2020 Team

[funkster]

I have almost no interest in Pham. He's the wrong side of thirty, I don't particularly think his numbers are all that great, and he's kind of a douche.  I agree though, if there are some interesting prospects involved, I might have a different view.

[Butcher]

He definitely has some Cardinal stank on him.

[funkster]

Maybe Phil Rogers thinks we should trade for him, hire Pierzynski as manager, and Nick Swisher as hitting coach?

[Butcher]

Maybe Phil Rogers thinks we should trade for him, hire Pierzynski as manager, and Nick Swisher as hitting coach?

 

Phil Rogers, man. What happened to that guy. Chicago must have the worst beat writers in the country, right? Thank god for The Athletic...

[funkster]

It's probably all relative, but man it sure seems like it.

[rok]

Rogers has always been terrible, but never really was what I considered a beat writer, more a national baseball guy like his equally embarrassing idol Bob Nightengale. I do miss his "Morning Phil" column though, which was probably the worst collection of daily baseball musings of all time.



Anyway, yeah, the Athletic has by far the best baseball coverage, both national and local. The only halfway decent Cubs beat writer was Bruce Miles, and now he's semi-retiring. And he was only just ok.

[1060Ivy]

Thought Phil had the Cubs beat for Tribune in 90s - while being a Cardinals fan.



Loved the year, he did his Cubs Spring Training coverage out of Florida rather than Arizona.



Regarding Willson for Pham, it comes down to Pham and ? Unfortunately guessing that if Phil related hes thinking Willson + cash for Pham

[rok]

For some reason I thought he was an Astros fan. I don't recall that period in the 90's, but I'll take your word for it.

[1060Ivy]

Phil wrote for Tribune from 1997 - 2013

[Kid]

MLB Trade Rumors has the following estimations on salary arbitration for the Cubs:

• Kris Bryant – $18.5M
  
• Addison Russell – $5.1MM
  
• Javier Baez – $9.3MM
  
• Kyle Schwarber – $8.0MM
  
• Willson Contreras – $4.5MM
  
• Albert Almora – $1.8MM
  
• Kyle Ryan – $1.1MM
  

It seems likely that Russell and Almora are non-tendered.  But even so, if you assume the other five players are back and those estimates are accurate, they would receive the following increases:

• Bryant +$5.6M ($18.5M vs. $12.9M)
  
• Baez +$4.1M ($9.3M vs $5.2M)
  
• Schwarber +$4.11M ($8.0M vs $3.39M)
  
• Contreras +$3.816M ($4.5M vs $684K)
  
• Ryan +$550K ($1.1M vs $550K)
  

That would be an increase of more than $18M over what these 5 players made in 2019, so you could basically take whatever savings the Cubs will save in not bringing back Hamels and it is already spent.

[rok]

Phil wrote for Tribune from 1997 - 2013

I know he did, but don't recall him ever as the Cubs beat writer.

[Butcher]

Remember Jay Marrioti's dumb ass? Sheesh.

[funkster]

Man, why did you remind me?

 

Well...going to be a fun free agent period for the Cubs again.

[rok]

Remember Jay Marrioti's dumb ass? Sheesh.

Didn't he go to jail for domestic violence? Yeah, that ended well.

[MrSheps]

So Kapler is out in Philly and it sure sounds like Roberts could be in LA. I wonder how this will impact the Cubs' search. Likely, it doesn't, but there could be more competition for some guys.



Also, there seems to be a lot of "Ross wouldn't be living in the past/a continuation of Maddon" articles out there. I wonder if the Cubs are floating that...