jersey cubs fan

Its really amazing we've amassed THIS much power coming thru the system. Especially when power was the major organizational weakness like two years ago. It's amazing how fast things can change when competent people in charge want them to change. I am going to assume this was some sort of sarcasm considering it's in response to a reference to Vogelbach, a guy drafted by the prior regime.

Whatwhatwhat? Isn't Hardy's first name Oliver? Laurel and Hardy.

Maybe we've been a little hard on him, a guy that age in AA? Impressive.

Unless that bar somehow got plastic bottles for that booze there was a lot of glass up there just dying to be broken.

Well if you can't live with it you best get your affairs in order. QBs throw INTs that appear to be "forced". It happens. It is going to happen with Cutler. The Bears can still win Super Bowls with Cutler throwing forced INTs.

that's quite a remarkable insight, where did you find this out? I'm speculating. Although Epstein has said specifically he didn't expect spending to be as cramped as it has been. So I can only assume that something that Ricketts thought was true when he was schmoozing Epstein turned out not to be true. I don't see any possible way how any reasonably intelligent businessman could assume he was going to get $300 million from a government entity during the heart of the financial crisis.

three pages on the game thread, slow down everybody

hell of a nice line by Jake so far

wait, what you gotta go where the money is

Not watching, listening online with some spotty audio though.

I don't want some Canadian making those decisions.

Headline on cubs.com, "Cubs shower Arrieta with early support" 3 straight walks and a couple singles to drive them in. Yay

they'll regret it in 4 years

Jersey's? What wasn't right? 4 straight years of being abysmal, 5 straight years with an average payroll, etc. too lazy to break it all down. but it sucked. Can't read well can you? It was somebody else that made fun of people who would be unhappy with 5 years of having an average payroll. This team has had four straight years of losing records, that is an abysmal run. Lazy? Look at your own post. What the hell do you want me to break it all down. All this stuff has been said 1000 times by everybody. There is a group of fans that aren't happy with this team and a group of fans who scoff at the fans who aren't happy with this team for somehow being unrealistic and greedy. I think that second group is trying way to hard to pat themselves on the back for being smart fans who understand how this is all going to play out.

This is the part I don't get. Yes, the big league team is bad, and that sucks. No one is enjoying this. But this isn't a situation where you can cast blanket condemnation over the entire organization for "not trying". It's a little more nuanced than that. They didn't try last year. That had a carry over effect this season. They tried to improve incrementally this year but they put themselves in a hole by being so bad last year. My biggest problem is with Ricketts, who took way too long to make a change in leadership. You didn't have to wait to amass a supergroup of front office types if all you were going to do was have them build from within. Any competent management group could amass the talent the Cubs have in the system now if there was no mandate to make the major league team competitive. Hell, Hendry's bumbling morons acquired the guy people are drooling over the most. And he had to know they had to replace Hendry when he showed up. I am also not buying the Theo and Jed are only operating under the restrictions placed on them by ownership theory. There is no way this is just on ownership. The CBA as a surprise story does not hold up, since it was all stuff that had been on the table and likely to happen. These guys have talked openly about their collective desires to build a team all from within, and while they did say they didn't think they would ever have a chance to do it, the fact is they do now, and they are taking advantage. It is pretty clear that all the parallel front talk was just talk, and they went into this ready willing and able to focus exclusively on prospects, while treating the major league team as a secondary concern. It is absolutely ridiculous to criticize fans for not being happy with this set-up.

Can't be an actual on field ump though, since these guys would never overrule one another and risk showing up a colleague.

I assume this is only for training camp purposes.

That's not hate for him personally. That's hate for the double-standard. He's a douchey ex-athlete, but if I hated every douchey ex- or current athlete, I wouldn't have time for anything but hate. Certainly not making enough message board posts to meet my daily quota. Seriously though, can you imagine that story happening today? Was it one year after he signed what was then the biggest contract in MLB history? A perennial all star on the HOF fast track with what was a pristine reputation just quitting out of nowhere to spend time with his family, only to divorce his harpy wife and come back a much worse player. That ranks right up there with any interesting baseball story, although baseball players, by rule, are not interesting.

I hate Sandberg fellaters more than Sandberg himself. At least Ryno was a good player for a while.

I love the idea that this is somehow a thing that should have happened years ago. He's got like 6 years of coaching under his belt, there has to be dozens of guys with more "a long time in the making" on their resume than him.

I would think that people that care about a baseball team enough to actually bother posting about it on message boards, and moderate those message boards, would not pretend that front office maneuvering is more meaningful to fans than the major league team winning baseball games.

Which is insanely good for one of the worst teams in the league over the past 4 years.

This is so stupid. This is a major market baseball team with outstanding attendance and excitement levels that skyrocket just when it looks like they might be decent. We're 4 years into this team being abysmal, and the current owners have been here that entire time. 5 years with an average payroll, comping up against teams that can't get fans to show up even when they are good, is ridiculous. Fans aren't fans because they want to see front offices do behind the scenes work. Fans are fans of the major league baseball team, and that major league baseball team can't go four years being awful and expect fans to not get pissed off.

Hah, I meant the handedness of linemen. It's beyond nitpicky. There is so much more to worry about with Long, and everybody on the line.

I agree with you. It is not an issue worth discussing.