Cubs Acquire Cole Hamels for Eddie Butler, Rollie Lacy & PTBNL

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Only problem is Montgomery probably can’t maintain a full starter’s workload.

1) he can

2) Darvish still exists

3) once september hits you can limit his workload since the entire iowa shuttle is in the pen

[Irrelevant Dude]

What would this mean for the luxury tax this year? Does it likely put the Cubs over?

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[UK]

Woohoo, love me some Cole Hamels and have seen him as a fit as this org for a long time under this FO. Great pitcher and I believe he has plenty of arm left for this stretch

I need a Chapman for rotation post.

[Cubswin11]

What would this mean for the luxury tax this year? Does it likely put the Cubs over?

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We had ~$12 mil to play with so should be good. No way we went over the LT for this.

[Bryant's Disco Ball]

What would this mean for the luxury tax this year? Does it likely put the Cubs over?

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Sounds like we are $14 million under and we are taking on about $4 million, so still sitting good.

[gocubs2118]

Only problem is Montgomery probably can’t maintain a full starter’s workload.

1) he can

2) Darvish still exists

3) once september hits you can limit his workload since the entire iowa shuttle is in the pen

Darvish doesn't exist until I see him pitching on a mound in a real baseball game.

[ScrubMD]

Only problem is Montgomery probably can’t maintain a full starter’s workload.

1) he can

2) Darvish still exists

3) once september hits you can limit his workload since the entire iowa shuttle is in the pen

1 and 3) For some reason I thought he was already nearing his career high in IP, but I guess he still has plenty of cushion to get him to Sept.

2) Half true

[TomtheBombadil]

I need a Chapman for rotation post.

[BigSlick]

i'm fine with this move

heck get another older dude who used to be good and kinda sucks now and just keep rolling the dice. Anybody But Chatwood. #ABC

[Gilby]

I mean Hamels himself isn't that exciting but I'll still organize the welcome parade for him if it means Chatwood is removed from the rotation.

[We Got The Whole 9]

So it's Lacy and a PBTNL

This could turn out to be a rather shrewd move

[toonsterwu]

Sounds like a good deal. I wouldn't want Hamels long term, but he's had a nice bounce back this season, and it seems like the Rangers are eating a lot of the deal and we're not giving up some top level talent, so all in all ... okay. Should add some stability to the back end of the rotation.

Fangraphs has him using the cutter a lot more. Wonder if that continues in the NL and in Wrigley.

I don't know if that's inside info or just an example of the type of thing they could have in mind.

That's interesting. Didn't know this was a discussion point already.

My whole thinking, and I certainly haven't followed Hamels all that much, was that if the quality of his arsenal is okay, reducing the cutters could perhaps get him to decrease his walk rate a bit.

IIRC, there was an article early in the year about the Rangers trying to get Hamels to cut back on his cutters and go to more groundball oriented pitches and a slider to try and get swings and misses.

[toonsterwu]

On a separate side note, looks like Rollie Lacy is the headliner of the deal. You have to make this deal every day, considering the Rangers are eating some of the contract. That said, I can't help but be mildly curious to see how Rollie develops. He lacks huge upside, but is polished and has a starter's arsenal. Cubs had too many guys in his range (in terms of level and in terms of potential), so you have to make decisions and move forward, but I'll be curious. I never thought Zack Godley was all that much, and I tend to think Rollie Lacy is a bit more polished than Zack Godley was at the same level. To be fair, Godley's curveball wasn't this good when he was with us, and the chances of any of Lacy's secondaries being that good is debatable.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

the most important thing to answer is will lester strode give up his jersey number?

[r_mack]

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Chatwood

[toonsterwu]

The PTBNL piques my interest. It could be nothing, but I seem to recall some trades where PTBNL was put in there to give an opposing team time to assess a group of players to pick from.

Admittedly, considering the Rangers ate a huge chunk, giving up Lacy and perhaps a lesser pitching prospect seems like a huge win for the Cubs, so the PTBNL does have my attention. In the end, could very well be nothing.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Apparently the pitcher not named Lacy or the PBTNL is not a prospect. Maybe Rob Z?

[Cubswin11]

I hope the PTBNL is one of the garbage pitchers on the 40 man (Bass, Farrell, Mills, Mazzoni, etc).

[StarlinOnYou]

Sounds like a good deal. I wouldn't want Hamels long term, but he's had a nice bounce back this season, and it seems like the Rangers are eating a lot of the deal and we're not giving up some top level talent, so all in all ... okay. Should add some stability to the back end of the rotation.

Fangraphs has him using the cutter a lot more. Wonder if that continues in the NL and in Wrigley.

He’s been downright awful.. 5.20 FIP. How has he bounced back this season? His road numbers are encouraging, but there is absolutely no way I would say he’s had a bounce back season.

I’m not saying this is a bad deal since we didn’t give up much and Chatwood is terrible. But, Hamels needs to pitch a lot better in a Cubs uniform.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Sounds like a good deal. I wouldn't want Hamels long term, but he's had a nice bounce back this season, and it seems like the Rangers are eating a lot of the deal and we're not giving up some top level talent, so all in all ... okay. Should add some stability to the back end of the rotation.

Fangraphs has him using the cutter a lot more. Wonder if that continues in the NL and in Wrigley.

He’s been downright awful.. 5.20 FIP. How has he bounced back this season? His road numbers are encouraging, but there is absolutely no way I would say he’s had a bounce back season.

I’m not saying this is a bad deal since we didn’t give up much and Chatwood is terrible. But, Hamels needs to pitch a lot better in a Cubs uniform.

There was some pitcher guy that the Cubs were interested in this offseason who had really amazing road numbers. For the life of me, I can't recall how that turned out.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Hopefully there’s a little bit of lightning in that bottle. Even if there isn’t, he can’t be any worse than Walkie McWalkerson.

[UMFan83]

Sounds like a good deal. I wouldn't want Hamels long term, but he's had a nice bounce back this season, and it seems like the Rangers are eating a lot of the deal and we're not giving up some top level talent, so all in all ... okay. Should add some stability to the back end of the rotation.

Fangraphs has him using the cutter a lot more. Wonder if that continues in the NL and in Wrigley.

He’s been downright awful.. 5.20 FIP. How has he bounced back this season? His road numbers are encouraging, but there is absolutely no way I would say he’s had a bounce back season.

I’m not saying this is a bad deal since we didn’t give up much and Chatwood is terrible. But, Hamels needs to pitch a lot better in a Cubs uniform.

There was some pitcher guy that the Cubs were interested in this offseason who had really amazing road numbers. For the life of me, I can't recall how that turned out.

Unless going from a hitters park to somewhere normal causes you to forget how to throw strikes, I don’t think we should compare Chatwood’s situation to Hamels too much

[Banedon]

While Maddon was doing his postgame press conference, a smiling Epstein was seen walking by on his way to Maddon’s office.

“Did he just have a good Italian beef sandwich?” Maddon joked. “Or a banana in his pocket, I don’t know.”

[UMFan83]

One thing I noticed is that Hamel's ERA entering July was 3.61 before 4 really poor starts. I'm thinking his peripherals predicted this decline based on how poor they are now but its also possible he is also suffering through a dead arm period or something like that.

He has some decent starts this year, some against good teams

4/13 @ Houston 6 IP 2 ER
4/24 vs. Oakland 6.1 IP 2 ER
4/30 @ Cleveland 5 IP 1 ER
5/5 vs. Boston 6 IP 2 ER
5/11 @ Houston 6 IP 0 ER (1 hit)
5/22 vs. Yankees 7 IP 2 ER
6/2 @ Angels 7 IP 2 ER
6/13 @ Dodgers 6 IP 1 ER
6/19 @ Royals 7 IP 0 ER