The 2018-2019 Cubs Offseason Rumors & Discussion Thread AKA The Rickettssss take a dump on EVERYTHING

[Ding Dong Johnson]

bobson dugnutt earned a mention in season 4 of angie tribeca

[Bertz]

FWIW Marlin Bystro, the supposed ITK over at PSD, finally posted and said that he's heard everything we're reading is true - Theo has zero to spend and would need to dump salary even to sign a middle reliever. Usual grain of salt.

 

Marlin was legit connected. He called Javy Baez in like April of that year and Hayden Simpson ~a week before that disaster. That being said, he was clearly on the scouting/PD side of things and was not nearly as well connected after Theo took over (which makes sense, the Cubs under Hendry had only like a few dozen non uniformed employees). So if you want to comfort yourself you could say he doesn't know much more than the beat writers at this point when it comes to the major league operations.

 

That being said, Epstein has played the last six months like a horsefeathering idiot if this is all true. The Kintzler trade goes from "fine whatever they don't all work out" to absolutely inexcusable. Tendering Russell somehow manages to get even worse. And I like Hamels and think he was worth $20m in a vacuum, but not in this scenario. Those three guys could have paid for Bryce in 2019 (not in AAV but $29m would be plenty in real dollars). Or, if you want to spread the money around that's Jesse Chavez, Jody Mercer, Kurt Suzuki, and Matt Harvey with money to spare. Instead we're likely looking at them trading Zobrist just so they can add some modest players at C and the OF (and hopefully SS).

 

The glass half full (maybe "head in the sand") interpretation of this is still the same as it's been all winter. The team came into the winter with basically just enough money to add Bryce, $30ish million. Because of the respective performances of Hamels and Chatwood, retaining Cole and dumping salary elsewhere was viewed as a necessity. Because they are approaching teams trying to dump salary, and currently unwilling to engage agents on even modest FAs while they wait for Bryce everyone understandably infers that they're broke. And the team is not correcting them, because why would they? The longer the winter goes the less I believe this, but it's not wholly unreasonable.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The glass half full (maybe "head in the sand") interpretation of this is still the same as it's been all winter. The team came into the winter with basically just enough money to add Bryce, $30ish million. Because of the respective performances of Hamels and Chatwood, retaining Cole and dumping salary elsewhere was viewed as a necessity.

 

I know you're not advocating for this route personally, but that is such a terrible course of action. Like shockingly inexcusably bad decision making from the front office. That's why this is so confusing. The more the offseason goes on and more relievers go off the board, the more it seems clear they're hamstrung financially. And if that's true, that means that the front office made easily the dumbest choice of their tenure in picking up Hamels, a choice so terrible that I can't help but try to think of other circumstances where it might otherwise make sense, given the front office's track record at not making inexplicably bad decisions.

[Flames24Rulz]

yeah but what's Charles the Cat saying?

[Brian]

I wonder how many people that paid $125 for the privilege to be there will be asking about the cubs lack of money next weekend.

[UMFan83]

I wonder how many people that paid $125 for the privilege to be there will be asking about the cubs lack of money next weekend.

 

I'm sure their long passionate statements of disappointment during the owner q&a sessions will persuade Tom to open up the pocket books.

[Cubswin11]

I wonder how many people that paid $125 for the privilege to be there will be asking about the cubs lack of money next weekend.

I'm sure the creatures that go to that thing will focus on the hard hitting questions like "Will Almora be the everyday CF'er and leadoff hitter?" "Why did you trade LaStella?" etc.

[CyHawk_Cub]

I wonder how many people that paid $125 for the privilege to be there will be asking about the cubs lack of money next weekend.

 

I dunno, there might be plenty of fans expressing congratulations to the Ricketts for their swelling bank accounts, based on the ready defense of billionaires I've seen across Cubs interwebs.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I wonder how many people that paid $125 for the privilege to be there will be asking about the cubs lack of money next weekend.

 

I dunno, there might be plenty of fans expressing congratulations to the Ricketts for their swelling bank accounts, based on the ready defense of billionaires I've seen across Cubs interwebs.

 

 

"but tom is a fan, just like me"

[Brian]

There will be too much excitement over the announcement of Ian Happ's true crime podcast for negativity

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsWpLrdA4p7/

[Transmogrified Tiger]

So that podcast is just him telling the story of how he did it once the statute of limitations expires?

[Brian]

he's going the OJ "If I did it" route

[CubinNY]

I wonder how many people that paid $125 for the privilege to be there will be asking about the cubs lack of money next weekend.

 

I dunno, there might be plenty of fans expressing congratulations to the Ricketts for their swelling bank accounts, based on the ready defense of billionaires I've seen across Cubs interwebs.

I don’t get why people take sides with the owners.

[r_mack]

I wonder how many people that paid $125 for the privilege to be there will be asking about the cubs lack of money next weekend.

 

I dunno, there might be plenty of fans expressing congratulations to the Ricketts for their swelling bank accounts, based on the ready defense of billionaires I've seen across Cubs interwebs.

I don’t get why people take sides with the owners.

I don't get why people attack owners like the Ricketts who are going to spend $220 million on their baseball team this year, the most in the National League. They don't have unlimited money to spend on this team, it's a business.

[Tim]

 

I dunno, there might be plenty of fans expressing congratulations to the Ricketts for their swelling bank accounts, based on the ready defense of billionaires I've seen across Cubs interwebs.

I don’t get why people take sides with the owners.

I don't get why people attack owners like the Ricketts who are going to spend $220 million on their baseball team this year, the most in the National League. They don't have unlimited money to spend on this team, it's a business.

They aren't spending that out of their pockets. That money is a relatively small percentage of revenues. Yes, they are spending a lot. But they are taking in much more.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

I dunno, there might be plenty of fans expressing congratulations to the Ricketts for their swelling bank accounts, based on the ready defense of billionaires I've seen across Cubs interwebs.

I don’t get why people take sides with the owners.

I don't get why people attack owners like the Ricketts who are going to spend $220 million on their baseball team this year, the most in the National League. They don't have unlimited money to spend on this team, it's a business.

They're not going to hire you.

[Derwood]

There is a 99.7% chance that r_mack has tweeted “TAXES ARE THEFT!!!” within the last three years

[WrigleyField 22]

There is a 99.7% chance that r_mack has tweeted “TAXES ARE THEFT!!!” within the last three years

Catch up, taxes are slavery these days.

[imb]

there are lots of businesses. owning a sports team is not a business.

[Bull]

there are lots of businesses. owning a sports team is not a business.

 

I don't know what to do with this. If you mean "owning a sports team shouldn't be a business," I can go along - but only so far.

 

But that's just not realistic. Maybe I have some sort of strange Stockholm Syndrome from following the Cubs during Tribune ownership, but I don't see how its anything but a business.

 

**I'm not a businessman, so forgive me if I misuse some terms**

 

Have we forgotten the whole saga of tribune ownership, and underspending? Tribune in bankruptcy and selling the team? Sam Zell and the resrictions put on the Rickett's as far as requiring a certain debt load (if I'm remembering correctly)? The revitalization of the neighborhood?

 

As much of a fan as Ricketts might be, you can't be naive enough to think that someone with a background in BANKING AND INVESMENTS would go through countless hours of meetings, fights with the neighborhood, the rooftops, and the city if they didn't think it would gain them a profit. These people live life by ROI. And all the other owners are business owners as well.

 

I don't have to like them. I don't have to like big business, but to fail to recognize that an asset acquired for nearly a billion dollars is anything but big business is somewhere between gullible and dense.

 

Churchill said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others. I feel the same way about capitalism. It is the worst economic system, except all the others. It really is the worst. but its what we have, and to expect people who have played that system for generations, and have invested the time and energy they have in it to not turn a HEFTY profit is to fail to understand the world around you. I wouldn't be surprised if they are leading the way on collusion. I'd image the penalties on baseball collusion will be much less than the same behavior in the banking industry and the Ricketts' know it.

 

That said, the Cubs have a top 5 payroll, will continue have one. They have been more competitive this last 5 years than any other time in my lifetime or yours (I haven't checked the numbers, but I'd image even averaging in the "tank" years, they've set an 8 year high in W/L record at this point) due to quality hires and open wallets.

 

I want Bryce and will be dissappointed if they don't get him. But to expect the Ricketts to be anything but what we knew they were walking in is just silly. They're investors and they're doing pretty well with this investment, both in terms of its success and thier profit.

 

tl;dr. Baseball is a business. You don't have to like it, but its true. The Ricketts' are good at business and the Cubs are more successful than ever, while the Ricketts are making tons of money, which is kind of what bankers do.

[Sammy Sofa]

The revitalization of the neighborhood?

 

Ah, yes; Chicago's under-policed mini-Bourbon Street with the wonky crime stats to not scare away the suburban bros and bro-ettes and their precious, precious dollars. So deliciously and impressively revitalized now that there's a hotel, too.

[Bull]

The revitalization of the neighborhood?

 

Ah, yes; Chicago's under-policed mini-Bourbon Street with the wonky crime stats to not scare away the suburban bros and bro-ettes and their precious, precious dollars. So deliciously and impressively revitalized now that there's a hotel, too.

 

I'm very satisfied that that is the criticism you chose to offer.

 

Doesn't really take away from my point. May add to it.

 

I'm not an expert on the situation by any means, but its pretty clear to me that business people gonna business.

[Sammy Sofa]

but its pretty clear to me that business people gonna business.

 

Yeah, and it sucks.

 

Nobody is realistically expecting a sports owner to run at a loss and just spend whatever without any consideration to the return...but the flipside of that is that it's absolute horse horsefeathers that one of the most profitable teams, with things like already obscene ticket prices, goes out of its way to cry poor (IMO past the point of the usual negotiation wankery), as if they're struggling to turn ANY kind of profit. It's garbage to have to swallow that they can't figure out how to sign a generational talent because of a "woe is me; excuse me as I dab my eyes with these crisp c-notes" narrative because of horsefeathers they decided to dump their money into that's only tangentially related to the team (ie-all of the Wrigleyville stuff outside of renovating the ballpark and creating a non-joke FO setup), and because the city wasn't suckered into footing the bill for as much of it as possible.

 

The BS they spouted before was that all of this would result in more money for the team, but now the exact opposite is happening....meanwhile the ticket prices will continue to rise, the neighborhood will continue to become more and more of a horsefeathers ass, generic, Buffalo Wild Wings-style bacchanal, and whatever godforsaken TV deal setup they end up with will likely cost fans a ridiculous amount and be a gigantic pain in the ass.

 

Woo- horsefeathering -hoo.

[Sammy Sofa]

Basically there at least used to be SOME owners who seemed to view owning a sports team as a gigantic ego-stroke for which they were willing to forgo at least some of the strict expectations of things like quarterly reports and huge profit margins. Not that that they were maniacs willing to always run things for a loss, but they stood out in contrast from the cheap owners. Now it feels like everyone is trying to be a cheap owner; yeah, it's a sliding scale of how cheap they are, but man, the bouts of horsefeathers YOU spending were terrifying and exciting, and something that I long yearned for the Cubs to be, and this FA class seems like it's custom-made for that kind of spending, yet nobody is stepping up. It sucks. The business of baseball sucks right now.

[squally1313]

The Ricketts bought the Cubs, Wrigley, and 25% of Comcast for $900m in 2009. For simplicity, let's say they just bought the Cubs for $900m. In 2018, Forbes estimated the Cubs were worth $2.8b. With a B. So, no, I don't give a horsefeathers how much money they are or aren't making on a year to year basis.