The guy seems to know how to put together a rebuild and was in house.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I'm not sure if this is trolling or not. What did McDonough ever do on the baseball side? Are you really crediting him for the Hawks on ice success? I guess he did fire Savard.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

...Aren't we finding out just how connected the business and baseball portions of an organization are on the North Side?

_________________
Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I am going to start a campaign to oust Gary Bettman as Commissioner of the NHL & replace him with John McDonough. The NHL needs him.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

But do you really think that's true? When it suits them, they like to tell you that spending a lot of money isn't necessary or even the right way to compete. Then they'll turn around and tell you they can't compete because Beth Murphy is stopping them from spending enough money. It's really ridiculous.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Manny/Toews (2006 draft) and Ortiz/Kane (2007 draft) were already on the roster before McDonough jumped ship. Low-hanging fruit abounded in turning-around the Blackhawks: mo betta TV deals, mo betta marketing of players, playing-up the Hawks-Wings rivalry--highlighted by the 2009 Winter Classic. Bringing in Scotty Bowman via his son was a smart move in terms of on-ice decisions. Off-ice, McDonough brought over his Cubs template for selling a product to rich-whitey: off-season fan conventions were McDonough's creation in MLB and I think when he implemented that for the Hawks it might've been the first off-season fan convention in the NHL?

McDonough's biggest challenge was tamping down the idiot Cubs fans with their 'W' signs in the stands at the UC initially and educating the baseball fan-base he pied-pipered down to west Madison from Clark and Addison on hockey.

Other things were matters of timing, old man Wirtz croaking right before he joined the org and the average TV going from below 30 inches and standard def to ~ 50 inches + high definition helped as well.

I was actually thinking yesterday that McDonough would be a great choice to replace Bettman if he ever left.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda to the max here!
They should have kept Dallas Green!!!

_________________
Host of the weekly "We Fish ASA" podcast
Weekly columnist for the Northwest Herald
Bi-monthly columnist for Illinois Outdoor News magazine
Former host of The Outdoors Experience on WIND and The Great Outdoors on CLTV
http://www.wefishasa.com

I sure as shit believe it true that it is easier to create a stronger baseball organization when funds aren't an issue.

I don't think the Yankees make strong baseball decisions. Throw enough money at it and your baseball team can at least be competitive for decades. Despite your bad signings of veterans.

_________________
Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Nobody has ever made better trades than the late John Holland. The problem is though he had 19 years as Cubs GM. oh,yeah..he's also dead since '79.

_________________
favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I don't think the money hurts. Of course being able to spend over mistakes is an advantage. But the Yankees had their last great run with a homegrown core. And time and time again the Cubs have expressed that throwing money all over isn't their business model. They aren't going to be working with huge payrolls. They want young players under team control. So any additional money is just going to Ricketts kids that aren't born yet. I don't see why anyone not named Ricketts would lead cheers for that. It would be like being said because eating Jeff Keppinger's contract is going to postpone Michael Reinsdorf's yacht purchase until 2015.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

I think if all goes well with video boards, signage, and the Wrigleyville improvements...you'll see some more of the aggressive spending.

But it would not serve the organization well to make statements / promises like that. It would seem either like they don't 'care' now or that they are insincere if spending becomes delayed for various reasons.

It is a lose / lose for them to say anything regarding future spending.

But a winning Cubs organization is more of a cash cow than a losing Cubs organization. So building and sustaining a winner will have returns.

_________________
Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Keppinger or Barney at 2nd right now?

_________________
favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Death

_________________

Yeah, I sure don't think the payrolls will remain under $100 million going forward. But you do see how silly blaming the widow of a drunken cop for putting the brakes on Cub success on the field and in the counting room actually is, don't you? What happens when revenue streams start flowing and they are just the way they were in the Hendry era (and the way most teams have been throughout baseball history)- some good runs and then some bad ones? See, at that point I don't think Theo and Ricketts did anything wrong except throw away a bunch of seasons and make dumb promises.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

I really can't see it failing if success means a competitive organization. Sure, the Cubs may not win a World Series in the next 10 years. That would suck. But if I'm competing for, at the very minimum, a Wild Card spot each year, I'll at least be content. And I feel a winning recipe for that is being smart about signing deals with young players like Castro and Rizzo, while filling in gaps with solid free agent signings. Obviously...that is the farthest thing from a revolutionary thought. But it seems as if many teams become impatient and just try to rush the rebuild process with stop-gap veterans, or misjudge their prospects like the Royals.

_________________
Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

This is how I feel. They need to be in the playoff race every single year.

_________________

They should be competing for a WC spot this year. 84-86 wins could do that. There really is no reason for the Cubs not have at least a mediocre MLB team by now.

_________________

Yes there is. Signing veterans to improve this year's team by a few runs would mean less appearances to figure out guys like Lake, Kalish, Olt, etc.

And by competing for a Wild Card...I meant a team that could actually maybe win in the playoffs...not some team that slips in or is behind 5 teams in the Wild Card race even though they are only 3 GB.

_________________
Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

This seems like trolling.

Hawks on TV = $
Butts in seats = $
Improved marketing/exposure = $

The increase in $$ has been put to good use on the ice, I'd say.

_________________

Year 6 and 7 for Soriano, all McDough!

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

That's not true. IIRC the Cubs were in a bidding war and after missing out on Zito (Thank God) they added and extra year to close the deal.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

THATS 100% TRUE!

Hendry, whom I still think sucked, offered 5 years.

McDonough then called and offered years 6,7 and 8....(I forogot year but it was an offer to be agreed upon that evening and he had to be here the next day.

from my source the exact words were 'What will it take to have him signed tonight and here tomorrow"

Will also tell you the Cubs wanted to keep McDonough and an offer was sitting in someones drawer, but was never presented to him.

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Not reallly

Sureholtz, Barknee, and Valbwana get a lot of at bats.


Nelson Cruz would have been fine. Francisco Rodriguez too. Not holding anyone back. No long term deals, no big money

I believe Cruz would have cost a 2nd round pick.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

God forbid!

_________________

Without looking it up, I believe he's probably better than 90% of 2nd rd picks.

He's a little older than I thought, so that might be an issue, but fuck worrying about draft picks

I think we've already seen enough of those three to know they will never amount to anything at the MLB level. Next!

_________________

That's a bit much

Lake has proven to have value. It might be as a 4th outfielder, but he's a major leaguer. And I dont know how you can give up on a guy with Olt's power so far. Both might end up being platoon guys but neither of them are at the "never amount to anything" level

Kalish might be

He can't be commissioner. He's not a labor lawyer, or any lawyer. However, there were some rumblings that the league might have come calling if John Collins, the NHL's COO, had resigned in disgust over Bettman's last lockout, which he was very close to doing. Collins is the guy who came up with the Winter Classic and other big marketing moves that have helped the league.

McDonough obviously had good timing in terms of Toews/Kane being drafted and having nowhere to go but up, but he obviously made a huge difference on the marketing side. His real achievement was getting not fans, but media to love the Hawks. Remember circa 2009-2010 when Bernstein would bitch and bitch about how homerish the media was being about the Hawks? All McDonough.

_________________