How they got here

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I would probably say for sure trade with Dodgers and Nationals. Nationals have a solid upcoming youth movement but also are extremely talented at the MLB level. The Dodgers just seem like they 5 of everything. The Pirates would be tempting as well.

 

Mets, Marlins, Indians, Astros are all notables, but wouldn't put above the Cubs.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'm sorry, did you just say the Marlins?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Honest question: How many teams in baseball would you trade entire major and minor leagues for?

 

For me, it'd just be the Dodgers and only because of their payroll being limitless.

 

At this exact moment? Probably Dodgers and Cardinals is about it that I'm sure of. There's a few others that are at least in the vicinity: Mets, Astros.

[davell]

Honest question: How many teams in baseball would you trade entire major and minor leagues for?

 

For me, it'd just be the Dodgers and only because of their payroll being limitless.

 

At this exact moment? Probably Dodgers and Cardinals is about it that I'm sure of. There's a few others that are at least in the vicinity: Mets, Astros.

 

Those were the 3 teams I thought long and hard on.

[Gilby]

I would probably say for sure trade with Dodgers and Nationals. Nationals have a solid upcoming youth movement but also are extremely talented at the MLB level. The Dodgers just seem like they 5 of everything. The Pirates would be tempting as well.

 

Mets, Marlins, Indians, Astros are all notables, but wouldn't put above the Cubs.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The Cubs have a better record than the Nats right now, and many of the Nats' best players will be free agents within the next few years. Their top prospects are a pitcher whose already been hurt and Trea Turner.

[Andy]

At this exact moment? Probably Dodgers and Cardinals is about it that I'm sure of. There's a few others that are at least in the vicinity: Mets, Astros.

I wouldn't trade with STL on account of they have an actual pact with Satan and there's no way their players would be any good in Cubs uniforms.

[Sammy Sofa]

Hellaciously hot take.

[Guest]

I would probably say for sure trade with Dodgers and Nationals. Nationals have a solid upcoming youth movement but also are extremely talented at the MLB level. The Dodgers just seem like they 5 of everything. The Pirates would be tempting as well.

 

Mets, Marlins, Indians, Astros are all notables, but wouldn't put above the Cubs.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The Cubs have a better record than the Nats right now

 

 

I get the feeling you are much more about what has happened so far and less about how players will continue to perform!

[Guest]

[expletive] that boring ass cardinals team

 

i would never trade them our dongs

[Gingerballs Lives]

[expletive] that boring ass cardinals team

 

i would never trade them our dongs

 

Damn straight. The Cubs are set up so well for the foreseeable future. Seeing as we had to sit through a few years of pain to get there, I wouldn't trade how it's working out for anyone.

[downsr30]

The Marlins have a very good young core talent. On the MLB roster alone - Gordon, Hechevarria, Bour, Yelich, Ozuna, Stanton, Ramos, Cosart, Capps, Alvarez, soon to be Fernandez.. I think they are worthy of considering.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NonProfitCow]

The Marlins have a very good young core talent. On the MLB roster alone - Gordon, Hechevarria, Bour, Yelich, Ozuna, Stanton, Ramos, Cosart, Capps, Alvarez, soon to be Fernandez.. I think they are worthy of considering.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So, Stanton.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

The Marlins have a very good young core talent. On the MLB roster alone - Gordon, Hechevarria, Bour, Yelich, Ozuna, Stanton, Ramos, Cosart, Capps, Alvarez, soon to be Fernandez.. I think they are worthy of considering.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

About half of those guys suck and their minors suck and the rest of their team sucks too.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Oh thank you blessed Theo for your brilliance in putting together the 5th or 6th best team in the NL after four seasons.

 

I would say 3rd or 4th best team in the NL. And with a team full of guys under team control for several years, many of whom have yet to hit their full stride. Kyle, we've been through our 40 years in the desert. Not only did we survive, but wearegood. It's ok to be happy. Right now, there's only one man preventing it from happening. And it's not Jim Hendry. It's not Starlin Castro. It's not David Ross, Brian Schlitter, or even Aaron Miles. Perhaps there will come a day when wearenolongergood. But that won't happen for many, many, many years. So why not allow yourself to live in the moment and enjoy the gift that his glory has bestowed upon us, his loyal followers. I think you deserve it. We all do.

[Guest]

Oh thank you blessed Theo for your brilliance in putting together the 5th or 6th best team in the NL after four seasons.

 

I would say 3rd or 4th best team in the NL. And with a team full of guys under team control for several years, many of whom have yet to hit their full stride. Kyle, we've been through our 40 years in the desert. Not only did we survive, but wearegood. It's ok to be happy. Right now, there's only one man preventing it from happening. And it's not Jim Hendry. It's not Starlin Castro. It's not David Ross, Brian Schlitter, or even Aaron Miles. Perhaps there will come a day when wearenolongergood. But that won't happen for many, many, many years. So why not allow yourself to live in the moment and enjoy the gift that his glory has bestowed upon us, his loyal followers. I think you deserve it. We all do.

 

don't argue with his obvious troll bait posts

[Hairyducked Idiot]

don't argue with his obvious troll bait posts

 

It wasn't troll bait, and you're better than calling it that.

 

Some things are good, some things are bad.

 

We all know the good things. I can list them again if you *really* want. But that doesn't mean we can ignore the bad things.

 

Starlin Castro is a sucking wasteland. We're still lightyears behind the Cardinals. Almora and Baez are on the quick train to Busttown. In Theo Epstein's *fourth* season, we still might not be a playoff team.

 

I'm not saying everything is terrible and bad. I'm saying that maybe, just maybe, it isn't trolling to not effusively praise him for tanking three seasons to give us a team with the 13th best run differential in baseball.

[Guest]

It's definitely trolling. The fact that you truly feel that way because you're kind of a defective human being doesn't mean it's not.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

It's definitely trolling. The fact that you truly feel that way because you're kind of a defective human being doesn't mean it's not.

 

I sometimes wonder what's turned you so edgy lately. I don't think it's a desire to fit in with the cool kids. Maybe it's a life event, but sometimes I suspect that you get the most aggressive when the gap widens between what you want to believe and what you deep-down suspect is true.

[mul21]

It's definitely trolling. The fact that you truly feel that way because you're kind of a defective human being doesn't mean it's not.

 

I sometimes wonder what's turned you so edgy lately. I don't think it's a desire to fit in with the cool kids. Maybe it's a life event, but sometimes I suspect that you get the most aggressive when the gap widens between what you want to believe and what you deep-down suspect is true.

 

No, he's right. You're just being a miserable glass half empty weirdo about this. And the cardinals aren't that good right now. They're not winning 107 games.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

No, he's right. You're just being a miserable glass half empty weirdo about this. And the cardinals aren't that good right now. They're not winning 107 games.

 

They're not winning 107 games. They are, however, 8 games in front of us with a +70 advantage over us in run differential. It shouldn't be controversial to say that they are way ahead of us.

[rawaction]

Late to the party, but I actually agree with Kyle here. He's being pretty realistic and honest here (threw up in my mouth a little). Honestly, it does suck that it took 3 absolutely terrible years to ONLY be the 5th or 6th best team in the NL in the 4th year. But it's also pretty cool that the 5th best team in the NL gets into the playoffs where anything can happen. And it's even cooler to reasonably expect this team to continue to get better in the foreseeable future.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Late to the party, but I actually agree with Kyle here. He's being pretty realistic and honest here (threw up in my mouth a little). Honestly, it does suck that it took 3 absolutely terrible years to ONLY be the 5th or 6th best team in the NL in the 4th year. But it's also pretty cool that the 5th best team in the NL gets into the playoffs where anything can happen. And it's even cooler to reasonably expect this team to continue to get better in the foreseeable future.

 

To me, it took three terrible years to be a playoff contender in the fourth year with the potential promise of a fun, kick ass future. I've been a supporter of this from the start and to see how well it has shaped up is awesome.

 

Sorry, but three seasons is not that long. Blah blah blah let's try to win every season. Nah, the years go by pretty quick. Just like life. Then you blink and we've got all these players the original post documented. I would take a cycle of sucking bad to be awesome fun for seven seasons every single time.

 

The best (worst) part is that with the small amount of money they had to spend, had they tried to win and be competitive, the Cubs probably still would have been average and now we'd be looking at a roster like the Brewers, always trying to win just to keep their fans interested even when they know they should rebuild.

[RammyFanny]

don't argue with his obvious troll bait posts

 

It wasn't troll bait, and you're better than calling it that.

 

Some things are good, some things are bad.

 

We all know the good things. I can list them again if you *really* want. But that doesn't mean we can ignore the bad things.

 

Starlin Castro is a sucking wasteland. We're still lightyears behind the Cardinals. Almora and Baez are on the quick train to Busttown. In Theo Epstein's *fourth* season, we still might not be a playoff team.

 

I'm not saying everything is terrible and bad. I'm saying that maybe, just maybe, it isn't trolling to not effusively praise him for tanking three seasons to give us a team with the 13th best run differential in baseball.

 

I could somewhat agree with you if you ever proposed any good alternatives. You usually just wanted them to spend because they could. A quick search shows one of your grand offseason plans was to make a big trade for David Wright, immediately extend him 6 years, sign BJ Upton for like 16 million a year, and give Shaun Marcum 3/30 and Ryan Madson 10 mill. And if we missed out on Upton, push hard for Michael Bourne. I might be wrong but I thought you also were pushing hard for us to resign Shark so we could maintain some semblance of a rotation.

 

I'm not saying you're any worse at predicting the future than anyone else, because I know you could look back on most of us and find awful plans.

 

But realistically, most of your offseason plans would have us dreaming about what the Dominic Smith's of this world could become instead of the Bryant's and Schwarber's, all while we are stuck with a bloated ass payroll unable to sign the Lester's or Price's. If you are going to very likely suck, just suck and don't try to half ass some team that has a prayer at being within a few games of .500. If they botched the picks (and it absolutely was a high risk plan), then I would criticize, but there's a good chance they went 2/3 on those picks (Happ TBD) and it's not like either were consensus picks.

[Guest]

I can understand the frustration of 3 miserable giveaway seasons to be where they are right now, but that's in the past just like the error on Alex Gonzalez in the playoffs in 2003.

 

What is now is a young core of players that will be here for a very long time, and they are extremely fun to watch. Almora and Baez are still both too young to call busts. Even if they don't fit into the future of the Cubs organization, they can be peddled to someone else who will see potential in turning their careers around, which should bring a return that might be useful at the trade deadline or in the offseason.

 

To see these young kids winning games already is reason for excitement, not to go "Pfft, so what, remember 2013?"

 

But, to each his own, I guess.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I am enjoying the present. Enjoying the young talent and not thinking Epstein has done a superlative job can co-exist.

 

 

I think people are overestimating our future. If they really do run off 7 playoff years in 8 starting with this one, great, I'll tip my cap to Epstein and give him all the credit for it.

 

But that isn't as much of a slam dunk as some think. Pitching is fickle and primes are shorter and earlier than people think. We could easily have more mediocre or bad seasons in our immediate future if some things go wrong or thy whiff on some decisions.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

I am enjoying the present. Enjoying the young talent and not thinking Epstein has done a superlative job can co-exist.

 

 

I think people are overestimating our future. If they really do run off 7 playoff years in 8 starting with this one, great, I'll tip my cap to Epstein and give him all the credit for it.

 

But that isn't as much of a slam dunk as some think. Pitching is fickle and primes are shorter and earlier than people think. We could easily have more mediocre or bad seasons in our immediate future if some things go wrong or thy whiff on some decisions.

 

Don't know you well enough to say, but it sounds like the scouting report on you is that you wouldn't tip your cap for the seven playoff seasons but instead would focus on how they didn't make the proper moves to make the playoffs in all eight.

 

I'll admit I get really frustrated with people who try to bash Epstein. Maybe it's naive, but I have total trust in the front office for the first time as a Cubs fan. I want nobody in charge more than them. Yes, they will make mistakes. It's baseball. But the process behind their ways is magical and something I dread not having whenever he and his boys leave.