Rcal10

But how do you take him out? I think Kelly plays Tuesday.

I know it wouldn’t be easy. And maybe there wasn’t any options, as you suggested. But I don’t think the Cubs even tried. But, I also know the Phillies were interested in him too. Maybe eat his entire salary and trade for Sanchez or Suarez. I know Suarez is now hurt too. Another option would have been to keep Bellinger and instead add either Busch or Suzuki. You, most likely, do get something of value for either of them. Take $18M of Bellinger’s contract and trade for Clarke (also injured) instead of Poteet. This is obviously just spitballing ideas. I am sure if the Cubs went into a Bellinger trade not worrying about the salary they could have gotten something better for Bellinger than a straight salary dump. Or, as I said, keep him and deal either Busch or Suzuki for a pitcher. All of the above said, if they go with option 2 and at the deadline are aggressive with acquiring talent regardless of their salary, I am fine with them saving now. I just don’t have faith they will be aggressive.

It isn’t a question of keeping him. They should have traded him. Where would he play? But, maybe they should have gotten someone for him instead of worrying about saving money. I did a survey for the Cubs and had to say 3 words that describe the organization. I said cheap, mismanaged and frustrating. The Bellinger trade covers all of those words.

Anyone notice after almost hitting .500 this spring, Chiurio went 0-5 with 5 k’s today. Just an example of how little spring numbers mean. Chiurio is going to be great. Not suggesting otherwise. But his spring numbers meant nothing today.

Hoping for series win, but I would be happy with a split then 2 of 3 in Sacramento. Come home 4-5. That is fine by me.

East coast time zone sucks. I am a morning person. Used to live in Chicago area until 2022. Now in Az. As an early person I absolutely love this time zone. Most games are over by 8, instead of 10. So I can wind down after a game and still get to sleep around 10. Baseball is 100% of the time played with a 2 hour time difference. Football is 1 or 2 hours. Still like it. I honestly wouldn’t move to an eastern time zone because of my love for live sports. BTW, going to Sunday’s game.

No, I get that. It is just frustrating when owners act like owning a team is a bad investment. I get they can’t spend the money and it is unrealized gains until they actually sell the team. But it is annoying for them to cry broke as their investment gains value at a very high rate. Fact is the Cubs are a major market team. They should spend like kn. Fine if they aren’t with the Dodgers and the 2 NY teams. But they should be top 5, yearly.

As much as I hate the theory and hate ownership of it is their working theory, I tend to side with this idea as well. I think it is stupid and really have issues with the Ricketts for this way of running the club, but I believe it to be the case. On a similar note, the Cubs were valued at $4.2B by Forbes. Ricketts bought the team for $845M. How does that factor in to his “break even”, put all baseball revenues back into the team, catastrophic losses due to Covid, messages they love to spread?

Regardless of how good Smith turns out, if the Cubs had no intention of signing Tucker long term and also knew they were going to be $20M lower in team salary than last year, they shouldn’t have traded for Tucker. But once they did they should have done more to win in ‘25 or been aggressive in trying to extend him. As an example, instead of Rea and or Boyd, had the Cubs signed a better starter or traded Bellinger for a better starter and took that starters salary, it would have made more sense trading for Tucker. But trading for him to then not spend money to be good this year or to use some of that savings to extend Tucker just is pointless IMO. I have a much bigger issue with what they did after the Tucker trade than I do worrying the Smith will be a star. TBH, regardless of any results of all players traded, if they had no intention of either going all in this year or extending Tucker, the deal makes no sense to me. That said, we do not know FOR SURE that this is Tucker’s only year here. We do know they didn’t go all in, however. So only one chance to make the trade make sense and that is to keep Tucker beyond 2025. Then(if Tucker is here long term) regardless of what anyone the Cubs traded ends up being, IMO, the trade makes sense.

Yep, 100% he is saying he did what he could within the guidelines ownership allowed. The fact they basically pocketed Bellinger’s money saved is ridiculous. If they weren’t going to spend it they should have traded him for someone of equal value with a similar contract. Or ate his entire contract to get a quality arm back.

Maybe, but did anyone play night games today or yesterday? Aren’t all teams basically playing day games? I honestly do not know if the Dbacks played at night this week. I would think most teams would want to play a day game today to give themselves time to go wherever they needed to do to start the season. I realize the Cubs don’t have to go anywhere, nor do the Dbacks. But whoever they played did have to travel somewhere.

Agreed. He probably has a better chance at failing than he does becoming this star so many already have him to be. For fun, I looked at the top 20 prospects at the start of the 2019 season. Keep in mind, Smith isn’t even at that level. Anyway, some of the bats were Taylor Trammell, Robles, Senzel, Eloy, Kirilloff, Adell, Brendon Rodgers and Huira, Would anyone be upset if Smith turns into a guy like those guys? People are assuming he will be a star AND Tucker is only here for one year. 2 things that haven’t been decided yet. Personally think Smith is going to struggle. He has a lot of swing and miss in his game, only played about 25 games above A ball and is playing a new position. Astros are setting him up to fail, IMO. He may still hit some homers. It is Houston and the Crawford boxes. But he is going to have a hard time making consistent contact. Maybe he does turn into a solid everyday player. 🤷 But worrying about him being a star and criticizing the trade before all results are in is foolish. Especially because those who are criticizing it now will later praise it if Tucker does sign an extension or even leads the Cubs to the WS and Smith struggles. Houston wasn’t going to give Tucker away. There had to be a good prospect traded. They also got Paredes, who will do well in Houston. It was. and still is, a fair deal. It is the price you have to pay if you don’t grow your own star or spend on top FA, period.!

I think just pulled because his spring training was done. He didn’t look hurt.

I don’t really worry about getting the best out of Cease. He has pitched all spring. Players get traded mid year and pitch well for the team they get traded to. I don’t think being traded right before the start of the season should hurt his production. But I do agree with you about not being sure it makes sense for the Cubs anyway. That would be another guy on the last year of his deal and it would cost more prospects. So in ‘26 there would be a real possibility if not having Tucker and/or Cease as well as being several prospects down.

True. But I am not sure you realize what a cash cow Wrigley is. And not just because Cubs fans go. I have often talked to people cheering for the opponent and asked if they ever watched their team in Sox park. Most of the time the answer is no, they just want to come to Wrigley. In many cases that fan pays a Stubhub price to sit in a decent seat at Wrigley that cost them 4 times as much as a similar seat would cost at sox park. But they don’t care. They want to be at Wrigley. That is why I feel if I didn’t go someone else would. And I am fortunate enough to be able to go to 20-30 games a year so why would I deprive myself of what I enjoy. Trust me, I understand your point. And I have many friends who think like you. You’re not wrong. Just not what I do.

It is actually 31 games and all except 3 against the A’s are against quality opponents. Not just a few very good teams. I would be fine with 14-17 after April.

April is going to be a long month with many posters here. There will be numerous hot takes about how the Cubs suck. It is happening this spring. Can’t imagine how bad it will once all of baseball starts.

Keller?

Agreed. They have to start hitting on some international talent. Hopefully they will soon. But even if they did get one last season we might not see him for 4 more years. Maybe more. I do agree they didn’t do so well 5 to 7 years ago because we should be seeing some of that talent, and we are not.

I agree with you that ownership takes advantage of the fans loyalty. I just don’t agree that me not going or spending money on the team would matter. If I didn’t go the next person up would go. And actually if attendance started dropping that would give him another excuse to not spend money. So I am going to do what I enjoy doing and go to games and watch games. As I said, I agree the ownership is hard to like. And I understand your theory. I just don’t think it works here, or even if it did it would takes years to chance. I don’t feel like boycotting for 5 to 7 years HOPING lowering revenues would make atom realize he needs to spend money and win to get and back. And even if it rid work I would be years older and not wanting to go to games as much anymore.

You do you Stratos. If it makes you feel good not to go to the games and not pay attention to the team or give the team any of your money, that is good for you. But I am a fan of the Cubs. I don’t like the ownership. I don’t like them not spending like they should. However I enjoy the team and the sport. I also love going to ball games. So I am going to continue to go and also watch them. Bottom line is if I didn’t go someone else would. Why should I deprive myself of something I enjoy because I don’t like the ownership. He’ll, I wouldn’t do much of anything it I allowed myself to follow that criteria in all aspects of life. I would never use Amazon. I wouldn’t go to several restaurants I like if I ever dug into their owners beliefs. Wouldn’t follow any sports, etc….

Armstrong is hitting .500 and Amaya .542. So maybe spring really doesn’t mean much. I think Chiurio is going to be a star for a long time. But if he was hitting .100 right now, I would still feel that way.!

I think you are making a case to the wrong person, or at the very least arguing something I am not arguing against. As I said, I don’t really care that this game isn’t televised. Fine, give them a break. But last year they televised way more games. They cut back this year to save cost. I believe they even said something to that point. Why do you think they televised less games this year, even before the trip to Japan? Was it the union refusing to work, or the Cubs cutting cost? I say it was the Cubs cutting cost.

I don’t have much of an issue with the games not televised today. But I don’t think it is because they wanted the staff to rest. I think the Cubs decided to televise less games this year because they were saving money. Or, as I described them in my survey, they were cheap, mismanaged and frustrating.

What? Don’t understand this response.