Cubs suck and we were always right to hate them (2019 negativity thread)

[champaignchris]

So come July, which impending free agents are we going to trade off? Are we even going to be able to get anything of value in return?

 

Hamels, Zobrist, Strop, Cishek, and Kintzler are free agents.

 

Rizzo, Quintana, Brach and Morrow all have club options. Rizzo for two more seasons. Brach, Quintana and Morrow for one more season.

[WrigleyField 22]

What do normal people do during the summer?

Pass

SSR

http://17rg073sukbm1lmjk9jrehb643.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/boat1.jpg

[CubinNY]

Pass

SSR

http://17rg073sukbm1lmjk9jrehb643.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/boat1.jpg

[SouthSideRyan]

There's a peasant dancing for nickels off-camera in the second one.

[WrigleyField 22]

There's a peasant dancing for nickels off-camera in the second one.

Go easy on PTR.

[BigSlick]

Theo must have had no idea before 2018 that they were gonna turn off the money spigot right? It’s the only way any of this makes sense

 

Also, how can you not draft and develop just one major league quality starter in the last 5 years? After Kyle it’s.....nothing

[NOLA]

Theo must have had no idea before 2018 that they were gonna turn off the money spigot right? It’s the only way any of this makes sense

 

Also, how can you not draft and develop just one major league quality starter in the last 5 years? After Kyle it’s.....nothing

That Cease guy might be pretty good.

[SouthSideRyan]

Theo must have had no idea before 2018 that they were gonna turn off the money spigot right? It’s the only way any of this makes sense

 

Also, how can you not draft and develop just one major league quality starter in the last 5 years? After Kyle it’s.....nothing

 

And we didn’t draft him

[Transmogrified Tiger]

how can you not draft and develop just one major league quality starter in the last 5 years? After Kyle it’s.....nothing

 

This is mostly because they decided not to spend high picks on pitchers. As an example, 32 SP provided 2.5+ fWAR last year. One of them was Hendricks, another was a Theo draftee(Godley) that he traded away. Of the other 30, 17 were drafted in the Top 45 picks, and most of those 17 were in the Top 10. Since the draft spending rules were tweaked a few years back I'd expect that correlation to increase in future years. Under this regime, they've made all of 3 picks in the Top 45 that were pitchers, Pierce Johnson(0 for 1), plus Lange and Little who both were only drafted in 2017. Call it 30% poor development, 70% intentionally choosing not to draft pitchers instead of Almora, Bryant, Schwarber, Happ.

 

More concerning would be their inability to turn out decent relievers, necessitating the Duensing, Brach, Wilson, Davis, Cishek, Kintzler, and Morrow moves, to speak nothing of the NRIs/Minor League FAs to get substantial run(Rosario, Coke, Richard, etc).

 

 

As an aside, the other interesting thing is how few of those starters were international signees. Only Severino, Marquez, and Carrasco. If you drop the threshold to 2 fWAR that only adds 3 more(Reynaldo Lopez, Jhoulys Chacin, Luis Castillo) out of 44 total.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Not drafting pitchers is awesome. I just remember a couple of years ago saying "they probably won't keep hitting on all their rotation bets" and being told "He hit on them all the last two years, why wouldn't that last forever?"*

 

* - not actually how the conversation went but idc, it's my memory and i can reframe it how i want

[Flames24Rulz]

Theo must have had no idea before 2018 that they were gonna turn off the money spigot right? It’s the only way any of this makes sense

 

Also, how can you not draft and develop just one major league quality starter in the last 5 years? After Kyle it’s.....nothing

 

that's what I've been harping on all offseason. Theo goes from blatantly saying that they were perhaps overvaluing their own guys and that the way they closed the season was unacceptable, to...doing absolutely nothing this offseason.

 

i still maintain that there's no way Theo would've spent on Darvish/Chatwood/Morrow last offseason if he knew that would've taken them out of the Bryce/Machado sweepstakes this year. everything Theo has said has had some sort of message to it, and he was basically hinting at Harper for what, two years? obviously something happened from the end of the season press conference last year to the point right before the Winter Meetings where they claimed that they had no money.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Not drafting pitchers is awesome. I just remember a couple of years ago saying "they probably won't keep hitting on all their rotation bets" and being told "He hit on them all the last two years, why wouldn't that last forever?"*

 

* - not actually how the conversation went but idc, it's my memory and i can reframe it how i want

 

Quintana, Darvish, and Chatwood combining for 1.5 fWAR is definitely a tough contingency to plan for.

[UMFan83]

The lack of developing prospects (especially pitchers) is what kills me. When Theo came aboard he said all the right things about creating the "Cub Way" or whatever its called. Overhauling the development system from the top down, creating consistency across all levels, writing a literal manual that the instructors and coaches would follow. With this we would consistently be able to churn out major league talent. Early on we were doing that, but its just fallen off a cliff since 2016. People are being pretty patient about the state of the farm system but (correct me if I'm wrong) I would guess that an elite development organization would have the organization in a better position than this after the Quintana trade cleared out the last of the blue chippers 2 years ago.

 

Feel free to tell me if I am expecting too much too soon. I guess I'm just frustrated because I didn't expect the Cubs to be in a position where the major league team has stagnated, we've maxed out our budget, our potential trade assets have declining value and we aren't expecting much help from the minors anytime soon. There are plenty of worse spots to be in but in terms of the teams that are currently considered contenders, its not an enviable position to be in.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Worst record in baseball

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Miggy fed up

 

 

 

[d_money]

Wish we could just fast forward time to 7/31 so we know if this is an aberration or the horsefeathers show it has become so they can start to unload and start to acquire some talent.

[NotSoSober]

Now this is a thread I can get behind like Cub pitchers constnatly do to batters.

 

Is anyone on the fire Theo bandwagon yet besides that guy who thinks it's his sober doppleganger running things?

[d_money]

Now this is a thread I can get behind like Cub pitchers constnatly do to batters.

 

Is anyone on the fire Theo bandwagon yet besides that guy who thinks it's his sober doppleganger running things?

Theo’s not going anywhere unless he himself chooses to. He made this mess, there’s time for him to clean it up.

 

Keeping Theo away from the checkbook is a good idea - most of his big FA signings have been horrendous. PTR wins this battle.

[OleMissCub]

Can we just swap bullpens with Iowa? Maybe those guys will be hungry and will actually perform.

[weis21]

Can we just swap bullpens with Iowa? Maybe those guys will be hungry and will actually perform.

I'd really love Webster to get a shot (and sooner rather than later). I guess the same goes for Mekkes, Norwood and Wick, too, for that matter.

[Clem Fandango]

This team eats poop.

 

They've scored 34 runs the last 6 games. They've lost all 6 games. Hacks.

[BigSlick]

This team eats poop.

 

They've scored 34 runs the last 6 games. They've lost all 6 games. Hacks.

What I hate about this, and I mean hate is that I know, probably very soon, they'll go into a stretch of strong starting pitching, and then the runs will dry up.

 

I hate this team. I hate it with the fury of a thousand burning suns.

[JennieGarthAlgar]

The PECOTA projection was originally posted on the clubhouse bulletin board as motivation but now its there as a goal

[Old Style]

The PECOTA projection was originally posted on the clubhouse bulletin board as motivation but now its there as a goal

[Derwood]

I'm so mad that I let mlb.tv auto-renew