jersey cubs fan

Mack was good, Bridgewater to Vikings was pretty huge.

Pete Carroll, the preeminent mind in all of football, disagrees Pete Carroll does not have a mind.

Really? You think Tillman will teach him how to take his job?

It was a financial wash, I believe. We ate all of it except for how much Volstad was due to make, give or take a few hundred thousand. But they did get to write off the cost of that lunch.

They haven't really tried to get MLB ready players though. I vaguely remember a time when near-MLB ready prospects was a thing that was considered the focal point, but I don't think that lasted.

odor

I'd go so far as to say it's preferable. The only downside is that dumbass fans read into everything an athlete says, and player meatball statements can therefore further instill meatballism and all of its ills into the unwashed masses of fandom. But then again, there will always be dumbass fans. And if the player says non-meatball things those same fans and media members will ride him for being soft or something.

I'd go so far as to say it's preferable. Yeah, that's why it is on the manager to pull starting pitchers w/o asking how the guy feels. Asking how he feels is pointless. The idea that Mark Prior would have told Baker he needed to come out earlier JUST BURNS ME UP.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/2014-mock-draft-track-record-lands-rodon-atop-first-mock/ Really, BA? Drafting for current major league need in the first round? Say it ain't so. I don't think that is necessarily drafting for current major league need. MLB network talks about current MLB need when airing the draft, but the idea that the Cubs need to draft a pitcher is more based on the widely acknowledged description of the organization being bat heavy and pitching light. They shouldn't focus on need at all, but there's a bit of a difference when considering the overall organizational need, and not just major league roster.

we should have a gams thread

[expletive] that. They aren't going to be embarrassed into trying. I'd rather they just win a game.

Don't know when Shark went all gritty and old school, but managers and GM's tend to love that kind of talk. Where have you been? He's always spouted this kind of stuff. Yeah, that is par for the course.

I feel like the Indians are a good comparison here. During the late 90s and the time Jacobs Field was built, they were a winning team and sold out every single game. That is just not true anymore, and thats considering they were a playoff team last year. The fan base was irrecoverably hurt. I realize we're the Cubs and everything is a bit different with us but man, your typical meatball fan is PISSED, and those meatball fans money spends just like ours does. The Chicago metro area has 7 million plus more people than Cleveland, and the ballpark is a destination for tourists. EDIT: Not super relevant to that point, but their sell out streak was a sham. Right. Wrigley will always be a destination. Whether that's bad or good I'm not so sure about anymore. Wrigley will be a destination, but being a destination does not guarantee huge attendance. Wrigley was a destination that received a huge boost from 1984 and 1989. But by the mid-90's it was easy as hell to get tickets. It wasn't until 98 that it got a boost again and that tailed off before 2003, when it reached new heights. And ticket sales is not nearly as important as actual butts in seats, which haven't come close to matching the stats bandied about here. When nobody comes, nobody spends money at the park, and that hurts the bottom line. Whether season tickets stabilize at 20k or 21k is irrelevant.

I cannot believe how worked up people get about this stuff. Nobody is worked up. It would just be nice to hear them talk about something else once. the two guys saying [expletive] you espn and espn can [expletive] off seem to be. Not worked up. Just seems wrong to attack half of the audience. It's not attacking the audience.

wtf rizzo

I cannot believe how worked up people get about this stuff.

Does Kaliyah always do that ballet leap when catching pop ups?

Might as well start calling him Obi-Wan, cause he's our only hope.

You have to use some really circuitous apologist logic to pretend there wasn't a point there.

I don't think it's all that roundabout at all. The Cubs have chosen to rebuild by taking a multi-year dive to stock up on top draft picks. It's pretty crazy that their ownership has given the front office a singular mandate and have completely blown off the concept of even being competitive at the major league level. The White Sox are trying to win some games, and Abreu personifies that fact. The fact that Rizzo is good has absolutely nothing to do with the concept. How does Abreu personify that fact, because he's been good or because they spent money? The Sox playing .500 ball for a month doesn't really show a commitment to being competitive to me, unless you're implying that the Cubs wouldn't have wanted to add guys like Abreu or Eaton who keyed their fluky start. Look at their pitching staff, it's Sale(hurt), Quintana, and a trough of sorrow, and the bullpen is worse, partially because they traded their closer for a prospect. Even Eaton came at the price of a young MLB SP whose output has matched Eaton thus far. And this is the example of not "taking a dive"? If Abreu had OPSed .600 for a month getting acclimated to MLB pitching would they still be meeting the threshold for not intentionally tanking or whatever you want to call it? The whole comparison is silly. The Sox made good moves this offseason, but they certainly didn't take any extra care to avoid being bad in the short term, otherwise they wouldn't have traded Addison Reed for Mike Olt's proxy or made their rotation Sale & Jose and pray for rain. Playing .500 baseball for 35 games doesn't change that. Unlike the Cubs, they actually tried and actually did spend money despite not being good. You have to be a complete moron to not understand the very simple comparison being made.

[giant image of Len and JD] yeah, but a turd can only be sweetened so much before you just have to accept that it's a turd and flush it down the [expletive] toilet. Why would you sweeten a turd? dunno, why would you polish one? To put on display at the turd museum.

That's oddly impressive. It seems like most mediocre or bad teams at least stumble into a period of sustained success. The Cubs will still stumble onto that period at some point. They'll probably also manage more than the 5-game losing streak. Last year they had a 5-game win streak (bookended by 6 and 3 game losing streaks). 7-3 over a 10 game stretch was the best they did though.

I don't think it's all that roundabout at all. The Cubs have chosen to rebuild by taking a multi-year dive to stock up on top draft picks. It's pretty crazy that their ownership has given the front office a singular mandate and have completely blown off the concept of even being competitive at the major league level. The White Sox are trying to win some games, and Abreu personifies that fact. The fact that Rizzo is good has absolutely nothing to do with the concept.