Cubs Convention Tidbits Thread

[David]

I started a thread for the RF bleacher thing, but it seems like a good amount of other stuff is coming out, so maybe this is a good place for that miscellaneous type stuff.

 

Bruce Miles @BruceMiles2112 1m

#Cubs to experiment w dynamic bleacher pricing. Earlier you buy the less you pay. Prices will not go below season-tix prices

 

Bruce Miles @BruceMiles2112 7m

All Star Game is ques for commish, Crane says and Wrigley now comes up short for 2014 game. 2016 looks mire realistic

[Sammys Boombox]

Why not merge the threads and keep this name for that thread?

[Guest]

Why not merge the threads and keep this name for that thread?

 

Other one seems big enough to be worthy of its own thread, but if the mods want to do that, it's up to them.

 

It's not like there's a whole lot going on right now.

[KingCubsFan]

As the other journalists took notes during Hoyer's Q&A, Paul Sullivan sat back and took photos of Ronnie Woo Woo from his phone.

 

Despite Epstein talking about (a) wanting to lead the league in BB's and P/PA, (2) wanting to build the best scouting department in the league, and © how the Bloomberg Sports partnership allowed them to build an information system for the Cubs in three weeks similar to what took them 3 years to build in Boston, the biggest ovation he got was when he talked about players running hard to first base.

 

People were waiting 2+ hours for Darwin Barney's autograph.

[Guest]

As the other journalists took notes during Hoyer's Q&A, Paul Sullivan sat back and took photos of Ronnie Woo Woo from his phone.

 

Despite Epstein talking about (a) wanting to lead the league in BB's and P/PA, (2) wanting to build the best scouting department in the league, and © how the Bloomberg Sports partnership allowed them to build an information system for the Cubs in three weeks similar to what took them 3 years to build in Boston, the biggest ovation he got was when he talked about players running hard to first base.

 

People were waiting 2+ hours for Darwin Barney's autograph.

 

People, in general, are stupid. :(

[Mark Priors Calves]

I think people that go to the cubs convention more than once are weird.

[Guest]

I think people that go to the cubs convention more than once are weird.

 

Well, this year's would be cooler than most to go to.

 

I still find myself not inclined to go because of the expectation of being surrounded by hundreds of really weird people.

[Guest]

Theo Epstein's arrival

 

Tom Ricketts called the combination of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer the “dream team,” while Laura Ricketts said the new front office tandem “have definitely brought a breath of fresh air, and there’s a change in attitude in our front office.

 

“My sense is, I feel like in the past, it was always ‘if,’” Laura said. “And now people are thinking more along the lines of ‘when.’” Todd Ricketts pointed out that other than Jim Hendry, most of the baseball operations people have remained. “We’re just adding to the brain power,” Todd said. “You can sense the positive feelings in the office every day.”

 

Tom said president Crane Kenney was the one who asked Boston for permission to talk with Epstein, and after negotiations began they made secret plans to fly Epstein into Chicago.

 

“It’s a crazy story,” Tom said. “We were so secret. We flew him in secretly, we picked him up secretly, we did all these things. And then he hops out of the car to get an ice coffee…”

 

Epstein was spotted by a Cubs fan, and the story of his secret interview was in the Tribune the next day.

 

“If you go to Starbucks, why didn’t you just fly in on United and put up a billboard for God’s sake,” Tom joked.

 

lol

 

“What we’d like to do, one of the things we’ve talked about, is just being able to redirect some of the funds you already pay,” Tom said. “The amusement tax that’s on your ticket goes to the city and county. What we were hoping is that some (portion) of the future growth of the amusement tax will just stay and fix up the park. We’ve had some good discussions with elected officials about that.”

 

Tom also said they’re not sure what they will do in the long term with the McDonald’s property they recently purchased. “In the short term, the fact that McDonald’s reached out and that land was for sale, we just decided that property in Wrigleyville doesn’t come up for sale that often, and I think one of the things the previous ownership maybe missed out on was making sure they bought some of the land around Wrigley to better con troll the environment around the park. We also have the rooftops partners, which cause us difficulties at different times. The fact is when the land was offered to us, we saw no reason not to take a look at that. For the season, I think what you can expect is something pretty cool on the south end of that lot, and the McDonald’s will stay…. All of our long term remodeling strategies have to be conditioned on first getting sure we can get Wrigley fixed up.”

 

some other stuff at the link

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-ricketts-family-discuss-hot-topics-at-cubs-convention-20120114,0,5026750.story

Edited January 15, 2012 by David

[TruffleShuffle]

that ricketts comment (about going to starbucks) is pretty funny.

[UMFan83]

It's kind of bizarre when you think about it. The Cubs went to such lengths to be as secretive as possible. There were rumors but no one at the time knew if the Red Sox granted permission or how real Theo's interest was in general. Then Theo decides to get out of the car a mile from Wrigley and grab Starbucks. Why not make your wife go get it?

 

Maybe he thought that even if someone spotted him, the dude wasn't going to go to the media, and if he did no one would believe him without a picture or something. He obviously underestimated Paul Sullivan being willing to print basically anything.

[El Duderino]

As the other journalists took notes during Hoyer's Q&A, Paul Sullivan sat back and took photos of Ronnie Woo Woo from his phone.

 

Despite Epstein talking about (a) wanting to lead the league in BB's and P/PA, (2) wanting to build the best scouting department in the league, and © how the Bloomberg Sports partnership allowed them to build an information system for the Cubs in three weeks similar to what took them 3 years to build in Boston, the biggest ovation he got was when he talked about players running hard to first base.

 

People were waiting 2+ hours for Darwin Barney's autograph.

 

wtf? I watched more of last year's crappy team than I care to admit, and I don't remember this being a problem.

[UMFan83]

As the other journalists took notes during Hoyer's Q&A, Paul Sullivan sat back and took photos of Ronnie Woo Woo from his phone.

 

Despite Epstein talking about (a) wanting to lead the league in BB's and P/PA, (2) wanting to build the best scouting department in the league, and © how the Bloomberg Sports partnership allowed them to build an information system for the Cubs in three weeks similar to what took them 3 years to build in Boston, the biggest ovation he got was when he talked about players running hard to first base.

 

People were waiting 2+ hours for Darwin Barney's autograph.

 

wtf? I watched more of last year's crappy team than I care to admit, and I don't remember this being a problem.

 

That is the most important thing for meatball Cubs fans. Thats part of the reason why Kaplan forced them all to hate Ramirez. When you listen to the Score when the Cubs aren't playing well, the idiot calls always mention stuff like this.

[TruffleShuffle]

As the other journalists took notes during Hoyer's Q&A, Paul Sullivan sat back and took photos of Ronnie Woo Woo from his phone.

 

Despite Epstein talking about (a) wanting to lead the league in BB's and P/PA, (2) wanting to build the best scouting department in the league, and © how the Bloomberg Sports partnership allowed them to build an information system for the Cubs in three weeks similar to what took them 3 years to build in Boston, the biggest ovation he got was when he talked about players running hard to first base.

 

People were waiting 2+ hours for Darwin Barney's autograph.

 

wtf? I watched more of last year's crappy team than I care to admit, and I don't remember this being a problem.

 

meatballs always think that lack of fundamentals and hustle are what's wrong with bad teams. every team makes baserunning errors and has a couple of sluggers who loaf it a bit on routine ground outs, but i think when the team sucks people tend to notice these things a lot more than when the team is winning 100 games.

[Cubs Evangelist]

As the other journalists took notes during Hoyer's Q&A, Paul Sullivan sat back and took photos of Ronnie Woo Woo from his phone.

 

Despite Epstein talking about (a) wanting to lead the league in BB's and P/PA, (2) wanting to build the best scouting department in the league, and © how the Bloomberg Sports partnership allowed them to build an information system for the Cubs in three weeks similar to what took them 3 years to build in Boston, the biggest ovation he got was when he talked about players running hard to first base.

 

People were waiting 2+ hours for Darwin Barney's autograph.

 

wtf? I watched more of last year's crappy team than I care to admit, and I don't remember this being a problem.

 

I was at this session and there certainly wasn't an uproar when cubs brass or coaches talk about running out all plays and playing hard. This is just a touch bit overblown on the media's part or whoever came up with the "biggest ovation" part.

[Epsteenie]

Highlights of the Cubs Convention - Dale Sveum is running out of responses to your stupid Soriano doesn't hustle questions. Darwin Barney is a very nice man. Jason McCleod is a very nice man. But Joe Boehringer stole the Scouting panel. I was unbelievably impressed with him.

[Guest]

Things I tried to remember from today.

 

I was surprised that Theo referenced Torreyes as a 2nd baseman until I got home and looked it up and saw that's what he was. He and Jed say all the right things.

 

I was very impressed with the coaching staff's comments on how they'll prepare. Bosio and Quirk both elaborated on video, Quirk saying that a video library is going to be a must for the catchers(if Soto isn't already doing something like that), and Bosio talked about how he's very big on scouting opposing hitters, and talked about how he started a makeshift system as a player by taping east coast games to VHS when he played for the Mariners.

 

Other things the coaching staff said were....less than impressive. It's hard to tell how much they were pandering to the audience(who REALLLY do not like Soriano), but they talked a good bit about hustling(Quirk and McKay went out of their way to interject "We WILL" do those things). On the other hand, Sveum gave a pretty diplomatic answer about it, and Theo himself mentioned running out groundballs in his session, so it might be more pandering than anything. However, I'm getting the impression all the talk about aggression on the basepaths, hit and runs, and even safety squeezes was not pandering, and a big part of Sveum's identity. Coincidentally, I get the feeling I'm going to be aggravated by Sveum while the Cubs are hitting. I felt bad for Randy Bush and Rudy, they hardly got any questions asked of them, and the few they did have to answer were littered with extra strength crazy, it seemed.

 

Travis Wood needs a haircut, he and Clevenger both have noticeable country drawls. Welington Castillo sounds like someone doing an unfunny Sosa impersonation, I'm amazed he wasn't talking through an interpreter.

 

Saw Vitters and Szczur in person. Vitters is not tall, Szczur is shorter, and neither give off the muscular vibe you typically associate with hitters of that height.

 

Chris Volstad however, is very tall, and has the pitcher's physique you'd expect from a 6-8 guy.

 

I should've gotten in line to ask a question in the McLeod/Fleita/Wilken/Bohringer session. My favorite was the girl asking if they scout the Little League World Series. McLeod is a good bit taller than I would've guessed. Fleita almost signed Liriano for 18k, but he refused to throw off a mound and be considered a pitcher. A couple months later he caved for some other team and ended up signing for 200k+.

 

 

And lastly, here's the associations I made to identify various panel members when my mind started to wander.

 

Sveum: Lost Pelini brother raised in Minnesota

Bosio: Love child of Bill Murray and Clark's boss from Christmas vacation

Strode: Marlon Byrd's dad

Wilken: Love child of Lou Holtz and this guy

Bohringer: Albino Seth Green

Fleita: Love child of Wallace Shawn and Sasquatch

 

I'll add more if I think of anything else.

[Epsteenie]

As the other journalists took notes during Hoyer's Q&A, Paul Sullivan sat back and took photos of Ronnie Woo Woo from his phone.

 

Despite Epstein talking about (a) wanting to lead the league in BB's and P/PA, (2) wanting to build the best scouting department in the league, and © how the Bloomberg Sports partnership allowed them to build an information system for the Cubs in three weeks similar to what took them 3 years to build in Boston, the biggest ovation he got was when he talked about players running hard to first base.

 

People were waiting 2+ hours for Darwin Barney's autograph.

 

Yeah not so sure people were waiting 2+hours for Darwin Barney's autograph. I got in line for Anthony Rizzo and Brett Jackson's autograph. By the time they left I was near the front and I talked myself into staying for Darwin Barney's autograph b/c otherwise I would feel horrible about myself for waiting in line for 2 hours and not getting anybody's autograph. I did see one Asian lady who had a Barney shirt on who freaked out when she got his autograph, but other than that nobody was too psyched to get his autograph judging from the fact that about 100 people let me pass them b/c they were more interested in getting Lee Smith's autograph than Barney's.

[Cubswin11]

Highlights of the Cubs Convention - Dale Sveum is running out of responses to your stupid Soriano doesn't hustle questions. Darwin Barney is a very nice man. Jason McCleod is a very nice man. But Joe Boehringer stole the Scouting panel. I was unbelievably impressed with him.

What exactly did he say or talk about that gave you this impression? I don't know much about him.

[Epsteenie]

Highlights of the Cubs Convention - Dale Sveum is running out of responses to your stupid Soriano doesn't hustle questions. Darwin Barney is a very nice man. Jason McCleod is a very nice man. But Joe Boehringer stole the Scouting panel. I was unbelievably impressed with him.

What exactly did he say or talk about that gave you this impression? I don't know much about him.

 

Honestly, don't have too many specifics to mention. I was just blown away by his intelligence. My girlfriend was falling asleep next to me and she mentioned how smart she thought he was. He just exuded baseball smarts. He talked about how the difference between scouting and statistics is like a seesaw. Getting the right balance between the 2 is key. The further away from MLB you get the more you need to trust on your scouting and the less reliable statistics are, but at the same time you can't let your scouting instincts control your impressions of a player. Said the biggest miss he ever made on a player was Reggie Abercrombie. He thought he would be an All-Star, and he still believed he would be well after the data told him he wouldn't be.

[Guest]

http://www.csnchicago.com/baseball-chicago-cubs/news/Cubs-make-Theo-Epstein-the-star-attracti?blockID=631590&feedID=9399

 

A lot of Theo's Q&A can be seen here on video.

[CubsWin]

I love this video up on csnchicago.com. It's labeled "Bush, Hoyer, Sveum take questions from fans". It is 7 minutes and 53 seconds long and Randy Bush never says a word. Nobody asked him question and he looked like he fully expected it.

[Guest]

Things I tried to remember from today.

 

I was surprised that Theo referenced Torreyes as a 2nd baseman until I got home and looked it up and saw that's what he was. He and Jed say all the right things.

 

I was very impressed with the coaching staff's comments on how they'll prepare. Bosio and Quirk both elaborated on video, Quirk saying that a video library is going to be a must for the catchers(if Soto isn't already doing something like that), and Bosio talked about how he's very big on scouting opposing hitters, and talked about how he started a makeshift system as a player by taping east coast games to VHS when he played for the Mariners.

 

Other things the coaching staff said were....less than impressive. It's hard to tell how much they were pandering to the audience(who REALLLY do not like Soriano), but they talked a good bit about hustling(Quirk and McKay went out of their way to interject "We WILL" do those things). On the other hand, Sveum gave a pretty diplomatic answer about it, and Theo himself mentioned running out groundballs in his session, so it might be more pandering than anything. However, I'm getting the impression all the talk about aggression on the basepaths, hit and runs, and even safety squeezes was not pandering, and a big part of Sveum's identity. Coincidentally, I get the feeling I'm going to be aggravated by Sveum while the Cubs are hitting. I felt bad for Randy Bush and Rudy, they hardly got any questions asked of them, and the few they did have to answer were littered with extra strength crazy, it seemed.

 

 

I just watched a video of Sveum answering some questions and one of the first things he said really made me cringe.

 

Someone asked who the leadoff hitter was...he responded that he couldn't really say yet, although DeJesus was probably the leading candidate...sweet....then he dropped Barney's name. UGH.

 

In what conceivable way is it a good idea to give our worst everyday hitter the most PAs on the team? For [expletive]'s sake.

[biittner77]

Things I tried to remember from today.

 

I was surprised that Theo referenced Torreyes as a 2nd baseman until I got home and looked it up and saw that's what he was. He and Jed say all the right things.

 

I was very impressed with the coaching staff's comments on how they'll prepare. Bosio and Quirk both elaborated on video, Quirk saying that a video library is going to be a must for the catchers(if Soto isn't already doing something like that), and Bosio talked about how he's very big on scouting opposing hitters, and talked about how he started a makeshift system as a player by taping east coast games to VHS when he played for the Mariners.

 

Other things the coaching staff said were....less than impressive. It's hard to tell how much they were pandering to the audience(who REALLLY do not like Soriano), but they talked a good bit about hustling(Quirk and McKay went out of their way to interject "We WILL" do those things). On the other hand, Sveum gave a pretty diplomatic answer about it, and Theo himself mentioned running out groundballs in his session, so it might be more pandering than anything. However, I'm getting the impression all the talk about aggression on the basepaths, hit and runs, and even safety squeezes was not pandering, and a big part of Sveum's identity. Coincidentally, I get the feeling I'm going to be aggravated by Sveum while the Cubs are hitting. I felt bad for Randy Bush and Rudy, they hardly got any questions asked of them, and the few they did have to answer were littered with extra strength crazy, it seemed.

 

 

I just watched a video of Sveum answering some questions and one of the first things he said really made me cringe.

 

Someone asked who the leadoff hitter was...he responded that he couldn't really say yet, although DeJesus was probably the leading candidate...sweet....then he dropped Barney's name. UGH.

 

In what conceivable way is it a good idea to give our worst everyday hitter the most PAs on the team? For [expletive]'s sake.

 

Probably just trying not to hand the job to DeJesus, so that Barney is motivated by thinking he has a chance to not bat 8th. My fear is that Barney will bat 2nd, Castro 3rd and Soto 8th. First time I see that lineup Svuem will have lost my support forever.

[KingCubsFan]

As the other journalists took notes during Hoyer's Q&A, Paul Sullivan sat back and took photos of Ronnie Woo Woo from his phone.

 

Despite Epstein talking about (a) wanting to lead the league in BB's and P/PA, (2) wanting to build the best scouting department in the league, and © how the Bloomberg Sports partnership allowed them to build an information system for the Cubs in three weeks similar to what took them 3 years to build in Boston, the biggest ovation he got was when he talked about players running hard to first base.

 

People were waiting 2+ hours for Darwin Barney's autograph.

 

Yeah not so sure people were waiting 2+hours for Darwin Barney's autograph. I got in line for Anthony Rizzo and Brett Jackson's autograph. By the time they left I was near the front and I talked myself into staying for Darwin Barney's autograph b/c otherwise I would feel horrible about myself for waiting in line for 2 hours and not getting anybody's autograph. I did see one Asian lady who had a Barney shirt on who freaked out when she got his autograph, but other than that nobody was too psyched to get his autograph judging from the fact that about 100 people let me pass them b/c they were more interested in getting Lee Smith's autograph than Barney's.

This was at the Sports Authority exhibit. Some players were also signing in the exhibit hall. I was in there around noon, and there was already a line for his signing at 2.

[KingCubsFan]

Things I tried to remember from today.

 

I was surprised that Theo referenced Torreyes as a 2nd baseman until I got home and looked it up and saw that's what he was. He and Jed say all the right things.

 

I was very impressed with the coaching staff's comments on how they'll prepare. Bosio and Quirk both elaborated on video, Quirk saying that a video library is going to be a must for the catchers(if Soto isn't already doing something like that), and Bosio talked about how he's very big on scouting opposing hitters, and talked about how he started a makeshift system as a player by taping east coast games to VHS when he played for the Mariners.

 

Other things the coaching staff said were....less than impressive. It's hard to tell how much they were pandering to the audience(who REALLLY do not like Soriano), but they talked a good bit about hustling(Quirk and McKay went out of their way to interject "We WILL" do those things). On the other hand, Sveum gave a pretty diplomatic answer about it, and Theo himself mentioned running out groundballs in his session, so it might be more pandering than anything. However, I'm getting the impression all the talk about aggression on the basepaths, hit and runs, and even safety squeezes was not pandering, and a big part of Sveum's identity. Coincidentally, I get the feeling I'm going to be aggravated by Sveum while the Cubs are hitting. I felt bad for Randy Bush and Rudy, they hardly got any questions asked of them, and the few they did have to answer were littered with extra strength crazy, it seemed.

 

 

I just watched a video of Sveum answering some questions and one of the first things he said really made me cringe.

 

Someone asked who the leadoff hitter was...he responded that he couldn't really say yet, although DeJesus was probably the leading candidate...sweet....then he dropped Barney's name. UGH.

 

In what conceivable way is it a good idea to give our worst everyday hitter the most PAs on the team? For [expletive]'s sake.

The other thing that bothered me about that answer was that he said he'd also take spring training performance into consideration. This came after both Epstein and Hoyer pretty firmly stated that spring training means nothing to them. I'm sure it's something they talked about during the interview, but it was one of the few disconnects I saw between management and Sveum. That and Sveum saying Campana's speed could be worth 5 wins this year.