Cubs offseason chit chat...

[Brian707]

PTR and siblings don't want to dig into any future inheritance. Call me skeptical on any potential big spending they do.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Brian707

[Derwood]

Just now, Brian707 said:

PTR and siblings don't want to dig into any future inheritance. Call me skeptical on any potential big spending they do.

And by "inheritance", you mean "future donations to Project 2025"

[Brian707]

1 minute ago, Derwood said:

And by "inheritance", you mean "future donations to Project 2025"

Exactly, it is coming up quickly. We all know what their priorities are.

[ToolDRT]

 

[Jason Ross]

Pagan to the Reds: 2/$16m

[Jason Ross]

Ryan Flaherty, finalist for Padres' managerial job, will be named Cubs' Bench coach. Former Padres bench coach.

Per Britt Griroli

As an aside, I remember watching the draft in which the Cubs selected Flaherty. I hate that I'm at an age now where players I watch drafted are managing my favorite team. I hate it.

Edited November 29, 2023 by 1908_Cubs

[WhyCantWeWin]

17 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Ryan Flaherty, finalist for Padres' managerial job, will be named Cubs' Bench coach. Former Padres bench coach.

Per Britt Griroli

As an aside, I remember watching the draft in which the Cubs selected Flaherty. I hate that I'm at an age now where players I watch drafted are managing my favorite team. I hate it.

Precursor to Soto? Was he Sotos favorite coach in SD?

[Rcal10]

42 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Ryan Flaherty, finalist for Padres' managerial job, will be named Cubs' Bench coach. Former Padres bench coach.

Per Britt Griroli

As an aside, I remember watching the draft in which the Cubs selected Flaherty. I hate that I'm at an age now where players I watch drafted are managing my favorite team. I hate it.

Wait until your childhood favorites are dead. Then talk to me. Santo was my favorite player which explains the 10 at the end of my name. At least Williams and Fergie are still alive. Banks had seen his best years by the time I was all in. 

Edited November 29, 2023 by Rcal10

[ToolDRT]

Hahah not sure. I saw someone post his tweet earlier so when he updated with the redsox bit I just posted it in case. 

[Jason Ross]

31 minutes ago, username said:

I've never heard of this guy.  And he looks like he's tweeting from high school Calculus class.  Is he legitimate?  

I haven't seen anything to suggest he's very legit. He has some classic hallmarks of being sketchy: pinned tweet bagging about a source break, for example. Now, in his case, his is a little odd in that breaking whatever minor personnel firing isn't a sexy thing to break, which adds a bit on the legitimate side. Chris Cotillo was famously a young kid breaking into journalism who also broke things online and was questioned...he now covers the Red Sox as one of their lead beat writers...so these people are not always fake. 

With that said, I'm not sure there's much news in there. We knew the Cubs, Dodgers and Blue Jays were in. No one has expected the Red Sox to be a player here. The Rangers remain a team on the periphery from sourcing, so that wouldn't be shocking they dropped out. So whether he's legit or not, this is pretty surface level stuff overall (which leads me to believe it's not?). I'm more inclined to think small sources might hear about teams dropping out (those teams won't care about leaks any more), but the actual signing will almost assuredly only be broken by the biggest of the media guys. Not some random.

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, Rcal10 said:

Wait until your childhood favorites are dead. Then talk to me. Santo was my favorite player which explains the 10 at the end of my name. At least Williams and Fergie are still alive. Banks had seen his best years by the time I was all in. 

I'm watching the kids and grandkids of guys I grew up watching 😅

[LBiittner]

6 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

I'm watching the kids and grandkids of guys I grew up watching 😅

I'm reading guy's obituaries I grew up watching - too often lately.

[Rcal10]

5 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

I'm reading guy's obituaries I grew up watching - too often lately.

Sounds like you were around in the 60’s and 70’s. My first heartbreak was the 69 cubs. As a 9 year old fan I was very into baseball. Loved Santo and the entire team. That was a bad summer. Sucks Santo wasn’t around to get into the hall or for the Cubs finally winning.

[JD94]

Morosi reporting Cease could be dealt before next week. Only mentioned the Braves as finalist. I’m sure they aren’t the only team, but they seem to be the favorites 

[JD94]

Heyman says Ohtani *could* sign next week. Well duh Jon. I swear he just says stuff that’s likely true and leaves himself an out incase it ain’t true because he doesn’t really know. 

[Jason Ross]

7 minutes ago, JD94 said:

Heyman says Ohtani *could* sign next week. Well duh Jon. I swear he just says stuff that’s likely true and leaves himself an out incase it ain’t true because he doesn’t really know. 

Yeah, typical twitter filler stuff for slow news days.

[ILMindState]

14 minutes ago, JD94 said:

Heyman says Ohtani *could* sign next week. Well duh Jon. I swear he just says stuff that’s likely true and leaves himself an out incase it ain’t true because he doesn’t really know. 

My sources have confirmed the White Sox, A's, Pirates, and Rays are out of the Ohtani race. He could sign before, during, or after the winter meetings. 

Edited November 29, 2023 by ILMindState

[Tryptamine]

18 minutes ago, JD94 said:

Morosi reporting Cease could be dealt before next week. Only mentioned the Braves as finalist. I’m sure they aren’t the only team, but they seem to be the favorites 

What would the Braves even offer? Their farm is bad. I mean I guess they could use Grissom, but I don't even know if that gets them half way there. They'd probably have to give up either Elder or Smith-Shawver too.

[UMFan83]

I'm really trying hard to not be obsessive about the Ohtani stuff.  Him signing with the Cubs seems too good to be true so I haven't allowed myself to get too excited at the prospect.  But every day that goes by I have a harder time resisting the pull of going down the rabbit hole of obsessive rumor checking.

[Jason Ross]

2 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

I'm really trying hard to not be obsessive about the Ohtani stuff.  Him signing with the Cubs seems too good to be true so I haven't allowed myself to get too excited at the prospect.  But every day that goes by I have a harder time resisting the pull of going down the rabbit hole of obsessive rumor checking.

It's really easy to do. I know I'll be refreshing twitter pretty much obsessively next week with the Winter Meetings going on. I'd love to see Ohtani go somewhere before then from a personal standpoint so I can either just be on cloud 9 or accept it's just not going to be a thing.

[JHBulls]

2 hours ago, JD94 said:

Heyman says Ohtani *could* sign next week. Well duh Jon. I swear he just says stuff that’s likely true and leaves himself an out incase it ain’t true because he doesn’t really know. 

Another Baseball insider fumbling over himself that the rumour the media created that Ohtani will sign before the winter meetings could be happening next week, incredible time. Another one for Scoop Heyman. 

Edited November 29, 2023 by JHBulls

[Stratos]

11 hours ago, thawv said:

It's pretty clear that if they want to compete for the WS this season, they are going to blow by the 237 number.  They likely have a budget of 257 without signing Ohtani, and 277 with signing him.  To leave some extra room for deadlines, I'd expect the Cubs to spend 65-85 million this off season.  I wouldn't be surprised if they spent up to 85 million without signing Ohtani.

I hope this is true.

[Stratos]

9 hours ago, thawv said:

I think that the goal should be to get to 277 million this year.  Drop 50 million after next year and they are 14 million under.  It might not be that easy, but they have guys on payroll to figure that out.

If they sign Ohtani, with the extra revenue there's no excuse not to go over the 2nd threshold and get close to 277 and take advantage of that signing while he's still in his prime years, along with Swanson.

[Rcal10]

19 minutes ago, Stratos said:

If they sign Ohtani, with the extra revenue there's no excuse not to go over the 2nd threshold and get close to 277 and take advantage of that signing while he's still in his prime years, along with Swanson.

Exactly. And they have $50M+ coming off the books the following year. And if part of that $277M is on a guy who is here only 1 year(Glasnow, Bieber, Hoskins) that comes off as well. They should go in this year. 

[LBiittner]

3 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Sounds like you were around in the 60’s and 70’s. My first heartbreak was the 69 cubs. As a 9 year old fan I was very into baseball. Loved Santo and the entire team. That was a bad summer. Sucks Santo wasn’t around to get into the hall or for the Cubs finally winning.

I started to follow the cubs in 1967 at age of 9. We didn't get WGN TV in our illinois area so I was WGN radio - vince and lou- all the way. We would get an occasional Sunday TV broadcast with Jack B. from our local tv affiliate. In 1969, we spent the summer in Amsterdam with family and I was limited to the occasional radio broadcast of Cub games on armed forces radio. So, I actually missed out on much of the excitement of that season, just witnessed the crappy September.

Growing up, Many fond memories listening to Lou Boudreau on my transistor radio during late night west coast road trips when I was suppose to be asleep.