July 31, 2017: Fine Tuning

The heavy lifting had already been done come the trade deadline Monday. The Cubs have their prized addition in Jose Quintana. The remaining wish list contained some relief pitching, a veteran backup catcher, and possibly another starter. We crossed two more things off the list late Sunday.

No, Justin Verlander was not included in the deal with the Tigers, which did include Justin Wilson and Alex Avila. Supposedly, they wanted Baez or Happ or Schwarber; good decline on that one. How good is Verlander any more anyways? I used to really like him as a pitcher, but he is far from vintage form. And all the money he is owed… I know the Cubs have money, but we have guys that we need to pay here (Arrieta?) before we can pay off the 50 plus million owed Justin. Maybe if the Tigers ate some salary and did not want major league talent back…

Justin Wilson was one of the most coveted relievers this time around. A flame throwing lefty out of the pen is never a bad thing, even if your bullpen has been pretty damn good like the Cubs. You can never have enough pitching, especially when it comes to the postseason… especially when it comes to Joe’s managing style. Giving Joe another piece to work with out of the pen was a very good idea.

Alex Avila checked the box for that veteran backup catcher, you know, the box that was checked earlier this year by Miggy. Is Avila a better option than Miggy? I would say yes; now he only needs to hit a grand slam in the postseason and give us the game winning insurance RBI in the World Series. Miggy will always have a place in my heart because of those 2 hits alone. Avila will get a chance to make an impact. The fact that he is a left handed bat is nice too. Contreras has been the MVP since the break, and he is young, but still… we need to preserve him for the biggest games. That is, if we can build up a comfortable enough lead to not need 110% of him in the regular season…
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We gave up 2 more prospects; big deal. We’re not going to have to worry about prospects for about 5 years. We can certainly build back up the farm system at that time, but that’s waaayyy down the road. The window is wide open, and with one cashed in, we want to make it multiply. Doing everything and anything we can to give us the best chance to do that is what’s most important.

But I’m not telling you anything that Theo doesn’t clearly understand. He built this. He knows how to change gears. He’s proven it. He’s done it again. Did you want Darvish? The Dodgers, the World Series favorites picked him up; bravo! I hope he sucks. And Gray to the Yankees? That’s cool. I did like him, but either one of these guys would have cost us major league talent. Would it have been worth it? I can’t say for sure that it would have.

Lester, Quintana, Arrieta, and Hendricks in the playoffs sounds pretty good to me. Lackey has stepped up his game recently, and hopefully has one more postseason bullet left in that arm. Now it’s back to business, back to Wrigley, to keep that 13-3 2nd half record looking good. Go Cubs!