Sports
Today is the five year anniversary of one of the Chicago Cubs worst mistakes in the post World Series era when they did not tender a contract to Kyle Schwarber. The Cubs could make up for that mistake by signing him as a free agent, but I doubt they will do it.
Cubs Took A Loss On Kyle Tucker Trade
Bleed Cubbie Blue has a survey asking Cubs fans whether the trade for Kyle Tucker last year as a success for the Cubs as GM Carter Hawkins claims. The writer of the post suggests that it was, and to do so he uses the results for each player involved in the trade.
I think the post misses one key point in the analysis, which is the value of the players at the time of the trade and take that in to account along with their actual performance. While the Cubs traded three players to the Astros for Tucker, the deal really came down to two players, Tucker and Cam Smith.
At the time of the trade Smith was the Cub’s top prospect in the farm system, which made him one of their most valuable young players. If Smith had stayed with the Cubs he likely does not make the major league roster whereas the Astros immediately put him on their roster. So I think the real comparison is another year of Smith developing for the Cubs versus Tucker’s performance for the Cubs this past season.
When a team trades away a top prospect they are giving away the potential future value of a player, usually in return for something needed now. Did the Cubs need another bat? Yes! Did that bat have to be Tucker in right field, particularly when you had a good hitting right fielder on your roster? Probably not.
In my opinion, when Tucker signs with a team other than the Cubs, the Cubs will have lost on the trade. Had the Cubs kept Smith they still had value in the bank for future years and they lose that future value no matter how you slice it. From a Cubs fan perspective, if you had told me we would only have Tucker for one year, which was very likely at the trade time, and the team did not advance to the NLCS I would have said that one year of making the playoffs was not worth losing Smith. From a Cubs ownership and management perspective, making the playoffs and the extra revenue that generated made the Tucker signing worth it.
I’ve enjoyed watching all of the Chicago Cubs games I can watch using the MLB “At Bat App” since it’s beginning. For the number of games and the one year price, it has been a good deal. Sadly, it looks like that is not going to last because in a few years the “At Bat App” will go away in place for ESPN’s crappy app. And I bet they’ll double the price. Because greedy capitalism means we can’t have anything nice.
Kyle Hendricks is retiring from pitching in Major League Baseball, he played a critical role in the Cubs winning the World Series in 2016. He is now on the MLB coaching clock.
Great win by the Chicago Cubs last night to force a division series deciding game on Saturday night. They finally score in more than one inning of a game in this series! Both teams could employ bullpen pitchers to start the game and that will make it interesting. I do have a bone to pick with MLB for making the Cubs/Brewers game the late starter last night rather than the Dodgers/Phillies in LA, that made no sense.
I think that Craig Counsell has done a poor job of managing the Chicago Cubs in this NDLS against the Brewers. First, he should not have started Boyd for game 1 on only three days rest and second it is absolutely wrong to not start your hottest hitter, Michael Busch even when going against left handed pitcher. How do you justify starting PCA who clearly has difficulty with left handed pitching and no start Busch. Pat Murphy was Counsell’s bench coach and I am beginning to think he did more the managing than Counsell when he was in Milwaukee. His performance does not justify being the top paid manager in baseball. David Ross could have equally managed to the two losses that have occurred in this series.
Game 1 of the NLDS between the Cubs and Brewers was over for the Cubs before the first three Brewer outs of the game was recorded. Starting Boyd on only three days rest went very badly. Obviously the Cubs need to flush this game and win game 2 on Monday.
The Chicago Cubs managed to hold on to a 3-1 lead and beat the San Diego Padres yesterday to advance to the best of five game NLDS against Milwaukee. It should be a fun series starting Saturday.
The Cubs got shutout yesterday in the second Wild Card game, so today there is an elimination game with San Diego. Got to score runs to win a baseball game. Because the Dodgers won their series, which was the only sweep, the Cubs/Padres game starts at 5 PM today while the Tigers/Guardians game starts at 3 PM.