Sammy Sofa

Sounds more like joyful acceptance at how badly it has been constructed, but denial of how ridiculous that stance is. Pretty much.

You don't think someone flat-out saying "hey, just ignore the team for couple more years and it'll be OK" isn't some kind of denial as to just how badly the ML team has been constructed and how that should be unacceptable?

Yep, this is my 2nd least favorite device of the fans of the process. "You'll feel sorry about this when we win the division in 2017!!!" Oh really, because I'm feeling pretty [expletive] about 2013 now. Because the Cubs will certainly win the division in 2017. And certainly the only path to winning the division in 2017 was tanking multiple seasons. And the current front office is certainly the only front office that could muster such a feat. It's just the denial process; you've got people convincing themselves this had to happen, you've got Backtobanks over there convinced that everything must have been planned ahead of time so that of course what's going on now is some kind of nefarious plan to...do something, I guess. The owners have made mistakes. The FO has made mistakes. The team is shittier because of it.

Effectively trashing the ML team (and that you'd willfully suggest that people should just shrug it off and ignore it for YEARS) isn't acceptable.

What "pass?" What changed is their effort to try and get city/state funding for the renovations. What, they weren't supposed to even try? I'm sure they were hoping they'd be able to work something out and their rhetoric reflected as such. Why are you so pissed at them saying they wanted to try and get outside funding? My "pass" is using some common sense and not sulking like a petulant child just because they gave trying to get public funding a shot and it didn't work out. And quit talking like you (or any of us) have any clue as to the detail of the Ricketts' money and what's tied up where and what's changed along the way. I'm annoyed with how things are going, so quit it with your tiresome board cop bull [expletive] where you think everyone is just slobbering all over the Ricketts and Theo and never thinking they do anything wrong. I'm not "pissed" about trying to get outside funding. My point is that Ricketts knew the state of the economy when he bought the team. He spent the money on the purchase, has invested tons more on real estate investments, has made a lot of profit in the last year, and the product on the field sucks. So your desire is...what? That they just come out and say "we don't have the money to spend big on the team?" That they bowed out of trying to buy the team in the first place? Costs for players fluctuate, costs for owning the team fluctuate, the money they have available fluctuates...that's what I'm talking about when I say things change. You keep talking about this like they're supposed to be able to map out all of their spending in perpetuity exactly.

You're so much more to us. And in our hearts.

Why didn't you bother to read the article?

Really siding with some winners here, gooney. NOT LIKE THE RICKETTS, AMIRITE??????

Because the Cubs have a very bad record in the 3+ years they've owned the team. Oh, good, as long as there was some thought put into it.

Why is this dumb thread even a thing?

There's a really easy solution Derrick. What a bunch of horse [expletive]. God bless Joakim Noah. If only Rose had Jo's heart. But then Noah would be dead!!!!!!!!!!!

What "pass?" What changed is their effort to try and get city/state funding for the renovations. What, they weren't supposed to even try? I'm sure they were hoping they'd be able to work something out and their rhetoric reflected as such. Why are you so pissed at them saying they wanted to try and get outside funding? My "pass" is using some common sense and not sulking like a petulant child just because they gave trying to get public funding a shot and it didn't work out. And quit talking like you (or any of us) have any clue as to the detail of the Ricketts' money and what's tied up where and what's changed along the way. I'm annoyed with how things are going, so quit it with your tiresome board cop bull [expletive] where you think everyone is just slobbering all over the Ricketts and Theo and never thinking they do anything wrong.

Man, who is giving the Ricketts a pass? I'm pissed as hell at the financial restrictions seemingly in place for a big market team like this.

So they somehow have convinced many of us that it's worse...than the plethora of terrible things you yourself just listed. Gotcha. I keep reading posts about Theo saying that "things were worse than he thought", "it might take longer than we hoped", etc. Ricketts and Theo are extremely smart and both of them walked into this situation knowing exactly what they were getting into, so I'm saying I'm tired of reading posts saying we might be terrible again next year and Theo should be considered successful if 3 years from now we're still under .500 and some of his prospects are producing at the ML level. Running/owning a baseball team isn't a static process; there are going to be changes or developments that cause a plan or an expectation to change. To say that they're "smart enough" like they should have known everything and been able to predict everything about running the team is a pointlessly ridiculous expectation.

So they somehow have convinced many of us that it's worse...than the plethora of terrible things you yourself just listed. Gotcha.

Oh, well, that makes all the difference in the world.

That was definitely a thing that someone made for some reason.

You are intentionally ignoring the important part. The gripe is doing those things *and not replacing them*. Replacing what? Smardjiza had one whopping good year in the bullpen. Cashner had part of one mediocre season in the bullpen. Marshall was the only consistent part there and he's effectively been replaced by Russell. Well, Epstein himself admitted that two of those were mistakes. Meanwhile, our reserve infielders have added up to a net -4.1 bWAR since the beginning of last year. Essentially negating Rizzo or Castro's contributions. That's worth bemoaning. And you're assuming one of those guys would have offset that...why, exactly? All three weren't good last year. The difference you're looking at is miniscule.

So your bullpen gripe basically revolves around turning Cashner into Rizzo, Smardjiza becoming a fantastic starter and Marshall being traded for Wood, Sappelt and Torreyes. Huh. OK, moving on... Oh, next is bemoaning the loss of DJ [expletive] LeMahieu and two Rule 5 deals. Come on, Kyle.

What bullpen depth was squandered? Marshall? What infield depth? DJ LeMahieu?

I can't see how "we're still sub .500 but have a top 10 farm system with several of his draft picks and acquired prospects filtering through and contributing at the big league level, then he still comes off looking pretty good" makes sense. He was hired to a 5-year contract to win a WS (or at least get us to the WS and be a solid, perennial contender). This is the biggest market team in a weak, winnable division and Theo was given complete autonomy. If this team is still below .500 next year, then we need to realize we've been sold some snake oil. "Sold some snake oil?" What? They're not trying to trick or scam anyone. He's getting at Epstein and Co. being viewed as scam artist. A Harold Hill/The Great Oz type. To play devils advocate, if anyone was "selling snake oil" it would be Ricketts. He's the one who jumped through so many hoops to get Epstein as his big signing. Epstein just accepted the un-refuseable offer. Everyone assumed that he'd do pretty much what Jim Hendry would have done; launched buckets of money at Pujols, Ramirez, Darvish, Wilson, and anyone else within range as well as produce our own Pedroia, Lester, Ellsbury, etc. Meanwhile, the fact that Epstein inherited a perenial 90 game winner to build off of didn't seem to register. As I recall, Epstein spent that entire off season preaching that he wabnted to go young, and we probably wouldn't be where we want to be for several years, but fans chose to ignore that, expecting him to Ninja Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder for a 3/75 contract. Again, not his fault. If anything, his chosen route isn't to scam anyone so much as do what Andrew Friedman did; create a team that when all is said and done is 100% his. A monument to himself so to speak. Depending on how the next 2 drafts turn out, whether or not he stays or goes when his contract expires, that's pretty much what he'll have done. You're saying, like, 28 different things with this post.

No, I mean I'm surprised that anyone would really care about it either way. At this point I really don't think it matters much whether the coaching staff is retained or fired.

I can't see how "we're still sub .500 but have a top 10 farm system with several of his draft picks and acquired prospects filtering through and contributing at the big league level, then he still comes off looking pretty good" makes sense. He was hired to a 5-year contract to win a WS (or at least get us to the WS and be a solid, perennial contender). This is the biggest market team in a weak, winnable division and Theo was given complete autonomy. If this team is still below .500 next year, then we need to realize we've been sold some snake oil. "Sold some snake oil?" What? They're not trying to trick or scam anyone.

I kinda surprised anyone would greet the idea of Sveum (or any of the coaches) being fired or not with more than a wearied shrug.

But it's an empty threat and that only makes the person who makes it look bad. If he already discussed this privately and is now going public, that suggests that he may be losing the team. They're making themselves look bad. They don't need Sveum for that. His sauce-soaked meatballery does absolutely nothing to help.