GatewayRedbirds.com

jagtrader wrote:There's no explanation for going into next season with the current bullpen other than the front office [expletive] blew it.

Magneto2.0 wrote:

Socnorb11 wrote:

MrCrowesGarden wrote:

Fat Strat wrote:

Socnorb11 wrote:

MrCrowesGarden wrote:These guys aren't a bunch of high school dropouts making these decisions. They've been one of the most successful MLB franchises. Granted, they're not perfect, but they've done well. I trust that they have a long-term plan that will work out well.

We're not all the successful when we don't have Albert Pujols.

This is interesting... since the transition point of 2006, we have won over 90 games just 4 times. We have 90 wins or fewer 8 times. Yes, there was playoff success in there -- and I'm definitely not discounting that -- but overall, we've been playing this 85-90 win game for a long time.

That wasn't such a big deal when the Cubs weren't very good and we only had to worry about the low-payroll Reds and Brewers, but the Cubs have completely changed the landscape of the NL Central. Right now, they're still out there chasing Darvish or Arrieta despite the fact that they already have Quintana and Lester. They'll likely get one of those guys, too. They did quite a bit to improve their bullpen. They're a very good team again.

Frankly, the Cubs are killing us in just about every area recently and I don't see a path where Jack Flaherty and Harrison Bader or whoever you think is going to make this club so good in '19 is going to do anything to change that. Yeah, maybe we give Machado $400M, but that seems extremely unlikely. It seems far more likely that the Cubs do that.

++. It was easy to play bully poker, but the Cardinals aren't the big stack anymore, both literally and figuratively. Outside of Reyes, I don't see the excitement. The prospects otherwise can be useful players but by far their most desirable trait is cost.

If there's not much value in these guys, then what makes you think that Mo could use them to acquire exceptional players? It seems that we think other teams are going to give us gold for our garbage.

You can't have it both ways. You can't say that Mo has all of these assets that he should be using to build a great team, but when it looks like we might be stuck with those assets, you can't say there's no value there.


In 2019, guys like Weaver and Flaherty and Reyes will hopefully have matured into valuable big-league players. Kelly will hopefully have found a role. We'll know where we stand with guys like Hicks and Lyons and Dejong. Waino's $19 mil will be off the books. That's when the iron will be hot, in my opinion.

That's basically what the Cubs did. They didn't try to build the best possible team every off-season. They waited until all of the young pieces were in place, and then they made the big moves to get over the top.

The Cubs relied on highly regarded prospects.

Outside of Reyes, we don't have any prospects like that, and as far as everyday prospects, we have no potential real difference makers. Just a lot of the same.

MrCrowesGarden wrote:Except position players are more reliable than pitchers.

MinorLeagueGuy wrote:The amount of fallback options we have in the current pen is scary. I'd hate to play(pitch) underwhelming baseball in Apr\May watching Luke attempt to get his "legs" back. Flounder in June, while we watch a carousel of Brebbia\Tui\Lyons\Cecil(yep) try to pitch us through 27 outs. Then lurk on the fringe of the trade market, hunting for a marginal upgrade that MIGHT fall to you on the waiver wire...WONT IT BE SO EXCITING?? game over