cost-friendly arm.

Would you rather go with that, or recycle that $17M and try get a higher ceiling arm?

The answer is pretty simple to me.
If I had any faith that they'd actually spend the money that they're saving, I would be more inclined to agree, however, it would just turn into another salary dump like Bellinger.
 
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And yet, they're still going to lose the LDS 3-1 because the complete and total lack of talent catches up...
I don't know what team you are watching. They are young, can steal bases, play good defense, advance runners, and they have really good pitching.

They might not win it, who knows, but they have a lot of good young talent and a really good manager.
 
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I don't know what team you are watching. They are young, can steal bases, play good defense, advance runners, and they have really good pitching.

They might not win it, who knows, but they have a lot of good young talent and a really good manager.
The one getting stupid production from Bryce Turang and Sal Frelick.

They're going to turn back into pumpkins.
 
I’ll wait until October to roll out my offseason blueprint but right now it includes trading Taillon largely based on similar reasoning to trading Bellinger.

You can lock in Boyd, Imanaga, and Horton. Taillon becomes SP4, at best. My guess is that 5th spot is Assad/Rea/Brown until Steele is healthy. Or they go out and get another Rea-like, very cost-friendly arm.

Would you rather go with that, or recycle that $17M and try get a higher ceiling arm?

The answer is pretty simple to me.
Pretty sure we’re agreeing. I think Schwarber/ free agent ace is cheaper and money better spent than Tucker/ Taillon.
 
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I don't know what team you are watching. They are young, can steal bases, play good defense, advance runners, and they have really good pitching.

They might not win it, who knows, but they have a lot of good young talent and a really good manager.
But we have a future Hall of Famer in Tucker