Re: New GM/Cubs Future News Articles

[Elrhino]

Why wouldn't Lucchino ask for the moon? What does he have to lose by dragging this out for as long as possible until the Cubs cave? He's already got Theo's replacement in house doing his job. I'm sure letting Theo hang in the wind puts a smile on his face when he wakes up in the morning.

 

The important thing is for the Cubs not to fall for it. The next order of business is filling out the rest of the front office. Theo can lay that ground work and make phone calls as this comp. negotiation goes along.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Why wouldn't Lucchino ask for the moon? What does he have to lose by dragging this out for as long as possible until the Cubs cave?

 

Reputation. They presumably want to hire young, talented executives in the future. You don't jerk around employees like that.

[Guest]

Why wouldn't Lucchino ask for the moon? What does he have to lose by dragging this out for as long as possible until the Cubs cave?

 

Reputation. They presumably want to hire young, talented executives in the future. You don't jerk around employees like that.

 

 

Lucchino is a lunatic. He doesn't care about that.

[UMFan83]

I see two sides of the coin to all of this.

 

I'm not going to dance around and get all drunk because we signed a GM. Teams sign GMs all the time. Yes he's had tremendous success but who knows what's going to happen. I will dance around and go nuts when the Cubs win divisions, NLCSs and maybe a WS or two.

 

That said, I have been living on NSBB to get updates and info. I have also changed my firstborn's name to Theo Epstein. She's pissed.

 

I get that hiring a GM isn't as exciting as winning a WS, and I also get that Cubs fans have annointed many false saviors in our past only to be let down. But think about it this way: in 2006 we were a horrible baseball team with a manager who believed that walks 'clog the bases' and who has to play his vets over younger talent in lost seasons. Our ownership was a cold bland corporate entity where the Cubs were like 3% of their total assets and a corporation that was starting to nosedive financially. Our president of baseball operations had no concrete plan and oversaw the building of sad sack teams like: the 97 Cubs, the 99 Cubs, the 2000 Cubs, the 2002 Cubs, and the 2006 Cubs. Our general manager also had no concrete plan other than the emulate the last World Series champion, even if the current team was not built in that way.

 

Simply put, our organization was a mess and despite their best efforts, it was/is still a mess in 2011. There was no reason to feel any assurance that management knew what they were doing, and your best hope as a Cubs fan is that they would stumble into a lucky team every 3rd year that by dumb luck sort of came together for 1 year. But then of course we knew that, in trying to improve the team, would only mess it up for the next couple of years.

 

The Ricketts came about. And he cares. He's not a soulless corporate entity. He is willing to open his mind to explore what makes baseball teams successful. He's willing to invest in a long term plan, etc etc etc. But in order to be successful, he needed to hire the right man.

 

And he did. This move completely changes everything about the Cubs. No longer do we have to feel like our management is incompetent. We can relax a little bit and trust that our baseball people are going to get the right people. If Hendry signed something we weren't in favor of, it was 45 pages of bashing him and the move. If Epstein does the same, we will immediately try to figure out what we were missing and why we undervalued that person.

 

So why celebrate this by jumping up and down? Because why the [expletive] not.

[Guest]

Why wouldn't Lucchino ask for the moon? What does he have to lose by dragging this out for as long as possible until the Cubs cave?

 

Reputation. They presumably want to hire young, talented executives in the future. You don't jerk around employees like that.

 

Also, millions of dollars.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Why wouldn't Lucchino ask for the moon? What does he have to lose by dragging this out for as long as possible until the Cubs cave?

 

Reputation. They presumably want to hire young, talented executives in the future. You don't jerk around employees like that.

 

Also, millions of dollars.

 

That's just a write-off. They can just write it off.

[Guest]

Write it off what?

[SouthSideRyan]

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/team/front_office.jsp?c_id=chc

 

I can't wait to see what this looks like in a couple months

Wow, that really is an insanely small front office.

now look how large Boston's FO is, particularly Baseball Operations

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/team/front_office.jsp?c_id=bos

 

though the Assistant Director/Florida Baseball Operations does have a rather unfortunate name

 

What's wrong with Ethan?

 

He wasn't on the plane.

[SouthSideRyan]

Why wouldn't Lucchino ask for the moon? What does he have to lose by dragging this out for as long as possible until the Cubs cave?

 

After a certain point, not having a GM would be a bit of a hindrance.

[Guest]

I didn't realize Mark McGuire was still in our front office.

[BleacherBadger]

Write it off what?

 

David, all these big organizations, they write off everything

[Guest]

Write it off what?

 

David, all these big organizations, they write off everything

 

 

You don't even know what a write off is.

[BleacherBadger]

Write it off what?

 

David, all these big organizations, they write off everything

 

 

You don't even know what a write off is.

 

Do you?

[Springfield_CUBBY]

Write it off what?

 

David, all these big organizations, they write off everything

 

 

You don't even know what a write off is.

 

I wish I had the last 20 seconds of my life back

[Guest]

Write it off what?

 

David, all these big organizations, they write off everything

 

 

You don't even know what a write off is.

 

Do you?

 

No. I don't.

[Guest]

Write it off what?

 

David, all these big organizations, they write off everything

 

 

You don't even know what a write off is.

 

I wish I had the last 20 seconds of my life back

 

Too soon, junior.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Cubs, Red Sox Discussing Epstein Compensation

By Ben Nicholson-Smith [October 14 at 8:00am CST]

The Cubs and Red Sox are discussing compensation for Theo Epstein and Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune hears that the Cubs are insisting on paying cash, while the Red Sox are asking for one or more players. The negotiations could get contentious, but there are no concerns that the deal will fall through, according to Sullivan.

 

The Red Sox are looking for "something real" in exchange for Epstein, according to Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. However, it seems unlikely that the Cubs will have to part with a Major League player. The quality of the prospects the Red Sox obtain could be tied to how many front office employees Epstein can bring with him to Chicago, according to Nick Cafardo and Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe.

 

The Cubs agreed to a five-year deal with Epstein earlier this week. Ben Cherington, Boston's assistant GM, will be promoted to replace Epstein.

 

Sorry if this is old news, but the player quality being tied to how many people Theo can bring with him part is news to me. If raking less or none means not giving up quality prospects, but me in that boat. If they really want Baker as earlier reported, Id rather five them him and a decent prospect than 2 decent prospects. Maybe someone like Jay Jackson or Marwin Gonzalez who we aren't quite sure if they'll be Rule 5 protected.

[BleacherBadger]

But they do, and they are the ones writing it off

 

FTR: One of my 3 fav jerry/george exchanges

 

EDIT: Kramer and Jerry. damn it.

[Guest]

I'm willing to bet everything is going smoothly. The Sox probably sent a list containing players X, Y, and Z and the Cubs said here's a list containg players A, Y, and B. In the end they'll settle on player Y and cash.

 

The ship has set sail, everyone is kissing good bye.

[KingCubsFan]

Is player compensation somehow built into an agreement between clubs, or is this just some old baseball unwritten rule? If it's the latter, I don't see how much farther the Red Sox can keep pushing this.

 

 

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking or what you mean by "built into an agreement between clubs" but Theo is still under contract with the Red Sox. Yes, there is a multitude of reasons why they don't have much leverage in this matter, but in terms of their ability to demand compensation, he is under contract with them and they decide whether he can go or not. For him to come here, they (technically) have to let him go.

Right, but even if Epstein breaches his contract, the Red Sox are only entitled to money (which the Cubs could easily pay), unless there's some sort of MLB contract where teams have agreed to exchange players instead of money in situations like this.

[mul21]

Is player compensation somehow built into an agreement between clubs, or is this just some old baseball unwritten rule? If it's the latter, I don't see how much farther the Red Sox can keep pushing this.

 

 

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking or what you mean by "built into an agreement between clubs" but Theo is still under contract with the Red Sox. Yes, there is a multitude of reasons why they don't have much leverage in this matter, but in terms of their ability to demand compensation, he is under contract with them and they decide whether he can go or not. For him to come here, they (technically) have to let him go.

Right, but even if Epstein breaches his contract, the Red Sox are only entitled to money (which the Cubs could easily pay), unless there's some sort of MLB contract where teams have agreed to exchange players instead of money in situations like this.

 

Outside of this, I'm sure there's a non-compete in place that would prevent Theo from going to work for another organization. The penalties for that, I'm sure, would have to be determined in a court and I'd bet the Sox would be well within their rights to ask for players as compensation. Then there's the whole tampering thing if the Cubs hire him without the Sox releasing him and the potential penalties from MLB if that happened. This negotiation is by far the quickest and most simple route to go.

[Hollandsworths mug]

Author Seth Mnookin says Theo will not have the public expectations here and media attention like he did in Boston. I think Seth is smoking something if he thinks that.

 

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2011/10/14/red_sox_cubs_negotiate_compensation_for_theo_epstein/

 

“It’s a double-edged sword for him, working in Boston,’’ Mnookin said. “He’s the only GM in the country who can’t have a peaceful dinner out if he wants.

 

“Chicago won’t be the same. It won’t be the same story line in Chicago as it is in Boston. He won’t be the guy who grew up a few blocks from the ballpark.

 

“The attention, the scrutiny, it won’t be a 365-day thing for him. There won’t be the public expectations and the media expectations.’’

[YearofDaCubs]

I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more pub:

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/14967/on-yawkey-way-business-as-usual

 

Like I said I'm not getting my hopes up until a press conference has been scheduled or at the very least Cubs confirm it's a done deal.

[davearm2]

Author Seth Mnookin says Theo will not have the public expectations here and media attention like he did in Boston. I think Seth is smoking something if he thinks that.

 

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2011/10/14/red_sox_cubs_negotiate_compensation_for_theo_epstein/

 

“It’s a double-edged sword for him, working in Boston,’’ Mnookin said. “He’s the only GM in the country who can’t have a peaceful dinner out if he wants.

 

“Chicago won’t be the same. It won’t be the same story line in Chicago as it is in Boston. He won’t be the guy who grew up a few blocks from the ballpark.

 

“The attention, the scrutiny, it won’t be a 365-day thing for him. There won’t be the public expectations and the media expectations.’’

Expectations media attention will certainly be very high in Chicago. But they were out of control in Boston. Chicago will still be very demanding of course, but I think he's right that it won't be Boston-demanding.

[davearm2]

The general manager, Theo Epstein, was in his office, and his coterie of assistants, including GM-in-waiting Ben Cherington, remained engaged in their normal duties

AWKWARD