Backtobanks
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Everything posted by Backtobanks
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It looks like the FO is going to interview anyone who speaks Spanish and will work cheap.
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Who should they throw a bunch of money at? How about some ML players instead of a manager. You put enough good players out on the field that it doesn't matter who manages the team. Ok? You said that they "might as well go cheap" since they couldn't get Girardi. Who would they get that wouldn't be cheap? Any "name" manager with ML experience, but my point is the manager isn't going to make much of a difference with the mediocre team they're going to have in 2014. If we finally get to the 95+ win juggernaut stage, it still won't make much of a difference. Look at Casey Stengel - a great manager with the Yankees and a horrible one with the Mets.
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Offseason Rumors
Backtobanks replied to Clem Fandango's topic in MLB Draft, International Signings, Amateur Baseball
That sounds like another awful team. That's the most likely result in just about any scenario. But the bright side is that we get another high draft choice. -
Who should they throw a bunch of money at? How about some ML players instead of a manager. You put enough good players out on the field that it doesn't matter who manages the team.
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So much for ML managerial experience, but at least he'll be cheap. Of course no matter who gets hired, we'll hear that he was the first choice all along. yea they're clearly trying to save money with the hire. that's why they wanted to give girardi whatever he wanted. They tried to get Girardi and they knew they would have to overbid to get him. Now that they didn't get their first choice, they might as well go cheap.
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So much for ML managerial experience, but at least he'll be cheap. Of course no matter who gets hired, we'll hear that he was the first choice all along.
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Offseason Rumors
Backtobanks replied to Clem Fandango's topic in MLB Draft, International Signings, Amateur Baseball
It sure as hell worked really nicely for a while there. 9 straight winning seasons. They went from an organization with a fan base that did not give a crap about them, to an attendance juggernaut. They made it to the LCS three straight years and the WS two years in a row. It absolutely worked. Even in a bad season they had 3 million attendance and you can't walk 5 feet in that market without somebody wearing Phillies gear. Granted, it's a little heavy on the middle aged chubby women in love with Chase Utley side, but that was never the case before. It failed because they didn't get any 1st draft picks during those 9 years. The only way I see the Phils contending for WS in the next 2 years is clearly orchestrating many 3 team trades. Why don't you start working on that for them. I never said that the Phils will be contending for the WS in the next 2 years, but the Cubs won't be either. -
Offseason Rumors
Backtobanks replied to Clem Fandango's topic in MLB Draft, International Signings, Amateur Baseball
It sure as hell worked really nicely for a while there. 9 straight winning seasons. They went from an organization with a fan base that did not give a crap about them, to an attendance juggernaut. They made it to the LCS three straight years and the WS two years in a row. It absolutely worked. Even in a bad season they had 3 million attendance and you can't walk 5 feet in that market without somebody wearing Phillies gear. Granted, it's a little heavy on the middle aged chubby women in love with Chase Utley side, but that was never the case before. It failed because they didn't get any 1st draft picks during those 9 years. -
What's worse than Ozzie Guillen as manager? Guillen as manager and Harrelson as play-by-play announcer. :lol:
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Maybe he didn't "nap" for most of the season like Castro, but his August line (.190/.286/.381/.607) and his Sept./Oct. line (.240/.313/.370/.683) certainly looked like he dozed off for the last 1/3 of the season. I'm sure that most of us hoped for better numbers than what he showed in 2013.
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How do you explain situations like the Cleveland Indians where they went from a 90+ loss team one season to a 90+ win without making any major changes other than the manager? They have to be at least part of the reason for that, right? For the record I'm not saying I believe any specific manager will make us 30 wins better but there do seem to be examples where a managerial change makes a big difference. Is it a matter of a bad manager making the team worse as opposed to a good manager making the team better? There will come a time (hopefully) in the next few years where the Cubs will make a huge jump in wins. And the media will probably give a lot of credit to the manager. In actuality, he will probably have little to do with it. There's certainly such a thing as a bad manager (we've all witnessed it firsthand), but I'm not convinced there's such a thing as a universally "good" manager. I think an individual manager's success will depend more on fitting into the right situation. I would think if Baez & Bryant are everything that we hope they are and they come up while Rizzo and Castro awaken from their respective naps, it won't matter too much as to who the manager is.
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Ok. What do you choose to believe? To start with, I think Ricketts realizes that he makes a ton of profit with a payroll of $75 million. I think the thought that he could tear down and rebuild the Cubs with a reduced payroll for a few years intrigued Theo into coming on board. It wasn't exactly a secret that Wrigley needed renovations, the farm system was lacking, the FO and scouting were behind most other teams, the roster was bloated with overpaid players, Chicago and Illinois were broke, etc.
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I'm still having trouble believing that all of these brilliant, successful businessmen (Ricketts, Epstein, etc.) with their army of lawyers and financial advisors didn't have a clue about where they might be financially at this point.
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Mat Gamel
Backtobanks replied to Guancous's topic in MLB Draft, International Signings, Amateur Baseball
Seems kind of redundant after getting Olt, but I guess it's worth a flier because he's cheap. -
I never said it would be a bad thing, but so far having the smartest FO hasn't done much to help at the ML level. It would be a group that'd eventually win, so long as they don't succumb to groupthink ala Pearl Harbor. Does your post come with a guarantee?
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Dartmouth, Northwestern, Stanford, plus all of the wonks in the FO. We may not win many games, but we'll lead the league in IQ.
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Maddux, Pena, etc. don't have the ML managing experience. Hinch has some experience, but most importantly will probably come cheap.
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That was the first thing that I thought of too. Girardi will cost >$3 million per year for a minimum of 3 years.
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You mean there are stats out there (besides "bubblegum stats") that prove he had a good year?
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I don't see a problem with their OF assuming they let Crisp go to FA.
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21 players total have an OPS over .850. The last place Blue Jays have 3 of them, and the last place Rockies have another two. The Rays and Indians have zero, and the only playoff teams that have more than one are the Cardinals (Carpenter, Holliday) and Reds (Votto, Choo). Four playoff teams have a player with a .900 OPS or better (Cabrera, Ortiz, Votto, McCutchen). The offensive environment is severely changed from what it was 3-5 years ago, and will remain that way for the foreseeable future. Your opinions are so far from the realm of reality, it's pointless to even address them, but hopefully this minor look gives you a vague idea how absurd you are. Discussing how Rizzo's OPS of .820 would fit into a winning record is difficult because you would have to factor in things like the strength of the piching staff and which division you're playing in. Right now the Cubs don't have the pitching staff to win with great pitching/weak offense and the NL Central is one of the strongest divisions in baseball.
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allow me to introduce to you the .830 OPS all-star 1B http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30399.png&w=350&h=254 Man, you guys are something. The point was brandon belt is putting up those numbers and no he is not considered an all star type first baseman. Craig also had an OPS of .872 at that time, not .830 that he has now. Of course even at that, there were Votto, Goldschmidt,and Freeman to go along with Craig. All of which were pushing .900 ops or above. So unless you count a getting voted in by the fans..when stats don't really matter or being the lone rep for your team, .820 ain't getting it done at first base saddest part is you guys are defending this by hoping he becomes Belt, is that really what you had pictured? I like him, he's probably my favorite player but it doesn't make me blind to fact that so far he is no where near what we were sold. Also, he was being marketed as the face of the franchise and being in the middle of the league's 1B doesn't say much for the franchise.
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The FO ought to always listen to offers on anyone. If someone is going to overpay in a big way, trade him. As other discussions have pointed out, some of our top prospects are going to be traded at some point to build the team, so why not Castro. Next year is another down year and hopefully Baez will be ready full-time in 2015.
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Epstein did it (in Boston, not quite NY) and he's getting accolades while we're still losing 95 games. If Girardi could get us to 80 losses next year, he could run for Mayor.
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Why wouldn't someone like Girardi want to come to the Cubs. The bar has been set extremely low for the past 2 seasons, so any kind of improvement will make you a hero. Then you have the uber-prospects coming up in 2015 and the possibility of increased payroll. As long as you get a multi-year contract, I can't see any downside.