Glad I could ellicit such a reaction.


Again, you wanted me to bet on something, that I said wouldnt happen, if you would just have read the entire thread before posting, you could have avoided looking foolish.


I politely and calmly asked you to read it, and you when into battle mode, like you always do, without reading.


Thats all there is to it. You didnt read the entire thread, even after being told about it.

Thats not at all what happened. Anyone who can read can see you responded twice without reading the whole thread. Not sure why you cant just admit that.


Im not sure Ive ever said not to bash opinion. Im sorry I disagreed with you though. Thats out of line on a message board.



Yeah, here's where you ignore facts and people's thoughts and drive ahead with your original thought. I picked Kenny cause he's a GM with recent WS success. dolphin understood. But apparently you cant.




Cry much?

I have not played the victim card AT ALL. That has no basis in reality.

If you think I project as a middle of the road voice of reason, thank you. Ive never said that about myself.

I did say that you seem to be the ultimate team player and you argue your teams side no matter what. Im sorry if that offended you. Its just my opinion

The Laurence line is laughable.

The line about Duke Education and Radio gig brushes up against inappropriate. Did you want to post W-2's as well?

Fight DEATH KILL CHoke!

OK...I won't argue "super bad"....but you are getting that for $19M a year...and STUCK with it for 2 more years. The guy can't run. Knee injury or whatever...he hasn't been able to run for over 2 years. He looks lazy....he acts lazy...he poses for balls hit off the wall....he throws to wrong bases, he can't get to balls that should be caught....he is undisciplined hitter....and that is your veteran in the clubhouse tutoring Castro......who by the way makes a few obvious bone head plays of his own. Birds of a feather.....Soriano is "super bad" for this team in soo many ways....and I wont let some "not so bad super bad" stats get in the way of my eye test. He fails. I get your point though but I want him off the team as soon as possible.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

I'd say 5-10 years.

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If this were the A's or Padres, I could see the need to wait on a 5-year plan. But the Cubs will (presumably) return to spending something like $130 million instead of the $88 million they are spending now. $88 million is right in the middle of the pack, so if spent more wisely, as one would expect with Theo vs Hendry, they should get to 81 wins in a couple years. And then they can strike when the iron is hot, and add $42 million in free agents which would add something like 8.4 wins of value. Hmm, now I'm rethinking my argument, beacuse while 89 wins would be enough to make the playoffs with 2 wild cards, it's not exactly a powerhouse team. A contender at least, though.

I guess I'm just not sure why "one would expect" that.

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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

Because Hendry=Dumb and Theo=supermegaawesome

I thought that was common knowledge.

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Because it would be pretty hard to spend less wisely than Hendry did. I didn't think this was a controversial position to take.

Well, Theo has depleted what Hendry bulit but that team is still capable of kicking the shit out of the one so carefully crafted in San Diego by the great Jed Hoyer.

_________________
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 have my head in the sand about everything Theo and Jed did except for the 2 WS wins. Crawford and Lackey both were signed without Theo's knowledge and San Diego told Jed to lose on purpose. Yeah..... that sounds good.

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Jed Hoyer in 3 seasons averaged $43 million per season in payroll (tied for lowest in MLB over that period), and still averaged 78.67 wins.

Jim Hendry in 9 seasons spent an additional $66 million per season ($109 million), and only averaged 81.44 wins.

Theo Epstein in 9 seasons spent $24 million per season above what Hendry spent ($133 million), and averaged 93.22 wins.

---

You may point out that Hendry actually had a better win/$ average than Epstein, but that's because the marginal rate decreases as you spend more (cf: Yankees get terrible win/$). Theo's marginal rate above the average payroll was far better than Hendry's.

5 years or less




this thread is hilarious .... the cubs will probably win 78-80 games next year..pretty much .500 ball...

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mine

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first off, deserve what? And secondly, since when is it so hard to "rightfully call me out"? You have heard my NBA thoughts, have you not?

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

I knew it couldn't be Theo's fault.

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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

JORR, you can laugh all you want you know what TB is saying about diminishing returns is true.

And RE theo vs Hendry...Dies anyone on this board think any gm is good? I mean who do you think is good, JORR?



I think Theo probably got a lot more respect on this board before last year.



I mean is it crazy to say a guy who won twp WS is better than Hendry? Hendry had a huge payroll and didnt win it all or even get to postseason consistently like Theo did.


And a good portion of the moves he made for the 08 97 wins ended up crippling the team with two many years and no trade clauses

Yeah it's so strange. All of a sudden Hendry is better than Theo? Because Theo is a now Cub and Hendry is now not? That seems to be the only basis for such an opinion.

Some of the Boston meatballs were no better. They ran a guy out of town because he put together a great team that managed to collapse in the final month and win "only" 90 games.

And it's not like we've been attributing some kind of magical omnipotence to Theo here. It's laughable that you think the argument that he's obviously better than Hendry is laughable.

Are you saying that wasn't 100% spin, Bryan?



I have no idea who is "good". What I'm pretty sure of is that the popular guys writing about such stuff are coming at it in a completely self-serving way. For example, they decide Player A is good and should be drafted first. If a GM thinks otherwise, he's the moron rather than them simply being guys who don't know shit.

Larry Himes selected Jack McDowell, Robin Ventura, Frank Thomas, Alex Fernandez. It's pretty tough to put together a better run of first rounders than that. But he got run out of places too.

The fan really doesn't know any more than he ever did. He just thinks he does because he reads Baseball America.

_________________
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

How can a "great team" collapse? That's the kind of "Theo can do no wrong" bullshit I'm talking about. I think Kenny Williams puts together a great team every year. Unfortunately, sometimes they collapse.

_________________
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

How was it spin? I openly pointed out a numerical value that you probably would have never brought up if I didn't. And then addressed why it didn't matter. The guy averaged 93 wins over 9 seasons. So you think Hendry is better than Theo? I just don't get it. And I'm not a "popular guy writing about it" or about which players I think are good. I'm just looking at the results, even though it's admittedly a superficial analysis because I don't have all day to spend in this.

can't even compare that turd hendry to theo....theo was in the A.L. east and hendry was in the N.L. central... friedman is the best g.m. in baseball...

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But you've already admitted that he didn't get the same value per dollar as Hendry and then spun it as to why that doesn't matter. Whatever. I don't think Hendry is "better" or "worse" than Theo Epstein. But I do think that anyone who actually believes Theo Epstein is going to come in here and work miracles is going to be as sorely disappointed as they were when Baylor, Baker, and Piniella couldn't work them.

_________________
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

On Sept 3rd they were 84-54. That's a .609 winning percentage, or a 99-win pace. They ended up winning 90 games, in by far the best division in baseball. None of this isn't a "Theo can do no wrong" justification. For example, you could argue that he's good with big-money budgets, but we have no idea how he would do with a medium payroll, because he never has had to do that in the past. And that would be valid. But you're guilty of the "We have no reason to believe Theo is any good" argument. Of course he have reason to believe he's good. It's called his past performance. Nobody was ever making the argument that "Theo can do no wrong." That's all in your little head. The argument that you decided to contend was that he's better than Hendry.

WTF? Where are you getting this "miracle" bullshit from. A .500 record on an $88 million dollar budget after 2 years is not a "miracle."

So is Cashman better than Epstein?

_________________
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

what are you two debating? 93 wins get you into the post season almost every year..81 wins never does.

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He's not going to get a .500 record on an $88 million budget. He's created the worst team in the history of the worst franchise since WWII on an $88 million budget. That .500 record is in your little head.

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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

This year it might start due to the 5th PO spot.

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

Not at all in agreement. The Cubs will NOT be a .500 club next year, nor should they be. Without Dempster and Garza, the rotation will be awful save for Sammy-if he continues as he has thus far this season. Rizzo may help a bit, but the offense is too atrocious at this point for one guy to make a huge difference. No-they will be nowhere near .500 next season.

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Go Cubs!!!!