It'd be awesome if they started the negotiations asking for Starlin Castro and ended up settling for like Flaherty or something. Robert California was apparently modeled after Ricketts.
Two main reasons for the existence and rationality of that belief: Prince's weight vs Pujols' excellent physical fitness and Pujols being a once in a lifetime, transcendent talent. I just trust the Cubs front office to evaluate carefully and decide which, if either, they want. Man, that's fun to say.
Such lame, generic news. "Progress" could mean "Okay, we agree on the players, but who pays for Epstein's ride to the airport." Or it could mean "Okay, I don't wish you would die in a fire. A quiet, painless death would be okay."
Why not? See above. Let's assume for a moment that there's even a 1% chance that Epstein to the Cubs falls apart. Hoyer's not going to quit his job in San Diego if there's a chance he has to work with someone other than his superbestbuddy. The Cubs aren't going to hire a new GM if there's even a tiny chance they have to find a new President (who will presumably want some sort of say on the GM front). Seems like baseless speculation by you. Well, I'm just filling in the blanks if we assume what Levine said was true. That's a huge assumption at this point. I'm inclined to assume the opposite at this point.
Why not? See above. Let's assume for a moment that there's even a 1% chance that Epstein to the Cubs falls apart. Hoyer's not going to quit his job in San Diego if there's a chance he has to work with someone other than his superbestbuddy. The Cubs aren't going to hire a new GM if there's even a tiny chance they have to find a new President (who will presumably want some sort of say on the GM front).
That makes no sense to me. Hoyer is Epstein's guy. He wants to work with Epstein. He's not going to quit his job in SD while there is even a tiny bit of doubt that Epstein is coming, and the Cubs can't really hire a GM if there's even a tiny chance that they may have to look for a new president of baseball ops.