- This topic has 1,189 replies, 48 voices, and was last updated 1 month, 3 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
It’ll be interesting to see if the Cubs shop Nico Hoerner or Matt Shaw following this signing. If Nico is made available, that could undercut the market for Donovan.
As a win now club, Shaw to the bench, Hoerner to 2B. If they have to trade Hoerner to fill another need, its mostly sideways by adding Shaw back as a starter. At that point maybe Donny looks good to the CHC? Lol. I’m 75% Hoerner stays.
The Cubs were smart to strike while the iron is hot. They have a winning club at the moment, the Brewers are always a threat but never really spend, the Cardinals are down, Reds never will be good again and the Pirates are just the Pirates.
I hope Chaim takes note, as his window probably opens as the Cubs’ closes in a few years. Gotta be aggressive while your opponents are flailing around.
The Cubs have 3B/SS/2B/UI covered so well they’d make it worse by touching it. UI is a good long play on Shaw in 26′, and good contender depth.
If the Cubs don’t win the NLC in 2026 then they will never win it. They definitely have the best team on paper and probably now have the Dodgers looking over their shoulder in regards to NL supremeacy. The only thing standing in their way is more of that Brewer small market devil magic.
As stl25 alluded to hopefully the worm will turn in a couple of years in regarded to the fates of the Cubs and Cardinals but 2026 is shaping up to be gut wrenching as we watch them spray some champagne while we are wrestling with the Pirates to stay out of the basement.
The Cubs are definitely in win now mode. But what about their pitching? It looks good, but not really great. Who’s their stopper?
Whoopa. I forgot about Jenkins. He’s certainly got a few more wins in him as long as his pacemaker is functioning properly.
mudville
The Cubs are definitely in win now mode. But what about their pitching? It looks good, but not really great. Who’s their stopper?
They have a pretty great staff for the next 1-2 years.
Imanaga, Boyd, Taillon, Cabrera, and Horton are a strong 1-5 group, with Steele coming in at some point before the all-star break. They have some nice depth too with Colin Rea as the swing man, plus Javier Assad and Ben Brown. 7 of these 9 had ERAs under 4.00 last year.
‘it aint over till the fat lady sings’ attributed to
Dan Cook ‘On further investigation, I learned that Motta did not originate the saying. Dan Cook, a San Antonio sportcaster, did. Cook said it goes this way: ”The opera aint over till the fat lady sings.” And the ”fat lady” was not Kate Smith. Cook said his line was a takeoff on Yogi Berras line, ”The game isnt over till its over.” Further, Cook said this story is recorded in the Library of Congress and that he is bored to death with this topic already. Dear Abby: ”Inquisitive” asked: ”Why do some people go to funerals of people they hardly know? I am referring to people they don`t even have a speaking acquaintanceAs it stands right now, I don’t think the Cubs will win any more games than they did in ‘25. I expect around 87-92 wins. That still puts them probably in the playoffs but not really a threat to the Dodgers.
They have a lot of question marks under the hood of their car.
Is Imanaga basically bad now?
Is Crow-Armstrong more like the 2nd half version?
Will their older rotation perform to the standard of a playoff team?
How much worse might the defense get as their vets are now getting into their low to mid 30’s?
Will Carson Kelly really be able to replicate what he did last season not to mention make up for the loss of one of their other backup catchers who had a crazy good run?
Without the incredible run by Pomeranz in their bullpen last season, was their bullpen all that good?
Shaw was really good last year. Pretty much equal to Bregman on a rate basis. Is Bregman really even an actual upgrade?
They are now minus Tucker. Maybe Alcantara fills in. Maybe not.
Several pitchers coming off sizable injuries.Yeah, mudville, you can’t discount Fergie…And then there’s Reuschel. Those Cubbies are going to need both of those arms after foolishly allowing Maddux to get away…
Hoerner is a true winner. I find it absolutely ridiculous that they’d actually trade him. I’d love to get him, but we don’t have any non-infielders worthy of dangling in front of their noses that the cubs would want. Burly at 1st, Hoerner at 2nd, Winn at short, JJ at 3rd……and put Donny in left……not too shabby.
Cubs tried last spring. This time they get it done. (Pending physical) https://t.co/oBj18N2DEr
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 24, 2026
Cubs To Select Dylan Carlson https://t.co/jSRfdI28IY pic.twitter.com/eKf7k138M9
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) March 24, 2026
I’m a data nerd. Self confessed. One of the things I’ve been doing for years is tracking Cardinals FWAR by draft class. Recently I decided to try to compare that to the Cubs because I love seeing how much better the Cardinals are at drafting and developing players than our biggest rival. In general, we always have been far better (except when the Cubs got a few years of top 5 overall picks). I wanted to see if anything has changed. I’m only looking at players selected in the draft and only at their value during team control years. I asked ChatGPT to total the Cubs up and it admitted to me that the assignment was difficult because the data wasn’t easily available so I just accepted it’s best attempt rather than build this into a whole research project. Here’s what I learned about more recent years in total FWAR:
2014: Cards – 24.5, 15.2 earned with Cards
2014 Cubs – 43, about 18 earned with the Cubs2015: Cards – 28.2
2015: Cubs – 102016: Cards – 40.1, only 20.5 earned with Cards
2016 Cubs – 52017: Cards – -.3
2017: Cubs – 72018: Cards – 22.5 thus far
2018: Cubs – 10 thus far2019: Cards – 5.9 thus far
2019: Cubs – 2 thus far2020: Cards – 7.3 thus far
2020: Cubs – 0 thus far2021: Cards – 2 thus far
2021 Cubs – 1 thus farOnly 2 of those seasons went the Cubs way. You have the catastrophic 2017 draft where the Cardinals essentially got nothing after starting the draft in round 3. And, the 2014 draft where the Cubs picked Kyle Schwarber with the 4th overall pick and also selected Dylan Cease who they then traded to the White Sox where he got all his value.
In general, if you can get 20 FWAR out of a draft class, that’s pretty darn good. The Cardinals did really well in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018. Since then, it’s been sketchy. 2019 & 2021 look like mostly busts although 2021 still has Josh Baez coming up so we will see there. Maybe Baez, McGreevey, and Graceffo are enough to carry that one.
Zig when they zag?
Whoever imagined the Chicago Cubs would outspend every team in MLB this winter, investing more than $400 million in free agents and extensions, with the latest a 6-year, $100 million-plus extension for 2B Nico Hoerner? @Michael_Cerami first on Hoerner extension.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 26, 2026
Whoever imagined the Chicago Cubs would outspend every team in MLB this winter
And they are a game behind the Cardinals in the standings.
The Cubs suddenly facing early injury woes to starting rotation with Matthew Boyd going on the 15-day IL with left bicep strain, joining Cade Horton (right forearm).
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) April 6, 2026
There is a RAT on the field at Wrigley! 🐀🤣 @Cubs
Watch for the Phillies reaction when they noticed it. 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/OnHU89EB81
— Marcus Leshock (@marcusleshock) April 22, 2026
Had no idea that a night out at Wrigley with friends would lead to shooting a video of a “Rally Rat” that would be viewed about 2 million times.
The rat has made sports radio with @WaddleandSilvy, got his own logo, and even had Ozzie Guillen chiming in.
Go @Cubs! 🐀🤣 https://t.co/EP7XL6Vozy pic.twitter.com/dUYR87BELv
— Marcus Leshock (@marcusleshock) April 22, 2026
Poor little guy had to have been scared out of his witts while in the midst of 37,000 screaming fans. These days he’d have felt much more comfy at a Cardinals game in St. Louis……so much so that they would have had to shoo him out of the on deck circle while he was chewing away on a discarded french fry, seemingly without a care in the world.
I was thinking the same thing Pugs. The little guy must have been very scared. A similar thing happend at the college game I attended the other night when a cat got loose out in the outfield. I could tell that he was terrified but the grounds crew eventually led him to safety.
We had a brief cat delay at Baum pic.twitter.com/u2A2oawbu1
— Matt Jones (@ByMattJones) April 22, 2026
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.