20 Years Down the Line, Which Current Cubs Will Be Considered “The Best”? And Other Bullets

The pain has arrived. I guess I was fortunate that the nerve block from the surgery itself lasted as long as it did (nearly 36 hours for me), but when I woke up this morning, the center of my foot was throbbing. It’s still nowhere near the pain I was dealing with after my vasectomy complications (if you weren’t around for that, count yourself blessed – one word: hematoma), but I had to do the “full” dose of pain pills this morning after doing only half-doses yesterday, and I can already feel my head swimming a bit. You are hereby commanded that all typos, grammatical errors, and terrible Cubs opinions today must be chalked up to pain meds.

  • This seems to be a fun offseason question:
  • Going that far out into the future is obviously what makes it a tricky one, since we can’t know – for example – did Kris Bryant leave the Cubs in free agency and go on to be even more of a superstar with the newly-formed Las Vegas Mudhounds? Did the Cubs sign Bryce Harper to a 15-year deal, and he became the face of the franchise? For those reasons, if I were answering that question as phrased, I’d probably default to guys who’ve already been top Cubs – Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, Fergie Jenkins, Sammy Sosa, etc. – plus Anthony Rizzo, because I thinks he’s the most likely to be a Cub for life.
  • Let’s change it up a bit, though, and instead ask: of guys who are CURRENTLY Cubs, who are the top five 20 years down the road? Let’s assume they all stay with the Cubs long enough to be considered “Cubs.” Who you got? I’ll go with …
    1. Kris Bryant
    2. Anthony Rizzo
    3. Kyle Schwarber
    4. Kyle Hendricks
    5. Willson Contreras

  • Dang it’s hard to cut it off at five, and I could put the Kyles and Willson in just about any order. Slide on down to the comments and offer up your five. Or eight. Or ten.
  • (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

  • You may recall that the Cubs picked up a pitching guru from the Marlins in the wake of their organizational turnover last fall, and it turns out that much of Jim Benedict’s salary for the next three years is actually being paid by the Marlins. I’m sure the Marlins had their reasons for ditching so much front office talent for nominal financial savings, but … actually, I think I just answered my own question there before I asked it.
  • Speaking of Benedict, there’s a writeup here at NBC on the Cubs’ pitching infrastructure, and the significant changes made this offseason (including bringing Benedict in to work primarily with pitchers on the 40-man roster, a new pitching coach in Jim Hickey, and a new minor league pitching coordinator in Brendan Sagara). There is no question that the Cubs have a ton of young pitching talent throughout the organization, but we still haven’t yet seen that year where a bunch of them break through at the same time, and look like potential impact guys in the big leagues. This could finally be that year.
  • Wait. Wait. Wait wait wait. Wait. Wait. Tommy La Stella’s nickname is The Little Ticket, and I’m only just now finding this out?!?!?
  • https://twitter.com/MrsArrieta49/status/958831743817089025

  • Earlier this morning, if you missed it, the Brewers are talking to the Rays about Chris Archer. Natch.
  • Is it the pain meds, or is this new cap pretty sweet:
  • Deals of the Day at Amazon today include outdoor bluetooth speakers, wireless chargers, weights and recliners.
  • That’s a fun throwback:
  • And speaking of the Bears, over at TYL, Luis takes a look at the rebuilt Eagles’ offense and sees a parallel for the Bears.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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