It is pretty obvious that Theo expected there to be more financial support for his rebuild. It clearly isn't there and it seems like it will not be there until at least 2015. It will be Theo who will take the brunt of the complaints for the slow pace of the rebuild. The pressure will be intensified should Hahn's rebuild plan strike before Theo's even reaches MLB. So when does Theo brake bad on management to demand more from them?

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

Maybe he already is calling him out by doing nothing this off season except dumpster diving for 4A players and signing them to minor league contracts.

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

Soon. If none of the wonderprospects pan out this season he'll start dropping quotes about farm systems being a good place to start but without adding top line FAs you just cant compete.

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I think he's doing nothing but what the situation allows. The current public stance appears to be that the fiscal and baseball time frames currently mesh with each other. That rehab project very realistically should have been completed in 2013 with an aggressive ETA of 2012. We are now looking at an ETA of 2015 (probably longer for the hotel). Any more bumbling (and this stare down with rooftop owners is being bumbled) will put the financial side behind the baseball side

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

Is that the same Theo who pissed away 52 million on Jackson?

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

It's been done. Read between the lines on his most recent CSN interview with Kaplan.

Who has two thumbs and has been saying Ricketts is the problem all along?

What about Edwin Jackson though?

The fuck was that?

No shit on that one Jimmy.

Theo said regarding this "we may have got a little ahead of ourselves".

If I've been following this correctly that was a Ricketts call.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Wow.

Any chance the Wrigleys would be interested in reupping with the Cubs?

Ricketts allowed them to spend money that they thought would help them compete in 14/15/16. They thought Jackson had worthwhile value. Obviously he hasn't yet, but he still may.

I feel like the fans are just about ready to turn on Ricketts. They are going to start booing the shit out of him whenever he is mentioned or seen at the park.

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

It's not just him though. If you watched Theo on CSN, it clearly has a lot to do with Wrigley and the city... and being held back there. He flat out says they are far behind where they thought they would be on the revenue side, due to how tough it is to re-work Wrigley and add revenue streams. He even admits he didn't realize it would be this bad (he said after years 1-2 of their 10 year Boston plan, they were exactly on target). That's not entirely Tom's fault.

Never. He continues to develop young talent and by the time there is enough talent at the major league level to contend, there will be new Radio and TV contracts in place that will allow the team to spend the money needed to add whatever talent they need to put them over the top. Until then, they stick to the plan.

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Go Cubs!!!!

Again, per Theo, the plan was to have more revenue to use on payroll by now. And he's admitted frustration with that. He literally admitted the plan is taking longer than expected.

Well, as much as Rahm Emanuel has tried to make it so, Chicago doesn't exist just for obscenely rich people to take whatever they want wherever they want. My sympathy for the Cubs' inability to fill the skies with billboards is limited.

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Ok, I mean yea, no one is crying about it. It's just reality. Their plan didn't take in to account how long it has taken. That's my point. They thought it would be easier to modify the stadium they own and paid for. I can see why they would think that would be easier than it has been.

So are they using the money they're not spending on payroll to pay down the debt service? It was just a few years ago the payroll was around $140M and now it's around $100M. You also have to add in the large increase every team gets from revenue sharing and the monster TV/on line contract. I seriously doubt the Tribune Co/Sam Zell were writing personnel checks so where exactly is all that money going?

I would imagine the profits are going to pay down the debt which was part of the original plan. And that the new revenues were supposed to tie into payroll. Totally a guess, though.

They also thought it would be a cakewalk to claim public roads for private use and breach contracts with their business partners across the street. Maybe they should build a new park at the corner of Division and Chicago; I heard anything goes there.

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

Agree with Bucky Chris that Theo is slowly starting to do that now.

The Cubs rebuild plan has been slowed by multiple factors
-Theo likely thought there would be slightly more money to use at this point than he's being allowed which probably directly ties to:
-The renovation is being significantly more difficult than expected. I'd vote for 200ft high walls around the outfield wall at this point and rooftops owners can f off. Shovels should have been in the ground a couple months ago and now, best case, it's winter 2014 before any work gets started.
-Horrendous timing in terms of the new TV contract. Both in terms of TV market place and the quality/revenue generating possibilities of what's going to be an awful team in 2014, again.


The Cubs in general, Ricketts on down, NEED multiple of these prospects to pan out or all good will is just going to be gone, which I can't argue against.

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Team Cutler.

They thought they could do that stuff, and they are going to do it. It's just taking longer than they thought. Which is the point. If you want to criticize them for not realizing how long it would take, I think that's a valid criticism. Theo admitted as much, saying in Boston, it was a helluva lot easier... so he thought it would be similar in Chicago. And it hasn't.

They are also using the money to build a hotel.

It's fairly obvious that Ricketts is using Theo as coverage to build up his net worth.

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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!

I'd go further than that. The City should use eminent domain to condemn an entire two square mile area around the ballpark and give it to the nice billionaire family to build Rickettsland so the Cubs have enough money to field a team that can win more than 70 games.

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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

So Ricketts has no money to spend, but he said "Ok, give Ed Jackson 48 mill"?


Did Theo know that was a unique oppurtunity and choose to spend it on Jackson? If so, YIKES

Or did he think that was just the beginning of opening up the payroll a bit?

I dont think Ricketts even has a plan. I think he got in over his head and is just scrambling and stalling hoping the development will save him from his poor decisions.



Mark Cuban would have them competing for a World Series by now

I don't think it's fair to look at Jackson through the prism of his atrocious 2013 season. Prior to that he was the same damn guy as Anibal Sanchez who was a lot more costly. What they paid him seemed like a reasonable rate for the type of pitcher he is and that number didn't seem likely to decline. They do have to field a big league team after all. There's grumbling now. Can you imagine how bad it would be if they tried to run with a $40 million payroll? And if they tried that, they would deserve the erosion to the season ticket base it would almost certainly cause.

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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