I know you guys will give me shit about this but no way should the Cubs let John Jay slip away via FA.

He signed with KC while the Cubs search for a leadoff man.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/ka ... 67049.html

Guy batted .296 last year.

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

This is not a mistake.

Right move. Almora needs to play.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Only got room for so many. Not gonna lament a 1.1 WAR player being left out of a deep, deep team. Besides, nobody else was as expendable as Jay was:

Anthony Rizzo: signed through 2019, team options for 2020 and 2021 (that will almost certainly be exercised)
Javier Baez: arb-eligible 2019, 2020, 2021, free agent after 2021
Addison Russell: arb-eligible 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, free agent after 2022
Kris Bryant: arb-eligible 2019, 2020, 2021, free agent after 2021
Ben Zobrist: signed through 2019
Tommy La Stella: arb-eligible 2019, 2020, free agent after 2020
Kyle Schwarber: arb-eligible 2019, 2020, 2021, free agent after 2021
Albert Almora Jr.: not arb-eligible until 2020, free agent after 2022
Jason Heyward: signed through 2023, opt-out after 2018 (which will probably not be exercised)
Ian Happ: not arb-eligible until 2021, free agent after 2023
Willson Contreras: not arb-eligible until 2020, free agent after 2022

Two words: Team. Control. So quite obviously none of them are going anywhere. Can't be a mistake when the choice is essentially already made via contracts. If he could catch, then we'd be on to something; but he can't so that's why they're also keeping old man Gimenez. No room at the inn for Jon Jay. That's all there is to it.

Let's nip these threads in the bud before the season starts.

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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

Nice stat research,DT but .BA never lies.

Not one of the above players batted .296 AND Jay finished 7th in AB's.


https://www.mlb.com/video/jays-game-sav ... c-83287283


https://www.mlb.com/news/video-did-jon- ... c-38992614

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

Good God man, I told you stats had nothing to do with it. Nothing.

TEAM CONTROL aka Team-Friendly Contracts.

Besides, BA isn't the vaunted stat it used to be either.

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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

Wake me up when TEAM CONTROL wins a World Series.

I understand what you are saying. Nowadays though when most teams have a bunch of "swing and miss" types on their rosters,it's nice to see a guy who can hit for average.

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

Eh, I'm old enough to appreciate what you're saying.

Team Control seeks to win MANY World Series btw ... they're up to 1 at the moment with essentially the same core of guys to give it at least three, maybe four, more great runs.

Apropos of nothing, for whatever reason earlier today I was thinking how I missed watching Pete Rose bounce the baseball back to the mound after the third out ... then I realized I missed anyone leaving the ball near the mound for the opposing pitcher.

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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

Terrible thread

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Leave jimmy & me alone!!!!!

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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

I love Jay and he was really good last year, but at they have to see what they have in guys like Happ and Almora. There is already a logjam in the OF. They had no choice but to let him go and roll with their young guys.

But I am happy you have your new Keppinger Jimmy

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

They never should have picked him up to begin with

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I know one guy who did, Almora, you know, the guy they are probably going to give all the Jay at bats too.

Signing Jay was a good move, not re-upping him was a good move.

Bad Theo moves are Jhey, Edwin Jackson, not getting Verlander, paying Darvish instead of Lance Lynn for half the dough.

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And bad non-move: Not trading Schwarber to an AL team when his value had peaked.

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Jay is an everyday outfielder on a 75 win team, a 4th outfielder on a near-playoff team playing meaningful minutes,

I think the organization was surprised at how Happ acquitted himself when he made the big league team. I think he was being showcased to be traded in July, and they decided they had to keep him. That plus the fact that LaStella also can stand at 2B or 3B made Jay expendable unless they could have convinced Zobrist to retire.

With Jay gone, LaStella is going to be the first bat off the bench this year. Somehow Theo/Jed/Joe have convinced LaStella that until he's a FA, being an old style pinch hitter specialist on a good team is better than playing 2B every day for the A's or the Rays. For all of Joe's hippie bullshit, in game he manages in a style a lot like Earl Weaver.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Ummmm, 2016?

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heyward = gave a rousing speech during the rain delay in game 7 of the world series. intangibles, m8, intangibles.

edlose jackson = if you remember there was an outcry for theo to spend money at the time, so he did a brilliant move and spent 4/52mil on a guy who he could COUNT ON to come in here and lose 15+ games a year. there's actually a subtle artform to being a pitcher who loses that many games, as you have to be (theoretically) good enough to stay in the rotation to keep losing that many games. whether it be the big contract or whether it be the tantalizing bits that edwin jackson could go 10-12 at his peak or something, didn't he stay in the rotation and lose 15+ games a year as a cub? yeah he went 8-18 and then 6-15 before being released in july 2015 (when he was a fairly cromulent reliever for the cubs)

verlander = ehhh you might be right there. even tho verlander prolly woulda been academic in the NLCS cuz he wouldn't hit singles/doubles for the cubs.

darvish = you'll like the japanese pitching machine. and dude, who gives a fuck about saving the cubs money? have you seen all the construction going on around wrigley? ricketts was able to brilliantly leverage "the plan" against the time needed to get him some of bernstein's vaunted "revenue streams" so the guy's doing ok with the team that daddy's money got him. and shit, why not spend big on a guy who had a 3.something ERA in the launching pad that is texas for all but one season? those strikeout #s are legit and the dude's solid... might have petered out in the world series but he's japanese and you know seppuku (aka ritual sudoku where they plummet the knife/sword into their stomach to take their lives over great shame) will be on his mind if he fails his most generous employers again. you gotta love that kind of culture in your clubhouse.

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At the end of the Hendry regime, I told friends and people over at Bleed Cubbie Blue that the Cubs were first and foremost a family real estate play, and that required that the team both go into the toilet and then eventually win at all costs. But only after the Ricketts family and their various holding companies snapped up all the prime real estate. Killing the skybox revenue and depressing the Wrigleyville F&B scene with a truly shitty team from 2010-2014 was just part of the plan.

I never doubted Tom Ricketts' fandom or his desire to have the Cubs win a WS. But he wouldn't have bought the team if it wasn't for the real estate profits to be made.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

I don't put a damn thing in the " heyward speech" I'm thinking 4 or 5 guys said something and obviously they want to include tbe 170 million dollar bust..by all accounts he's a great guy and team mate.. His signing was a huge mistake and the Cubs win in 5 without him.

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Yup

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what?

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

This is true. Almora was ready and should have been the everyday CF all last year.

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Go Cubs!!!!

Don't forget Ian Stewart.

Not having a legit leadoff hitter since Fowler and thinking it's okay not to go get one.

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Go Cubs!!!!

Jimmy, you need to pick better hills to die on. John Jay is a slappy hitter. Sure his BA was one of the best on the team last year, but let's be honest that a guy who's most similar player on baseball reference, Debs Garms, famous player for the St. Louis Browns and Boston Bees... https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/garmsde01.shtml, isn't going to be the guy that wins you a world series.

Poor old Debs is dead by the way. Buried in Squaw Creek Cemetery, Glen Rose, TX.

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