Cubswin11

I really hope that's not a Cubs scout and hopefully he's employed by someone in our division

I'm sure they'll flex some of the Bears games in the last few weeks. Yup, the last 4 are against MIN, GB, ARZ, DET. Chances are highly likely more than one of those games have significant WC/Division implications one of those could easily get flexed.

LOL, Gabbert

What ever happened with that?? He had one of the quietest retirements/falls to irrelevancy of any athlete who had such great career accomplishments.

He has 12,000 career yards and 75 TD's. He should get to 15,000ish and 100+ TD's. Is that good enough for the HOF?? I honestly don't know, what are most of the WR at that are in?

Fister has some nasty stuff. His 2-seamer/sinker has had some crazy movement today

I see Villanueva as a DeRosa "super sub" type guy. Solid bat that will hit for average with having okay power and he can move around and play multiple spots and start 120ish games a year and at some point could turn in some solid years as a full time guy.

Speaking of, where is Harden these days?? Is he officially out of baseball? Or is he hurt again trying to come back?

Fortunately (or unfortunately...?) the user Slide Castro Slide is incorrect. Yes, the OP was thrilled when Hendry was fired, and was mildly thrilled when Theo was hired but the OP doesn't really have a problem with a rebuilding year or three. The point is that people give Theo a free pass instead of berating some of his poor decisions. He did wreck the Red Sox recently. We can't ignore that. What would you categorize as poor decisions Theo made this year and what do you think he should have done? Agreed that Theo is to blame to an extent where the Red Sox are, but the fact that it appears the ownership group was influencing major decisions towards how the baseball operations were to be run/what players to add can't be overlooked.

I think when they feel they have developed enough guys from within and they are ready to contribute to the major league roster you will see the flood gates open and there really won't be any sort of monetary limitations to acuqire a guy through FA/trade if the FO deems it necessary to add a player(s). If there won't be any monetary restrictions on the 2016 budget, why are we so worried that we may hamstring it with a 15M player who would just be a little above average instead of a star? What if there is a star available that year during FA but we have one of those $15m above average players at his position because this year or next (or whenever) we spent just to spend because we had the money even though we knew we weren't going to compete and we couldn't add that star player because of it?

Hold up a second here. Didn't this mental midget pass on at least one opportunity to be traded to a contender in the past 6 weeks or so? There's little chance the Cubs are WS contenders before his last two years are up. Surely he has to see that, right? Pretty sure there were no trades on the table for Soriano. I think he came out and said he wouldn't want to play in San Fran but I don't think they ever offered anything. Pretty sure everybody knew he turned down trades to San Fran and Pittsburgh. I just did a quick search, guess he did use his 10-5 rights and declined a trade to the Giants. I didn't see anything on him declining a trade to the Pirates, however.

Hold up a second here. Didn't this mental midget pass on at least one opportunity to be traded to a contender in the past 6 weeks or so? There's little chance the Cubs are WS contenders before his last two years are up. Surely he has to see that, right? Pretty sure there were no trades on the table for Soriano. I think he came out and said he wouldn't want to play in San Fran but I don't think they ever offered anything.

I think when they feel they have developed enough guys from within and they are ready to contribute to the major league roster you will see the flood gates open and there really won't be any sort of monetary limitations to acuqire a guy through FA/trade if the FO deems it necessary to add a player(s).

That's a lot of hostility for someone who is taking a perfectly reasonable position. Boras is in the business of getting owners to spend all the money they have on players. The Cubs are sitting on a lot of money to potentially spend on FA, however it's not in their best interest to spend just to spend on guys and add pricey FA when the plan is pretty clear they want to build from within and then add the expensive guys to supplement what they can't fill from within in a few years. There is no bill of goods sold here, they aren't trying to hide anything or scam anyone. The "excuse" for the Cubs to be in 5th place is because they are trying to rebuild the team from within right now, Scott. Sorry that means they aren't going to be giving out long-term dumb [expletive] contracts right now to guys who will be well out of their prime by the time they feel this team is ready to compete. Go call up Colletti or some other GM who will buy your snake oil. It's pretty hard to justify them not spending money this offseason and completely tanking another season. I could swallow it, but I would definitely prefer they start adding talent to the major league roster (and I expect that they will) and using the resources they have because they have no good reason not to. It's justified if it's in their long term plan/best interests. But I agree there should be some additions given their money situation. I think they should also look to potentially extend Samardzija/Garza (if he is healthy) with their extra cash and maybe even work out a Castro/Longoria type deal with Rizzo. I personally feel it's more likely that we add 4-6 guys for $2-5m a year that are in the buy low/reclamation/undervalued categories than it is we add 1 or 2 guys for like $12-15m a year. We have enough money to do both if they desire, but personally I don't see them giving out a big contract to anyone (Upton, Hamilton, Greinke, Jackson, etc.) and I think the money will be used to extend a few guys on the roster now and bring in quantity over quality.

That's a lot of hostility for someone who is taking a perfectly reasonable position. Boras is in the business of getting owners to spend all the money they have on players. The Cubs are sitting on a lot of money to potentially spend on FA, however it's not in their best interest to spend just to spend on guys and add pricey FA when the plan is pretty clear they want to build from within and then add the expensive guys to supplement what they can't fill from within in a few years. There is no bill of goods sold here, they aren't trying to hide anything or scam anyone. The "excuse" for the Cubs to be in 5th place is because they are trying to rebuild the team from within right now, Scott. Sorry that means they aren't going to be giving out long-term dumb [expletive] contracts right now to guys who will be well out of their prime by the time they feel this team is ready to compete. Go call up Colletti or some other GM who will buy your snake oil.

I expect him to be in the mix, along with about 10 other guys, for one of the bullpen spots in ST.

[expletive] off Boras, you [expletive] prick

Should be interesting to see if he has any surgeries done this offseason or takes a "trip" to Germany to see Kobe's guy

Does he look small and scared? NOT A BIG GAME PITCHER, DERP

A's up 1 in the bottom of the first already with runners on 2nd and 3rd 1 out. Dempster is pitching for the Rangers, go A's

Woah, woah, woah! Campana has 30 SB's?!? What the [expletive], I know I haven't been playing that close of attention to the Cubs for quite a while but I didn't even know he had more than 15-20.

I generally don't like the idea of a relief pitcher winning the CY Young award, but I think Kimbrel definitely deserves it this year when you consider how awesome he's been and there aren't any starters who have had too great of years (yes Dickey, Gio, Cain, Cueto and Kershaw all had good years and I think all have arguments for winning the awards but I think I'd vote for Kimbrel).

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/breaking/chi-cubs-plan-on-moving-up-brick-wall-for-premium-box-seats-20121002,0,4845182.story Clown Kenney up to his dastardly plans yet again!!!

I picked 62-65

I don't know if the numbers are true, but a local radio guy in Milwuakee was saying today that the White Sox are going to draw under 2 million fans this year (either said 1.6 or 1.8 was what they drew)