apete6

Man 07-08 I had Lee, Marmol, Harden, Zambrano, Ramirez and Soto. Watched them all drop like flies one by one I had Zambrano, Soto, and Wood along with a Prior jersey. Sad reminder of how old I am...

It's going to be pretty damn cold for that. Yikes.

That wasn't my original intention when I signed up on the waiting list. I figured my name would get called maybe when I was closer to retirement. My number was called a good 15-20 years before I expected. With the wait list as huge as it was a few years ago and the promise of a very bright future I opted to get the tickets mainly so if/when the Cubs make the World Series I can attend the games. I would never be able to afford the astronomical scalper prices WS tickets would surely command. I expected short term losses and hoped for little more than break even on good years. Any profit from playoff seasons would be a little bonus. I never expected to get rich off this. Nor should you expect to get rich off of it, but the resale market is a major draw when you have season tickets for anything, but especially with the Cubs. Besides the couple of family days per year, limited pre-sale for additional tickets, and alleged ticket pre-sale codes for concerts (that also go to anyone in the neighborhood or on the waiting list, so it's basically useless), they have little extra benefit of having season tickets besides the games (and especially potential playoff games). Teams that have crummy attendance have all sorts of perks with season tickets (free/reduced parking, big time discounts on food/bev, generous ticket trade policies, etc..) and the Cubs offer very little of that. Hell, PTR thinks it's a huge bonus to offer a Castro signed ball if you pay in cash/check up front rather than just the deposit in October then the balance in January.

Well, actually. The Bears, Blackhawks, and Bulls are always at or near 100% capacity and when the Cubs are good, it's actually a decent return as well. You can ALWAYS sell tickets for at least face value for every team in the city besides the White Sox and weekday/weeknight games when the Cubs are awful.

@thekapman still up to his old racist tricks:

1. This is awesome 2. Welington is doing well this year. .807 OPS and 1.2 WAR. Good for him. Always liked him. Knowing what we know now with Schwarber, holding on to him instead of trading for Montero would have probably been the right move.

Beane going for it last year was pretty much the right move and they are ~20 games under .500 since then. Baseball, man. Then again, trading Addison Russell for 3 months of Hammel/Samardzija and the Marcus Semien pu-pu platter from the White Sox after the year and bailing on apparent Hall-of-Famer Josh Donaldson are their own fault.

Who will he replace on the roster? Only guy seemingly expendable is Herrera, who Maddon loves using. Can LaStella just stay in the minors or is he out of options?

In the same boat as you. I've been trying to sell as many as possible at face value to family/friends/co-workers to avoid the StubHub fees. The only games I've made a profit on this year are Opening Day (upgraded to better seats through the presale, so it was a wash) and the White Sox series (minimal profit). I think the days of using Season Tickets as an investment ended after 2008 unless you want to sell playoff games and/or the Cubs really start dominating. The team has gone to the full extreme on pricing tiers, which is probably the main culprit besides actual team performance. However, I remember that you could get any ticket you wanted for face or slightly above for basically all of 2003.

White and Goldman being out is an annoyance. This season is going to be worthless anyway so hopefully they can play most of it to get experience.

Will Baez or Soler put up more career WAR as a Cub than Castro? I'd say yes to both.

[expletive] the Cardinals

Wittenmeyer is the biggest POS in Chicago media, which is quite the accomplishment.

To add Hunter, Ben Rowan was DFA. What was your favorite memory of the Ben Rowan era?

nah we'll be too busy obsessing over the FAs i only obsess over trades during deadline time Yep, when we have Price, it won't be that big of a loss. The Price situation is basically the exact same thing as Lester going to the A's with the exception that the Blue Jays do have tons of money and *could* offer him a ton to stay.

Couldn't we still get a guy of that caliber over waivers?

WTF??! no. Denorfia is garbage. He BABIP-monstered himself a nice start to the season similar to Lake last year. I'd rather have Lake as the 4th OF at this point. Still probably fair value for Hunter.

I know Junior Lake isn't great and will probably never start for us, but he's better than Chris Denorfia and Tommy Hunter does nothing for me.

You know those nights where you start drinking, maybe get a buzz for like 15 minutes before dinner and then after you just keep drinking but don't really get buzzed or drunk and then the party around you is kind of lame so you just decide to go home and go to bed. That's the Cubs this trade deadline.

I'll take it. The Beeler/Richard/Wada pupu platter has been garbage this year, though not sure HOW much better Haren is than Wada.

Sheldon Richardson, my god. Why do these guys LOVE throwing away money so much? http://deadspin.com/cops-say-sheldon-richardson-raced-nentley-143-mph-refu-1721206785

Buckle the [expletive] up everyone. I have no idea what to even expect. Maybe we get Uehara, Venable, and Ross, BOS gets Kimbrel, SD gets prospects?

They won't trade him for a 5th starter. Only way Baez goes is in a deal for a mid/top of the rotation starter with at least 2-3 years of team control. Let's say they trade Baez straight up for Carlos Carrasco. If he doesn't get injured, Carrasco could put up 15-17 WAR between now and 2020. Not that Baez couldn't do that or that it would make me happy at all because I love Baez and want to see him dominate as a Cub, but Carrasco is a valuable player. Then again, why are the Indians shopping him when he's relatively cheap until 2018 and has a $9M team option for 2019 and $9.5 for 2020? That is terrifying to me because I think the Indians GM is actually decent. Same with Ross, they must know he's throwing ~47% sliders and trying to deal him before he tears his elbow up. But, then again, Preller is clearly a moron.

Olt on his own should suffice

This. Castro/Edwards for Kimbrel/Ross even if we have to take Gyorko's contract would be glorious.