The struggles of left-hander Justin Wilson following a trade to the Cubs perplexed not only Chicago evaluators but execs throughout the league, writes Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic (subscription required and highly recommended). Sharma spoke to both Cubs manager Joe Maddon and GM Jed Hoyer about Wilson’s troubles, and Maddon made it clear that he views Wilson as an important part of the ’pen for the upcoming 2018 season. Hoyer, meanwhile, acknowledged that some of the blame likely falls on the organization, especially considering that these sort of struggles have happened in the past. (Sharma points to Adam Warren as one prominent example.) “…[W]e’ve had a number of guys who have come in and struggled beyond what they’ve done in the past,” Hoyer tells Sharma. “That’s something we have looked at and will continue to look at and talk about how we ’onboard’ guys, so to speak. … We’ve been, candidly, somewhat frustrated by it and we’ll keep working on it.”
More from the division…
- Patrick Mooney of The Athletic argues that the time is right for the Cubs to make a big splash on the free-agent market. Big spenders like the Yankees, Giants and Dodgers are striving to dip below the luxury tax, while several other clubs throughout the league are also operating under financial constraint. Within their division, the Pirates could be on the verge of a rebuild, as trade rumors swirl around Gerrit Cole, Andrew McCutchen and Josh Harrison. Meanwhile, the Reds don’t yet look to be ready to push back into contention. Mooney notes that the Cubs are remaining in touch with agents for Yu Darvish, Jake Arrieta and Alex Cobb, though the Chicago brass doesn’t seem to have Lance Lynn as high on its list of priorities, he adds.
- There’s little precedent for Tommy Pham’s enormous breakout season at the age of 29, writes SB Nation’s Craig Edwards. Pham posted a roughly six-win season for the Cardinals (5.9 fWAR, 6.4 rWAR) last year on the strength of a .306/.411/.520 batting line through 530 plate appearances. However, he’d provided minimal value to the Cards over his first 136 games in the bigs after progressing slowly through the minor leagues. Edwards looks for historical context for Pham’s breakout, noting that there’ve been 48 outfielders with a WAR between five and seven in their age-29 season over the past 70 years. Of that group, only three — Jose Bautista, Ryan Ludwick and former Tigers outfielder Charlie Maxwell — broke out with as limited a track record as Pham. It’s an interesting look at a unique breakout season that also attempts to gauge how Pham will perform in 2018 and beyond.
- Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle recently sat down for a Q&A with Tracy Ringolsby of MLB.com. Hurdle discusses his journey from a 10-year playing career to a minor league manager to a coach and skipper in the big leagues. Hurdle shares an anecdote from his time with the Rockies in which he thought he was on the verge of being dismissed as hitting coach when he was in reality being promoted to skipper. The two also discuss Pittsburgh’s return to postseason contention earlier this decade after a prolonged drought, as well as the recent rough patch over the past couple of seasons. It’s well worth a read — particularly for fans of the Pirates and Rockies.
Pham seems legit. His workout routine is no joke. Biggest concern for him is his eye sight. He keeps that under control, I think he will be legit. If not, I am sure the Cards still have some backup OF lol
True that.
I guess I’m lost, and behind the 8 ball. Everyone talks about his eye sight. What about it?
He has a degenerative eye disease and is constantly having to get his contacts adjusted.
So basically, it’s an absolute miracle he had a .931 OPS last year? See, this is why I stopped playing baseball last year, my eyes were awful and I had to get glasses.
no he got them fixed and broke out, similar to wilson ramos’ break out 2 years ago.
He has a degenerative eye disease. A breakdown of the cornea, I believe.
As long as he’s healthy he’s good. I saw someone that showed his minors stats after 2010, and his OPS+ was like 120-140+ every year he wasn’t hurt.
That’s two legits. Two legits, now quit!
Ha! Didn’t even realize that and now that darn song is stuck in my head.
Ha, same here! #hammertime
What’s the deal with Lynn? Seems like a guy that would improve any rotation. Is he asking for too much for his age? Seems like a safer bet than Cobb to me but lacks the upside of Darvish and Jake.
Sorry…
Lynn won’t sign till Darvish & Arrieta set the market.
Lynn is solid nothing more nothing less.
Lynn, while not being anything near an ace is vastly underrated. He has a consistent track record and extensive post season and World Series experience to boot. His biggest problem is he’s not flashy and he doesn’t throw 100 mph. But he’s a workhorse that is very reliable. With the exception of maybe two or three top rotations he’s a #2-#4 pitcher and would improve practically any teams rotation. He does not have the upside of arrietta but is much more dependable
Tbh a lot of teams have been burned by signing pitchers of his echelon recently and might be weary. Jiminez, Garza, and Volquez among others were viewed as upgrades to rotations or solid backends at the worst but ended up being bad deals for various reasons. I’m in no way suggesting Lynn will do the same, and I actually believe Lynn is significantly better then those mentioned. But, my point is that maybe teams are becoming less willing to roll the dice and pay for mid rotation arms because of mileage and added risk. They might view the extra investment with upside, less perceived risk as a better investment even if the price tags are bigger.
But the thing with Jimmenez, and Volquez is they don’t have the track record that Lynn does now. Lynn has been fairly consistent season to season in his career where as Jimmenez and Volquez were not as consistent before signing.
I think of mike leake
I believe Lynn showed he came back from TJ surgery well enough. I think the main issue is he is demanding more than a 50 million contract (as he should) and people would rather throw that money towards Arrieta and Darvish first. The pick loss isn’t huge, but you still want to maximize value when giving up the pick, so they’re going after the higher quality starter. Also, Lynn didn’t last as long in games as he had before TJ, I think he was right around 6 innings/start, which is more of the trend these days, but a team with a quality BP would have to sign him knowing you’re probably gonna have to use around 3+ innings of a relievers. Doesn’t sound like a lot but if you’re paying that much for a guy you want an innings eater also. He’ll definitely has name tossed around after the top 2 leave the market, it just doesn’t bode well for him if teams with strong BP’s pick up on of Darvish or Arrieta. He’s a pillow contract candidate for sure.
Not like Leake at all. Basically every Lynn season is better then Leake’s best. Not a good comparison.
The time is right for a splash on the free agent market. Honestly just have everyone return to their teams on one year deals and go all out next offseason. A combination of big market teams being mindful of the luxury tax and knowing what’s on the market next year means it’s just a bad year for a player to get their max value. Good year for an under the radar team to get a good player knowing they wont have a shot at the top guys next year anyways. Looking at you Braves, Orioles, Diamondbacks, etc.
So next year there will be 10 guys demanding $300-$400mm contracts? That would limit the teams willing to spend that kind of money, if there are more than 5 teams willing and able to absorb those contracts. Plus money by big market teams is already being allocated for the likes of Machado Harper etc,
Who says no?
Ivan Nova for Chase Headley and Travis Jankowski.
Padres get veteran to help with younger Latin starters in Perdomo and Lamet.
Bucs get Headley for more (Kang) insurance. Jankowski can fill an outfield spot if and when Cutch is traded.
Pirates say no.
There’s no Kang insurance. I’m sure he’s firmly out of their plans. No shot the pirates take that trade. Freese and Headley are virtually a wash and freese is about half as expensive. Nova is a dependable #5 pitcher at the least. No way they’d consider that one.
Headley and Freese are too similar of players. Both are about 260-270 hitter, with good defense, and can hit 10-12 homers a year. They even had similar WARs (Freese: 2 WAR, Headley: 1.8 WAR). The only thing is, Headley is nearly $10 million more than Freese (Headley $13 mil. Freese $4.25 mil in 2018).
Just my opinion, but I don’t think Warren wanted to leave NY.
That can be a big difference.
The Cubs have had guys do better with them, Jake, T. Wood and Pedro for example, so who knows?
The Cubs were suckers for giving the Yankees all of their prospects for half-season rentals of two relievers.
Oh yeah completely. Winning the World Series was totally not worth it.
Hahahaha yes.
They also got a controllable Quintana. And Chapman was the only rental anyways
All of their prospects? That’s crazy. Their prospects are in the majors now. I think it worked out well for them last year. I’ll take it!
Trolololol
You troll as well as your team plays baseball.
Pham, athletically speaking, is the real deal. He has the talent to do what he did last year every year.
He has dealt with injuries every step of his development. Specifically, his eyes.
I hate to sound too optimistic, and i do think there is some regression from last year in there.
But a healthy Pham could probably be counted on .300/.400/.500 while playing center, giving 5 win seasons.
But his physical regression can’t be too many years away either.
Wow so you see him as a pretty elite player. Those are some hall of fame numbers.
Those exactly match last years production, his first injury free semi full season. Barring injury or continued eye problems, why not? Would have been worth 6.5-7 war last year with 600 plate appearances. That was elite so not at all out of realm of possibility. Will he do that for 15 years or more to be hall of fame? Obviously that would be ludicrous for anyone to say or expect.
Well, he’ll be 30 by opening day, so I don’t think ludicrous is the right word, impossible, that’s the word. He’s probably got 3 or 4 more years before he needs to head to the AL or 1st, if that’s in his skill set at all. Also, EXPECTING .300/.400/.500 from a guy IS ludicrous.
So you expect him to match a break out season that he has shown no ability to replicate.
I’m not “expecting” anything. Just saying he’s already done it, so why not. What reasons do you two cards haters have that he won’t repeat? Besides youre cubs fans and hate anything cardinals?
It’s unfair to say that Pham provided “minimal value” to the Cardinals over 136 games prior to his breakout in 2017. In his 358 major league PA’s prior to 2017, Pham totaled 1.7 fWAR and was roughly a 115 wRC+ hitter in the majors. That value extrapolates out to 2.8 fWAR per 600 PA’s, which is a solidly above league average starting position player.
He was obviously far better than that in 2017, but Pham’s history in the minors was that he played well whenever he was healthy. His problem always was an array of injuries, not just his degenerative eye condition but also missed time due to a host of other problems : broken wrist, torn labrums (each shoulder on separate occasions), torn ligament, strained quadriceps, strained oblique.