4/26 Cubs (wood) @ bewers (estrada) 6 pm, CSN tv

[gscool89]

But think of all the players we *didn't* get outbid on. Edwin Jackson, Ian Stewart, Gerardo Concepcion, Kyuji Fujikawa, Scott Baker, Jose Veras, Wesley Wright.

Edwin is really the only bad one on that list, just because of the length of the deal and even then, we're paying so little money on our major league team compared to what we should be, his contract doesn't really matter either.

[Backtobanks]

I continue to be amazed that so many of you refuse to put any blame of Theo. While we can all agree that Ricketts sucks, it's Theo and Hoyer that have put together this mess of a "ML" team. While everything financially hasn't gone the way he's planned, he was still throwing out offers (Tanaka, Cespedes, Sanchez, Jackson, etc.) which proves there's some money available to spend. The bottom line is that Theo has stated that he has complete autonomy over baseball operations and certainly some of the blame for this team has to fall on him.

[PackLandVA]

While everything financially hasn't gone the way he's planned, he was still throwing out offers (Tanaka, Cespedes, Sanchez, Jackson, etc.) which proves there's some money available to spend.

 

Does it really matter if they're "throwing out" huge offers to FAs if they know they're ultimately gonna get outbid. They can offer a FA eleventy-billion dollars if they know the Yankees, Red Sox or Dodgers will offer eleventy-billion and one dollars.

[Backtobanks]

While everything financially hasn't gone the way he's planned, he was still throwing out offers (Tanaka, Cespedes, Sanchez, Jackson, etc.) which proves there's some money available to spend.

 

Does it really matter if they're "throwing out" huge offers to FAs if they know they're ultimately gonna get outbid. They can offer a FA eleventy-billion dollars if they know the Yankees, Red Sox or Dodgers will offer eleventy-billion and one dollars.

 

Unfortunately that's probably what's going to happen when Theo decides it's time to sign some FAs. All those teams will still have a ton of money plus the reputation of being a winning team.

[neely crenshaw]

The Jackson signing really stands out. It's the one time they seem to have gone outside of their plan to sign someone. I don't know if it was to appease fans-which is a bad idea, or a knee jerk reaction to not getting Sanchez.

 

The only thing I can see is that they figured he would at least continue his average performance and a contender somewhere would want him at a decent price tag of 11 mil a year.

Which if he was at the performance of the years before coming here ( high-3 to low era), someone would want but not the 5.00+ era he has posted

[jersey cubs fan]

The Jackson signing really stands out. It's the one time they seem to have gone outside of their plan to sign someone. I don't know if it was to appease fans-which is a bad idea, or a knee jerk reaction to not getting Sanchez.

 

The only thing I can see is that they figured he would at least continue his average performance and a contender somewhere would want him at a decent price tag of 11 mil a year.

Which if he was at the performance of the years before coming here ( high-3 to low era), someone would want but not the 5.00+ era he has posted

 

I think they knew they had no other options but to go out and buy some starting pitching, since you need 5 just to start and 7 or 8 over a season. They needed a body just to make the starts and account for the innings.

[neely crenshaw]

The Jackson signing really stands out. It's the one time they seem to have gone outside of their plan to sign someone. I don't know if it was to appease fans-which is a bad idea, or a knee jerk reaction to not getting Sanchez.

 

The only thing I can see is that they figured he would at least continue his average performance and a contender somewhere would want him at a decent price tag of 11 mil a year.

Which if he was at the performance of the years before coming here ( high-3 to low era), someone would want but not the 5.00+ era he has posted

 

I think they knew they had no other options but to go out and buy some starting pitching, since you need 5 just to start and 7 or 8 over a season. They needed a body just to make the starts and account for the innings.

 

But the one thing they have been able to do is refurbish starting pitching and even Jackson at his best (mid 3's era) isn't a difference maker. It just seems like a long term for a body to fill a role. What they are paying him is not a huge amount as far as decent starting pitching goes-compared to Garza, Santana, Burnett, etc but he hasn't come close to his average which is on him more than the FO.

[jersey cubs fan]

But the one thing they have been able to do is refurbish starting pitching and even Jackson at his best (mid 3's era) isn't a difference maker. It just seems like a long term for a body to fill a role. What they are paying him is not a huge amount as far as decent starting pitching goes-compared to Garza, Santana, Burnett, etc but he hasn't come close to his average which is on him more than the FO.

They have been able to refurbish a couple, but they can't expect to refurbish 2-3 per year. They had the money, they had the need and they had no other options but to sign somebody who could be relatively counted on to make every start.

[neely crenshaw]

I'll go with that. They didn't know how Wood would work out, which changes things looking back.

 

I personally didn't think it was a great signing at the time but I understand it. His failure shouldn't be looked at as a sign that the FO doesn't know what they are doing, it's on him.

I mean you sign an "under 30" starting pitcher, who has posted an era basically between 3.50 and 4.00 over the last 5 seasons. A guy with tremendous stuff that hasn't quite put it all together.

You don't expect him to come in and post his worst Era by nearly a full run since his 1st year as a starter. Then back that up by being even worse so far this season.

I'm sure that had to think that worst case scenario he sports a 4.00 era and could be dealt sometime during this deal for something of value.

[jersey cubs fan]

I personally didn't think it was a great signing at the time but I understand it.

 

I'm not sure many people thought it was "great". But it was more or less necessary.

 

Soriano probably wasn't a great signing way back when, but that too was more or less necessary when the team had no chance at getting outfield production from other sources.

[neely crenshaw]

Some though were pretty excited. I certainly didn't see it as the train wreck it became. It may have just been excitement that the FO actually spent money more than that we signed Jackson. hard to remember- it seems so long ago!