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Thursday, July 29, 2021
5:47 pm: In exchange, Chicago will pick up two prospects — outfielder Kevin Alcantara and right-hander Alexander Vizcaino –– Curry reports. He adds that the Cubs will retain the entirety of Rizzo’s remaining salary.
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1. Voodoo Posted: July 29, 2021 at 07:09 PM (#6031336)so come on down, Anthony Rizzo !
"In exchange, Chicago will be receiving two of the Yankees' top prospects, according to the YES Network's Jack Curry: Right-hander Alexander Vizcaino (No. 9 on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Yankees prospects list) and outfielder Kevin Alcantara (No. 12)."
#lastchancesaloon
#crossthread
Recent seasons be damned, the last decade has never been more enjoyable to be a Cubs fan and Anthony Rizzo was a major part of that. It's going to be tough rooting for him to never get another hit again now that he's playing for the Evil Empire, but he's easily one of my personal favorite ballplayers of all time.
suckersfans a little happier.That could have been today - Bryant and Rizzo were both not in the lineup, but "available" to pinch hit - yet they did not pinch hit (but reliever Kyle Ryan got a 7th inning at bat)
Even so, seeing Rizzo go, it really is the end of an era.
same. this hurts.
1970s Mets fans seeing TOM SEAVER traded to Cincinnati in the 1970s for multiple mortals: HOLD MY BEER
and as far as rooting against, or not:
I was at Shea Stadium for Game 7 of the 1986 World Series. In the dugout - and in uniform for the Red Sox - was Tom Seaver.
thankfully, he was injured and inactive.
but still.
y'all may have a cross to bear down the road.
There may have been other good reasons to trade Rizzo. Maybe his public desire to stay in Chicago was just a cover for private discontent. Maybe his refusal to get vaxxed (unless I missed news that he got it after all) was causing serious problems in the clubhouse. Maybe the front office has rumblings of some scandal about to emerge. Who knows.
But it sure seems like we've gone from a system where failed teams trade their stars as a cornerstone for a rebuilding effort, to a system where you just trade everyone for the sake of trading them, almost regardless of the return. It just seems bad for the game, one more way for teams to chip away shortsightedly at fan loyalty, only in the guise of it actually being farsighted.
And apparently the Cubs aren't even saving money! It really just is just trading away a popular player for the sake of trading him away. One less guy to root for, one less reason to care.
As to "top prospects" ... a team's #9 and #12 are not top prospects. They might pan out, probably won't make a difference. Whether you can expect more for 2 months of a player is a good question. Alcantara is still only 18 so being #12 at 18 is pretty promising. Vizcaino is 24 and has just 6 IP this year -- injured or just trouble getting into the country?
The Cub history with Alcantaras (Arismendy, Sergio) and Vizcainos (Jose, Arodys and Luis) is not promising. :-)
It's interesting/weird what the Cubs have been doing. This, the Darvish trade, a couple of others are essentially trading in exchange for a strong 2019-20 draft/international signing pool. They're a long way away unless they're secret Trout/Betts types. It's a very long-range plan, maybe even moreso than Theo's plan. The next few years look pretty brutal.
I will never forget 16, and those who were part of it. But that was 5 years ago sometimes you just have to move on.
This. Rizzo turns 32 in a week and over the last two years (which add up to 150 games), he's hit .238/.344/.433. If you want to keep him around as some kind of plush toy, fine, but as a baseball player, he's nothing special at this point of his career.
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