re: Who lands Cole Hamels?

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but they are kids. Why would we believe that the Cubs lineup would be great with half of them three+ years away from their prime

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average age of


Cubs 28.3
Astros 28.6


3 fricking months and the Cubs will be in the playoff mix

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Rizzo 25 Russell 21 Bryant 23 Castro 25 Bryant 23 Soler 23

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Don't forget Schwarber, maybe the best pure hitter of them all.

What's discouraging to me is the veterans on the team like Fowler, Castro, Montero and Coughlan are all hitting well below their career averages. Of that group only Coughlan has shown signs he might get to his career benchmark before season's end.

I was hoping those would even out, Rizzo would get back on track and we'd get enough of an occasional bump from the young talent to move the needle a bit offensively.

But I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that the Cubs just aren't going to rally offensively this year and we'll probably end up at about.500 which is about where I saw us to start the year.

But the future is very bright. Kind of reminds me of the young core the Astros brought up with Biggio, Bagwell, Caminiti and Luis Gonzales et al that struggled when young but eventually gave the Stros some very good years.

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Kind of reminds me of the young core the Astros brought up with Biggio, Bagwell, Caminiti and Luis Gonzales et al that struggled when young but eventually gave the Stros some very good years.

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Takes time to adjust to steroids

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Takes time to adjust to steroids

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Caminiti unmistakably and Bagwell almost certainly though never implicated.

Point being those guys all came up young together and took their lumps early but enjoyed some success together down the road. And they certainly weren't alone on the roid train back then.

A's