After some of the most humiliating losses in recent Cub history,where is "The Genius"?
You pragmatists on here can call it what you want,I call it losing. As a Cub fan,it makes
me sick to my stomach. How much further can this team of ragtag,poor young talent
fall? This pitching staff is worse than the one Dusty Baker got saddled with some years back in his last season. You can not come back next season with this kind of crap. You can develop talent,have a young corp,but at least sign some (any) free agents.

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

Boy Genious is working on the SuperBaseball Computron.

5 years, Jimmy, and POOF the Cubs win the World Series. Trust him, he has the algorithms.

You realize it's still been less than one year right? People are acting like it's year three of awful and Theo is remaining silent. Baseball seasons are long. I recommend not really paying attention, it helps.

_________________
Team Cutler.

2003 Tigers

Probably evaluating the entire minor league system which for the most part has concluded all seasons.

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

Waiting for Super Bowl II where he can hope that the Appel falls to him so that they have one bit of pitching talent in the minors

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

He's counting his Ricketts cash and drilling his wife.

I would be!

Sadly, while real work is being done, some fans need a pacifier.

_________________

What do you want him to say?

Fuck that! I'm spending 350 million next season and we are buying a whole new team. I cant believe we lost a Sept series to the best team in baseball.

_________________

All I ask is for a discount, if I am going to wait and Ricketts is going to spend less, then pass it on as I am sure he will be passing on increases.

_________________
"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.’”

They're doing what I always wanted- finding out which of their prospects can play. We have a AAA team at the major league level. We'll see if any of those guys have talent. It's a heck of a lot better than having Reed Johnson and Marlon Byrd in the outfield so that we can win 75 games. It may not work out for Theo, but there is no way you can blame him for the 2012 season.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Yeah but it is an investment. Sometimes investments pan out and sometimes they dont. It didnt this year and probably wont next year but when they are winning a World Series title in 2014, your tickets will be worth double. Triple when they go back to back and win in 2015 as well.

_________________

I understand the premise.

I am even OK with a PSL at this point! Just looking for something, outside of my one day to run on the field.

_________________
"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.’”

some hipster dude in nuthugger jeans and a thirft store blazer complete with a scarf walking down the street with a chick in giant retro "nerd glasses" in a $4 dress down by division/damen just stopped and said "holy shit, there's a great disturbance in the force" ...ironically

_________________

I knew the dumbest meatballs would be blooming before the end of the first year.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Yeah,keep inhaling the freon,Dickslide

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

It is really funny that people who call themselves Cubs fans want results right now. This franchise is in a total rebuilding mode. For chrissakes they are doing it the right way for the first time ever in history. Check out the Rookie Leauge and low class A stats. Lot of talent down there if it develops. Not that it will but if it does WOW. I am the eternal pessimist when it comes to the Cubs but I really think great things could happen in 3-4 years.

Why are you lashing out at me? I knew the Cubs would be garbage this year. Most people paying attention did too. Did you think they'd bring in some big free agents to win 76 games? Were you expecting that they'd trade for some big names at the deadline? Who's really sniffing the freon now?
Look, Jimmy, if you thought that '12 and '13 was going to be anything other than agony to watch then you're dillusional. You don't rebuild a baseball team from the ground up in 4-5 months. They're not going to waste money on free agents to placete the meatball cotingency. So get ready for another year of bad soup because '13 is gonna be equally miserable.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Spot on.

This could be the Cub slogan every singl year for the last century.

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

Yep Darko nailed it.

If we had only signed a couple pieces of trash off the scrap heap this off season all would be well right now...

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

Next year better see SOME improvement.

If you arent moving forward, your moving backward....

The Cubs should have some money to spend next year. I don't think signing a few free agent pitchers will hurt the rebuilding, its not as if the Cubs have some almost ready pitchers to bring up.

Plus if the Cubs are not contending next year, then you can trade those pitchers for prospects, like this year with Maholm. Arguably the best prospect the Cubs received this year came from the Maholm trade.

Are the Cubs going to have a $75 million payroll, when they draw 3 million fans with some of the highest ticket prices in baseball? If the Cubs go cheap next year, what are they going to do with the money? It's not like they are going to use that $30 million on the minor leagues, or hold it in a bank account and use it in 2014.

I guess i am a meatball, but the Cubs are not the Pirates or Royals. Spending some money next year should not hurt rebuilding and could increase the amount of assets the Cubs have at the trade deadline.

I have no problem with them spending money next year or any year. But you want to make sure you are spending it the right way and not just handing out bad money so you can win 5-10 more games next year.

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

Certainly don't spend crazy money like with Soriano....but if Theo is smart, i am sure he can find some guys for one or two year contracts that might be able to help the pitching staff.

Keep every contract to 3 years or under and they really have no detriment on any rebuilding schedule.

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

2013 will probably be like 2012 and hopefully they can find another Maholm or two plus some decent relief pitchers that they can trade at the deadline.

Hopefully Rizzo established himself as a .280 BA .340 OBP 30+ HR 90+ RBI guy and maybe Castillo, BJax or Vitters proves himself capable of being an everyday + WAR type guy.

As for pitchers, Arodys Vizcaino seems like the only minor league guy capable of being anything more than a number 5 type guy so hopefully Shark continues to improve and that they either sign Garza to a reasonable contract or peddle him for a nice haul (much more likely). Wood may emerge as a number 4 but that's about it for the rest of the starters.

As for relief guys, they have Cabrera, Dolis, and Beliveau plus maybe Chapman or Bowden who have a chance of being keepers so hopefully at least 1 establishes themselves.

If I had to predict, they prob start off slow again, then play decent ball, then dump vets at the deadline again and finish in the Top 5 pick range as opposed to this years's Top 2 pick.

Most of the real talent is at Class A so 2015 is the earliest that talent will emerge so they may spend some cash in 2014 to start becoming respectable again for the whole season.

Let's just hope all this front office talent does in fact know how to scout and develop through the draft plus knows how to identify guys via trade who are keepers for the big league team and then when 2015 rolls around, they can drop 60M+ per annum on a real pitching staff and go for it year after year after that (the stated goal of Theo et al).