Yes, they are, considering Cubs are Top 5 in that stretch. No team is a close second to the Yankees. If you want to go through the effort, add up all the teams: http://www.stevetheump.com/Payrolls.htm

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Heyward isn't wasted money.

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'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

Go on...

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

There is no reason to add up all the teams because you said the Cubs payroll was similar to the Yankees over the last 20 years. The other teams have no bearing on this. And I like how you threw in the "no team is a close second" qualifier.

Used either the first two or three numbers of the payroll to save you further embarrassment

Yankees payroll total 1999-2019 : 3 billion 667 million
Cubs payroll total 1999-2019 : 2 billion 290 million

Now if a difference of over a billion dollars is "close", I guess we have different opinions of what the meaning of that word is. Like I said, not even comparable.

The hills you choose to die on are head scratching.

Im just stating my opinion that a multiple gold glove winning outfielder, who certainly isn't the worst hitter in baseball and is still relatively young in the game isn't the worst contract signing ever, nor should he be sought to be traded. Im not trying to convince anyone. I'm just adding my thought.

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'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

And you are so wrong. Try harder.

ok, what hot prospect did the cubs have to play RF or CF at the level Heyward has? None. Or, who could/would they have targeted in free agency they could afford or desire to sign long term in the years since? there aren't many.

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'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

Level he has.

youre right. gold glove is nothing. you should manage teams.

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'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

His gold glove dosen't hit. Still wrong. You should try to recognize a great player from a wanna be one.

His dwar over 3.5 season with the Cubs is a 2.7 total. Less than 1 game a season.
Maybe we overestimate his defensive talent. His dwar last season was 0.1 and it is this season this far.

In other words 100MM is a lot of money for a defensive specialist that's less than 1 game better defensively than a replacement player.

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

The Yankees have no problem eating bad money. The Ricketts seem completely opposed to eating bad money. I think the only bad contract they ate was some shitty closer Theo brought in during his 1st or 2nd year....and Duensing.

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

They ate part of the Edwin Jackson contract.

That couldn't have been that much. He played the majority of the contract for the Cubs. 15.6 mil. That is nothing compared to what they should be eating on Heyward.

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

Smart teams admit a mistake and move on. The person or persons responsible for the bad deals usually aren't around to do it again. I am of the mindset that they will never win another WS with this regime.

12.5 million eaten.

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

I think you considering the Cubs a small payroll team is head scratching. They aren't the Yankees. No one is the Yankees. The Cubs spend as much or more than 28 other teams and have relatively few albatross contracts to show for it, but you want to "die on the hill" and get pissy that the Cubs currently have 3-4 big contracts. Oh no! The Cubs won the World Series (first time in awhile if you remember) after one of these contracts were signed, and a year after another big contract was signed. 2 of the other big deals are in Year 2, and there have been plenty of contracts in pro sports that didn't look good at the beginning but panned out.

Do you want the Cubs to stop being in the mix for top free agents? Do you want a Jose Abreu type contract to be the Cubs biggest deal?

The Cubs have largely hit on free agent deals. Most free agent deals don't live up to their AAV. You're mostly signing 30+ players that have already had their career years.

The Cubs have made out better than most.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

With this regime the person responsible for most of the good draft picks is the guy before Theo. The draft and development of this regime has been atrocious. Look at the Dodgers. They draft in the late first round every single year and they have prospects flowing out of their ass year in and year out.

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

I tell ya what really pisses me off, DJ Lemehieu has 28 hits with runners in scoring position this year. The Cubs are the worst team in Mlb with runners on. They traded away a guy who was hitting well for a fucking bum. They had a chance to sign him again this year and reupped that shitbag Addy.

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That's swell and all but it really doesn't change the fact that Heyward is performing at a replacement level defender and just at to below replacement level at bat.

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

Hendry was a great GM. He would have done better FA wise than this group. Baez was his pick let us not forget.

That's correct, and it still makes him the second most effective hitter out of the OF group and the second most effective defender out of the OF group.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Tim Wilken drafted Baez, Hendry was a moron.

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Hes replacement level. I've watched him pooch way too many RiSP opportunities and positively stink in the playoffs and in late innings. The data is there.
If hes not performing above replacement level replace him and see if a replacement can play above his level with regular reps.
It's time to cut bait. He does not work.
It's all right there in the data.

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

Well he is .6 WAR so slightly over replacement level.

Anyway, the stats also show that his hard hit percentage, XBH% and ISO are as high as they've been in a long time while having an unusually low BAbip, even for him. So projections would have him performing even better as the season goes on. Positive regression.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

We'll see. I'd pull the plug. I'd rather give a replacement some reps.

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

They're also not very high.

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I'm not getting pissy.... I showed you that there was over a billion dollar difference between the Yankees and Cubs payrolls over the last 20 years. That is not similar or even remotely close which was your original argument. You then typed a paragraph that had nothing to do with the original disagreement.

At no point did I say the Cubs spend like a small market club. The Cubs spend plenty of money and have spent a ton of it badly. Because of those deals, they had to trade Drew Smyly (who they paid to rehab) so they could pick up the option on Hamels who they had to trade for because of the failure of Darvish and Chatwood. Then they had to wait until what looks to be the retiring of Zobrist so they could spend money to sign Kimbrel to replace another bad signing in Morrow.

The Cubs have had three monster contracts. Lester, Darvish and Heyward. If two don't pan out? Uh oh.

Hey, Hey!

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

and Contrearas

arguably the two most key pieces on this team

I also think he would have been able to Bryant, as he was the clear pick at that spot

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