5/5 White Sox (Quintana) @ Cubs (Samardzija) 7:05 CDT,CSN TV

[Guest]

Plus their offense got much better with GEOVANY SOTO.

[Guest]

 

Found this while looking for a clip of the Aramis walkoff against Milwaukee. Just skip the Dan Roan crap.

[ConstableRabbit]

GEOVANY SOTO.

[Guest]

god, I love bukie.

 

Thank goodness I decided to read the thread this morning. Fantastic work by Bukie.

[ScrubMD]

It just seems excessively whiny to pretend like we shouldn't be drastically better next year. With just the people we have controlled next year + prospects who should be ready, we could have a lineup of

 

Alcantara CF

Castro SS

Rizzo 1B

Bryant RF

Baez 2B

Valbuena/Villanueva/Maybe Olt figures out how to not suck 3B

Castillo/Lopez replaces Baker as backup C

Ruggiano/Lake/Kalish/slight possibility of Soler LF

 

Bullpen options: Rondon, Rivero, Vizcaino, Strop, Ramirez, Grimm, Wright, Rosscup, Russell, Parker, Schlitter, Cabrera

 

Rotation: Samardzija (or in reality, whoever we get in a trade), Wood, Arrieta, Jackson, Hendricks/possibly Johnson/Black/Pineyro/Edwards (maybe pitches 120 or so innings as a starter then goes to the bullpen or some crap like that)

 

That's already a much better team, and then we'd have 50-60m to spend in FA + whatever we get for Hammel/excess prospects.

Edited May 6, 2014 by ScrubMD

[Guest]

A 76-win true talent team makes you one of the worst team in baseball and your front office should be ashamed of itself if they've had three offseasons to prevent that from happening.

 

Okay, good talk.

 

This is how I pictures TT making this post:

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UUBBVvfBUcM/T1t8Zi673mI/AAAAAAAAA0c/uEdZ-PA4IpI/s1600/homer-simpson-bush-gif.gif

[jersey cubs fan]

god, I love bukie.

 

Thank goodness I decided to read the thread this morning. Fantastic work by Bukie.

 

He's the apologists' apologist.

[Guest]

It just seems excessively whiny to pretend like we shouldn't be drastically better next year. With just the people we have controlled next year + prospects who should be ready, we could have a lineup of

 

Alcantara CF

Castro SS

Rizzo 1B

Bryant RF

Baez 2B

Valbuena/Villanueva/Maybe Olt figures out how to not suck 3B

Castillo/Lopez replaces Baker as backup C

Ruggiano/Lake/Kalish/slight possibility of Soler LF

 

Bullpen options: Rondon, Rivero, Vizcaino, Strop, Ramirez, Grimm, Wright, Rosscup, Russell, Parker, Schlitter, Cabrera

 

Rotation: Samardzija (or in reality, whoever we get in a trade), Wood, Arrieta, Jackson, Hendricks/possibly Johnson/Black/Pineyro/Edwards (maybe pitches 120 or so innings as a starter then goes to the bullpen or some crap like that)

 

That's already a much better team, and then we'd have 50-60m to spend in FA + whatever we get for Hammel/excess prospects.

 

it's entirely possible that baez K's himself into being less productive than bonifacio currently is (at least at first, meaning next year, - there's so much talent there i think he'll eventually have to figure it out), that bryant does similarly and that alcantara isn't even as good as lake at hitting major league pitching. so yeah, those prospects are probably upgrades over the crap we have now, but they also have a pretty good chance of being just as bad.

[NOLA]

It just seems excessively whiny to pretend like we shouldn't be drastically better next year. With just the people we have controlled next year + prospects who should be ready, we could have a lineup of

 

Alcantara CF

Castro SS

Rizzo 1B

Bryant RF

Baez 2B

Valbuena/Villanueva/Maybe Olt figures out how to not suck 3B

Castillo/Lopez replaces Baker as backup C

Ruggiano/Lake/Kalish/slight possibility of Soler LF

 

Bullpen options: Rondon, Rivero, Vizcaino, Strop, Ramirez, Grimm, Wright, Rosscup, Russell, Parker, Schlitter, Cabrera

 

Rotation: Samardzija (or in reality, whoever we get in a trade), Wood, Arrieta, Jackson, Hendricks/possibly Johnson/Black/Pineyro/Edwards (maybe pitches 120 or so innings as a starter then goes to the bullpen or some crap like that)

 

That's already a much better team, and then we'd have 50-60m to spend in FA + whatever we get for Hammel/excess prospects.

=D> Thank you for that. This is the argument I've been using to talk others (and myself for that matter) off the ledge.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

It just seems excessively whiny to pretend like we shouldn't be drastically better next year.

 

What's "drastically better" mean?

 

Do I expect us to have a .367 win percentage next year like we do now? Not really.

 

You listed:

Alcantara, who can't get his OBP over .300 in the PCL

Baez, who is getting completely dominated but it's OK because top prospects always bounce back and never fail

Bryant, who might not even be up on Opening Day next year and definitely *won't* have all these contact problems catch up with him and will adjust to the majors immediately

And then the rest of the lineup is just the same one we have now.

 

Then the rotation includes a pitcher we won't have, a good pitcher, and then a bunch of turds who are the same turds we have now.

 

It's not nearly as much better as you think it is. Just for 2015 and not long-term potential, it's probably worse.

[SouthSideRyan]

Did I miss the 60M we have to spend on FAs next season? And with the slimmest of margins to compete next year, we'll almost certainly be keeping at least one prospect who can contribute in April down so we can bleed another cheap year out of him(them) because we're not serious about competing next year either.

 

Why are people acting like Kyle is Erik in 2008, this has been a shitty team for awhile, and they'll probably still be shitty next year, but negativity is not allowed?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I mean if you guys want to double-down predicting massive improvements for 2013 20142015 because of immediate contributions from Logan Watkins Arisemendy Alcantara, Javier Baez Javier Baez, our crummy 3b Ian Stewart Mike Olt and the starting pitchers we get for GarzaSamardzija stepping into the rotation immediately, fine. But quit acting like we're crazy for not seeing it quite the same way.

[jersey cubs fan]

It just seems excessively whiny to pretend like we shouldn't be drastically better next year.

 

Of course they should and could be drastically better. But the same was true the last few years. The Cubs haven't tried to get better and it is kind of hard to accomplish a goal you are not trying to achieve.

[ScrubMD]

Did I miss the 60M we have to spend on FAs next season? And with the slimmest of margins to compete next year, we'll almost certainly be keeping at least one prospect who can contribute in April down so we can bleed another cheap year out of him(them) because we're not serious about competing next year either.

 

Why are people acting like Kyle is Erik in 2008, this has been a [expletive] team for awhile, and they'll probably still be [expletive] next year, but negativity is not allowed?

 

The payroll for the listed players is something like $50m, but you'll probably have some really funny #PoorTomRicketts jokes.

[Guest]

i will say that looking at that list of pitchers, I think grimm legitimately stands a chance at being our worst non-loogy reliever fairly soon. that's pretty good.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

As we showed this offseason, it doesn't matter how much money we have to spend because Epstein and Hoyer don't want free agents unless they are 25.

 

I mean, we'll probably get *something*. Like maybe a Masterson to replace Samardzija, and a veteran outfielder who can maybe start full-time but should probably platoon, and a relief pitcher.

[ScrubMD]

Haha, yes Kyle, people were counting on Logan Watkins to save the Cubs.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Haha, yes Kyle, people were counting on Logan Watkins to save the Cubs.

 

*shrug* He found it a lot easier to get on base and not strike out in his first taste of the PCL than our apparent 2015 starting CFer Alcantara has.

[ScrubMD]

Also Kyle, yes, half that lineup would be the same as this year. The half that is doing really good.

[Guest]

And in this case he has an absolutely legitimate gripe and bukie is talking out his ass about who knows what.

No, I'm sick of the nonsense bitching and ad-hominem about how apparently easy it could have been to buy all the players and make the playoffs, when there hasn't been much of a realistic chance to do so. There's no way to force all the free agents to sign here, and there's no magic formula for making the playoffs from a dire situation except hitting on lightning in a bottle several times over, and that's no way to sustain long-term success.

 

The overall organization was in a shambles from drafting to development throughout the system, and propping the major league team up with FA just to please a few short-sighted people without overhauling the rest of the system wouldn't have been a good long term solution either. Despite how easily people hand-wave away the rest of the system as "easy when you're not trying at the major-league level", no teams' systems are improving like the Cubs' had. The more we learn about how terrible the system was prior to Epstein/Hoyer/McLeod, the more it makes sense to attack the problem in the way they did. The annoying financial issues with the Ricketts just contribute more to the necessity of maximizing ROI, and every move that the club has made has been in an effort to increase the overall value to the club, even if it doesn't make immediate sense to people who want quick solutions.

Revisionist history at its finest.

[jersey cubs fan]

well.

[ScrubMD]

I mean holy hell, the effort you have to put into being that stupid.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Also Kyle, yes, half that lineup would be the same as this year. The half that is doing really good.

 

And we're still 11-19. But we're going to be "drastically better" next year. Because reasons.

[Guest]

Also Kyle, yes, half that lineup would be the same as this year. The half that is doing really good.

 

And we're still 11-19. But we're going to be "drastically better" next year. Because reasons.

 

 

Well, I mean, if you do replace 4 terrible everyday players with 4 even average ones, you improve quite a bit...especially if the other 4 are pretty good.

[ScrubMD]

You take one half of the argument and pretend that's the only part. Then when the other half is pointed out, you pretend that's the only part. You put so much effort into being such a sad little man.