All over the place

This one goes off the rails from Cubs trade targets to Kap's trade targets to Yacht or Nyacht to David Lee Roth's isolated vocals

Andy Dolan

— 8 min read
All over the place
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The Cubs have enjoyed an excellent season so far. They are in first place on July 8, two-thirds of their outfield will be starting in the All-Star Game, their DH is the most egregious All-Star snub, their first baseman could still get in if Pete Alonso, Freddie Freeman or Matt Olson get drunk and fall down the stairs, Jed Hoyer finally built a decent bullpen when it mattered, and other than too much of their opening day rotation wearing splints, they find themselves in the enviable position of needing to make trade deadline deals not to keep themselves afloat, but to (gasp) actually win something.

Things are going so good that our old friend Jon Greenberg wrote his annual "Next great Cubs team" column and he wasn't being sarcastic this time.

"Sure, there are worries and concerns, potential holes that need to be addressed in the pitching staff and at third base, but you watch these guys hit (and run the bases) every night and you think this is one of the best Cubs teams of the last 20 years, 2016 excluded."

Where would you rank these Cubs amongst the best of the last 20 years?

  1. 2016 - 103-58, won something called the World Series
  2. 2015 - 97-65, beat the Cardinals in the playoffs, lost in the NLCS
  3. 2017 - 92-70, beat the Nationals in the playoffs, lost in the NLCS
  4. 2018 - 95-68, tied for best record in the NL blew the tiebreaker and lost in the Wild Card game
  5. 2008 - 97-64, best record in NL (second best in baseball) Dempstered themselves in the first round
  6. 2025 - Sixth with a bullet
  7. 2019 - 84-78, were 82-68 on September 16 two games out in the Central and in a Wild Card spot and went 2-10 to finish the season
  8. 2020 - Won the Central, started 13-3, went 21-23 the rest of the way, scored one run in the playoffs
  9. 2007 - 85-77, won the Central, but they weren't any good
  10. 2024 - 83-79, missed playoffs but had fifth best record in the NL in the second half for the THIRD STRAIGHT YEAR! Prestigious.

Sixth seems right. With a real chance to crack the top four.

So, how aggressive is Jed Hoyer going to be to push this team over the top in a very winnable National League? The Dodgers will be great if they ever get healthy, but what are the odds that's going to happen? The real threat seems to me to be the Phillies. Zach Wheeler is, at worst, the third best pitcher in the world, they have depth behind him in Christopher Sanchez, Ranger Suarez and (on any given day) Jesus Luzardo, and Dave Dombrowski always takes a "fuck them prospects" approach to every trade deadline.

So Jed's got to keep pace with the Phillies. Is Tom Ricketts going to let him?

Kap crawled out of the cryo tank yesterday to "work the phones" to find out.

Let's humor him and his sources.

Who is he yelling at? Does he think his phone mic is broken?

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