Let the hate flow thread - our rosters have been totally mismanaged

[Andy]

at least kb looks healthy

It's gonna be awesome seeing him put up MVP numbers for an 80-win team

[imb]

im gonna have so much time for activities this summer since i dont have to watch this trash team the whole year

[UMFan83]

I’m telling you Theo was replaced by a lookalike in July 2017. Since then:

 

-Traded our last 2 legit prospects for Jose Quintana. Defensible trade but even before he pitched many said it was a lot to give up

 

-Offseason of doom in 2017-2018. Cishek is solid but Morrow, Darvish and Chatwood are all disasters so far. Maybe bad luck on Darvish’s part but he’s had an injury history and was just coming off a historically disastrous World Series performance. I wanted Yu and I stand by the logic of it but it was always a bit of a gamble. Which is fine unless you are also gambling on Chatwood becoming a serviceable starter outside of Coors and Morrow to stay healthy for like the first time in his career. 0-3

 

-tendering a contract to Russell

 

-trading for homophobe

 

-Randomly taking on a $5m a year contract for a bad reliever

 

-Picking up Hamels $20m option based on a handful of great starts as a Cub

 

-Doing those last 2 knowing that you will have absolutely no budget in 18-19 offseason and some glaring areas that need improvement and 2 division rivals that keep improving

 

-Pitching coach and hitting coach roulette. Can’t seem to find someone that can stick

 

I know I’m just being negative and Theo/Jed is an all time legend in my book for getting us a World Series but it really does seem like everything he has done of late has failed

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Theo can't do pitching. This is exactly what happened in Boston too. Hopefully it plays out the same way.

[rocket]

im gonna have so much time for activities this summer since i dont have to watch this trash team the whole year

 

::rewatches monk::

[champaignchris]

A couple things have become apparent about that 2017-2018 offseason...

 

1. Previously, the Cubs had emphasized arm health in the pitchers they acquired. They certainly signed guys who’d had major arm injuries, but they’d all had a few years under their belts showing they were back to health (Lester and Lackey) or were extreme buy-low candidates (Rondon). Theo completely threw that strategy to the wayside in signing Morrow, Chatwood and Darvish.

 

2. Theo completely misread the market environment under the new CBA. Look no farther than the Chatwood signing. (I was all in on the Chatwood signing, by the way.) He got him early in the offseason for 3 years at $13M per. He could have had guys with similar pedigrees like Chacin, Minor or Mikolas for half the AAV and/or fewer years. Alex Cobb ended up signing for just a couple $million more per year than Chatwood despite a much better resume.

 

The Duensing signing and trade for Kintzler also seem to indicate a misreading of the market. Those three players - all acquired since the end of 2017 - are combining to make $21M this year... that’s $10M more than Bryce Harper is making in the first year of his contract with the Phillies, by the way.

 

We can also question whether Cole Hamels is really going to be $13M more valuable than Drew Smyly this year. I think the other misfires with the pitching staff meant that Theo couldn’t gamble on finding out and had to pay a premium for the more sure thing.

[Sammy Sofa]

A couple things have become apparent about that 2017-2018 offseason...

 

1. Previously, the Cubs had emphasized arm health in the pitchers they acquired. They certainly signed guys who’d had major arm injuries, but they’d all had a few years under their belts showing they were back to health (Lester and Lackey) or were extreme buy-low candidates (Rondon). Theo completely threw that strategy to the wayside in signing Morrow, Chatwood and Darvish.

 

2. Theo completely misread the market environment under the new CBA. Look no farther than the Chatwood signing. (I was all in on the Chatwood signing, by the way.) He got him early in the offseason for 3 years at $13M per. He could have had guys with similar pedigrees like Chacin, Minor or Mikolas for half the AAV and/or fewer years. Alex Cobb ended up signing for just a couple $million more per year than Chatwood despite a much better resume.

 

The Duensing signing and trade for Kintzler also seem to indicate a misreading of the market. Those three players - all acquired since the end of 2017 - are combining to make $21M this year... that’s $10M more than Bryce Harper is making in the first year of his contract with the Phillies, by the way.

 

We can also question whether Cole Hamels is really going to be $13M more valuable than Drew Smyly this year. I think the other misfires with the pitching staff meant that Theo couldn’t gamble on finding out and had to pay a premium for the more sure thing.

 

This is a good breakdown that makes me want to jump in front of a bus.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

A couple things have become apparent about that 2017-2018 offseason...

 

1. Previously, the Cubs had emphasized arm health in the pitchers they acquired. They certainly signed guys who’d had major arm injuries, but they’d all had a few years under their belts showing they were back to health (Lester and Lackey) or were extreme buy-low candidates (Rondon). Theo completely threw that strategy to the wayside in signing Morrow, Chatwood and Darvish.

 

2. Theo completely misread the market environment under the new CBA. Look no farther than the Chatwood signing. (I was all in on the Chatwood signing, by the way.) He got him early in the offseason for 3 years at $13M per. He could have had guys with similar pedigrees like Chacin, Minor or Mikolas for half the AAV and/or fewer years. Alex Cobb ended up signing for just a couple $million more per year than Chatwood despite a much better resume.

 

The Duensing signing and trade for Kintzler also seem to indicate a misreading of the market. Those three players - all acquired since the end of 2017 - are combining to make $21M this year... that’s $10M more than Bryce Harper is making in the first year of his contract with the Phillies, by the way.

 

We can also question whether Cole Hamels is really going to be $13M more valuable than Drew Smyly this year. I think the other misfires with the pitching staff meant that Theo couldn’t gamble on finding out and had to pay a premium for the more sure thing.

 

This is a good list, and I'll add my own pet item to it, Theo stopped buying low on Major Leaguers, especially in trade. There's a laundry list of guys that had outsized contributions to the run of success because the front office shrewdly got them without requiring a huge sum in trade. You can go all the way back to Rizzo if you like, and Arrieta + Strop is certainly famous, but there's also Valbuena, and Fowler, and Montgomery, and Montero, and Coghlan, and Rondon. The young core was why the team was good, the FA signings helped make them great, and these guys made the team Championship caliber. Not all of them worked out, but since they weren't the fulcrum of the team you don't have to bat 1.000 or face dire consequences.

 

Instead, Theo has mostly tried to solve problems with money and by paying for immediate performance. Duensing, Chatwood, Lackey and Fowler's return trips, Darvish, Morrow. Some of those were decent FA values so it's not as if he's doing an AJ Preller impression, but I'm really disappointed in the relative lack of creativity the last 2 offseasons. They've made an allusion that this past offseason especially it's been difficult to trade since a lot of the young players are coming off down years, and while I get that logic you also have to own the end result, so if you're betting on the existing squad then you need to be right.

[champaignchris]

Also at the root of this is the failure to develops ANY MLB caliber pitchers.

 

It’s not a complete wash. Godley became the starting catcher on the WS team and Blackburn became Montgomery.

 

But still, develop a 4/5 starter and two serviceable relievers at some point in the last 7 years and then you don’t have to spend the money to fill out the pitching staff. Prioritizing collegiate bats early really worked out for the team, but you’d figure eventually a 4th or 5th round draft pick could come up and be a contributor.

[Sammy Sofa]

Yeah, I remember (and agreed with) a lot of the talk being, "they'll stockpile up the dongmashers in terms of player development...and stumble across a few OK pitchers internally later or whatever," and they didn't even manage that.

[17 Seconds]

the cubs went into the season being totally cool with zagunis getting starts. how did it come to this

[Derwood]

the cubs went into the season being totally cool with zagunis getting starts. how did it come to this

 

They must really really really hate Ian Happ

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Petition to rename the thread "The Cubs suck and we were always right to hate them"

[MWV]

the cubs went into the season being totally cool with zagunis getting starts. how did it come to this

We should probably accept that this is the beginning of the rebuild.

[Andy]

the cubs went into the season being totally cool with zagunis getting starts. how did it come to this

We should probably accept that this is the beginning of the rebuild.

Theo is here through 2021 anyway and he's good at those.

[Sammy Sofa]

the cubs went into the season being totally cool with zagunis getting starts. how did it come to this

We should probably accept that this is the beginning of the rebuild.

Theo is here through 2021 anyway and he's good at those.

 

That would just be finishing up the standard 3 year tank.

[CyHawk_Cub]

The important part is that the Ricketts save as much money as possible

[imb]

i do enjoy the thought of theo getting pissed off while watching heyward and darvish and chatwood blow goats because he's smart enough to know it's his fault

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Last place Cubs

 

Fangraphs playoff odds update:

 

60% chance the Cubs do not win the division

 

46% chance they don't make the playoffs at all

 

Projected for 11th-best win total in MLB

[NotSoSober]

Last place Cubs

 

Fangraphs playoff odds update:

 

60% chance the Cubs do not win the division

 

46% chance they don't make the playoffs at all

 

Projected for 11th-best win total in MLB

Is this the same fan graphs that had the Cubs winning the divtion for basically 95 percent of the time last year? They loved the Cubs more than Duke did, horsefeathers fangraphs.

[BigSlick]

3rd place seems very possible and 4th place doesn't seem unbelievable. its bad out there folks

 

on the other hand they really are dongmashers, so they could give us some fun watching

[squally1313]

Last place Cubs

 

Fangraphs playoff odds update:

 

60% chance the Cubs do not win the division

 

46% chance they don't make the playoffs at all

 

Projected for 11th-best win total in MLB

Is this the same fan graphs that had the Cubs winning the divtion for basically 95 percent of the time last year? They loved the Cubs more than Duke did, horsefeathers fangraphs.

 

Out of curiosity, what do you think the odds were of Milwaukee winning 10 out of their last 11 games? Somewhere around 1 in 20?

[JennieGarthAlgar]

I wonder how many Cubs fans wouldve done the suicide by now if Cleveland had won Game 7

[Soul]

Game 7 makes all the difference. I can live in the past for a good long time.

[Derwood]

Fangraphs playoff odds have never been wrong 4 games into the season, so this is really bad news