Cubs sign Scott Feldman

[toonsterwu]

The only thing I have wondered is what exactly Theo sold Tom on. Did Ricketts know that the rebuild was going to take this long? Here was the new owner that proclaimed Year 1, and it might be 5-6 years into his ownership before we hit the playoff.

 

I actually don't have a gigantic problem with any of this (other than the Ryan Flaherty move, with the subsequent Jeff Bianchi signing, I haven't had any problems with any move individually ... and they lucked into Luis Valbuena, which adequately replaced Flaherty). It sucks, but building the right way isn't a bad thing. We had to get better assets into the farm, with higher ceilings. We had to rebuild our arm depth, which had thinned out until the 2008 class made it look like it might be on the upswing again, but only to see many of those arms falter. But ... it's a tricky thing. Anthoupoulos has collected tons of assets in Toronto, and his club still can't get over the hump. Baltimore hit the playoffs the year after MacPhail walked away and the year after it seemed like all their prized arms had regressed/gotten hurt.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

He's entering his age-30 season and his career best to this point is either 125 innings of barely above averageness or 190 innings of slightly below averageness.

 

I'm willing to call this an acceptable 5th-starter move, but any higher praise than that is just a product of severely adjusted expectations.

 

The durability point is well taken, but he's been pretty good when he's been on the mound.

 

fWAR/200 IP

 

2009: 3.7

2010: 1.8

2011: injured after 32 IP

2012: 3.7

 

fWAR is based on FIP, right? I feel like there's some weird scaling going on if a 4.31 FIP translates into 3.7 WAR.

[Cubswin11]

Somthing is wrong with the plan if you are looking at competing four years into the plan, if all things go well.

You're right, all plans must start succeeding and show immediate results from day one with no time to allowed for adjustments and a foundation to be built all while changing an entires organizations paradigm from the top down.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Somthing is wrong with the plan if you are looking at competing four years into the plan, if all things go well.

You're right, all plans must start succeeding and show immediate results from day one with no time to allowed for adjustments and a foundation to be built all while changing an entires organizations paradigm from the top down.

 

Well, yes. It's a results-oriented business. If they didn't think they could operate on parallel fronts, then someone else should have been hired.

[pccubfan]

Somthing is wrong with the plan if you are looking at competing four years into the plan, if all things go well.

You're right, all plans must start succeeding and show immediate results from day one with no time to allowed for adjustments and a foundation to be built all while changing an entires organizations paradigm from the top down.

 

How is four years, if all things go well, showing immediate results? Christ, how patient do people have to be. How many years is sufficient for a big market franchise to be turned around?

[Cubswin11]

Somthing is wrong with the plan if you are looking at competing four years into the plan, if all things go well.

You're right, all plans must start succeeding and show immediate results from day one with no time to allowed for adjustments and a foundation to be built all while changing an entires organizations paradigm from the top down.

 

Well, yes. It's a results-oriented business. If they didn't think they could operate on parallel fronts, then someone else should have been hired.

Sooo adding all the good young players over the last 10ish month Theo has been here, reorganizing the entire FO/coaching staffs/scouts etc. with guys that will teach and preach what you want to your players (hiring/firing of guys, adding more positions), bringing in new technology throughout the minor league and major league parks to better analyze players, getting the new baseball academey started in the DR, signing your best young player to a long term extension, adding another young potnetial impact player at the ML level (Rizzo), and make smart, non-wasteful, signings on the ML roster isn't an example of operating on parallel fronts in about a 10 month period?

[jersey cubs fan]

It sucks, but building the right way isn't a bad thing.

 

Stop with this nonsense.

 

It's not "the right way".

 

It is a way. A lazy and unnecessarily conservative way, but only one way.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Sooo adding all the good young players over the last 10ish month Theo has been here, reorganizing the entire FO/coaching staffs/scouts etc. with guys that will teach and preach what you want to your players (hiring/firing of guys, adding more positions), bringing in new technology throughout the minor league and major league parks to better analyze players, getting the new baseball academey started in the DR, signing your best young player to a long term extension, adding another young potnetial impact player at the ML level (Rizzo), and make smart, non-wasteful, signings on the ML roster isn't an example of operating on parallel fronts in about a 10 month period?

 

Precisely. That's not operating on parallel fronts. That's operating on one front, and not the most important one.

[jersey cubs fan]

Sooo adding all the good young players over the last 10ish month Theo has been here, r

 

10 months?

 

It's bad enough people buy into the notion that Theo should get 3-4 years of not winning before he can be judged, but now we're going to pretend he's had less time than he really did?

[davell]

Somthing is wrong with the plan if you are looking at competing four years into the plan, if all things go well.

You're right, all plans must start succeeding and show immediate results from day one with no time to allowed for adjustments and a foundation to be built all while changing an entires organizations paradigm from the top down.

 

Well, yes. It's a results-oriented business. If they didn't think they could operate on parallel fronts, then someone else should have been hired.

who says this isn't parallel fronts though? They're not trotting out the Casey Coleman's of the organization for Opening Day. They're trying to put competent major leaguers with upside out there. If things break right, you never know what can happen. You posted a Dave Cameron article yesterday that you loved, supoosedly because you took it to mean we're not doing what he said a team should do. Yet, earlier today, he posted on Twitter that Theo knows exactly what he's doing and loves the Baker/Feldman signings. You're intentionally being negative and grasping for things that aren't being said obviously.

[jersey cubs fan]

Somthing is wrong with the plan if you are looking at competing four years into the plan, if all things go well.

You're right, all plans must start succeeding and show immediate results from day one with no time to allowed for adjustments and a foundation to be built all while changing an entires organizations paradigm from the top down.

 

Well, yes. It's a results-oriented business. If they didn't think they could operate on parallel fronts, then someone else should have been hired.

who says this isn't parallel fronts though?

 

They lost 100 games last year, it's not parallel fronts. Anybody who is being the least bit honest will admit this isn't parallel fronts.

[pccubfan]

Somthing is wrong with the plan if you are looking at competing four years into the plan, if all things go well.

You're right, all plans must start succeeding and show immediate results from day one with no time to allowed for adjustments and a foundation to be built all while changing an entires organizations paradigm from the top down.

 

Well, yes. It's a results-oriented business. If they didn't think they could operate on parallel fronts, then someone else should have been hired.

Sooo adding all the good young players over the last 10ish month Theo has been here, reorganizing the entire FO/coaching staffs/scouts etc. with guys that will teach and preach what you want to your players (hiring/firing of guys, adding more positions), bringing in new technology throughout the minor league and major league parks to better analyze players, getting the new baseball academey started in the DR, signing your best young player to a long term extension, adding another young potnetial impact player at the ML level (Rizzo), and make smart, non-wasteful, signings on the ML roster isn't an example of operating on parallel fronts in about a 10 month period?

 

Theo is executing his plan. He is getting to make all of these decisions and build the team the way he wants to build it. If in 2015 we are competing and we continue to compete on a regular basis for ten years, he'll be judged as being successful. If in 2015 we aren't competing, in my mind, he will be judged as unsuccessful.

[Cubswin11]

Somthing is wrong with the plan if you are looking at competing four years into the plan, if all things go well.

You're right, all plans must start succeeding and show immediate results from day one with no time to allowed for adjustments and a foundation to be built all while changing an entires organizations paradigm from the top down.

 

Well, yes. It's a results-oriented business. If they didn't think they could operate on parallel fronts, then someone else should have been hired.

who says this isn't parallel fronts though?

 

They lost 100 games last year, it's not parallel fronts. Anybody who is being the least bit honest will admit this isn't parallel fronts.

So it's only parallel fronts if the ML team wins?

[Cubswin11]

Sooo adding all the good young players over the last 10ish month Theo has been here, r

 

10 months?

 

It's bad enough people buy into the notion that Theo should get 3-4 years of not winning before he can be judged, but now we're going to pretend he's had less time than he really did?

Okay 13 months, I thought he was hired in January of this year for some reason and not October of last year when he actually was.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

who says this isn't parallel fronts though?

 

I do.

 

They're not trotting out the Casey Coleman's of the organization for Opening Day.

 

They trotted out Ian Stewart, which is just as bad.

 

They're trying to put competent major leaguers with upside out there. If things break right, you never know what can happen. You posted a Dave Cameron article yesterday that you loved, supoosedly because you took it to mean we're not doing what he said a team should do. Yet, earlier today, he posted on Twitter that Theo knows exactly what he's doing and loves the Baker/Feldman signings. You're intentionally being negative and grasping for things that aren't being said obviously.

 

The Cameron article was a great rebuttal to what people think the Cubs should do.

 

What they are actually doing is somewhat in line with that thinking, and Feldman certainly fits in with that line of thinking. But it's doing the bare minimum on that front and setting yourself up for failure when there's no reason they couldn't or shouldn't be more ambitious.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

So it's only parallel fronts if the ML team wins?

 

Well, yes.

 

Maybe we're not all talking about the same thing?

 

I meant "parallel fronts" as "MLB" and "the farm system." Not "International prospects" and "Domestic prospects" or something.

[jersey cubs fan]

So it's only parallel fronts if the ML team wins?

 

That's what parallel fronts means. You try to win baseball games at the major league level while strengthening the minor league system. If you lose 100 games you either didn't try to win baseball games at the major league level or really suck at it. I don't think these guys are incompetent, but rather dishonest when they speak about parallel fronts.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I don't think these guys are incompetent, but rather dishonest when they speak about parallel fronts.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if Jed Hoyer is a little incompetent. I know they share duties, but technically everything that went wrong last offseason was on his desk.

[jersey cubs fan]

I don't think these guys are incompetent, but rather dishonest when they speak about parallel fronts.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if Jed Hoyer is a little incompetent. I know they share duties, but technically everything that went wrong last offseason was on his desk.

was he not at the forefront of the Rizzo acquisition?

[davell]

Even Cameron, the author of that article though, is liking what we're doing though. Hopefully someone asks Theo to define the term, so there's no more guessing on it. Personally, I like both SP moves and feel we're not done. My guess is we get one of Marcum, Liriano, or McCarthy and get Keppinger for 3B. That leaves CF or RF, depending on where they play DeJesus. We'll head into 2013 with another team that looks like a mid 70s win team, in all likelihood. But no contracts that kill us and hopefully a few more young additions that are Rizzo-esque, in that they may be ready midseason or so.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

was he not at the forefront of the Rizzo acquisition?

 

He was.

 

But he also chose Volstad over Wood, Mather over anyone, Stewart over Colvin, Clevenger over Castillo, and he was in charge of putting together a cheap bullpen and did as bad of a job as could possibly be imagined.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Even Cameron, the author of that article though, is liking what we're doing though. Hopefully someone asks Theo to define the term, so there's no more guessing on it. Personally, I like both SP moves and feel we're not done. My guess is we get one of Marcum, Liriano, or McCarthy and get Keppinger for 3B. That leaves CF or RF, depending on where they play DeJesus. We'll head into 2013 with another team that looks like a mid 70s win team, in all likelihood. But no contracts that kill us and hopefully a few more young additions that are Rizzo-esque, in that they may be ready midseason or so.

 

Some people think we should do absolutely nothing. I think we should do a lot. Cameron's article laid out very well why, at the bare minimum, you should never do nothing.

 

That doesn't mean I have to be happy with the bare minimum. And we haven't even gotten to that bare minimum yet. As you said, we need an OF, a 3b and (as I'm adding) a bullpen. And another starter wouldn't hurt.

[Guest]

Even Cameron, the author of that article though, is liking what we're doing though. Hopefully someone asks Theo to define the term, so there's no more guessing on it. Personally, I like both SP moves and feel we're not done. My guess is we get one of Marcum, Liriano, or McCarthy and get Keppinger for 3B. That leaves CF or RF, depending on where they play DeJesus. We'll head into 2013 with another team that looks like a mid 70s win team, in all likelihood. But no contracts that kill us and hopefully a few more young additions that are Rizzo-esque, in that they may be ready midseason or so.

 

 

Shhhh. They're going to tell you that the 2012 team looked like a 100 loss team from the start.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Even Cameron, the author of that article though, is liking what we're doing though. Hopefully someone asks Theo to define the term, so there's no more guessing on it. Personally, I like both SP moves and feel we're not done. My guess is we get one of Marcum, Liriano, or McCarthy and get Keppinger for 3B. That leaves CF or RF, depending on where they play DeJesus. We'll head into 2013 with another team that looks like a mid 70s win team, in all likelihood. But no contracts that kill us and hopefully a few more young additions that are Rizzo-esque, in that they may be ready midseason or so.

 

 

Shhhh. They're going to tell you that the 2012 team looked like a 100 loss team from the start.

 

Of course it didn't. I'm not even sure the Astros were a 100-loss team on paper in spring training. But 100 losses would never have been within the variance range if not for the front office's bad decisions.

[Guest]

Even Cameron, the author of that article though, is liking what we're doing though. Hopefully someone asks Theo to define the term, so there's no more guessing on it. Personally, I like both SP moves and feel we're not done. My guess is we get one of Marcum, Liriano, or McCarthy and get Keppinger for 3B. That leaves CF or RF, depending on where they play DeJesus. We'll head into 2013 with another team that looks like a mid 70s win team, in all likelihood. But no contracts that kill us and hopefully a few more young additions that are Rizzo-esque, in that they may be ready midseason or so.

 

 

Shhhh. They're going to tell you that the 2012 team looked like a 100 loss team from the start.

 

Of course it didn't. I'm not even sure the Astros were a 100-loss team on paper in spring training. But 100 losses would never have been within the variance range if not for the front office's bad decisions.

 

It wasn't really within the range of variance. It took trading away Dempster and Maholm (among others) and giving their spots to garbage pitchers for that to happen.