CubinNY

According to Baseball Reference, Bryant still does not have a home run. Other than power, his hitting line looks good. Javi has a very Javi line at this point. Rizzo is loving the short porch at Yankee Stadium.

Steele is wilting.

I think Schwindel benefited from late season not caring scouting. I hope he goes down and works on his weaknesses and gets some confidence back, but I also hope he enjoyed his time in MLB because it’s probably over.

They signed the one real guy and then trash pickups. The actual dollar value is nothing to anybody who pays attention to the business of sports. I realize your predilection to licking the boot but my god son, wake up to reality. lol okay man. I get it, you've got your arbitrary payroll number that qualifies as trying to win, and anything below that is complete abandonment of on field product. All actual spending that happens is explained as farming for trades until they meet that marker, regardless of how little sense that might actually make compared to more sensible explanations. It's just Ricketts anger all the way down regardless of topic or circumstance, your worldview has been made clear. There were clear opportunities to upgrade in free agency. I honestly have no clue why the went after Suzuki and Stroman if they are choosing to surround them with replacements. The Cubs have 2 starting pitchers and Happ, Nico, Wilson and Suzuki. They are great at building a pen, but at some point their luck is going leave. They are intent on letting Wilson leave and the consensus seems to be to trade Happ. They have no stars to trade and teams seem to be coveting prospect. As you noted, the FA market isn’t great. The team is on the road to at least three more years of awful on top of last year and this year. Who else is to blame if not the Ricketts?

They really need to bump him up. Hopefully by this Friday

I love Wilson. I wish the Cubs could have extended him.

Cease is smoking Boston today. Every time he pitches I get angry for a few minutes

There is a little silique in BCS that Mike has in the early seasons. It kind of sums it up for me. "I've known good criminals and bad cops. Bad priests, honorable thieves... You can be on one side of the law or the other. But if you make a deal with somebody, you keep your word. You can go home today with your money and never do this again. But you took something that wasn't yours. And you sold it for a profit. You're now a criminal. Good one, bad one? That's up to you." Whatever someone does we can label it bad or good, but whatever they do after doesn't make up for the bad thing they did originally. It's something you have to live with. We can choose a different path, but we cannot undo what has happened. Everybody makes mistakes, good people don't make the same mistakes over and over again.

I was at the game where Prior got hit in the elbow. It was a moment I'll never forget because it seemed like time slowed down for a few seconds. I was sitting in the bleachers and you can hear the crack of the bat, silence, Prior groan, and then more silence. It was really weird how quiet it was for about 10 or 15 seconds as he lay on the mound. But it really was his collision with Marcus Giles that changed his future.

Simplistic made up example. STH pay $30/ticket for the whole season, right now individual buyers are getting them on the secondary market for $10. Fewer STH means less of those $10 tickets available, which the club prices at $20. That $20 can change to find the revenue maximizing point, but it's never going to hit $30 if the team is the same quality(which is assumed if STH decrease), so the team loses money. We also assume that the individual prices are never going to stoop so low as to hit $10(it's almost certainly better for revenue to have fewer people paying $20), so the total number in paid attendance will never reach the amount from before the STH decrease. Couple points here: 1. You guys probably knew this, but season tickets are still priced per game. Our draft would always charge people on an average ticket price/per game, but I know some people who charge per ticket. Think your overall point there still stands, that they can be more reflexive in season if attendance starts to lag vs STHs who paid everything up front. 2. I'm curious on the actual breakeven point once you start pricing that low, factoring in the price of beer/concessions, potential memorabilia, and whatever value you want to assign to recruiting future fans. Seems to be the most purely profitable part of the experience for them is taking the 15 seconds to pour a beer they paid 80 cents for and having someone swipe their credit card for $12. In some respects, the ticket is a loss leader, but I think the value of the ticket is much higher than the value of the beer because the ticket isn't really exchanged for a durable/non-durable product. You want people at the game to buy stuff, but getting them at the game is the most valuable thing.

I have to wonder what the Ricketts are thinking. Are they proud of the product? Are they embarrassed? Do they care?

The shift is killing the Cubs tonight

I don’t know what made me think about this, but remember the towel drill?

I'll be at the SB Cubs game next Friday. I hope I get to see DJ pitch.

Cubs have decided to emulate the Rays by starting a reliever. It’s cold and dreary in Chicago on a Tuesday. Should be about 20k in the stands.

No maybe he can afford new pants.

I don't really follow football so take this post for what it's worth. But if Poles is intentionally not getting talent to help his young QB who may or may not be good, he is unintentionally sabotaging the QB and sealing his fate. I mean, how can Fields do anything if he doesn't have time or people who can get open? It just seems really dumb and infuriating. My read of the situation is that Poles doesn't think Fields is the guy.

That was a rolling curve ball.

Good win.

All right! Robertson.

If they blow this game it will very demoralizing for me

Frank has to be out of the line up.

Great game by Stro on his birthday

He doesn’t have much of an arm. More than anything he reminds me of Bobby Hill.