Fan Graphs Organization Rankings

[Post Count Padder]

Cubs are 7th:

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/organizational-rankings-7

[UMFan83]

The Cubs management has made a lot of mistakes, but their payroll gives them a lot of room for error, and they’ve managed to assemble a top tier major league roster even with their questionable judgments. If Hendry and company can stay out of the way, the team should be playing in a World Series in the next few years - there’s just way too much talent on the 25 man roster for them to not make it deep into October sooner than later. Given the state of the farm system and the lack of a great young core at the major league level, the fall-off could be pretty steep down the line, but for right now, they’re legitimate contenders for the foreseeable future.

 

I love hearing that... I hope its true about the World Series thing.

[treebird]

The Cubs management has made a lot of mistakes, but their payroll gives them a lot of room for error, and they’ve managed to assemble a top tier major league roster even with their questionable judgments. If Hendry and company can stay out of the way, the team should be playing in a World Series in the next few years - there’s just way too much talent on the 25 man roster for them to not make it deep into October sooner than later. Given the state of the farm system and the lack of a great young core at the major league level, the fall-off could be pretty steep down the line, but for right now, they’re legitimate contenders for the foreseeable future.

 

I love hearing that... I hope its true about the World Series thing.

 

i think they're being awfully generous, unless they have a different definition of "down the line" and "foreseeable future" than i do.

 

i think this needs to be the year.

[bukie]

The Cubs management has made a lot of mistakes, but their payroll gives them a lot of room for error, and they’ve managed to assemble a top tier major league roster even with their questionable judgments. If Hendry and company can stay out of the way, the team should be playing in a World Series in the next few years - there’s just way too much talent on the 25 man roster for them to not make it deep into October sooner than later. Given the state of the farm system and the lack of a great young core at the major league level, the fall-off could be pretty steep down the line, but for right now, they’re legitimate contenders for the foreseeable future.

 

I love hearing that... I hope its true about the World Series thing.

 

i think they're being awfully generous, unless they have a different definition of "down the line" and "foreseeable future" than i do.

 

i think this needs to be the year.

Well, the phrases are vague enough that "down the line" could be "come November" and foreseeable future could be "this spring".

[UMFan83]

The Cubs management has made a lot of mistakes, but their payroll gives them a lot of room for error, and they’ve managed to assemble a top tier major league roster even with their questionable judgments. If Hendry and company can stay out of the way, the team should be playing in a World Series in the next few years - there’s just way too much talent on the 25 man roster for them to not make it deep into October sooner than later. Given the state of the farm system and the lack of a great young core at the major league level, the fall-off could be pretty steep down the line, but for right now, they’re legitimate contenders for the foreseeable future.

 

I love hearing that... I hope its true about the World Series thing.

 

i think they're being awfully generous, unless they have a different definition of "down the line" and "foreseeable future" than i do.

 

i think this needs to be the year.

 

I tend to agree...our hitting core is actually pretty old. Lee will turn 34 this year and already might be slipping. Aramis is turning 31 this year, Soriano is 33, Fukudome is 32, Bradley is about to turn 31. It's unfortunate that the steroid era was the real reason that players were still peaking at age 35+. 2-3 years ago, I'd look at a 31 year old ARam and think he has 5 more years left at his numbers...now I have to be safe and say maybe 3 more years.

[CubColtPacer]

The Cubs management has made a lot of mistakes, but their payroll gives them a lot of room for error, and they’ve managed to assemble a top tier major league roster even with their questionable judgments. If Hendry and company can stay out of the way, the team should be playing in a World Series in the next few years - there’s just way too much talent on the 25 man roster for them to not make it deep into October sooner than later. Given the state of the farm system and the lack of a great young core at the major league level, the fall-off could be pretty steep down the line, but for right now, they’re legitimate contenders for the foreseeable future.

 

I love hearing that... I hope its true about the World Series thing.

 

i think they're being awfully generous, unless they have a different definition of "down the line" and "foreseeable future" than i do.

 

i think this needs to be the year.

 

I tend to agree...our hitting core is actually pretty old. Lee will turn 34 this year and already might be slipping. Aramis is turning 31 this year, Soriano is 33, Fukudome is 32, Bradley is about to turn 31. It's unfortunate that the steroid era was the real reason that players were still peaking at age 35+. 2-3 years ago, I'd look at a 31 year old ARam and think he has 5 more years left at his numbers...now I have to be safe and say maybe 3 more years.

 

That's the thing with being a large market team though..they are very hard to evaluate past 2 years.

 

Yes, Lee is almost certainly declining (although he might have a slight bounce back this year) and Ramirez will be soon.

 

At the same time, it's certainly possible that both those players are off the Cubs payroll in 2 years. Add in Lilly and that's 35 million dollars off of the payroll for 3 spots. If they can find one homegrown cheap player to fill 1 of the spots, they'll have plenty of money to sign 2 good to great players for the other spots without even increasing payroll.

 

Teams at the Cubs payroll level just don't stay down very long unless they give out several horrible contracts. When you start having 30-40 million dollars of dead money you can have major issues, but the Cubs really don't have that.

 

So this Cubs team probably has a very small window (1 or 2 years). But the Cubs have the payroll to be able to shift their focus of the team really quickly without having more than 1 mediocre season.

Then if you get even decent contributions out of players like Vitters and Samardzija it just makes that process a whole lot easier.

 

I just don't see the Cubs huge future problems unless the payroll goes way down or unless the Cubs have a couple spectacular failures in free agency. Getting contributions from their farm system would give them even more margin for error and allow them to have a couple bad failures in free agency and still be very good.

[UMFan83]

You are also correct.

 

The Cubs moved from a winning core of Sosa/Alou/Prior/Wood to a winning core of Lee/Ramirez/Soriano/Zambrano with just 2 bad seasons in between. They have the advantage of being able to do that. Who knows with the ownership change and the economy. The thing is, Hendry often makes dumb moves or wastes assets. If there is less room for error than there is now, I could easily see the Cubs having some down years. For instance, Hendry was able to write the "wrong" of signing Fukudome as his LH OF bat and acquire Bradley the next offseason. Will he be able to do that with an ower that has a hypothetically much tighter budget?

[jersey cubs fan]

You are also correct.

 

The Cubs moved from a winning core of Sosa/Alou/Prior/Wood to a winning core of Lee/Ramirez/Soriano/Zambrano with just 2 bad seasons in between.

 

More like 2 horrific seasons.

 

You can't keep the Yankees and Red Sox down for long. But it wouldn't be hard for a team like the Cubs, with a shaky minor league system and questionable personel decision making abilities, to stay down for a few years. Look at Seattle, Texas, the Dodgers. These are free spending teams that really screwed themselves to varying degrees. Plus, we don't know what Ricketts will do with the team. There's no way he continues to grow payroll at the rate it's grown in recent years, and the only reason the Cubs are any good is because it's grown so much so quickly. If they are going to win longterm, they will have to do some things very differently.

[Mephistopheles]

2010 is the last year of our window.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

After 2010 we'll have around 80 million committed to 12 guys assuming Bradley's option is picked up.

 

C Soto

1B OPEN

2B Fontenot

SS Theriot

3B Ramirez

LF Soriano

CF Fukudome

RF Bradley

 

Zambrano/Dempster/Marshall/Samardzija/OPEN

 

Marmol is the only pen guy under contract.

 

Harden's obviously a possibility as well. To suggest there's no chance of that team competing when they could have a ton of money to fill any rotation holes and 1B is lunacy.

[17 Seconds]

You are also correct.

 

The Cubs moved from a winning core of Sosa/Alou/Prior/Wood to a winning core of Lee/Ramirez/Soriano/Zambrano with just 2 bad seasons in between.

 

More like 2 horrific seasons.

 

 

2005 wasn't horrific

[otis89]

You are also correct.

 

The Cubs moved from a winning core of Sosa/Alou/Prior/Wood to a winning core of Lee/Ramirez/Soriano/Zambrano with just 2 bad seasons in between.

 

More like 2 horrific seasons.

 

 

2005 wasn't horrific

 

If it wasn't for Lee, it would have been.

[17 Seconds]

You are also correct.

 

The Cubs moved from a winning core of Sosa/Alou/Prior/Wood to a winning core of Lee/Ramirez/Soriano/Zambrano with just 2 bad seasons in between.

 

More like 2 horrific seasons.

 

 

2005 wasn't horrific

 

If it wasn't for Lee, it would have been.

 

even if lee put up his normal numbers i still don't think it would have been horrific. bad, yes

[UMFan83]

You are also correct.

 

The Cubs moved from a winning core of Sosa/Alou/Prior/Wood to a winning core of Lee/Ramirez/Soriano/Zambrano with just 2 bad seasons in between.

 

More like 2 horrific seasons.

 

 

2005 wasn't horrific

 

If it wasn't for Lee, it would have been.

 

Huh? Lee didn't save us...Neifi did.

[Little Slide Rooter]

How the hell do the Brewers have us beat? They lost their 2 top pitchers, and their big off season aquisition was the remains of Trevor Hoffman.

[17 Seconds]

How the hell do the Brewers have us beat? They lost their 2 top pitchers, and their big off season aquisition was the remains of Trevor Hoffman.

 

it's not based on just 2009

[Little Slide Rooter]

How the hell do the Brewers have us beat? They lost their 2 top pitchers, and their big off season aquisition was the remains of Trevor Hoffman.

 

it's not based on just 2009

 

Still, how the hell do the Brewers have us beat? They didnt even decide they wanted to win until like 2006.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

How the hell do the Brewers have us beat? They lost their 2 top pitchers, and their big off season aquisition was the remains of Trevor Hoffman.

 

it's not based on just 2009

 

Even then, the Brewers at #6 is a curious choice. Like was mentioned in the comments of that article, the grades for MLB talent(their pitching is seriously ungood) and MiLB talent(they lack starpower and are ranked more middle of the pack right now) are probably overstated.

[erik316wttn]

Why aren't the Cubs pumping more into the farm and development? At one time we had the #1 rated farm system in all of baseball, although it may have been highly overrated. It seems like it's barren.

[sneakypower]

it's not money, the problem is that we have a farm director who is either woefully inept or egotistical, eschewing common sense with his picks

[Little Slide Rooter]

Why aren't the Cubs pumping more into the farm and development? At one time we had the #1 rated farm system in all of baseball, although it may have been highly overrated. It seems like it's barren.

 

After so many sure thing prospects failed miserably, maybe they just gave up :lol: .

 

Recently though, it seems that weve been cranking out some god ones in Zambrano, Marmol,Theriot, Soto, Fontenot(Im aware that hes a product of the O's system, but Ill count him). We'll see what is to come for Marshall and Hoffpauir, and even Pie and Nolasco, even though they arent with us anymore.

[UMFan83]

How the hell do the Brewers have us beat? They lost their 2 top pitchers, and their big off season aquisition was the remains of Trevor Hoffman.

 

Except for the fact that they had been building for right now this entire decade. Braun, Fielder, Gallardo, Laporta, Gamel, Weeks, Hardy, etc. didn't just appear out of nowhere.

[erik316wttn]

it's not money, the problem is that we have a farm director who is either woefully inept or egotistical, eschewing common sense with his picks

 

Is the GM in charge of farm development, or is that even over Hendry's head? If not, that's just one more reason why he should get the boot.

 

The Brewers have a fantastic farm system and have developed what many consider to be a future ace (Gallardo), and one hell of a lineup in Hardy, Fielder, Braun, Gamiel, etc. There is no reason that the Cubs shouldn't be able to do that with their resources.

[Little Slide Rooter]

How the hell do the Brewers have us beat? They lost their 2 top pitchers, and their big off season aquisition was the remains of Trevor Hoffman.

 

Except for the fact that they had been building for right now this entire decade. Braun, Fielder, Gallardo, Laporta, Gamel, Weeks, Hardy, etc. didn't just appear out of nowhere.

 

They have done a nice job developing players, but its like putting worms into a can. Laportas gone. Fileder, Weeks, and Hardy will probably be gone in the next few years. Every year, they come up short. They keep brining up more prospects, and it will probably be the same story.

[dew1679666265]

it's not money, the problem is that we have a farm director who is either woefully inept or egotistical, eschewing common sense with his picks

 

Is the GM in charge of farm development, or is that even over Hendry's head? If not, that's just one more reason why he should get the boot.

 

The Brewers have a fantastic farm system and have developed what many consider to be a future ace (Gallardo), and one hell of a lineup in Hardy, Fielder, Braun, Gamiel, etc. There is no reason that the Cubs shouldn't be able to do that with their resources.

 

Hendry is in charge of farm development, I'm pretty sure. He was also the head of the farm system before becoming GM.

 

However, keep in mind we've developed Z, Soto, Fontenot, Theriot, Marshall and Marmol. Our prospects have also netted us Lee (Choi) and Aramis (Hill and Bruback). We've had a lot of disappointing prospects, but we've developed a pretty decent core as well.