Official 2023 Chicago Cubs Season Thread Vol: (17-17)

Wow...i love this team. What a series. What a way to respond to the sweep we suffered against Philly. Arrieta is a complete stud. And he wasnt even an Allstar!!?????
 
Such an awesome atmosphere at Wrigley today. Need to get a to a few more games before the end of the season.
 
Kyle Schwarber has crushed opposing pitchers and fueled a big Cubs hot streak.

6. Los Angeles Dodgers (62-49, plus-57, LW: 2)
5. Chicago Cubs (62-48, plus-19, LW: 7)
4. Toronto Blue Jays (61-52, plus-129, LW: 10)
3. Pittsburgh Pirates (65-44, plus-58, LW: 4)
2. Kansas City Royals (66-44, plus-63, LW: 3)
1. St. Louis Cardinals (71-40, plus-121, LW: 1)

You can find all kinds of reasons for the hot streak that’s brought the Cubs 10 wins in their past 11 games and pushed them to the fourth-best record in baseball. Jake Arrieta’s on fire. Jon Lester’s blowing pitches by hitters. Hector Rondon’s pulling off Houdini acts. Kris Bryant just set the record for homers by a Cub in his debut season, and fellow rookies Addison Russell and Jorge Soler have heated up lately, too.

However, the biggest reason for the Cubs’ recent burst is none of the above. Instead, it’s a player who just finished his 28th game in the majors, a divisive prospect who might not even have an obvious position, a world smasher who has some Cubs fans more excited than they’ve been in ages. It’s a one-man wrecking crew that goes by the name of Kyle Schwarber.

To help you process the giddiness that Schwarber has instilled in the Wrigley faithful, here are 10 things to know about the rookie:

10. When the Cubs took him fourth overall in last year’s amateur draft, Schwarber caused dissension among prospect-heads. Not that the dude couldn’t hit. A star at Indiana University who modeled his take-and-rake approach after Joey Votto of the nearby Reds, Schwarber absolutely destroyed college pitching, and few draftniks doubted he could hit in the big leagues.

Still, listed at 6 feet and a generous 235 pounds, Schwarber lacked what you might call a chiseled physique, and his defense remained a going concern, resulting in an unusually large gap between rankings: Baseball America placed him no. 19 coming into this season, whereas Baseball Prospectus had him way down at no. 77. Even as Schwarber broke into the big leagues, no one knew for sure if he could stick at catcher or make it anywhere other than as a DH.

9. An injury to starting catcher Miguel Montero opened up the backstop job at the All-Star break, and Schwarber ran with it. After posting a .375/.412/.563 over his first 10 games, Schwarber banged out four hits in his 11th game, including a game-tying, two-run homer in the ninth and the go-ahead homer in the 13th. Oh, and the game was in Cincinnati, a 45-minute drive from his hometown of Middletown, Ohio.

8. That was Schwarber’s second four-hit game of the season. His first? It came in his first full major league game.

7. When Schwarber racked up that second four-hit game, it gave him one more than the rest of the Cubs roster had all year.

6. Montero returned to the lineup this Saturday. By then, Maddon had seen enough to know there was no way in hell he could bench his slugging phenom. So rather than sit Schwarber, Maddon moved the big guy to left field, shifted Chris Coghlan to second base (a position he’d played only a handful of times in his seven-year big league career), slid Addison Russell to shortstop, and benched three-time All-Star Starlin Castro. From a distance, it might seem insane to mess with half your lineup just to accommodate a pudgy rookie. But when that rookie is ripping the cover off the ball — he’s now up to .341/.429/.604 — you have to do it.

5. Schwarber’s primary walk-up song is “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

4. His secondary walk-up song is “No Diggity” by Blackstreet.

3. Schwarber is 22 years old. He was 1 when “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” came out, and 3 when “No Diggity” dropped.

2. Jake Peavy, who is nearly 12 years older than Schwarber, doesn’t seem to share Schwarber’s love for ’90s hip-hop and R&B. Nor for Schwarber, apparently.

Andrew Baggarly [emoji]10004[/emoji]@extrabaggs
Peavy said he wanted Schwarber to "get in the box like his other teammates did and not kick dirt around and listen to his intro song."
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1. Among all batters with 100 or more plate appearances, Schwarber ranks second in park-adjusted offense, trailing only Bryce Harper.

Regression will come at some point, especially to Schwarber’s sky-high .431 BABIP. And Schwarber’s defense has been ugly behind the plate: Although it’s a small sample, he’s already watched seven wild pitches scoot by, allowed 11 steals in 14 tries, cost his team two runs according to pitch-framing stats, and produced lousy overall results by advanced metrics.

Still, Schwarber’s command of the strike zone, and ability to crush pitches he likes, makes him a premium prospect for the Cubs. If he ends up sticking in left field instead of at catcher, the Cubs would lose the edge that comes with having a masher behind the plate, but they’d gain the benefit of Schwarber playing more often when he’s free from the rigors of squatting for nine innings at a time. As long as he’s in the lineup somewhere, Schwarber’s a big asset. No diggity, no doubt.
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Before the 2015 season began, the Chicago Cubs made a late charge at free agent starter James Shields, who ultimately chose the Padres over the Cubs. At the time, I noted that the Cubs’ three-year offer to Shields was fairly close, in total value, to the four-year deal Shields got from the Padres, though the latter deal was inarguably worth more money. Still, I liked what the Cubs had done in the offseason, and didn’t feel too bummed about the Cubs missing out by not adding more money and another year to their offer.

Through the first four months of Shields’ deal, the Cubs’ decision looks pretty fantastic.

Despite rumors of the Padres shopping Shields before the non-waiver trade deadline – potentially even to the Cubs, and some had suggested a Shields/Starlin Castro swap – the 33-year-old righty stayed put. His performance and velocity are down, but the main hurdle in dealing Shields seemed to be the very contract that the Padres had dangled to get him to come to San Diego rather than Chicago. And, because of that contract (again, the one the Cubs declined to offer him), trading for Shields made little sense to me unless the Padres were going to eat a whole lot of salary.

Sure enough, that’s where things stand if the Padres wanted to trade Shields to any team. According to Buster Olney, Shields was placed on revocable trade waivers this month and was not claimed by any team. As you know from the August trade primer, that means Shields’ contract was so unpalatable that no team wanted it even for free – although Shields makes very little this year, he’s owed $65 million over the next three seasons. Having cleared waivers, Shields is now freely tradable by the Padres.

None of this is to say that Shields will be traded this month or that the Cubs would have interest even if he were. Having picked up Dan Haren at the deadline last month, and looking ahead to the offseason options, I doubt the Cubs would be interested in adding Shields at this point unless the Padres ate so much salary that it would be insane not to say yes (but, of course, if the Padres were willing to do that, there would suddenly be many suitors for Shields).

It will be interesting to see what the Padres do after making no sell moves before July 31, and then going into a nose dive since.
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Interesting.
 
No Ryan Braun in the lineup tonight for the Brewers. :nerd:

Also, they dealt Fiers, Ramirez, and Gomez, so they are already playing lesser talent than normal.


Do not let up for one single second Cubs. Take every single win you are offered.
 
11, yep. Need to jump on them early, let em know we won't waste this one, keep the momentum building around the league.
 
Jason Hammel on the hill tonight. Normally he does well against the Brewers. low ERA.


Castro moved to 2nd base. Hopefully this is the start of something great.
 
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything on top Cuban prospect Eddy Julio Martinez, but recently, the silence has been broken…

In case you have forgotten who Eddy Julio Martinez is, he is one of the last remaining, currently-available international free agents from Cuba. He has as much upside as any international prospect in recent memory, plays center field, draws drool-worthy reviews and has been connected to the Cubs – among other teams – several times over the past few months. You can read more about the player and the rumors surrounding his ultimate decision here and here. And in case you aren’t excited enough, this is what Luke had to say about him in the past…

The scouting grades MLB Pipeline place on Martinez, an outfielder, are verging on the territory of video game ridiculous. They grant him 60s across the board, with the exception of Run. That’s a 70. The comparison they make is to Andruw Jones, but if those grades are legitimate you could be forgiven for dreaming on a future as an almost-but-not-quite Mike Trout. What those scouting grades do ensure, however, is that Martinez is going to be handsomely paid very soon.

(Kiley McDaniel is lower on Martinez, but he seems to be more conservative on international prospects across the board. Martinez is still McDaniel’s top positional prospect in this class, though.)

To say the least, the Cubs’ pursuit of the big, fast Cuban outfielder is more than justified. But on Luke’s last point, let me remind you Martinez will cost his future team more than just the contract he receives. If you recall, teams have a mandatory IFA budget that they must draw from in order to sign eligible international players. If a team exceeds their IFA budget by a large amount – which the Cubs already have – they are taxed 100% on the overage (and accrue future penalties/signing limitations). While it makes sense to really blow your budget, if you’re going to blow it at all – the penalties are already activated, so you might as well stack up as much talent as possible – there does come a point where a contract for a prospect, taxed at 100%, becomes a misuse of limited funds. Every dollar the Cubs add to a contract for Martinez is two dollars they cannot spend elsewhere – like the upcoming free agent market. Add in the presence of the pocket-burning Dodgers – who have also blown their IFA budget this period – and you have the recipe for a huge, perhaps overvalued, contract.

As for when Eddy Julio Martinez is expected to sign, it’s suddenly difficult to say. The free agent was actually eligible to sign during the previous international signing period (which closed back in June), where plenty of big budget teams blew their budgets, but opted to wait for this period instead. Perhaps he and his agent believed the eligible teams in this period were better fits/willing to part with more, or perhaps they know how much he is worth and are willing to wait teams out as long as possible (he is only 20 years old, after all). It’s important to remember, too, that teams’ budgets are often very tight around this time of year. Some teams have their budgets set for the season, and don’t recalibrate until the offseason, while others have tighter purses due to midseason acquisitions. Given how much he is expected to get, and the patience he has displayed to this point, I could see Martinez waiting until the eligible teams have all the means necessary to bid on him.

The bottom line is that Martinez is an extremely interesting target who will cost a lot of money; the Cubs are among just a handful of realistically eligible destinations, but the Dodgers (and Giants, who may want to take on their division rival here) are also within that that small group of teams. The Cubs have definitely shown interest in the Cuban outfielder and they are presumably still in the conversation. You should be very excited by the possibility of signing such an elite talent, but understand that every contract has its values and limits.
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Anthony Rizzo Catch. Best catch of the year by far. WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!. He climb on top of the tarp and made the catch.
 
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:pimp:
 
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