General Cubs Chit-Chat

[Omar]

His full name is Reinaldo Albert Almora Jr.

 

He honestly should have gone with Reinaldo.

[Bull]

I honestly can’t tell if that’s a serious post or an attempt at a joke

 

Consider the person posting

Just highlighting how ridiculous the lengths are that people need to go to to defend AA.

[mul21]

His full name is Reinaldo Albert Almora Jr.

 

He honestly should have gone with Reinaldo.

 

We could call him Reinal as a hat tip to the days of Rnny Ceen and Rey rnez.

[Bull]

His full name is Reinaldo Albert Almora Jr.

 

He honestly should have gone with Reinaldo.

 

We could call him Reinal as a hat tip to the days of Rnny Ceen and Rey rnez.

Reinal failure

[Cubswin11]

[Bertz]

50/1 for the Pirates winning the division is ludicrously low IMO. I'm not sure the top and bottom of this division are separated by more than 10 games, and that's before a KB trade

[We Got The Whole 9]

The Angels at 8/1 are intriguing. Losing Cole and their current means of stealing signs (ie they could very well develop a better/stealthier system) could take the Astros down a couple notches. Add in the Angels lineup and Joe's initial morale and chemistry boost, they could make a run at it. They can still make some plays/splashes in FA as well to further close the gap, maybe muddy up the division a little. The A's will always be competitive but are not locks to be better than the Angels IMO

[NonProfitCow]

50/1 for the Pirates winning the division is ludicrously low IMO. I'm not sure the top and bottom of this division are separated by more than 10 games, and that's before a KB trade

You might want to take a look at their roster. It's not 2014 anymore.

[Bertz]

 

Highly recommend this from Sharma

[Backtobanks]

 

Highly recommend this from Sharma

 

Sharma took some swings? Can he play 2B or CF and will he be cheap?

[Brian]

we're less than 2 weeks from Cubs Convention and

 

1. The big signings are relievers 1 out of 100 people attending would be able to tell you their names.

2. The majority of people in the Chicago viewing market do not have access to the channel the games will be on.

3. Scared of a couple of million dollars tax

4. They've been trying to trade one of (if not the) best players all winter.

 

 

 

should be fun.

[JennieGarthAlgar]

5. Hired a manager that the team already hates

[soccer10k]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

LOL Cubs. Time to dust off the PTR stuff.

[SpongeWorthy]

now that the red sox and astros are confirmed cheaters does that make the cubs the team of the decade

 

i say yes

[Brian]

Giants or I'm guessing the Dodgers probably have the most wins in the decade and now two consolation World Series championships

[dfnowak]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

LOL Cubs. Time to dust off the PTR stuff.

 

Maybe this isn't the right topic to post this under...By my math, there's aprox. $75.6M coming off the books from last year, which includes players no longer on the roster and any salary decreases (i.e. Lester). And there's aprox. $41.8M in additional salary, which includes salary increases due to both contracts and expected arbitration increases (as projected by MLBTR) and all of the minor signings. So, that leaves approx. $33.8M decrease in money spent on salary from last year. Is there something I'm missing? Is there another reason other than they don't want to spend money for that amount of decrease in spending???

[Andy]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

LOL Cubs. Time to dust off the PTR stuff.

 

Maybe this isn't the right topic to post this under...By my math, there's aprox. $75.6M coming off the books from last year, which includes players no longer on the roster and any salary decreases (i.e. Lester). And there's aprox. $41.8M in additional salary, which includes salary increases due to both contracts and expected arbitration increases (as projected by MLBTR) and all of the minor signings. So, that leaves approx. $33.8M decrease in money spent on salary from last year. Is there something I'm missing? Is there another reason other than they don't want to spend money for that amount of decrease in spending???

No. There is not.

[WrigleyField 22]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

LOL Cubs. Time to dust off the PTR stuff.

 

Maybe this isn't the right topic to post this under...By my math, there's aprox. $75.6M coming off the books from last year, which includes players no longer on the roster and any salary decreases (i.e. Lester). And there's aprox. $41.8M in additional salary, which includes salary increases due to both contracts and expected arbitration increases (as projected by MLBTR) and all of the minor signings. So, that leaves approx. $33.8M decrease in money spent on salary from last year. Is there something I'm missing? Is there another reason other than they don't want to spend money for that amount of decrease in spending???

No. There is not.

Any recent major real estate activity occurring in Wrigleyville?

[UMFan83]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

 

LOL Cubs. Time to dust off the PTR stuff.

 

Maybe this isn't the right topic to post this under...By my math, there's aprox. $75.6M coming off the books from last year, which includes players no longer on the roster and any salary decreases (i.e. Lester). And there's aprox. $41.8M in additional salary, which includes salary increases due to both contracts and expected arbitration increases (as projected by MLBTR) and all of the minor signings. So, that leaves approx. $33.8M decrease in money spent on salary from last year. Is there something I'm missing? Is there another reason other than they don't want to spend money for that amount of decrease in spending???

No. There is not.

 

Wasn't most of Zobrist's salary erased last year? That only accounts for a small part of it but the number is possibly lower than $33.8m. What I dont understand is that I don't think the Cubs exceeded the luxury tax by a lot last year, but apparently are still projected to exceed it this year despite losing Zo, Strop, Cishek, Hamels, Russell, etc

[Brian]

Cubs 2019 tax bill was $7.6 million based on $220 CBT payroll.

 

Cot's with arb estimates has the 2020 CBT payroll at $210,048,333 ($208 is the tax line)

[d_money]

Cubs 2019 tax bill was $7.6 million based on $220 CBT payroll.

 

Cot's with arb estimates has the 2020 CBT payroll at $210,048,333 ($208 is the tax line)

With the addition of the 26th man, why hasn’t the tax line increased? The MLBPA doing a fine job. Wtf.

[Brian]

One would hope they are able to get it eliminated after '21, but I'm not holding my breath nor would I be surprised if it ends up an actual hard cap.

[Bertz]

One would hope they are able to get it eliminated after '21, but I'm not holding my breath nor would I be surprised if it ends up an actual hard cap.

 

Yeah I think given the past few CBAs the players will do something that superficially sounds good but ultimately makes things worse. My guess is that they bump up the number quite a bit, but the penalties, even for first time offenders, become far more severe and it function like a hard cap.

[Splendid Splinter]

One would hope they are able to get it eliminated after '21, but I'm not holding my breath nor would I be surprised if it ends up an actual hard cap.

 

Yeah I think given the past few CBAs the players will do something that superficially sounds good but ultimately makes things worse. My guess is that they bump up the number quite a bit, but the penalties, even for first time offenders, become far more severe and it function like a hard cap.

 

Like you said, they'll go up to like 240-250 mil as the "luxury tax" and the tier 3 penalties nowadays will become the new tier 1. And to make it worse, the luxury tax probably won't increase over time because it's such a big jump from 210 or wherever it'll be in '21.

[dfnowak]

Cubs 2019 tax bill was $7.6 million based on $220 CBT payroll.

 

Cot's with arb estimates has the 2020 CBT payroll at $210,048,333 ($208 is the tax line)

I don't understand this entirely, but shows how the 2020 CBT payroll is determined (slightly different than Brian's numbers):

 

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/payroll/

 

Not quite sure how Total AAV/Payroll is calculated (about $11M more than total payroll), but estimated player benefits and minor league contracts are included ($17.5M total) in the determination of the total comp. balance payroll.