2015/16 offseason

[Cubswin11]

For the record: It's mostly a myth that playing Catcher hurts a player's bat and accelerates their aging on offense

I'm totally on board with having Schwarber play part-time catcher next year filling in for Montero and see how he handles it

That's my preferred plan with him, have him catch 30-40 games and the rest in the OF.

[jersey cubs fan]

[Fro]

It seems like a lot of Schwarbs issues in the field are judgement mistakes. Get someone in to teach him how to read a fly ball, stay in front of line drives and grounders and you may end up with an average defender with Babe Ruth's bat

Schwarber was solid/serviceable defensively until the Mets series. I think he was just trying to do too much given the problems we were having against the Mets (as were most of the rest of the team).

[sneakypower]

Schwarber at C scares me, I'd prefer to keep teaching him OF

More to the point, guys like Schwarber usually get moved away from Catcher to get their bat in the lineup at a less demanding position. Why not just fast forward to the part where he plays LF and hopefully out hits his mistakes?

As long as he drives in 2-3 runs a game to balance out the 1-2 runs he gives up on defense.

i'm going to come out and make the bold declaration i don't think Schwarber will be a -24 win defender as you're describing...

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Remember when Schwarber threw out David Wright at 2nd on what should have been an easy double but he was called safe and Joe didn't challenge it for some strange reason?

Anywho, he's got a good arm, and I have very little doubt his overall defense will improve with more time out there. He's too good of a baseball player to not make a lot of progress on that front.

[Cardfan1]

Kudos to all you Cub fans on a great season. I will concede the keys to the division are now firmly in your hands. You guys have a group of players we as Cards fans are in awe off. Mets pitching was insane, Daniel Wright who saw that? But the future really looks good. A solid number 3 starter, a tweaking of the bullpen, a little more bench depth, no reason this team cant win 105 games next year. Clearly Arrieta ran out of gas, he has a violent pitching motion, and is a power thrower.
you could see the cracks late in the Pirate game. Lester could have been better but really it was typical Lester he kept you in the game.

I rooted for you guys. I'm an NL Central guy always. Hang in there guys, its not a matter of if, but how many rings this group of guys will get. I like the kids. Schwarber I'm not sure about. Is he a catcher? Is he a LF? Is he DH material? Could get a huge haul for him. God I like the kid a lot but you gotta wonder. He was exposed and I felt bad for him. Even if he was dealt, there's so much pop and depth in that lineup I doubt it would make a difference.

Enjoy your team Cubbie fans, I'm a fan of that nucleus to. Guys deserve it.

Take care.

[Banedon]

For the record: It's mostly a myth that playing Catcher hurts a player's bat and accelerates their aging on offense

I'm totally on board with having Schwarber play part-time catcher next year filling in for Montero and see how he handles it

It's not a myth that playing full time catcher means less AB's over the course of a season. And if he's not going to be a full time catcher, then just drop the catcher thing altogether. Get better at one position, since he's arguably not good at any position right now.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'd seriously shop Schwarber. The kid has six years of control left and just hit home runs at a 40/year pace for half a season, something I"m not convinced he can actually do long-term. Maybe nobody beats the asking price, but it's a helluva sell high opportunity.

Plan for the offseason: Sign pitching, trade for pitching, try to pick up waiver-wire pitching. Our pitching was great this year, but we lived in a Magical Christmas Land where Jake Arrieta became Bob Gibson, Neil Ramirez was our biggest pitching injury, and every time we picked up the phone for an emergency guy we found ourselves getting serious value out of a Richard or a Cahill. That's not going to happen ever year. Our pitching is old and thin, and I don't want to waste a prime year of all these guys we have up now on another 1985.

[The Logan]

What we need is big time power bat screw pitchers


Oh nvm

I'm not against acquiring already established top tier pitching talent ala David Price, but just because young pitching prospects worked out for the Mets this year, doesn't mean it will work out every year. Yes it would be great to have those arms, but it requires a lot of luck to have every single one of them working at full efficiency at the same time upon their first taste of major league action, let alone having them all healthy at once.

If you had to bet money on one of their young arms going down with TJS vs. one of our hitters smacking 40 dongs in a single season, that could easily be a 50/50 odds type of bet.

[biittner77]

I'd seriously shop Schwarber. The kid has six years of control left and just hit home runs at a 40/year pace for half a season, something I"m not convinced he can actually do long-term. Maybe nobody beats the asking price, but it's a helluva sell high opportunity.

Plan for the offseason: Sign pitching, trade for pitching, try to pick up waiver-wire pitching. Our pitching was great this year, but we lived in a Magical Christmas Land where Jake Arrieta became Bob Gibson, Neil Ramirez was our biggest pitching injury, and every time we picked up the phone for an emergency guy we found ourselves getting serious value out of a Richard or a Cahill. That's not going to happen ever year. Our pitching is old and thin, and I don't want to waste a prime year of all these guys we have up now on another 1985.

People talk about how 3rd base has been a black hole for the Cubs for a long time and rightfully so. You could make a case that LF hasn't been all that much better. Schwarber fills that hole. It would have to be a great offer.

I agree completely on the second part.

[Cubswin11]

I'd seriously shop Schwarber. The kid has six years of control left and just hit home runs at a 40/year pace for half a season, something I"m not convinced he can actually do long-term. Maybe nobody beats the asking price, but it's a helluva sell high opportunity.

What would be the level of player, I assume you want a pitcher, you'd need to get for him?? Would it need to be like Kluber or Gray?

[JennieGarthAlgar]

Kluber AND Gray

[jersey cubs fan]

we've got tone

[jersey cubs fan]

we would like to add more quality pitching

we need more pitching, that's obvious

important to put into perspective, last data point, coming out of playoffs clouds. (geeky nerdy stat defense of how good 2015 staff was)

[jersey cubs fan]

no consideration of coaching staff changes, everybody is invited back

[d_money]

What will it take to get Greinke? 6/$150?

[Sammy Sofa]

Being the Dodgers.

Hasn't the talk been he wants to stick with them and opted basically to get a new contract with them?

[Backtobanks]

I'd seriously shop Schwarber. The kid has six years of control left and just hit home runs at a 40/year pace for half a season, something I"m not convinced he can actually do long-term. Maybe nobody beats the asking price, but it's a helluva sell high opportunity.

What would be the level of player, I assume you want a pitcher, you'd need to get for him?? Would it need to be like Kluber or Gray?

I would do that in a second. Of course the deal would involve other players, but to get a TOR, young pitcher for a guy who is a born DH would be a great deal.

[Bunts Lick Butts]

what in the world no

[davell]

Being the Dodgers.

Hasn't the talk been he wants to stick with them and opted basically to get a new contract with them?

It has been the talk, but he's a true odd guy. It came out recently he didn't like the 2014 team from a personality standpoint, but liked the 2015 much more. He was also a big Mattingly supporter. If I was 99.9% sure he was going to be a Dodger a week ago, I'd say I'm at around 70% now.

[yanrslatr]

Schwarber - LF
Soler - RF
Rizzo - 1B
Bryant - 3B
Castro - 2B
Miggy - C
Baez - CF
P
Russell - SS

Arrieta
Lester
Price
FA#2
Hendricks

why not

[ctcf]

So Theo said he doesn't feel the need to add much on the position side except he will address CF if Fowler leaves.

Said he wants to add "at least one quality starting pitcher through trade or free agency."

Should be a fun offseason, at least.

[ConstableRabbit]

Schwarber - LF
Soler - RF
Rizzo - 1B
Bryant - 3B
Castro - 2B
Miggy - C
Baez - CF
P
Russell - SS

Arrieta
Lester
Price
FA#2
Hendricks

why not

Fun offense but that OF defense makes me want to throw up.

[Cubswin11]

Theo also said, according to twitter, "FA pitching is sometimes a necessary evil."

[jersey cubs fan]

Theo also said, according to twitter, "FA pitching is sometimes a necessary evil."

Yes, he said necessarily evil but qualified the "evil" part as something they are more than willing to partake in.