apete6

Can we officially change this thread title to something like: The Cubs Suck, So Let's Trade Everyone? Thanks. Because it's definitely not "if", it's "when"

I don't think this is about increased revenues. If True North didn't buy the Thrashers, the team might have gone bankrupt and the NHL would have been forced to buy them out. If they were sold for $150 million and the Atlanta Spirit were losing $30 million a year, why keep pouring more money into the team. Bettman and the NHL just didn't want to have to buy out the team. That makes more sense. Still, though, not a good sign for the old NHL. Any more of this and they might want to just start contracting.

Ladies and Gentlemen, YOUR 2011 Chicago Cubs.

Age has nothing to do with it. No, but life stage does. I was in college during 03 and 04 and then unmarried through most of 07 and 08. So, I had nothing better to do than to watch sports, drink with buddies, and follow sports, while starting my first job. I'm almost 30 now and have a lot more going on (house, more important role at work, dogs, etc..) and a lot of my friends are the same way. It's not worth spending as much time on a crappy team when you have such a limited amount of free time. Doesn't mean I won't spend time on the board or going to games, but not as much as in the past. I"m sure it'll be even worse if I have kids someday.

I still don't understand how a 15,500 seat stadium is going to lead to increased revenues. ATL averaged 14,000 fans last season and was 28th in the NHL, so even if Winnipeg sells out every game, they'll still be in the bottom 1/3rd of the league. Hope their TV ratings/sponsorships/higher ticket prices help them out.

Koyie Hill is still the turd in the punchbowl of the Cubs offense. Please come back soon, Soto.

LOL getting picked off by a knuckleballer. Speed and defense in baseball is awesome! Especially when you have none of either.

this would be funny if it weren't so depressing Unfortunately, it's not even that much worse than having our regular lineup out there. What a shitty team.

Exactly. No one says anyone has to put themselves in harm's way in sports. It's human nature and competitiveness. Guys are going to get hurt if they continue risky behavior. You can't outlaw contact in all sports. If someone doesn't want to risk injury for 1 game in May, they don't have to.

I kind of feel like I did the year the Blackhawks lost to Detroit in the WCF a couple years ago. The fact that the Bulls blew them out in game 1 though makes it a bit tougher to swallow. I would have been OK with it if it wasn't a loss to the Heat. If, say, we lost to the Magic or Celtics in the ECF, I would have been a lot better off. My hatred of all that the 2 and a half men stand for is really clouding my judgement and enhancing my anger over this whole thing. The fact that the Heat are going to continue to be this good for a while plays a part in it as well.

Yeah . . . but who plays third next year? Someone along the lines of Blake DeWitt, Jeff Baker, Marquez Smith, Josh Vitters, or Ryan Flaherty. Or someone else. That sounds like a big bag of suck. It might be the best there is out there though. There are only 7 qualified 3B above a .750 OPS right now (out of 20 qualified total). Whether it's the end of the steroid era or something else, something has happened to the offense in MLB. The NL OPS by year: 2006: .761 2007: .756 2008: .744 2009: .739 2010: .723 2011: .702 Plugging in a poor offensive player or two into your lineup is not nearly as devastating as it used to be because nobody is hitting around the league. And third base is one of the weaker positions offensively in baseball. 2011 will go up with the nice weather coming, but will probably be in that same .720 range as last year. If we sign Pujols, maybe we move him to 3B? It's a lot easier to find a bargain guy to put up decent numbers at 1B. Hell, maybe Pena could stick around on a series of 1 year deals until Albert can't play 3B anymore. Please don't turn this into the Pujols ticket sales thread.

Yeah . . . but who plays third next year? Someone along the lines of Blake DeWitt, Jeff Baker, Marquez Smith, Josh Vitters, or Ryan Flaherty. Or someone else. That sounds like a big bag of suck.

Yeah, but looking back at that 1st round in 2000, aside from Baldelli(6), Utley(15) and Wainwright(29), its not like we missed out on much. Maybe if A Gon(1) had fallen a few spots, wed be looking at a different story. http://www.mymlbdraft.com/2000 I was trying to find the 2000 draft day scouting report on Montanez, but couldnt. Anyone know where I could? That draft was basically a big pile of poop. Just like many MLB first rounds. On the positive side, at least we can set the clock for 2019 and Josh Vitters coming back for a cup of coffee with the Cubs. I kid, I kid.

Personally I don't find it depressing at all. Even without the lack of projected star players right now the farm is still in better shape than it's been a long while and even just generating a few good everyday players would be a huge improvement. This is also a team with a lot of money at their disposal, so they can afford to sign the all-stars they need. Mix that with some smart, lower tier FA signings and some solid players developed internally and they can have a really good team that competes each year. What's going to be key is who ends up being the the next GM and when. Agreed for the most part, but, like you said, are we confident that we have a GM to benefit from those positive things? Also, as we've learned the hard way in the playoffs, without a few dominant starters and a few hitters people are afraid of, it's hard to win. It's nice to win 97 games, but when you don't have a no-doubt #1 pitcher or anyone who is almost guaranteed to hit in a series, it doesn't mean much. Then again, losing in the playoffs is much preferred to the purgatory we're in now. If we could figure out a way to sign Pujols AND build around him, we'd be talking!

Looks like the Sam Fuld haunting was a short lived experience. Now has a .625 OPS and 12 SB, but 5 CS. Of course, now Garza's hurt, but, whatever. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fuldsa01.shtml

It not just those guys. It's if the Cubs keep talking themselves out of guys like Dunn and Fielder and Pujols and whoever shows up. There's always going to be a good argument against sinking a ton of money into a FA superstar. If the Cubs keep listening to that side of things they're not going to be very good unless they pull of some miracle trades and/or some miracles happen in the farm system. Isn't that pretty much any team, though? You have to have a solid combination of all of those things. Look at the Red Sox: yeah, they've traded for and resigned Gonzalez, signed Crawford, traded for Beckett, signed Lackey and Drew, etc... but they also have a ton of homegrown talent, including Pedroia, Youkilis, Lowrie, Ellsbury, Papelbon, Bucholz, Bard, Lester, etc... in addition to some good buy low candidates such as Salty and Ortiz. Basically, they've done everything right and the Cubs haven't and that's why they've won. Well, that and Manny and Ortiz were on the juice. Oh, there definitely has to be a balance. The problem is that the Cubs really don't have anyone in their farm system that project beyond beyond solid everyday players as their ceiling now that Castro is up. Those kind of prospects can still be plenty valuable, but the Cubs also need superstar "tent-pole" players they can build around. Which is why it's such a depressing future for a Cubs fan.

It not just those guys. It's if the Cubs keep talking themselves out of guys like Dunn and Fielder and Pujols and whoever shows up. There's always going to be a good argument against sinking a ton of money into a FA superstar. If the Cubs keep listening to that side of things they're not going to be very good unless they pull of some miracle trades and/or some miracles happen in the farm system. Isn't that pretty much any team, though? You have to have a solid combination of all of those things. Look at the Red Sox: yeah, they've traded for and resigned Gonzalez, signed Crawford, traded for Beckett, signed Lackey and Drew, etc... but they also have a ton of homegrown talent, including Pedroia, Youkilis, Lowrie, Ellsbury, Papelbon, Bucholz, Bard, Lester, etc... in addition to some good buy low candidates such as Salty and Ortiz. Basically, they've done everything right and the Cubs haven't and that's why they've won. Well, that and Manny and Ortiz were on the juice.

That depends on how long Byrd will be on the shelf. If its the 15 day minumum, it wouldnt make sense to start Bretts clock for a 2 week stint. However, if Byrd will be out for an extensive period of time, it would be interesting to see them call him up. You'd like to think Jackson's option clock won't be an issue. Actually, you'd like to think that it would. If we're here in 3 years bemoaning the fact that we called up Brett Jackson a month too early and it's now going to cost us $10 million extra in arbitration, I'll be a pretty happy camper as that means BJax will be one heck of a player. On the other hand, if he's going to be that good, why waste him on this crappy bunch so early (like we did with Castro last year). I would have rather delayed Starlin by a month and saved the arbitration money he'll get with a super 2, but whatever. The Cubs can afford it. He won't become a super 2 from being on the major league roster for 15 days. The only way a short-term call up affects him is burning an option year. (Reference Corey Patterson - Debut in 2000, didn't hit arbitration til 2005.) True, but why call him up if its for 2 weeks? Let's say Byrd is out a month or two and then by the time he's ready to come back, we've traded Kosuke and/or Pena. Then you have an outfield of Soriano, Jackson, and Byrd with Jeff Baker and Colvin splitting 1st base. And an entire fanbase hating the team. It's possible.

So if the Cubs sign Pujols, keep their payroll the same and their profit goes up, they haven't made money? They have. Despite Pujols. They could have made even more. So you can prove that the increase in profit was not due to Pujols and that he had no impact on the profit increase? How so? I showed the analysis earlier. A reasonable estimate for Pujols' impact on the Cubs' revenue is $10-15M. Which becomes approximately $1 Billion dollars if they win the World Series.

That depends on how long Byrd will be on the shelf. If its the 15 day minumum, it wouldnt make sense to start Bretts clock for a 2 week stint. However, if Byrd will be out for an extensive period of time, it would be interesting to see them call him up. You'd like to think Jackson's option clock won't be an issue. Actually, you'd like to think that it would. If we're here in 3 years bemoaning the fact that we called up Brett Jackson a month too early and it's now going to cost us $10 million extra in arbitration, I'll be a pretty happy camper as that means BJax will be one heck of a player. On the other hand, if he's going to be that good, why waste him on this crappy bunch so early (like we did with Castro last year). I would have rather delayed Starlin by a month and saved the arbitration money he'll get with a super 2, but whatever. The Cubs can afford it.

Boo! Sex, drugs, and booze are much more fun to talk about than a strained ribcage or whatever.

Hell and yes. Death penalty!!!

hmm, not feeling right after a weekend long graduation party. I can put 2 and 2 togther. :lol: :lol: Who in his right mind would miss his last opportunity at a college hangover? :wink: That or STDs are the gift that keeps giving from a weekend like that.

I think going over 7 years and/or 210 million total for Pujols would just be a bad idea. I know its "only" 90 million more for 300 million, but there's just too much risk involved to go the extra 3 years and 90 million. It's not like 1 guy can put you over the top in baseball anyway. Look at the Cards, they've gotten arguably the 10 best "clean" years out of a hitter in baseball history and they have 1 fluke World Series in a season where they won 83 games in the regular season. And that's WITH a pretty competent front office most of that time. As much as I would love to have the best player in baseball on the Cubs and take him away from the damn Cardinals, it's going to be a dumb contract regardless of what the Cubs end up getting him for. That being said, if the Ricketts are ready to become the Yankees and just spend way more than anyone else in the NL, go right ahead and give him the 10/300.

Hopefully he strangles Quade. For all we know Dempster requested Hill instead of Castillo. Dempster isn't the manager. No, but he is the starting pitcher today and outside of his last two starts he's been struggling. He might just feel he has a better rapport or whatever with Hill and asked for him to catch for him. Soto started both of those games, so I'm not sure why he would be so adamant about Koyie Hill playing.