Cubswin11

If they don’t blow it up and try and win this year.... NT’ing Schwarbs and going with a Renfroe/Eaton LF platoon would be intriguing. Probably costs about the same as Schwarbs.

With the revenue sharing and the escrow account hold back thing they do (think they upped the % for this year) the contract exposure for NBA teams is far less than those surface level numbers if revenues tank this year for them. Players will have their salaries severely cut and what’s held back will cover the owners shortfalls.

This hit hard. It’s unreal how he nailed the rebuild with the stated goal of winning a World Series.... Honestly feels like a part of my life is now done. He had some weird and rare ability to draw me and us as fans in with the plan and basically say “this is what’s happening, this is what we are going to do and enjoy it because it’s going to work.” Wish I enjoyed it more than I did looking back, because while I did as much as I could, I definitely took parts of it for granted and the WS was more a relief than the joy it should’ve been. Yeah it’s just sports but I think all of us hold the Cubs as “more than sports” in out hearts and lives. Theo was just a really horsefeathering good leader and person to have in our lives in charge of something we held close to our heart and enjoyment.

What a time to be alive as a tall, shitty, white center

Wild the NBA is stepping in on this for a star player to get like the 60th best player in the league to join him. Lebron and others have been doing similar horsefeathers to get far bigger and impactful players for years. Almost like the league wants Giannis out of Milwaukee. https://twitter.com/termineradio/status/1329579087191543812?s=21

Let’s presume that this “major financial stress” is real (and it’s not), how the horsefeathers did we get there? Everyone is dealing with COVID, the network was launched, you own the whole neighborhood, the teams value has literally quadrupled since you bought the team. I don’t understand how you could possible be under major financial stress unless they are incredibly mismanaged and/or they are throwing their money at Trump. Maybe all the renovations and developments put them in debt. But clearly they are poised to recoup all that pretty quickly and it’s not like the Cubs are the family’s only revenue source. I get it, it’s all a bunch of BS, but why are the Cubs crying poor twice as loud as any other team in baseball? There’s no doubt it’s likely only a short term cash crunch and they’ll be fine in the long run, however real and serious this may or may not be. But I could see how they could be in a pretty bad short term spot and low on cash (talking Cubs specific in a vacuum, not the overall Ricketts empire). Even though they didn’t spend more the last few years they still ran high payrolls (as they should) and they were over the LT the last 2(?) which requires the additional penalty payments. Revenue has mostly dried up and they’ve presumably leveraged up and taken on a ton of debt. The TV deal wasn’t a cash infusion, they took the long term/equity play starting the network and it required funding up front. They didn’t get some big payment from fox sports or Comcast or whatever, the payoff on that is down the road. They’ve stuck a ton in to Wrigley and surrounding areas (rooftops, bars, restaurants, hotel, parking, Wrigley stadium renovations/improvements, etc.) and that was shut down for a whole year when it should’ve been [expletive] out cash and there’s uncertainty to project when that will be getting back to normal. They probably used a large chunk of the appreciation of the Cubs asset(s) and future cash projections to leverage in to debt to fund all these other ventures and the debt service right now likely is a pretty big number with uncertainty about when revenue will return to support it (again Cubs business in a vacuum, not overall Ricketts). That would be my best guess at it. But part of being a billionaire sports owner is sucking it up during the bad times (which are rare) because they get so many benefits and so much upside when times are good.

Yes, most are livid now too from what I can tell. Which is fair. I hope AK proves everyone wrong but the pick looks like a role player. This draft largely sucks. All it really has are role players for upside outcomes for most guys.

My two favorite moments from tonight, personally https://twitter.com/tonyclementstc/status/1329265445279588352?s=21 [attachment=0]13A25D58-9017-4A3C-8BAF-C2FBC5BE8E4B.jpeg[/attachment]

This would certainly be a choice

The Mets were already going to be one of the big spenders/buyers and now with Cano busted for PEDs that opens up another $24 mil. If we blow it up for whatever reasons seems like they’re a fit for a lot of our guys. KB, Willy, Yu, Javy and maybe even Kimbrel.

Big fan of adding Goodrum and Estevez from that list. But Jon Gray is easily my favorite potential NT target of anyone. I’d hope they’d make an exception to give him a multi year deal if he is NT’d.

I mean, we all knew the last few years was likely going to be the best stretch we ever will see. No? The end was going to be coming soon and likely be a hard landing. I tried to enjoy it as much as possible.

Counter, counter point

You were 3 minutes too early. Theo turning in to a horsefeathers poster criticizing every Jed move during his tenure.

Yeah I don’t think Jed is bad and am fine with him moving up. Just hope the GM comes from outside the org to bring fresh blood and new ideas.

Yeah the Pelicans and Thunder are set up great the next few years with their pick war chests. Should absolutely be able to add another star or two either with the actual picks (or at least solid role players) or use them to trade for the next disgruntled star.

horsefeathers the Ricketts and Crane for being such incompetent fucks

PTR is just gonna promote the leftovers up a spot so he only has to hire a low level scout. With the Mets and Phillies jobs still open guessing there is plenty of competition to fill the role. The Mets are almost certainly more attractive with Cohen than us currently. Might need to wait until they make hires before we fill the GM spot. I’m sure there’s some other openings too that viable candidates are being interviewed for around the league.

Like this move a ton for the Bucks. They had too much useless depth last year and needed to consolidate it in to more known things.

I certainly get doing it if it means Giannis is staying. But we’ve seen in this league that’s a roll of the dice to assume stars intentions. Just seems like a lot for a 30+ year old (on an expiring contract) who plays the deepest position in the league when that’s a package that typically can return you a top 12-15 player in the league and not a top 30-50 player. Plus idk of Holiday is all that much better than Bledsoe, or at least spending all those picks on a marginal upgrade is worth it. Just seems like that package (or swapping Bledsoe out for Middleton) could’ve returned a better/younger player/star.

Holiday to the Bucks for an absolute horsefeathers load and Covington to the Blazers for a pretty big haul too.