Is that a good way to figure value? Is the cost of a WAR win the same for every team?

i still dont have much of a problem with what the cubs are doing. in my opinion it is still to early to say any plan failed. i didnt and still dont agree with the jackson contract, it seemed to come out of nowhere, but other than that i dont have too many complaints. i mean, all cubs fans could see this coming, right? you trade away all your best players for prospects and to save money and your team is going to suck. surprise!

they have a clear group of prospects that they are waiting to come up, guys like baez and soler and almora and bryant and others. if those guys come up and fail, and rizzo too, if he continues to struggle the way he did last season, that is when you say the plan failed. until those guys come up, i wouldnt think you would WANT to go out sign a bunch of guys and have a high payroll. to me, the guys on the current roster are all placeholders (except rizzo and maybe a couple others), i dont want the cubs to sign guys to help a bunch of placeholders finish 3rd or 4th.

i think the cubs have to get these guys up to the big leagues, these prospects we have all been hearing about and waiting for, and THEN spend the money on the pitching and whatever lineup holes exist. dont waste a nickel of money on high-end free agents until you have a young core group of players that can produce. by the end of this season it will start becoming clear how the plan is going, at least to me. i think a couple of these guys should be ready to challenge for roster spots this year. if at the end of 2014 we havent had a sniff of baez or bryant or anyone else id be surprised. at this time next year, spring training 2015, that core group better be ready to move up and play some ball.

I had this back when LaSalle St was talking about Oprah buying the Cubs.

I was talking debt covenants when you guys were talking Kyle Orton.

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You know me like that.

The day Ameritrade went public, I knew the Cubs were screwed

For a lot of guys who knew I was right you certainly argued a lot I wasn't.

Just be thankful people like this author, good dolphin, and me exist to keep the pressure on the team.

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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 only argued because it seems that you think the Ricketts have more financial flexibility than I believe they do.

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You know me like that.

You started being right in 2013


Im glad you joined us.

I think they choose not to have financial flexibility. For instance, the Cubs are in no danger of going bankrupt. It's just advantageous in the long run to be near bankrupt.
Theo joined me then too!

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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!

You can count on us Sox fans to keep the pressure on Cubs management, cuz you know for damn sure the Cub fans won't!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

This article kind of argues against itself. The first 2/3rds is talking about how awful the organization is but the end talks about how they could be very good and interesting soon.

That would indicate that they are, in fact, building something.

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You know me like that.

All 32 teams "are building something". Everybody has a farm system. The Cubs had something going under Dallas Green as far as prospects. Green said when the Cubs fired him,they should have kept superscout Gordie Goldsberry who had some pretty good prospects.

I like to see Theo match this!!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... AG1067512/


Jim Frey fired Goldsberry in 1988 without giving a reason:

The farm system thrived under Goldsberry's direction: 16 of the 29 players on the Cubs' roster at the end of the season were home-grown, among them shortstop Shawon Dunston, outfielders Rafael Palmeiro and Darrin Jackson, first baseman Mark Grace, catcher Damon Berryhill, and pitchers Greg Maddux, Jamie Moyer, Les Lancaster and Mike Harkey.

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

Great article if you're a Sox fan or Cubs fan over 80.
Pujols, Upton, Hamilton, Cano all would look great in a Cubs uniform.

Flys to a turd.

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Kenny Williams fell for the banana in the tailpipe

Caller of the show. Get that man some Browns chicken or at minimum an LJS chicken plank.

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Kenny Williams fell for the banana in the tailpipe

I'll wait to hear what dan bernstein, I mean Joe Sheehan, has to say about it.

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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

do you guys do that from home too?

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"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.’”

I get what you're saying, but there's no actual blame to lay on Theo in the first place.

Okay, there's hypothetical blame.

Still .... the guy's a short bus champion.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

See ya when the corn is ripe, assuming it grows

_________________
"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.’”

Is this Year 3 of likely losing 90+ games under Theo? I agree that rebuilding from the ground up is a strategy worth pursuing for long-term success if there's enough patience and a payoff af the end of the road, but aren't they realistically looking at 5 years into his tenure before some of these younger players are expected to help be the core of a division winning team in a division that seems pretty stacked with Pittsburgh, St.Louis and Cincinnati?

At what point will the Cubs be expected to win 90+ instead of lose 90+?

the core players they have assembled in the minor leagues are all right now average out at the AA level. A couple may start in AAA, a few more in AA, who knows. but with a group that young, you cant expect 90 wins this year. Anyone who thought that when Theo took over he was going to clear out all the bad money, fully stock a minor league system, develop the new young players and have a World Series contending team in 3 or less years was kidding themselves. i actually think time-wise they are pretty much on schedule. If this young group doesn't pan out when they all come up together, then you can say the plan has not worked. it just happens that the nucleus of talent (if this team does in fact have one) is not quite big-league level yet. i dont think you can speed up the process and hold it against Theo that some of these young guys just arent ready yet. those young kids are the eggs in his basket, and he knows it.

these days more and more kids are jumping straight from AA to the bigs - maybe a couple of these guys can make a similar jump. I just think there could be something good developing here in the next year or so. im not ready to give up on a plan when those kids are finally right on the horizon. after this season i will re-evaluate and may be more in agreement that it is not looking good, but i think things are actually about where they expected right now.

Expected? I would opine no later than 2016 .... 2015 would be a conceit but perhaps not entirely out of the question.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

It gets worse. I guess the Cubs are out on Tanaka:

From Bob Nightengale via Twitter


The #Dodgers have let it be known they plan to go all-out in their efforts to sign Tanaka, saying they and certainly won't be out-bid.
12:46 PM - 10 Jan 2014

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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

Here's an interesting read about the various covenants that restricts their budget. As I've said all along, Ricketts is buried in debt and is also buried behind legal restrictions because his daddy was only willing to cough up 20% of the purchase price in actual cash.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/19200327 ... -debt.html

I am happy with what the farm system is doing but I think it is total BS that they are not doing anything this offseason to upgrade Wrigley Field for the players. No batting cages for the pinch hitters to get ready during the game, no upgrades to the player workout facilities or clubhouse, etc.

Bottom line is we Cubs fans are stuck with an ownership group that has its hands tied and that does not portend good things down the road.

Ricketts is also very hush hush about all this so we really don't know when if ever these restrictions will ease.

Not good. At all.

Hopefully Papa Joe Ricketts tells little Tommy to sell in a couple years so we can get a real ownership group with the capital and the willingness to invest that capital into making the Cubs a real big market team with not only a well run scouting and minor league system but also with the ability to drop big cash when necessary on top talent and on state of the art facilities as well.

I think that Zell needed things to be structured the way they were with Ricketts taking on all that debt.

_________________
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 is all Jerry's fault for leading the fight against Mark Cuban being allowed to buy the Cubs.

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

This is true. Cuban wanted to buy the Cubs bad and he got the ole blackball.

And yes, Jerry knew Cuban would drop 200M per annum on payroll and make the Sox look like spendthrifts and Jerry wanted no part of that.

Damn shame.

Cpguy, you're letting these Sox dickheads get in your head.

I hope they start outbidding themselves.

Them blackballing him is total bullshit. What justifiable reason did they have for not allowing him to bid on the Cubs? Fuck Jerry and his cronies.

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

Just not a fan of Ricketts. Theo's plan and execution thereof has been good.

I am not all influenced by Sox fans. I wish them well.

I want to see a World Series banner on the North side and I feel the best way to get that done is if Ricketts sells.

I also know that the goodwill for Tommy Boy is gone. His ass will be getting booed possibly as soon as next weekend at the Cubs Orgy.

That would be hilarious.

They didn't need a reason. They had (and have) the power. They didn't want to see a real billionaire come in and disrupt things.

Big boy politics.