This Cubs season was a D-minus time for me

[Stratos]

4 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Man Stratos, you take issue with a lot of things that don’t really matter. I know you are much younger than me, but you are way more like the old man yelling to get off his lawn then I ever want to be. Come in man. Stick to Cubs baseball. Let that other stuff go. It really isn’t a big deal. You are going to have high blood pressure and other issue as you do get to my age if you let so many things that don’t matter, neither you. You have to have the most non baseball related negative posts than anyone here. Just relax and enjoy baseball😀. 
 

Its hard to enjoy baseball sometimes when they keep smearing poo all over it.

When you say "don't really matter", that's your own opinion.  I think they do matter, at least to me.  I'm a romantic at heart, which is why it's hard for me.  The ownership group for the Field of Dreams movie site in Iowa is building some hotels and restaurants on the site, I can't wait.

But you're right in that if I want to be happier I need to accept the fact that baseball is increasingly poo-stained in order to appeal to the smartphone generations or whatever and create more corporate profit.   Or maybe i'll go watch more local little league and men's league games or something. 

[CubsLeaf]

My love of this team has died post-2017.  I don't really blame the owners, I think enough money is being spent.  Jed is just really bad at his job.  He's trying to build a high-priced team of average players and no stars.  This is Chicago.

[Wilson A2000]

I can't see this season being anything better than  C-. Counsell was brought in to get the best out of the players and the Cubs ended up with the same record as last year. Jed did little to fix the pen over the offseason and did nothing significant at the trade deadline. Counsell really put some pressure on Ricketts and Jed to improve the team this offseason. His end of season presser was about 10 seconds long and he basically said we've got to be a lot better. 

[Cuzi]

I refuse to give a passing grade to the only large market team in the division, spending $50 million more on their roster than the next closest team, failing to make the post season for the 4th straight year. How anyone grades this as passable is mind boggling to me.

[Rcal10]

14 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

I refuse to give a passing grade to the only large market team in the division, spending $50 million more on their roster than the next closest team, failing to make the post season for the 4th straight year. How anyone grades this as passable is mind boggling to me.

My grade is for the play of the team, not the front office. The team was projected to win 83 games. They won 83 games. So they were average. Which is a C. Now if you add the FO and the off season that produced an 83 win team, that grade goes down to D-. Also, the grade is for one year. So what they did before this year has nothing to do with this grade. 

[Cuzi]

35 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

My grade is for the play of the team, not the front office. The team was projected to win 83 games. They won 83 games. So they were average. Which is a C. Now if you add the FO and the off season that produced an 83 win team, that grade goes down to D-. Also, the grade is for one year. So what they did before this year has nothing to do with this grade. 

So you are grading on a curve.

Sorry, but 4 damn years of failing to make the playoffs is not passable. Saying the players played to their potential doesn't get a pass. A F student getting a F doesn't mean he gets a C for meeting expectations.

[Rcal10]

17 minutes ago, Cuzi said:

So you are grading on a curve.

Sorry, but 4 damn years of failing to make the playoffs is not passable. Saying the players played to their potential doesn't get a pass. A F student getting a F doesn't mean he gets a C for meeting expectations.

The team played exactly to their expectations. If an expectation of a typical 3rd grader is to do a certain thing and they do exactly that, to an exact average level they are expected to do it at they are a C student. That is how I view this team. As I said the team as it was constructed played to their average. But if I am grading the entire 2024 season for the Cai, it does get a D-. They should have done enough to be a playoff team. The overall performance was less than average. And again, the previous years should not have any bearing on the grade of the 2024 season. If they win the WS in 2025 are you going to give that team a C because the years before they shocked? I doubt it. 

[Stratos]

If you don't make the playoffs I call it an automatic F grade.

I thought they were a slightly better team than last year and yet didn't improve.  Busch over Mancini,  Imanaga in for Stroman (was hurt last year).  The offense totally tanked from May to around the ASB and blew the season, along with Jed's crappy bullpen in the first half.  They should have been right there in the wildcard hunt.

Adding Busch, Paredes, and Imanaga is solid though for years to come.  Just MUCH too long of a rebuild.  We got quality prospects for Rizzo, Baez, and Darvish but they were so young, and Ricketts should have overspent on the payroll to make up for it until they're ready, at least the last 2 seasons.

Last 2 seasons we're about 5 wins short of being a legit playoff team.  We still burn too much money on fringe FA's.  They sign Imanaga and then bring back Hendricks for 16.5m.  Sign Swanson and then sign Mancini/Smyly/Barnhart on 2-year deals.  Gotta be smarter and live the "value and efficiency" mantra on the smaller signings too.

[Sammy Sofa]

On 9/28/2024 at 11:32 AM, Cuzi said:

How do you think billionaires become billionaires?

The purity and focus of their evil.