Winter Meetings Thread

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, ToolDRT said:

Jed is garbage at his job, but he doesn’t set the budget. The “rich, greedy” dude is Ricketts, in this scenario. 

I think Jed is the ideological head of the two. Although Ricketts is the "Secretary of the Treasury," Jed is the "lobbyist."

[ToolDRT]

8 minutes ago, The Cubs Dude said:

I think Jed is the ideological head of the two. Although Ricketts is the "Secretary of the Treasury," Jed is the "lobbyist."

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, ToolDRT said:

Yay. I have time to make a historical analogy to Jed and a former president.

Calvin Coolidge was a United States president in the 1920s--it's hard to believe that he was president 100 years ago, because times were remarkably similar. He always believed in fiscal conservatism--of lessening the deficit while potentially making others worse off. Of course, I don't believe he did it intentionally, but he believed in the principles of capitalism to the extreme.

Hoover--er, I mean, Hoyer--is in the same space/ideology. He believes in wringing out the towel until it is completely dry, not succumbing to deficit but watching other teams efficiently mobilize their resources and purchase potentially game-changing players. I just roll my eyes at that. Furthermore, Hoyer focuses too much on understanding value and not what his team needs--for example, I believe he should be focusing on either Imai or Cabrera at this point, both of whom seem excellent additions. But he's a Cubs cynic. And he'll influence Ricketts, who actually makes the decision. With Coolidge, it was inverted--Secretary of the Treasury Mellon influenced Coolidge's policy--but in Hoyer's situation, he's larger in the public image and is therefore going to make the most decisions at face value.

Side note: Read Coolidge by Amity Shlaes--I found it a curious read.

Edited December 14, 2025 by The Cubs Dude

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, The Cubs Dude said:

Yay. I have time to make a historical analogy to Jed and a former president.

Calvin Coolidge was a United States president in the 1920s--it's hard to believe that he was president 100 years ago, because times were remarkably similar. He always believed in fiscal conservatism--of lessening the deficit while potentially making others worse off. Of course, I don't believe he did it intentionally, but he believed in the principles of capitalism to the extreme.

Hoover--er, I mean, Hoyer--is in the same space/ideology. He believes in wringing out the towel until it is completely dry, not succumbing to deficit but watching other teams efficiently mobilize their resources and purchase potentially game-changing players. I just roll my eyes at that. Furthermore, Hoyer focuses too much on understanding value and not what his team needs--for example, I believe he should be focusing on either Imai or Cabrera at this point, both of whom seem excellent additions. But he's a Cubs cynic. And he'll influence Ricketts, who actually makes the decision. With Coolidge, it was inverted--Secretary of the Treasury Mellon influenced Coolidge's policy--but in Hoyer's situation, he's larger in the public image and is therefore going to make the most decisions at face value.

Side note: Read Coolidge by Amity Shlaes--I found it a curious read.

@ToolDRTGoing deeper into the economic analysis, I think we can model AD (aggregate demand) for the starter pitching market. What Jed fails to realize is that he's constrained--he's waiting, waiting, and waiting, and even old Benjamin Franklin is impatient to change hands. 

Since Merrill Kelly was signed for a significant amount, and he has a similar profile to Imai or even Cabrera, in my opinion (divided repertoire, anomalous pitches rather than each pitch having velo closer to the average), the AD will shift to the right. Therefore, since AD is a downward-sloping line, that means that the price will increase. So Imai's price will increase, and so will Cabrera's. Some other users were mentioning that the mid-tier players might not be affected by this, but I'd challenge by saying that Imai is not a mid-tier player. Oh well.

We'll see how this plays out--I'm really curious. 🙂 

And I gotta rebuild my reputation...

[ILMindState]

Can we make this about me? We haven't talked about me in a while. Please talk about me. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, ILMindState said:

Can we make this about me? We haven't talked about me in a while. Please talk about me. 

What do you like talking about? 🙂 My goal is to make the most happy, so I'm more than willing to change the direction of the conversation to any aspect of greedy Jed that you want!

I know you're being sarcastic, but my last two comments were on-topic...

Edited December 14, 2025 by The Cubs Dude

[imb]

god damn, maybe i was too hard on tom and kyle. sorry boys

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, imb said:

god damn, maybe i was too hard on tom and kyle. sorry boys

Who are Tom and Kyle again?

I continuously feel inspired by your daring analogy of the Cubs to Wuthering Heights. You should be a literary scholar. 🤣

Edited December 14, 2025 by The Cubs Dude

[Bertz]

1 hour ago, imb said:

god damn, maybe i was too hard on tom and kyle. sorry boys

You know what needs to be done and you're the best one to do it

[Rcal10]

Or do what I did and ignore. 

[Bobson Dugnutt]

If Javy keeps downvoting him enough, maybe he’ll get diarrhea and leave or something.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Bobson Dugnutt said:

If Javy keeps downvoting him enough, maybe he’ll get diarrhea and leave or something.

You know what happens when you tariff other countries?

I don't have a problem with @javy knows my name, so I wouldn't see a reason why I would downvote him unless he starts spam-downvoting.

I don't base my presence on reputation. One outspoken person doesn't stand for the rest of the silent people. So that's why reputation is erratic.

Edited December 15, 2025 by The Cubs Dude

[Derwood]

Pro tip: People HATE IT when you @ them 

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Pro tip: People HATE IT when you @ them 

Thank you. To each forum their own. For example, on burbuja.info, it's preferred to notify. But thank you for being constructive.

[imb]

[Guest]

1 minute ago, imb said:

You're mad funny.

[Thurman Merman]

Please tell me someone went to that website to figure out what the horsefeathers that is.  Or maybe that's what he wants us to do to give us more ammunition to make fun of him so he has more reason for his grievance horsefeathers.  

[thawv]

17 hours ago, Neuby said:

 

Agreed Stanek is intriguing but only if you add another big arm in front of him .... I guess Fairbanks.

I think that Keller is a better option than Fairbanks.  And not just because of the cost to production, but because of Fairbanks Raynaud's Syndrome. 

[Rcal10]

6 minutes ago, thawv said:

I think that Keller is a better option than Fairbanks.  And not just because of the cost to production, but because of Fairbanks Raynaud's Syndrome. 

Why is he better on cost to production? I think Keller is going to cost more and possibly a longer deal. Not arguing on ability, but we know the Cubs do a lot of things cost driven. 

[Bertz]

IMO Fairbanks > Keller > Weaver, with none of the three worth paying a premium over the others

[thawv]

26 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Why is he better on cost to production? I think Keller is going to cost more and possibly a longer deal. Not arguing on ability, but we know the Cubs do a lot of things cost driven. 

If we just use Spotrac's market value analysis, and Crowd Source, it looks like Fairbanks "could" cost a lot more.   Right now, I don't know of any other thing to use as a starting point. 

 

Spotrac

Keller 1/1.8

Fairbanks 3/44

 

Crowd Source

Keller 2/12

Fairbanks 2/16 

Edited December 15, 2025 by thawv

[Rcal10]

28 minutes ago, thawv said:

If we just use Spotrac's market value analysis, and Crowd Source, it looks like Fairbanks "could" cost a lot more.   Right now, I don't know of any other thing to use as a starting point. 

 

Spotrac

Keller 1/1.8

Fairbanks 3/44

 

Crowd Source

Keller 2/12

Fairbanks 2/16 

Maybe seeing what others are getting and  reports of what is being discussed. Thors projections are useless.  Both will cost more than those projections of crowd source.

And does spotrac really show Keller at $1.8M for 1 year? Or is that $18M? Regardless, neither makes sense and Fairbanks for 3/$44M is a bit much too. 

[thawv]

10 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Maybe seeing what others are getting and  reports of what is being discussed. Thors projections are useless.  Both will cost more than those projections of crowd source.

And does spotrac really show Keller at $1.8M for 1 year? Or is that $18M? Regardless, neither makes sense and Fairbanks for 3/$44M is a bit much too. 

Yes sir.  Those are the numbers.  I'm not arguing about the numbers.  I'm saying that it looks very much like Fairbanks is going to get paid more than Keller. 

[Rcal10]

30 minutes ago, thawv said:

Yes sir.  Those are the numbers.  I'm not arguing about the numbers.  I'm saying that it looks very much like Fairbanks is going to get paid more than Keller. 

But why are you even using those when they are clearly not correct? Do you really think Keller is going to get $1.8M for one year? After seeing what others have signed for do you really think Keller is going to sign 2/$12M or Fairbanks 3/$44M. Assuming you agree those are not correct why would you default to these numbers? 

[chibears55]

Probably wont see the Cubs make any significant additions until after the holidays