Bryants Disco Ball

I don't know what to do with this. If you mean "owning a sports team shouldn't be a business," I can go along - but only so far. But that's just not realistic. Maybe I have some sort of strange Stockholm Syndrome from following the Cubs during Tribune ownership, but I don't see how its anything but a business. **I'm not a businessman, so forgive me if I misuse some terms** Have we forgotten the whole saga of tribune ownership, and underspending? Tribune in bankruptcy and selling the team? Sam Zell and the resrictions put on the Rickett's as far as requiring a certain debt load (if I'm remembering correctly)? The revitalization of the neighborhood? As much of a fan as Ricketts might be, you can't be naive enough to think that someone with a background in BANKING AND INVESMENTS would go through countless hours of meetings, fights with the neighborhood, the rooftops, and the city if they didn't think it would gain them a profit. These people live life by ROI. And all the other owners are business owners as well. I don't have to like them. I don't have to like big business, but to fail to recognize that an asset acquired for nearly a billion dollars is anything but big business is somewhere between gullible and dense. Churchill said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others. I feel the same way about capitalism. It is the worst economic system, except all the others. It really is the worst. but its what we have, and to expect people who have played that system for generations, and have invested the time and energy they have in it to not turn a HEFTY profit is to fail to understand the world around you. I wouldn't be surprised if they are leading the way on collusion. I'd image the penalties on baseball collusion will be much less than the same behavior in the banking industry and the Ricketts' know it. That said, the Cubs have a top 5 payroll, will continue have one. They have been more competitive this last 5 years than any other time in my lifetime or yours (I haven't checked the numbers, but I'd image even averaging in the "tank" years, they've set an 8 year high in W/L record at this point) due to quality hires and open wallets. I want Bryce and will be dissappointed if they don't get him. But to expect the Ricketts to be anything but what we knew they were walking in is just silly. They're investors and they're doing pretty well with this investment, both in terms of its success and thier profit. tl;dr. Baseball is a business. You don't have to like it, but its true. The Ricketts' are good at business and the Cubs are more successful than ever, while the Ricketts are making tons of money, which is kind of what bankers do. The goal of owning a business is to make money. The goal of owning a sports team is to win titles. If you want to make money, spend your $900 million owning a profitable business. If you want to own a sports team, do everything you can to win a title. The Packers are the only franchise in pro sports who get to just care about making money then. Screw them.

This has nothing to do with this topic, but I never realized how boring our offseason was after winning the World Series, probably because I wasn't paying attention and figured there was nothing needed any way. But we traded Soler for Wade Davis. That was about it. I suppose we also signed Jon Jay.

I happened to watch some of Game 5 for the first time last night and didn't even remember we were trailing 1-0 going into the bottom of the fourth and hadn't done anything up to that point, while also trailing 3-1 in the series. A lot of work had to be done from that point on to win the World Series. Really cool they found a way to get it done, because you never know when the next one might come.

Is there a non-zero chance that Theo just doesn't think Harper is worth a mega contract? Or is it zero?

The Dodgers didn't have to either, but they still did, and they will now get Bryce Harper.

Jeff Passan is saying that this move alone won't clear up enough space to sign Harper and stay under the tax, but it certainly makes it a lot easier to swing a trade to clear the remaining. Hypothetically they could use this space on multiple other free agents rather than just Harper but its hard for me to see a team making a move like this if they weren't trying to get a generational talent. Edit: Also their OFs are something like Enrique Hernandez, Joc Pederson, Andrew Toles and Chris Taylor. They will be almost assuredly acquiring another OF. They should just move Bellinger to the outfield full-time and sign a first baseman instead of Bryce Harper.

I was reluctant to want them to sign Yu last offseason for this very reason, but people did make a good point that the Cubs wouldn't have signed him had it taken them out of Bryce Harper. So, something for sure changed. It might have been PTR telling Theo he can't sign another six figure free agent because he's been [expletive] the bed on those, or PTR being just PTR.

- Charles the Cat turns out to be a questionable source

Let's be honest, it never really started.

Yeah but I don't think he will be for much longer Edit: FA after 2020 More like after next season. There is a mutual option for 2020 that won't be picked up by the Dodgers, who will buy him out for $5 million.

Yes, the return will be clearly more. Like Bryce Harper.

Omg i came to post that. It was posted 21 min ago. What has happened to us? This is truly a sad state of affairs. Yes.

For a team that needs to make five moves just to make one signing, it blows my mind that they aren't making the easiest move possible to free up $4 million dollars by setting free a shitty person and player.

I'd like to think I'm as disgusted as everyone else by this, the potential Sinclair news, etc. But I also think it's pretty easy to make statements like this in the middle of December. For better or for worse, I dealt with Chapman, I dealt with Murphy, I've dealt with Russell even knowing parts of how he was a scumbag. Wrigley is my favorite place in the world, I finally got bleacher season tickets after waiting 15 years last year...this all makes me pretty sad, but I know I'm not able to give it up. I'm not going to pretend I'm not enough of a hypocrite to just switch off a lifetime of Cub fandom over all of this, but I am dead serious about not directly giving the team any of my dollars. Yeah, I'll watch games, but I'm not paying for a damn thing. I think this is where I stand.

I'm curious how many will do this on this board. It would be a hell of a statement.

So about $1.2 million more than Lastella would have cost. He can't be worse than Tommy at third base, I hope, and I suppose he has more slugging potential.

Can't believe Charles the Cat wasn't the one to break this. He must leave the smaller transactions to the bigger guys.

I thought Ramos was going to get at least one more year and also a decent amount of more money.

From the Ding Dong Files: The last time David was wrong was.........holy horsefeathers, this is the first time. nah it is poorly worded/punctuated, but it still wasn't a gotcha From the Ding Dong Files: The last time David was wrong...........holy horsefeathers, he's never been wrong.

How is this a gotcha his post says it’s highly unlikely he doesn’t go to the cubs. at its best, it’s a poorly worded sentence. From the Ding Dong Files: The last time David was wrong was.........holy horsefeathers, this is the first time.

Do you ever get exhausted? of sympathizing with billionaire sports owners? nah wrong guy I'm sure I'm wrong because I am about everything, but...... You just seem like the guy who everyone around the table respects for being intelligent and successful, but who also just want to horsefeathering punch you in the face all the time.

The Rule 5 Draft. It's tomorrow. no i asked what rule v is Do you ever get exhausted?

I see no reason why this stuff wouldn't be legit. This guy and Charles have been CRUSHING the meetings.

No idea what will happen but I wouldnt doubt if Bryce definitely wants to be a Cub. I met and talked alot of baseball with Harper once. He did say him and KB talk about being in the same lineup "all the time"... this was 2 summers ago. Why the horsefeathers haven't you made a Twitter account to post that info?

No, because Bryce will have an opt out after three years.