Backtobanks

If Freese comes back to Earth it will be in Anaheim, not St. Louis. Possible, but not likely. The bottom line is that if you compare our roster with the other three, we're not even close. Of course baseball isn't played on paper and there's always things you can't predict (injuries, someone unexpected having a career year, a decent player having a horrendous year, etc.), but I don't see anything at this point to make up the 24 games that seperated us from the wild card last year.

This team isn't a playoff team no matter what kind of start we get off to. I get the fact that it's not likely, but it's not impossible. Starts with Mike Olt putting up what North mentioned, a .220ish BA, lots of walks, 20-25 HR. Good defense at 3B. Which moves Valbuena into a utility role, strengthening the bench, especially since he's giving Barney plenty of rest. Rizzo and Castro are both All Star candidates at midseason. Castillo puts up the same numbers, with the power expected as well. The OF isn't the WORST in the majors, but around 20th or so. Shark takes a step forward and is also an All Star candidate. Wood plays close to the same level as last season. Edwin pitches to his peripherals and puts up much better numbers than last year. Arrieta proves he's worthy of a rotation spot and whoever we've got at 5, isn't awful. The pen performs as we think it can, becomes a legit strength. That could put us in the .500 range, at the ASB. Javy and KB could come up to play 2B and RF to give a boost in the 2nd half and Alcantara/Vogelbach could bring in an OFer or a SP thru trade and we compete in the 2nd half. That's a whole lot of "what ifs". No [expletive]? Really, I had no idea. But you said no way, in your typical negative way, so I showed you a way, acknowledging it's not likely. The 2012 Orioles were brought up as a great example too. Staying in the hunt until the midway point isn't unheard of. Plenty of teams not expected to contend, get that far. And if we DID, we've certainly got guys that can help in the 2nd half and trade chips to bring in additional help. I'm not being "typically negative", but being realistic. Of course anything is possible as long as you add the disclaimer that it's not likely. In addition to the 2012 Orioles having a great season, they were aided by the total collapse of the Red Sox and a bad season by the Blue Jays. Let's put it this way, which 2 teams from the Cardinals, Reds, and Pirates are we going to pass this year to be a wild card?

This team isn't a playoff team no matter what kind of start we get off to. I get the fact that it's not likely, but it's not impossible. Starts with Mike Olt putting up what North mentioned, a .220ish BA, lots of walks, 20-25 HR. Good defense at 3B. Which moves Valbuena into a utility role, strengthening the bench, especially since he's giving Barney plenty of rest. Rizzo and Castro are both All Star candidates at midseason. Castillo puts up the same numbers, with the power expected as well. The OF isn't the WORST in the majors, but around 20th or so. Shark takes a step forward and is also an All Star candidate. Wood plays close to the same level as last season. Edwin pitches to his peripherals and puts up much better numbers than last year. Arrieta proves he's worthy of a rotation spot and whoever we've got at 5, isn't awful. The pen performs as we think it can, becomes a legit strength. That could put us in the .500 range, at the ASB. Javy and KB could come up to play 2B and RF to give a boost in the 2nd half and Alcantara/Vogelbach could bring in an OFer or a SP thru trade and we compete in the 2nd half. That's a whole lot of "what ifs".

This team isn't a playoff team no matter what kind of start we get off to.

When it comes to the 2020 multibillion new TV contract, the opt out was huge. The Cubs will need to field a very competitive team in 2018 and 2019 to maximize its value. Allowing him the option to leave after 2017 would make no sense in the grand scheme of things. Adding another year which would be 2020 when they have a few hundred million in additional revenues would not be as big of an issue. Signing Tanaka would have pushed the "very competitive team" level to 2015 (or 2016 at the very latest) and given the team a real chance at attracting FAs. Making a smart trade or two, adding a decent FA or two, and having our prospects at the ML level would have allowed Tanaka to leave after 2017 with the team still being very competitive.

Source? Agree -- right now it seems very unclear as to which team's offer was more, the Yankees or the Cubs. We have Passan saying the Cubs may have been slightly higher, and Rosenthal saying the Yankees were higher. Twitter seems in agreement that the Yankees' decision to up their offer to include a 7th year, an opt-out after year 4, and a no-trade clause were each instrumental, but none of this really speaks to which offer was "greater" in terms of total dollars (or whether the Cubs were already offering each of these sweeteners). The bottom line is that all of these "experts" don't have a clue as to which team offered what except for the winning bid. All of the speculation about which team was in the lead "according to sources" was ridiculous. Each team didn't know what the other team's bids were, but these reporters had the "facts" posted all over the internet. Um, you do realize the posting system changed, right? We have no idea how negotiations went. They may have known what other bids were, they may not have. Well if they knew, then all of the "reports" that the Cubs (or the Yankees or the Dodgers) wouldn't be outbid are ridiculous.

Theo took over a very good Red Sox team (89 win average) and made them better (93 win average) with home-grown talent, reclamation players, some shrewd moves, and a gigantic payroll. He never started from scratch (or tore a system down and rebuilt it) like he's trying to do with the Cubs.

Source? Agree -- right now it seems very unclear as to which team's offer was more, the Yankees or the Cubs. We have Passan saying the Cubs may have been slightly higher, and Rosenthal saying the Yankees were higher. Twitter seems in agreement that the Yankees' decision to up their offer to include a 7th year, an opt-out after year 4, and a no-trade clause were each instrumental, but none of this really speaks to which offer was "greater" in terms of total dollars (or whether the Cubs were already offering each of these sweeteners). The bottom line is that all of these "experts" don't have a clue as to which team offered what except for the winning bid. All of the speculation about which team was in the lead "according to sources" was ridiculous. Each team didn't know what the other team's bids were, but these reporters had the "facts" posted all over the internet.

We can always hope that Tanaka's physical shows he needs TJS and when the Yankees hesitate, Tanaka decides to take our offer because he would possibly be ready to pitch when we're ready to compete.

Disappointed, but not surprised.

Obviously you're biased (like most of us). They are an old and flawed team, while we are younger and more flawed (at this point). Everyone will agree on the minor league system, but with enough money they can bypass having prospects by signing FAs. They have money and they are in NY. To anyone outside of a die-hard Cub fan, those are pretty good reasons to pick NY.

This is what you call jumping the gun a little bit: http://www.konsume.com/k/story-400

Levine: Cubs May Be In Lead For Tanaka I get a kick out of him putting in the word "may" in the headline.

koufax and gibson rolled into one would be due 55 million a season. i suspect we'll get tanaka for south of that. Let's hope so or else poor Tom Ricketts will really be poor Tom Ricketts.

Your obsession about me is pretty repetitive too. Well, I don't find your obsession with me as being funny. Actually, I find it kind of sad, pathetic, and more than a little creepy.

Your obsession about me is pretty repetitive too.

If you think the offseason is slow, just wait till the season starts. Jesus shut the [expletive] up already I'm sorry that a post about reality interrupted your fantasies about Japanese women and baseball mascots. It's got nothing to do with that. It's pretty easy to look in a thread at this point and figure when it's time for the "witty" B2B one liner about we're going to suck. The only thing I don't have down yet is you're pretty random at including the laughing smilie at your own stuff about as much as a league average NBA 3 point shooter. You may not like where we're at(Other than Arguello, no one is) but it is what it is, finding ANYTHING to talk about is a good thing. Especially if it's original, even if it's offbase. It's also pretty darn predictable that whatever I post, "certain people" are going to make a personal comment about me. I do find it interesting that when others post about how bad the Cubs are going to be, those "certain people" don't respond in the same way.

If you think the offseason is slow, just wait till the season starts. Jesus shut the [expletive] up already I'm sorry that a post about reality interrupted your fantasies about Japanese women and baseball mascots.

If you think the offseason is slow, just wait till the season starts.

This news ought to get the fans excited just before the Cubs' Convention and the sale of season tickets.

You mean that time in the not too distance future when the Cubs make up 20-25 games on the 3 teams in the division that have prospects as good as ours.

I suppose that it's just a coincedence that these are the teams that will probably offer the most money.

Let the baseball writers narrow the eligible names down to a list of 15 and then let the public vote.

Thankfully he didn't plan on meeting in Chicago early this week. Nothing like a first impression that includes delayed flights, heavy snow, -59 degree wind chills, impassable roads, and 30 mph winds.

Gurnick figured out how to get his 15 minutes of fame.