Hiring Epstein would go a long way to making it a Cubs town again.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Um, no.

Soriano and Lou Piniella were both bigger moves than McFail.

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I forgot tomorrow is a Jewish holiday. Maybe it doesn't happen

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Team Cutler.

my remark was tongue-in-cheek. the Cubs signing Andy MacPhail as GM was at the time considered to be a real coup based on his success with the Twins, much like everyone is feeling in anticipation of possibly signing Theo Epstein. we all saw how that turned out, by the time he left town he was considered a bum. i am not at all convinced that bringing in one man as a new GM is going to fix an entire organization.

Yeah you are right, might as well go ahead and hire a bum now. Maybe Kenny will move to the northside

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

This.

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no, you go for the guy who you think is the best for the job. is there a long list of GM's who have moved around MLB and brought multiple teams to the playoffs consistently? i am sure there has been a few, but i think even if Epstein comes here there is a damn good chance that after 3 years or whatever everyone is calling him a bum too. if he does leave Boston, he will leave a nice soriano-like contract of his own in Carl Crawford. Boston has a little more talent around him to hide it though.

cheater Floyd Landis should be the next GM.

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That little clip Meat just played of the Red Sox brass was very intriguing. I liked what I heard.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Yeah it definitely did not sound like Theo is staying in Boston

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Yeah it is tough to say Theo Epstien is a great GM when he has all of the resources of Boston at his disposal. Ricketts won't give him nearly as much to work with.

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Most of his bad decisions in Boston were because of all those expendable resources though. If you tighten his belt he doesn't go and get Crawford and Lackey and Dice K. He still probably drafts players that he can flip into A Gon and can make that extension.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

He came into a situation in Boston that is very much like the Cubs situation right now--no championships in a long time, talks of a curse, frustrated fan base, big media attention gig, team battling stupid excuse after stupid excuse, etc. A few years later he has 2 championships.

Sounds like a pretty damn good resume to me.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

It's hard to say. I am not really against the move I just don't think he should be viewed as some sort of cure all for the Cubs crappy organization.

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Double post sorry....

At least this guy isn't our manager

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One notable exception: Boston was a perennial contender when he got there.

My only question is if he is going to even bother firing Quade or if he is just going to hire a manager and like the rest of the world pretend Quade doesn't even exist.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

i have heard that same argument used in hendrys defense as well, though. he was given a large amount of money to play with, and went out and spent it on a guy coming off a huge year (I AM NOT IN ANY WAY ENDORSING THE SIGNING OF SORIANO). he spent it because he had it to spend.

Said it in another thread: he's already demonstrated a willingness to come crawling back. He'll do it again.

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i dont fully understand the dislike of Quade. He certainly didn't wow me with his managerial prowess, but it was a throwaway year from the very beginning. he came in, let a bunch of guys play knowing that this team could never contend. sure, he made some weird lineup choices, but i kind of liked some if it, it was like a spring training that never ended. i think we have a very good understanding of just how terrible this team is, and going into the off-season they have a very good idea of which holes need to be filled immediately and which ones can be patched together for another year or two.

I kind of agree that it all failed so spectacularly that its tough to get very mad about. I mean there is nobody here who actually thinks Quade is a good manager and any competent GM will recognize that and either fire him immediately or let him lame duck another year of his contract and bring in his real manager hire when he hits the market next year. Quade or no the Cubs are not winning the WS next year.

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agreed, this team is on at LEAST a 3-year plan in my opinion, but if you throw enough dough at a problem, it could turn around quicker i guess. for a quick turnaround you need to have a superior farm system to speed things up, and it seems pretty clear we dont have that.

The problem I have with him is that he didn't grab this job by the balls. He never stopped being a 3rd base coach. A 3rd base coach can be buddies with the players and be the nice guy when the manager makes tough decisions that initially piss their ego's off. Once he became manager he never changed that approach. He not only had zero clue how to manager a pitching staff but he tried to be nice to the players to get them on his side which is a terrible mistake. He was clearly over matched as a manager and he didn't command respect from his players which is a recipe for a disaster of a season.

I would let him manage a minor league team any day though. He seemed to be good at that for a long time. The big leagues are a different beast and he does not belong there.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

you are probably right - there are only a handful of guys that i would classify as elite managers who are experts on handling a team and making the correct in-game decisions time in and time out, but I have a hard time basing whether he can ever be a decent manager off of one year. the odds are that you are correct, but i am sure there are a lot of managers who arent very successful out of the gate who land in the right situation with the right group of guys and all of a sudden they are great managers.

Quade sucked. He showed no grasp of player personnel, game situations, handling a pitching staff, motivating players, ect. There is a reason he has been a manager for 30 years and never gotten an interview before. He does not have the leadership ability to be a big league manager.

I'm sure he's a nice guy though.

The Cubs are in contention at the beginning of every spring according to their fans

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

If the Cubs hire Epstein, I wonder what other front office personel Epstein brings to the organization.

Changing GMs is fine, but if the scouts and minor league player development staff is basically the same, not sure Epstein will make much of a difference.

I think there are some members of the minor league development staff he can replace such as the infield instructor and the field director at the least. He would probably also bring some scouts and develop with Wilken what exactly he wants the scouts to look for.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Quade has no business at the major league level unless maybe bullpen coach. He sucked as a 3rd base coach, sucked as a manager and I am sure the new GM will axe Quade shortly after being hired.

I would be shocked if Quade ever gets another interview for a big league managing job ever again.

Glorious
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/ ... ley-field/

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That's my purse! I don't know you!