Cubs Convention

[Sammy Sofa]

Don't be late for the 3 PM #PTR seminar: did you know that rubbing two nickels together can also start a fire?

[Derwood]

Gift store is selling grab bags (basically bags of crap) for $20. Mine has a Fujikawa shersey, which is worth it for the lulz

[Guest]

Baez owning this panel.

 

"When I found out I was going to the big leagues, I went back to sleep."

[Fro]

Hopefully Crane is underpromising and overdelivering on the bleacher construction timeline since it's a joke if it takes until late May.

 

It's supposed to be warmer than normal from here on out.

[Sammy Sofa]

Yeah, if this was a typical Chicago winter they would have been incredibly fucked.

[SouthSideRyan]

The email they sent out to Bleacher Season Ticket holders put a specific date on it of up until May 11th for when the relocation/refunds will take place.

[Guest]

Hopefully Crane is underpromising and overdelivering on the bleacher construction timeline since it's a joke if it takes until late May.

 

It's supposed to be warmer than normal from here on out.

 

It's not the weather. They've been working through the worst of conditions, including the week that highs were in the low single digits.

 

 

It was the city's delays with moving the water (iirc) lines because what they found when they dug up was older than they anticipated.

 

 

That I'm guessing, even though they won't say this, and they probably delayed it so they could make their changes to the plans.

[Derwood]

Someone asked Miguel Mongero how he found out he got traded. He said he read it online, and to this day, the D-Backs front office hasn't called him about it. Sounds like [expletive] to me, but funny if true

[Banedon]

Geez, I can't believe how much grief the Cubs are getting over the bleachers. It's a major renovation...timelines are basically wishful thinking.

 

I'm just happy it's all happening.

[Gilby]

Someone asked Miguel Mongero how he found out he got traded. He said he read it online, and to this day, the D-Backs front office hasn't called him about it. Sounds like [expletive] to me, but funny if true

 

In Muskat's article, he also said he got drunk and celebrated after learning of the trade. That and his twitter stuff, it's hilarious how excited he is to be Cub.

[Derwood]

Someone asked Miguel Mongero how he found out he got traded. He said he read it online, and to this day, the D-Backs front office hasn't called him about it. Sounds like [expletive] to me, but funny if true

 

In Muskat's article, he also said he got drunk and celebrated after learning of the trade. That and his twitter stuff, it's hilarious how excited he is to be Cub.

 

He mentioned getting drunk as well. He and Motte were hilarious about everything.

[Guest]

Someone asked Miguel Mongero how he found out he got traded. He said he read it online, and to this day, the D-Backs front office hasn't called him about it. Sounds like [expletive] to me, but funny if true

 

In Muskat's article, he also said he got drunk and celebrated after learning of the trade. That and his twitter stuff, it's hilarious how excited he is to be Cub.

 

He mentioned getting drunk as well. He and Motte were hilarious about everything.

Motte is going to own this summer.

[Guest]

lol

 

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/21753540/v37139889/highlights-from-friday-night-with-ryan-dempster

 

i'm not really a fan of dempster's whole act but this was cool

[mul21]

Someone asked Miguel Mongero how he found out he got traded. He said he read it online, and to this day, the D-Backs front office hasn't called him about it. Sounds like [expletive] to me, but funny if true

 

In Muskat's article, he also said he got drunk and celebrated after learning of the trade. That and his twitter stuff, it's hilarious how excited he is to be Cub.

 

He mentioned getting drunk as well. He and Motte were hilarious about everything.

Motte is going to own this summer.

 

He's fun. I'm not surprised he's not in STL any more. Probably not straight laced enough for them.

[Sammy Sofa]

Nah. He probably wanted out before he ended up dead.

[jersey cubs fan]

Geez, I can't believe how much grief the Cubs are getting over the bleachers. It's a major renovation...timelines are basically wishful thinking.

 

I'm just happy it's all happening.

You can't believe they are getting grief for this?

[Sammy Sofa]

Geez, I can't believe how much grief the Cubs are getting over the bleachers. It's a major renovation...timelines are basically wishful thinking.

 

I'm just happy it's all happening.

You can't believe they are getting grief for this?

 

Yeah, when has something like this happened elsewhere? I can think of teams having parts of their stadiums closed down for work during a season, but weren't those announced as such? The Cubs have been talking all along like the construction wouldn't impact things during the season.

[Cubswin11]

I always thought with their plans/scope of work/anticipated weather (though mild so far) their timeframe was always a bit unrealistic. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be getting [expletive] for not meeting dates they've been promising.

[Guest]

I always thought with their plans/scope of work/anticipated weather (though mild so far) their timeframe was always a bit unrealistic. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be getting [expletive] for not meeting dates they've been promising.

 

If they hadn't run into the sewer issues and if they hadn't decided to change their plans (or had to change them for the Landmark thing if you buy that), they should have been able to get it done in time. They said that they didn't order the custom steel for the bleachers until December when the revisions were approved.

 

I don't recall much of a problem at all completing a similar project in 2005, though this is a bit more extensive with the expansion into the street. By this point that winter I think they had all the steel up.

[Guest]

Now that I'm back at a computer where I can type with all fingers and not just thumbs, some scattered observations:

 

- Laura Ricketts is better at genuinely answering people(or at least faking it) than Tom.

 

- Len remains the best.

 

- Some lady asked about more kid-friendly amenities at the park, specifically 'What do I tell people who say their kids had more fun at US Cellular?' Ricketts' first response: 'I don't think there's THAT many kids having fun at US Cellular'

 

- Seemed pretty clear Theo was paying lip service to the idea of 3 catchers.

 

- Speaking of catchers, the thing that Theo mentioned first when talking about Montero's defense was pitch framing.

 

- I think it was Theo that said this, but when someone made a Contra/Zobrist comparison, the interesting thing to me was that Theo didn't make a single allusion to Alcantara being the incumbent CF, needing him to get CF reps, or that he was the planned starter in CF. Part of that is how the question was posed to him, but he could've given a much easier answer with that type of cop-out since he's the only CF around right now. Along with the references to Castillo, those were maybe the most telling things he said/didn't say in the hour.

 

- Shiraz Rehman should do more public speaking as practice. He had the right/interesting things to say, but you can tell he isn't in front of fans/media often.

 

- Rehman had very nice things to say about Tseng, specifically that he had velocity up to 95. Theo mentioned the tandem of Sands/Steele having very good debuts.

 

- When asked, Theo was more explicit than I've ever heard him about draft strategy. Said they had a predisposition towards hitters in the first round(especially at the top) and lots of pitching depth afterward. Mentioned that this preference is driven by draft history/results.

 

- To reiterate, the moderator for the Maddon/coaching staff panel was shockingly bad. Didn't know the staff's updated job titles, kept asking irrelevant questions even when the coaches corrected him, generally talked too much and didn't show much baseball knowledge, really too bad considering it was the session I was most looking forward to.

 

- Maddon is a really engaging guy. He's also really good at giving non-answers that are more interesting than the average coach-speak, you can very quickly tell he has the social/emotional intelligence to be very good at his job.

 

- The most interesting thing Maddon talked about to me was about relief pitcher usage, a question he tag-teamed with Bosio. The gist: Maddon likes 4 out relievers, regular 2 inning relievers are mostly impractical in late innings(especially in the NL). Also, Maddon monitors 'emotional usage' for relievers as much as physical usage like pitch counts.

 

- It's hard to say in words how fun Javy was in his panel. He was equal parts the puppy who didn't know what he should be doing, the youngster trying to nail his cliche answers, and the overconfident ubertalent who owned the room. Also, it's clear that while he has a better grasp on English than Alcantara and especially Soler(who knows zero), it doesn't come naturally for him so any quotes from him need to be read in that context.

 

That's all I can remember for now, I'll add an edit below if anything else comes to mind.

[Sammy Sofa]

I hope Soler never learns english.

[weis21]

I hope Soler never learns english.

To [expletive] with the meatballs who say "if you're in the USA then LEARN OUR LANGUAGE" he should learn French and just start speaking that.

[UK1679666180]

I hope Soler never learns english.

To [expletive] with the meatballs who say "if you're in the USA then LEARN OUR LANGUAGE" he should learn French and just start speaking that.

 

Cue OMC bitching about having to flip past Telemundo when changing channels.

 

 

[Geech]

Geez, I can't believe how much grief the Cubs are getting over the bleachers. It's a major renovation...timelines are basically wishful thinking.

 

I'm just happy it's all happening.

You can't believe they are getting grief for this?

 

Yeah, when has something like this happened elsewhere? I can think of teams having parts of their stadiums closed down for work during a season, but weren't those announced as such? The Cubs have been talking all along like the construction wouldn't impact things during the season.

 

The Athletics used to routinely tarp over huge sections of their seating - and still might for all I know - but it's the Athletics so nobody attends those games anyway.

[Derwood]

Outside of getting things like the convention program and some coupons, I don't get the point of paying for this convention. They haven't checked my ticket once all weekend. In fact, I had two tickets, but a third friend came with us and saw everything without buying a pass.