1 hour ago, Tony said:

Shouldn't Schwarber be used as the example for Mune? IMO, they are incredibly similar.

As a hitter yes, so far he's Schwarber with a higher walk rate.

Contractually no, since Schwarber got his big deal at age 33 and Mune will reach free agency at 28. (And his prior contract was after only 1 year of his now typical production)

23 hours ago, supernuke said:

This is what I have such a hard time understanding. How was Ishbia ok with buying into this situation of another 8 years of JR continuing to add nails to the coffin. It seems the longer JR is in charge the more money it will cost to bring this franchise back to relevance.

Agreed. It must be maddening to Ishbia if he has to sit back and watch this franchise being driven further into the ground and lose more of the next generation of Chicago fans as good players continue to be traded away as soon as they get close to a big payday.

JR could hold on to this team for up to another 8 years. That hole to climb out of to gain back market share in Chicago is going to be a lot deeper in 2034.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by 77 Hitmen

Problem 2: The balls put into play aren't turning into hits at their former levels. The statistical term for this is BABIP and the .289 mark this season would be the lowest since 1992, though, like average, it will go up some over the course of the season. But it isn't going to approach the "healthy" benchmark of .300. I had hoped that the ban of extreme defensive shifting would get us back to that level. It simply has not happened.

The bane of a league with a batting average of too much three-true-outcomes baseball -- far too many plate appearances that end with a strikeout, walk or home run.

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