Backtobanks

Yeah, you would hate to lose a game using your 7th best pitch while trying to fool a batter.

Translation: If they offer me a king's ransom, I'll sign an extension.

Not a single player from the greatest stretch of Cubs baseball ever who was either developed or acquired under Theo.list> Yep, checks out. Most of these guys were the ones who made me a fan. Obviously, I have different favorites through the many decades that I have rooted for the Cubs. Right now, I really like Baez, Rizzo, and Bryant.

Since I'm an old-timer: Banks Santo Williams Dawson Sandberg Maddux Jenkins Buckner Ramirez Wood Sosa Grace

There are many ways to answer your question, but the $3.2B figure isn't the best. It's not a "return," it's a valuation. A simplified example is you buy a house for $100k. You do some renovations for $20k over a 10 year period. Over that timeframe, the real estate market heats up and the neighborhood becomes more valuable. Today, a real estate agent tells you that the house is worth $150k. This fact alone doesn't change your income or cash position. If PTR would do us a favor and sell high, he wouldn't be poor any longer and then we could feel more comfortable rooting for the Cubs again.

Latest Forbes report says Cubs are worth $3.2 Billion, not a bad return on spending $845 million in 2009. So why did we have to sit out this offseason free agency?

Why not? Because a pre-injured pitcher who hasn't even been good yet is a terrible start to a Kris Bryant trade The Cubs love to shop in the pre-injured pitcher aisle at the store.

Sorry for the suggestion, I forgot that our FO hasn't returned from their 6 month hiatus.

From MLBTR: "Following injuries to Luis Severino and James Paxton, the Yankees have reached out to the Mets to inquire on the availability of left-hander Steven Matz, per Ken Davidoff and Mike Puma of the New York Post. SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that while there’s been contact between the two teams, however, a deal is quite unlikely." If the Mets won't trade with the Yankees, there ought to be a way we could get Matz either in a trade with the Mets or a 3-way deal involving Quintana/Chatwood

With all of the injuries, I keep wondering why Theo can't trade Chatwood to clear salary. We wouldn't get much, but all we need to do is dump his salary essentially.

4.1 WAR as a leadoff man with un less juiced ball is about all we might expect.

I'd rather introduce him to Chatwood.

So again, why should the Cubs make this deal? They're pretty certain Bryant is leaving in FA in two years and either don't want to trade him for prospects or they think this is the best deal they'll get for him? Obviously we don't know the answers to any of these questions. I get not being sure about prospects, but Arenado is already making ridiculous FA money for the next 7 years. If Bryant leaves, the Cubs probably can attract a really good FA for the $35 million per year that Arenado is making.

We can all read the rumors and speculate, but I haven't read anything about Colorado taking on any other contracts. To tell the truth, some "rumors" have the Cubs sending along a prospect to get Arenado and cash. I haven't seen anything about them sending anywhere near the difference in salaries to keep the Cubs where they are financially or to reduce their salary obligations. I might believe it when I read something that hints of them taking on another contract to start to get us closer to (or under) the LT, but I can't see PTR going further over the LT. If Theo can move someone like Chatwood first AND Colorado throws in a ton of money, then I could see it happening. Throwing in cash or taking on Chatwood are the same thing to me, essentially. Seeing as it’s just 1 year for Chatwood and any money thrown in, even if it’s like $3-5 million a year for the 5+ years of Arenado, the entire total is owed in cash to the acquiring team within the year. So $25-40 mil thrown in is actually more on a cash basis than just taking Chatwood seeing as all that money is owed this year. Of course we may need to send a little extra with a prospect to have them throw in money and/or take some money in a player. I don't see how $3-$5 million per year even begins to making a dent in his $35 million per year contract when you have basically the same player for $16 million less this year and probably $10 million less next year. Assuming Bryant opts for FA in 2 years, he probably would have trouble matching the $160 million over 5 years that would still be owed to Arenado and that's not counting the $26 million we would save for the two years we kept Bryant. All of that also doesn't figure in the fact that Arenado is almost two years older than Bryant.

So again, why should the Cubs make this deal? Because they may project Arenado more favorably moving forward, he’s controlled longer (I’m operating off the assumption if he’s traded he’s waiving his opt out rights as articles have mentioned), Arenado has been healthier and better more recently, projects to be able to stay at 3B longer, the Rockies are willing to pay down the deal and you’re getting Arenado at a discount, if we can throw Chatwood in him and Bryant are close to equaling out Arenado’s salary this year, maybe they like Arenado’s personality a bit to shake horsefeathers up like they’ve mentioned wanting, etc. You can still get under the LT this year acquiring Arenado and there’s still plenty of money to spend next offseason with him added. I’d rather move Bryant for around an equally as good player, who’s controlled longer than for a prospect poo poo platter/pitchers who probably die. We can all read the rumors and speculate, but I haven't read anything about Colorado taking on any other contracts. To tell the truth, some "rumors" have the Cubs sending along a prospect to get Arenado and cash. I haven't seen anything about them sending anywhere near the difference in salaries to keep the Cubs where they are financially or to reduce their salary obligations. I might believe it when I read something that hints of them taking on another contract to start to get us closer to (or under) the LT, but I can't see PTR going further over the LT. If Theo can move someone like Chatwood first AND Colorado throws in a ton of money, then I could see it happening.

So again, why should the Cubs make this deal?

Yeah, this deal makes no sense for the Cubs unless there's more players involved. Meanwhile Colorado gets rid of an unhappy player and a horrible contract and gets an equally talented player in return. I thought the whole point of trading Bryant was to save money.

I'm not sure I agree with you on not having an actual directive to be under the LT. If there wasn't a directive, Theo wasted this whole offseason by not signing players or trading for players that would have made this team much better. Why would he spend all of this time hinting at trading KB and infuriating fans if he didn't need to?

Descalso is owed $2.5 million this year and $1 million buyout in 2021. I can't see PTR eating $3.5 million while we're still over the LT. A sunk cost is a sunk cost. This isn't like Jason Heyward or something where you try to hold out and try to extract some value as long as possible because you have so much invested going forward. This is just some bum on the bench. If Kipnis is better and there are other more capable bench dudes ahead of him too, it would be horsefeathering stupid to keep him around because of his salary. I didn't mean a Descalso trade, I meant any trade to get us under the LT. According to PTR and the front office we can't afford ML contracts until we get below the LT. I don't have a problem with Descalso being a sunk cost, but then again I'm not PTR.

Huh Descalso is owed $2.5 million this year and $1 million buyout in 2021. I can't see PTR eating $3.5 million while we're still over the LT.

If he's replacing Descalso it's a great move, but there has to be a trade coming because Descalso is owed money.

The theory is they may have the availability to trade Chatwood's full contract if the right combination of circumstances strike during ST. The Bryant stuff has never made any coherent sense to begin with, everyone in the org should be ashamed at how this winter has transpired, regardless of what restrictions they have. I just don’t see a lot of teams with 13M lying around for a 5th starter. I know ST hasn’t started yet, but you still have Cashner, Vargas, Millone, and McHugh out there for a hell of a lot less money Even if you pick up a few million to make him more attractive, you might save 8-9 million.

You think Pete Rose should be banned from the HOF? Either you continue to ban him or you open it up to everybody including the steroid users and the sign stealers.

Verdugo and Maeda for Bryant and Heyward? Find a way to add Chris Taylor and it would really be a great deal.

I know the only trade the Cubs seem to be interested in is Bryant and we're broke, but any (or all) of those guys from the Dodgers (Pederson, Stripling, Maeda, and Verdugo) certainly would make nice additions to our roster.