C.C.

I'm just glad all the "future" lineups with Rizzo, Vitters, and Jackson - That's the future! are gone. Been there, done that last decade with shitty players. I mean what the [expletive]! I don't mind building a team from within, but it better not be a 3-4 year [expletive] plan!

It needs both. No. They need the goods. Average players are a dime a dozen on the MLB level. We need impact players. Right now we have none.

Let's hope. You never know, but the talent is there.

No. This team doesn't need average players. We need some super stars.

Key word.

rizzo has been good, and still projects to be be good. True. Good is not what this team needs. We need some great players.

We'll never win the WS next year with those guys. True.

The exposure of Jackson by Kyle is a joy. Cubs fans overrate all minor league talent.

About as exciting as kevin Orie.

Is this Shark's last start?

Looking at Rizzo, Vitters, and Jackson I wish we snagged Céspedes.

Kyle nails it once again. I do have hope in the kid, but the stats can't be ignored.

Hang in there Kyle. Vitters and Jackson aren't going to amount to anything but someone off the bench.

Just the ones you don't get.

Stay the course Kyle. A lot of people will be eating crow.

Wood probably gives up another, i dunno, 5 runs today with Vitters at 3rd i lost track of how many good plays Valbuena made tonight I guess the joke wasn't so obvious.

No Vitters! WTF?

New game thread please.

As usual Kyle nails it.

No game thread today?

And Bill James never played baseball dammit!!!!!

What did he draft that made a impact. Sorry guys I'm behind on following baseball with a divorce, marriage, law suits, and whatever else.

That or when the Trib/Zell finally allowed him (or even forced him) to spend money there weren't great options on the market for the long term deals. It's been put out there that the trib was more behind signing Soriano than Hendry, or at least forced him to add some years/$$. In no way am I a Hendry apologist but I think part of the awful contracts was him being forced to spend money by ownership. I always get accused of bringing Hendry's name into these discussions and being a Hendry apologist, but many of you can't seem to discuss anything without bringing up Hendry As I've pointed out many times before that the situation was completely different because ownership gave Hendry the money and told him to buy a winning team. Theo has been given complete autonomy to spend money or cut payroll as he pleases. As for bloated contracts on a underperforming team, you might look at $262 million in contracts that the Red Sox are sending to the Dodgers and guess who negotiated those deals. BOY GENIUS!!!!!!!!! And you know what? That's not even a given. Lucchino wanted to compete so badly, they veered off the path Theo had put into place previously. Theo surely had something to do with signing those guys, but where he's learned and isn't making the same mistake twice, good ole Jimbo wouldn't have a single issue with giving Pujols 250 mill and probably a big name pitcher as well and we'd be right back to being a longterm 75 win team that needed a lot to go right to even sniff the playoffs. Wait. That's not fair. Perhaps the owners of the Cubs pushed Jimbo into signing the same contracts that Theo did. And what path did Theo put into place? He already had his core before he took over.

Ouch! On Jackson.

This is the last year of Zambrano. Not sure if he's counting that. But yeah, this team isn't filled with large contracts like the national media will probably continue to say it is this winter. Even if he is counting it his idea that they weren't serious about trying to sign someone like Cespedes is undercut by how little money they have locked up going forward from this year and how they doled out cash to Soler and Castro. If that's the case why isn't Cespedes a Cub?