squally1313

And even on the small chance that it is, you can still fix that! if the Cubs felt it was incredibly important to pick up the Hamels option at that point, that means they thought they were getting a good deal, and he'd be worth more on the open market. That means he still is. Yes, he can block trades to 20 teams, but you know the 10 teams that are options would be contenders. If that doesn't work, Hamels and Quintana are projected to be basically identical pitchers next year. Quintana definitely has value. Go save yourself that money. I can understand that the Ricketts may be frustrated based on the last couple years. The plan was waves of homegrown talent. The team won 97 games in 2015, and then went out and signed the most expensive hitter on the market. Last year, we signed the most expensive pitcher on the market. Now they're asking to sign the biggest contract of all time. Neither has worked out so far, and it doesn't look great going forward. It's a legit criticism. But it shouldn't keep them from Bryce. Or from trusting Theo.

His Harry Caray call of the Bote grand slam walk off will leave you in stitches!!!

Dozier to the Nationals, 1 year $9m. Was garbage last year, but at that price I would have taken that garbage over Russell's garbage every day.

Yes?

They retweeted Randy horsefeathering Rosario tweeting about being excited for the convention. That's where they're at right now. Obviously, everyone in the front office knows it will sell out regardless, and it's not like there's no one left to get. But yeah, this is boring and concerning. Do something please.

I certainly agree that they obviously have the money/net worth to go do whatever they want (even if they had to tap in to personal money vs just Cubs "business" money). But this is all a paper gain, they don't have $2B in cash all the sudden. We know MLB has lending limits/ratios teams can't exceed so there are restrictions for them to just go lend against their paper gain (which is a whole other discussion and we can argue if that's stupid or good). It's possible they've maxed out what they can borrow going by MLB rules and spent that money on things like the renovations, neighborhood projects, ST facility, Dominican facility, etc. so maybe they are tight from a cash flow perspective because maybe those projects cost more money, aren't coming on line as fast as they thought or not returning what they projected (or maybe they are just being plain greedy and pocketing money). Which is pretty dumb and poor planning knowing this offseason was coming and they certainly can dump personal money in, you'd assume, if they really wanted to make something happen. I'm not defending them by any means, just trying to figure out what the hell could be going on. But it can't be this dire. Their ownership has gone about as well as they could have possibly expected, save another title or two. And it's gone on during a period of constant economic growth across the board. There's no way that this kind of success can have them backed into a corner like this, because that means pretty much any other alternative would have made them declare bankruptcy or something along those lines.

For what it's worth, scanning quickly it looks like the Brewers have the same September schedule, with Thursday 8/29 off instead of Monday 8/26. Obviously they are less likely to have rain outs. Cardinals look to have the 29th, 9th, and the 26th off.

The Ricketts bought the Cubs, Wrigley, and 25% of Comcast for $900m in 2009. For simplicity, let's say they just bought the Cubs for $900m. In 2018, Forbes estimated the Cubs were worth $2.8b. With a B. So, no, I don't give a horsefeathers how much money they are or aren't making on a year to year basis.

https://www.golf.com/news/news-features/2019/01/08/jose-de-jesus-rodriguez-long-hard-journey-to-the-pga-tour/ Amazing story, and publishing this story today of all days is pretty great.

This is a nothing trade. Bulls get cash, send a pick that is top 55 protected to Houston (so, essentially, nothing). Houston needed to get rid of MCW by the end of the week for cap reasons. Bulls have already waived MCW.

Yeah that flowchart isn't exactly fair, but that makes the Curry trade seem like an absolute steal.

https://deadspin.com/your-favorite-baseball-team-can-afford-any-free-agent-i-1830890838

Up there with my favorite terrible counter arguments is "well why didn't you speak out against X or Y back when they were doing bad things? lol what a hypocrite". I was 20 when the Tribune sold the Cubs, I'm 30 now...people get older, they get smarter, they learn things. You're essentially arguing against progress.

Friend of a friend has good connections with a baseball agent and ive heard a couple times now that KB and Mrs KB are really pissed at both the cubs and boras for how they’re handling this. Grain of salt, obviously, but throwing it out there. Makes sense. In that article by Melisa she stated that Jessica was one of her best friends in the Cubs wives circle. Under the potentially lazy assumption that the Harpers and the Bryants agree on most things, it kinda takes away from the argument that we are trying to not piss off Boras and screw up any Harper negotiation.

Friend of a friend has good connections with a baseball agent and ive heard a couple times now that KB and Mrs KB are really pissed at both the cubs and boras for how they’re handling this. Grain of salt, obviously, but throwing it out there.

Regarding my opinions of the team, I'm trying to remain somewhat optimistic in the face pretty much all the evidence with the fact that it's only December and he doesn't have to/get to put on a Cubs jersey for another two months. Not necessarily because I hold much faith in Theo/Jed/Joe/the Rickett's moral character at this point, but just because...I don't know, I really like baseball. The unfortunate reality is that he's almost definitely going to be playing baseball for someone once the suspension is over. There are a few ways to make that be not the Cubs.

Ok, then horsefeathers Carl and Heyward too, though for whatever reason when you click on all the comments, Heyward's doesn't show up, so maybe there's a chance he went in and deleted that one (no idea how Instagram looks). Also says 'Comments on this post have been limited', whatever that means.

Holy horsefeathers! His argument is that being an abusive horsefeathers reduces the cost for the Cubs, so they should take advantage of that rather than doing the morally superior thing: "...but Russell’s bigger-than-baseball issues provide salary relief that should keep them side by side in 2019..." horsefeathers Phil Rogers right in the ear. The silver lining is that you can just save the response thread to that in case you ever need an idea for a 'maybe you shouldn't have said that' gif, which I seem to need a lot these days.

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

Sorry to assume you guys watch other sports in between posting. Baby momma #2 isn't talking about domestic abuse at all. Don't make that leap. She's mad she got paid in small bills and quarters and that Russell isn't in the babies life. The domestic abuse "occurrences" in football are on another level compared to baseball. What is it about the NHL that allowed it to get a pass? Hmmm. HMMMMMMMMMMM. "And don't even get me started on 'rap music'"

Twitter, I know, is freaking out how valuable LaStella is for being a PH and how it’s a loss. I saw that Heyward nugget and thought it was a little interesting that LaStella has this great tool that bum ass Heyward also has. To be fair, I just wanted the "who are you talking to" part of the gif, but couldn't find it. I know what you're saying, but I think everyone here is pretty much in agreement that he is incredibly replaceable.

Which historic free agent was Tommy helping cripple the Cubs from being able to sign? I’m just saying in terms of people thinking LaStella is this great pinch hitter, Heyward has done what he does as a PH. It’s not like we lost anything for the people who put weight in to LaStella’s pinch hitting being a skill if freaking Heyward can do what he does/did.* *I’m pretty certain PH really isn’t a skill. We’re talking small samples and in the end good hitters will hit regardless of situation and bad hitters won’t over the long haul.

On the one hand, he isn't good. On the other hand, he's short and scrappy and best case scenario hits for a totally empty batting average that will make him the new first half Almora to the worst fans, just without defense or future potential.

My buddy just said he saw a rumor on ESPN about Schwarber and Azlolay for Edwin Diaz. Even being a huge Schwarber fan, contingent on making a big offensive free agent signing, I...don't hate it?

Yea, and I don't think it even took that much hindsight benefit to say some of those deals were bad as they were handed out. Bowman showed way too much loyalty to his guys. Either extending them or reacquiring them. There was no way to predict Seabrook's decline being so steep...in that sense you can extend some of the blame beyond Bowman/Q to players like him for not playing to their expected, much less peak level. It would have taken a lot to let him go (see this article, though it's behind a paywall so might have to incognito it: https://faxesfromuncledale.com/how-not-to-write-about-the-hawks-elimination/) Crawford is the 8th highest paid goalie in the NHL right now. No one could have known he was going to miss 60something games with some mysterious head injury, but his contract isn't the issue. The Bickell contract, sure, though Teuvo Teravainen isn't making this team a contender (and Scott Darling definitely isn't). Danault would look great in a Hawks uniform, but it took deadline deals to get us over the top in 2015, so I'm not going to be too mad about going that route again in 2016.