Bleacher Bums Forum

Mark Simon ‏@msimonespn  7m7 minutes ago
Addison Russell ranks 4th in MLB in Defensive Runs Saved at 2B
Addison Russell also ranks 4th in MLB in Defensive Runs Saved at SS

Hendricks/Hammel are better pitchers than Leake.  If you can't get Price, Samardzija would be my next choice.  Failing to get those two Iwakuma, Brett Anderson and JA Happ would be the next tier.

Hammel fell apart after he hurt his hamstring, I wonder if it is still bothering him or if it messed up his mechanics.

No.  I was talking about next year's rotation.

I don't think that not getting Price will be a matter of not "affording" him as not valuing him as much as the market does.  The estimates seem to range around 30 million per year.  I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs signed two or three free agent pitchers whose combined salaries come close to that.  I think that their decision point will be whether several good pitchers totally 30 million will help the Cubs more than one great pitcher at that price.

If they are going to toss around a lot of money for a TOR starter, I would rather that they look at extending Arietta.

I wanted Ross at the deadline and would've given up a lot for him.  But a big part of his value at that time was that the Cubs would've had him for three pennant races/postseasons.  Now that he only provides value to two seasons, I'm not sure he's valuable enough to be worth what the Padres are going to want. 

Carrasco would be ideal.  I think I'd rather have him than Price. 

His velocity dropped the year before to 87.8 as well as his strike outs, so it just wasn't this year. He outperformed his peripherals a lot in 2014. That is when the decline started. The slower his fastball gets the easier it is to hit. The easier it gets to hit, the harder contact he will give up. The harder the contact the less ground balls we will get.

Weaver and Young are both pitchers that don't have fastballs and don't strike people out. They do it by working in a small silver of the zone up high. If they miss it gets hit a long way. This just isn't the type of pitcher the Cubs should be going
after.

He averaged 89.6 in 2011 that is why I gave it the range, just getting back to 88 would be fine. I doubt that happens.

No, Fister did not start to decline in 2014.  Actually, can make good argument 2014 was career best season for Fister. 

Career bests in (1) rWAR (4.5), (2) ERA (2.42), (3) ERA+ (154), (4) K/W ratio (4.08), (5) career low line drive % (16.9%). He finished #8 in Cy Young voting (ahead of Jake Arrieta). Know we're not supposed to mention wins but was 16-6 (this sentence will self-destruct in 10 seconds).  Yes, if one goes entirely by peripherals--to the exclusion of THE REAL WORLD--then you can nitpik about FIP, strand rate, etc.  Value the peripherals, yes, but we have to balance that out with some actual events on the field of play.  On balance, Fister was really good in 2014.  He did that throwing 88.   

Fister is not like Weaver or Young in terms of attacking hitters.  Night and day.  Saw Fister quite a bit in 2014, some in person at Nats Park:  tons of grounders, 3/4 arm slot from a very, very tall pitcher, exceptionally long arms, seems tough to pick up for hitters, really good movement given arm slot, down-down-down in the zone with great command.

That was 2014.  In 2015, different story, Was hurt, had trouble with mechanics, velocity was down, command was off, fewer ground balls.  Solution is not going to be pitching up in the zone more.  That is Weaver/Young--not Fister. No idea if he can return to form in 2016 but lots of teams will explore signing him depending on bunch of team factors and cost.

Not saying Cubs should be one of those teams.  Maybe too much like Hendricks and think rotation should have different looks, unless you can field staff full of power pitchers.  One finesse righty is probably enough already.

"give a rotation spot to Wood, Cahill or Turner before I'd sign Turner. "

huh?

Too much sucky sucky.