|
gently caress Tom Ricketts and his entire family!
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2021 20:51
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2024 21:52 |
|
|
Is Madrigal good?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2021 20:51
|
|
|
Marisnick to the Padres.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2021 22:16
|
|
|
Now we can go back to simpler times where the biggest story was them throwing out an expensive cake.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2021 22:47
|
|
|
KDdidit posted:I’m in the hot take phase of grief, but all these talented guys managed to make teams worse than their individual parts. I don’t know if that’s on the front office, Ross, or player leadership, but you just couldn’t keep bringing them all back and expecting them to magically get better. They lost a lot of good players to age or free agency over the years that they weren't willing to replace because of cheapness. Guys like Fowler and Zobrist were essential to their success in 2016. High on-base, good contact guys who could mask the strikeouts from the others. Instead they went bargain bin hunting for guys like a washed up Jason Kipnis, Daniel Descalso and Eric Sogard. Bryant never turned into the perennial MVP candidate we thought he would. And there were some bad moves along the way. But big market teams can buy their way out of mistakes which the Cubs were unwilling to do. You can't lose good players year after year and not replace them. There was no reason why they couldn't have re-signed Castellanos and kept Darvish. Grabbed a halfway decent 2B like Wong or Hernandez in the offseason. Had a competent backup catcher to enter the season. Everyone knew the Cubs weren't interested in competing and it helped crush their leverage in trades. It's one thing if they did what the White Sox did years back and got some valuable pieces. But they got clowned at the deadline and now have a future with one elite prospect and a bunch of lottery tickets. It's going to be a long time before the Cubs are competitive again.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 31, 2021 03:04
|
|
|
Its also really cool how Wrigley is bombarded with ads now and looks more like a minor league stadium every year.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 31, 2021 05:05
|
|
|
The Cubs see also don't have a lot of success developing young players. Most of the talent they brought in were major league ready, not 19 year olds.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2021 23:25
|
|
|
Craptacular! posted:Rosenthal did a story on the Rays trade offers. Since The Athletic is paywalled and I don't pay for it, you'll have to put up with tweets from randos summarizing it: I wonder what role picking up Bryant's remaining salary played too. There is no way the Rays were going to take that all on and that is probably something that mattered to the Cubs.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2021 18:59
|
|
|
Also I don't know what prospects were available but Glasnow isn't that great of a get. He'll be out all next year so you'll be trading for 1 year of control from a guy coming off TJS. For a team that is likely not going to spend or be competitive for some time, prospects who you will have control of for 6-7 years seems more appealing.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2021 19:02
|
|
|
I think they'll take the Tribune approach of spending just enough to be competitive here and there, but never really serious about winning. They'll sign a nice free agent every so often and boast about their farm system. That keeps the park mostly filled and they can always rely on the attraction that is Wrigley Field. The TV network gives them a lot of extra revenue that can make up for fluctuations in attendance. Today's game is much different than where things were 6-7 years ago. Prospects are held on much tighter and internal development is more important (something the Cubs are really bad at as an organization). Barring some revolt from the fanbase and half-empty stadiums, the Cubs will revert back to pretending to be a mid-size market that has to have a bunch of luck to be a contender.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2021 20:43
|
|
|
Popete posted:Preface this with, gently caress a Ricketts. The issue is they lost good players and never spent money to replace them. Instead, they had to gut their farm system to find replacements for Arrieta, Zobrist, Fowler and Chapman. Sure they snuck into the top 5 in payroll a couple of years ago, but that's where they should have been from 2017 on. They have the most expensive tickets in baseball and knew a giant TV deal was in the works. Plus, they barely spent before 2016 under Ricketts, so it wasn't asking much for them to spend huge with this core. I just think it's a cop-out to argue that they did spend. They should be spending like the Red Sox and Dodgers every year they are competitive. The benefit of being a big market is you can buy your way out of mistakes and don't need to crush your farm system to fill holes. This team doesn't trade Cease and Eloy if they had been willing to take on Verlander's contract. And the aging utility players were a necessity because they weren't given a budget to sign a guy like Castellanos. Heck, even a guy like Kolten Wong or Cesar Hernandez would have been huge upgrades over the minor league free agent route they went with at 2B.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2021 21:32
|
|
|
Popete posted:I agree on these points. I really wanted them to sign Castellanos and instead we wound up with Joc Pederson. They definitely hosed up some things, but that's why being a big market with a big payroll matters. I feel like paying the luxury tax is fine since you made a poo poo ton of money back in 2014 or whatever with the 23rd ranked payroll in baseball. If you're going to be cheap during a rebuild, you better spend when you have a competitive team filled with good players in their prime. Just look at the Dodgers. Bauer contract is a disaster and they were able to just fix it because they hadn't decimated their farm system plugging holes of guys they lost to free agency. If the Ricketts ran the Dodgers, they would have been trading prospects to replace Turner, Kershaw, Jansen, and Pollock.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2021 21:50
|
|
|
I don't have a problem with the trading for prospects now that they're out of contention. But I don't believe the only way to build a winner here is to be atrocious for 5 years and then having a self-imposed window for winning before doing it all over again. They are in a division where they should be bullying everyone with their payroll.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2021 23:50
|
|
|
Craptacular! posted:Really what is the club's biggest missed opportunity with that payroll, though? We all know with hindsight that Bauer was a bad move. You can't really say Harper because Philadelphia has taken on the most outrageous obligation this side of Bobby Bonilla. Passing on Verlander was probably their biggest mistake. There is no reason they shouldn't have been at least kicking the tires on Cole, Betts, Greinke, and other big names. Although I understand the risk with massive deals. But it's not the big ones that are the problem, it's the little savings here and there that killed them. There was no one better than Daniel Descalso, Jon Jay, Jason Kipnis, Eddie Butler, Brett Anderson, Eric Sogard, and on and on? What exactly was the plan at 2B and CF the past couple seasons? The Quintana trade was made because they wanted cheap starting pitching. The Chapman trade was made because they chose not to invest in the bullpen before the 2016 season. Even moves like trading Soler and Candalerio were because they were unwilling to be a player in free agency before the 2017 season when elite closers were on the market. I don't have a problem with trading prospects to make a run, but they used their farm system to save money over the years. That ended up burning them later on when their payroll did go up due to arbitration numbers and they had no one in the pipeline to help out.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2021 05:38
|
|
|
I would also have been cool with Harper because he is a really good player in the prime of his career who would have helped the Cubs offense immensely the past few seasons. But I don't give a poo poo if the billionaire owner has to pay a few million in luxury tax money.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2021 05:40
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 16, 2024 21:52 |
|
|
Atomizer posted:I've said this before, but I'm still content with the Quintana trade. The Cubs got a few years of a serviceable, slightly above-average starting pitcher and payroll flexibility in exchange for a pair of players who weren't really going to be ready in their contention window. Cease has potential but hasn't been a particularly impressive starter (and neither has Alzolay, while I'm on the topic) and Eloy was another DH on an NL team, and he injured his dumb self in the field earlier this season (in other words, I'm saying he literally shouldn't be playing the field as he's a mediocre defender at best and is a liability to himself at worst.) I get why the front office made the move and it wasn't necessarily wrong, but it was necessitated by the fact that ownership wasn't going to be a big player in free agency. They paid a big price to get someone who at the time was considered a value contract. Eloy could have been moved later on for a better piece and Cease would likely be their #2 starter right now despite his flaws. He's only 25 with ridiculous stuff.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2021 18:54
|
|