squally1313

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After the Trump donation and all the debt servicing? They'll barely have any money left to knock down the Cubby Bear and build a new three story TGI Fridays, much less get an actual player. Just look at the P&L dude.

Who is saying that? Each P&L has line items to calculate annual finances. We don't know the details of the Cubs finances but we have a team's actual P&L! And we know generally how much horsefeathers/less popular/less spendy they were than the Cubs are now! When we're talking about cashflow and profitability, costs have to be discussed -- seems like the focus here is mostly on revenues. Now do the line for ‘Unrealized Gain on Investment’

I remember working for one of those big firms, and we’d have meetings at the beginning of the year where they’d be like ‘alright guys, we’re shooting for 20% growth this year. 20% more revenue. It’s a big ask, but we believe in this company.’ And then at the end of the year, right before they say us down for comp discussions, they’d bring us all in and be like ‘Well as you can see here, we didn’t meet our targets, so we’ll have to take this into account when determining compensation.’ And it was like, you horsefeathers just made 15%. This is how they are justifying it. Tom and his family of assholes thought they’d have swimming pools of hundred dollar bills to swan dive into, and instead it’s just $50s, so we’re the idiots.

Holy horsefeathers dude. Stop sympathizing with the dudes complaining about how much safe desposit boxes cost to store the 1,000 Amazon stock they bought fifteen years ago.

There’s a lot I disagree with in that, mainly that it’s hard to make money owning a baseball team (go check the purchase price and what the Cubs are valued at now), but to your point about hedge/PE firms getting involved, there are strict rules about the number of owners for an organization. The Mark Walter/Guggenheim deal has to be structured very carefully to clear those rules and give a human being the control over decision making, not hundreds or thousands of investors.

Wait, the trade deadline hasn't passed yet? They still have 20 games to get back to the top of the lottery. Trade deadline is Monday. They're now 12th in the lottery rankings, so I think that ship has sailed, even if you'll see less teams tanking than normal due to basically the whole Western Conference being in the wild card race. Honestly I'm not sure what they could do to even help a tanking effort. The players carrying the offense are untradeable, and the rest of the team is pretty much garbage. Keith isn't going anywhere, Murphy just hurts you long term...Gustaffson maybe? The rest are worthless. On the offensive side, don't think Kruger has much value left, Anisimov and Kunitz have none, the rest are all developing. Just picking random names from the bottom of the TSN Trade Bait list, go get Ben Lovejoy (Devils) or Adam McQuaid (Rangers). Both expiring deals on bad teams, both have to be better than what we're currently throwing out.

It's hard to really overstate how terrible this defense is, and makes it even more baffling that in a year they've let a ton of other kids come up and shine, Jokiharju, who played well with the Hawks, has been banished to the AHL. I figured this fake Seabrook injury might have been the excuse needed, but apparently they're content to watch Forsling, Dahlstrom, Kookoo (no, I'm not going to learn how to spell his name), and Keith on his DGAF nights puke all over themselves. The people still pining for Panarin need watch this offense and realize how dumb that would be. Throw some scrub off the street next to Kane and Toews, let Strome and DeBrincat keep developing on the second line, let Saad keep dominating the other team's worst players, and find a new Kruger to head the fourth line. If we pick up 4 points this weekend, which we should (v Colorado, v Dallas), we should be in the market for lower pairing defensemen that can be picked up for a lottery ticket or a late round pick. You've got a year left of Crawford, and probably a couple years left of Kane and Toews prime. Don't trade anyone who can help in that timeframe, but anything else that can shore up the defense to make a run this year should be on the table.

Not to call you out on what was otherwise a perfectly good post, but this has consistently been one of the worst/most frustrating parts of his game.

Has there been anything on the record about him having a full time starting job? Or did you mean you're surprised he's getting a roster spot at all? Happ or Heyward should be getting every start in center against a RHP, and Almora is fine against lefties. Is Russell allowed to participate in spring training/spring training games? If he's not MLB ready when the suspension expires, that buys us a couple weeks to figure out the roster move/see his face.

Props to the Cubs for seriously testing my resolve these last six months or so, but nope, still really excited about watching a lineup where half the hitters are KB, Rizz, Baez, and Schwarber.

Let's not sleep on giving Zobrist $56m to give us 10-11 WAR, whatever leadership qualities you want to assign to him, and some of the biggest hits in franchise history. Mitigated slightly by having to hear his wife's voice before every AB, but still.

Yeah, I remember his 'smartest guy in the room' shtick wearing thin during the middle of winning 108 games and the World Series, much less now. At this point he just needs to shut up, or go away, or both.

Essentially calling someone like Contreras, one of probably your top 5 important players this year, mentally weak is a bold play for the Player's Manager.

I’m starting to talk myself in to Chatwood being a reasonably valuable thing out of the bullpen so let’s get nuts. Chatwood will turn in to the best multi inning reliever in MLB going ~100 innings out of the pen to get to his 4 WAR. Any particular reason why on this? It wasn't like he was better the first time through the order? Seems like a disaster bringing him in and counting on him for multiple innings when there's a 50/50(?) chance he just won't be able to throw a strike from the get go.

You live in a dark, dark world. The fact that this comes from CubinNY, who has been confidently predicting the Trump downfall for like, over a year now, makes it especially amazing.

Did that thread actually exist? Because if so we need to find it.

No.

Thanks, JudasIscariotTheBird.

Wait, he has a Harry Caray impression??

This Hawks team gives up 45 shots a night. No goalie can stand up to that for very long. The playoffs, if they somehow got there, don't really matter. Nobody is giving up a 1st for Crawford. With everything that he's gone through, I'm not sure he's still the same player he was and I'm not sure he's any better than what they have now. It's much more likely that a team may want Ward as insurance/ a better back up than what they have. As for next season, I'd be surprised if Crawford is the number 1 goalie for the Hawks. Either Delia will have laid claim to that job or played himself into a backup role, in which case they will sign someone else or make a trade for another goalie. I'm a big Crawford fan and I hope he either proves me wrong and is fine or that he retires and lives a happy life with better health. To your last point, I want Crawford to live a long and healthy life and his struggles with head injuries are incredibly concerning. I'm not a doctor, and he said this week he's given no thoughts of retirement. So based on the assumption that he's healthy, and freely wants to play, we either hope some team gives us a dumb offer for a multiple Stanley Cup winning goalie, or he's our starter for next year. Delia isn't going to prove anything this year based on his skill set/track record and your first point...this defense is miserable, he's not going to be throwing shut outs regardless. You've got one more year of Crawford at $6m, which is 8th in the league for goalies this year. Delia has 70 games of professional experience, Crawford had 255 games in the AHL before he got the starting job. He's our starter next year assuming he's on the roster, and if he's not I'm hoping it's because someone gave up too much for him, because he's better than Delia and whoever else we would trade for given our cap situation and other needs.

Well Bryce Harper would certainly be relieving to my anxiety about the current roster, so... (yes, stolen from twitter)

If Crawford wants to come back next week and throw up three shutouts before March 1 while some top team's goalie blows an ACL, then sure, grab a first round pick for him and let him get back to the playoffs. Other than that, he's the best goalie we're going to have next year (and this year if we make the playoffs), and we're going to need a good goalie, not just a passable one, behind this defense.

I think no matter what the Crawford era is done. Either he doesn't come back from this latest concussion or the Hawks find a way to unload him and save some salary. More likely the former than the latter. If he's not healthy, or he's not comfortable coming back, or whatever else related to his head, then thank him for his service, and wish him well. If he comes back this season or next and wants to give it a go, why not. He's got one year left on his deal at a fairly reasonable price, and I don't think anyone is sold on Delia unless he drags this team to the playoffs (which is far from likely). As long as Toews/Kane/Keith are around, this team has to go into the season trying to win now, and a healthy Crawford gives you the best chance going into next year.