Tryptamine

They almost always do to increase the return.

What did you think the best, outside of Ohtani, pitcher available on the market would go for, especially when the Cubs will definitely be eating his contract to increase the prospect return?

I hate to tell you, but people aren't going to trade you really good players for a bunch of 40s and leftover pieces. Adding that much talent increases your chance to win this year significantly and it does nothing to mortgage the future.

I'm not saying this is realistic, but I think this is what I'd do in this situation if I was trying to win this year. Stroman(rest of 2023 salary absorbed) for Basallo+Johnson David Robertson(rest of 2023 salary absorbed) for Povich Andres Munoz (dominant reliever with 2 years of control) for Ortiz/Norby +another. None of Mayo, Westburg or Kjerstad touched. An absolutely dominant bullpen this year. A significant SP upgrade as well.

People always complain about trade deadline deal being rip offs. When the Cubs moved Gleyber Torres for Chapman people went crazy and they still bring up what a rip off it was. Yet they won a world series and he was a huge factor, even though he burnt out in the WS from extreme overuse.

Remember that the team you're dealing with is going to have system needs and preferences too, For example, I'd put heavy money the Cubs wouldn't want Ortiz and probably not Norby as their middle infield is locked up for a long time. They'd likely be targeting a 1B/3B close to the majors(Not Mouncastle), even if it had to be an expanded deal.

I wouldn't pay attention to that article, those grades are not updated that frequently. Several of those guys are top 100 players now and were to start the year.

He has a 2.91 ERA over the last 2 years and a 2.56 ERA this year which is 4th in baseball, while having years of control. Pretty sure that makes him a Cy Young candidate, not that the Cubs would have any interest in moving him. They're not doing a full tear down.

Runs and RBI are extremely team dependent. It's like measuring a pitcher by wins, it's far too elementary to be able to isolate individual performance. WAR certainly shouldn't be relied upon on its own or really even used as a predictive stat, but as far as an all encompassing stat for player accumulated value in a given year , it's the best we have.

The Cardinals are pitching desperate, that's going to be what they want in a deal.

What? Giolito- 3.45 ERA, 4.15 xERA, 4.21 FIP, 4.24 xFIP, 4.01 SIERA vs. Cole- 2.85 ERA, 3.84 xERA, 3.43 FIP, 3.87 xFIP, 3.85 SIERA Gausman- 3.03 ERA, 3.53 xERA, 2.45 FIP, 2.90 xFIP, 3.02 SIERA Valdez- 2.51 ERA, 3.87 xERA, 2.82 FIP, 2.99 xFIP, 3.31 SIERA Eovaldi- 2.83 ERA, 3.40 xERA, 3.18 FIP, 3.64 xFIP, 3.81 SIERA

No he didn't, he was a FA after the season and signed with the Mets this year.

Robertson was just traded last year and the Cubs got top 100 prospect Ben Brown for only 3 months. He has even better numbers this year. It's going to take a good bit more than Prieto.

Stroman+Merryweather. Despite Merryweather's just ok, 3.47 ERA, he's been absolutely dominant outside of a couple outings this year. 8 of his 14 ER have come in 2 of his 37 appearances. Since his first appearance of the year he's posted a 2.27 ERA, 2.65 FIP, 12.62 K/9 spanning 35 2/3 IP

By that same standard, Wells has .193 babip, SIERA of 3.74, xFIP of 4.10 and FIP of 4.55. Obviously due to inducing weak contact he's going to be a consistent FIP/xFIP beater, but no one maintains a .193 babip and almost no one maintains an 85.1 LOB%.

Even if we ignore the postseason factor, facing superior competition has a huge impact. Tyler Wells vs sub .500 teams 38IP 10ER 2.37 ERA Tyler Wells vs .500 or better teams 52.2IP 23 ER 3.93 ERA Kyle Bradish vs sub .500 teams 23.2IP 5ER 1.90 ERA Kyle Bradish vs .500 or better teams 48.1 IP 25 ER 4.66 ERA

37IP 12 ER is a 2.92 ERA. That's not exactly mediocre like you're trying to make it look, especially against another elite team and under that pressure.

Yes, my Cubs have been completely bailed out by a terrible division, but the offense has so many black holes that they'll go on another long stretch where they only put up 2 to 3 runs a game.

To be fair, the Orioles faced the 3 best Cub RP today. In his first outing of the year Merryweather went .2IP with 5 ER. Since then he has gone 28.2 IP 42 K 1.88 ERA and 2.3 FIP. He's the one the Orioles should be in on if the Cubs sell.

Just a heads up, but the mass speculation of his struggles has nothing to do with his weight and everything to do with the pitch clock getting into his head and throwing him off.

Yeah, that was all pretty gross and honestly had me considering moving on if the forum is filled with people who back that type of rhetoric.

I stated I preferred Cole as well, but there isn't a large gap between the two. As far as WAR goes, especially fWAR, it has always been significantly higher on high K guys while severely undervaluing pitchers who induce weak contact. Kyle Hendricks was an example. As far as year range goes, we can use 2021-present if you prefer. That puts Stroman at 3.11(25th) and Gerrit Cole at 3.30(30th). Again, I'd chose Cole going forward as well, but based strictly on results, Stroman has had the edge.

Not sure how you can say that when he has actually been better than Cole since 2020. Do I prefer Cole? Absolutely, but production wise they've been near the same guy with Stroman coming out ahead.

Can we stop with this? The guy has the #21 best ERA in baseball since 2020 amongst pitchers who have thrown 200 or more innings. That's ahead of Dylan Cease, Gerrit Cole, Sonny Gray, etc. Yes he's not the tip top elite, but he's very good and I can't figure out why so many people don't realize this. I know he doesn't have a flashy K/9, but he induces a crazy amount of balls on the ground and otherwise weak contact.

You're drastically underestimating him. Since 2020 he has the 22nd best ERA in baseball among those who have thrown 300+ innings. Which, by the way, is better than Dylan Cease whom everyone is drooling over.