With the Pirates farm system wouldn't be unrealistic that they're better than the Cubs looking forward in 3 years. The Cubs have a free agent, trade, draft burdensome history of poor talent evaluation.

A fruity pop out to second for our hero.

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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

Is called up Nelson Velázquez in the witness protection program? He's their 16th rated prospect. Needs more mentoring?

It's more important to give ABs to a guy who prays to be back over .200 soon.

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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

When his ops went below 600 I said maybe 500? I was just joking. This freefall is amazing.

I see he got a hit. A single to right. I think that makes him 3 for his last 30.

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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

One of the worst cubs teams I’ve ever seen.

Really would like to see Ross manage a legit north side team, but it’s not looking good.

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you just hate to see it

Kap interviewed Hoyer. Hoyer lawyer talked in circles. They point blank asked him why Heyward is playing when he's sunk cost. He of course brought up leadership & mentoring and refused to answer the question. K & H gutlessly had no follow-up to him not answering and moved on to the next question.

Generally speaking the interviewers don’t want to damage the relationships with players, coaches, executives by provoking an on air argument.

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Like it or not, Hoyer's non descript and non direct answer is indeed an answer. He's telling you in a way that ownership is not going to pay Heyward for nothing.

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Why not? In a way they are already doing just that.

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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

Interestingly the K & H question "why is Heyward playing daily" to Hoyer might of been the only question not followed up, or Hoyer's answer discussed.

In a century and a half of mostly bad teams, this is the worst 162-game stretch in franchise history. They're that bad.

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Most interviewees are not WYC-era Ditka.

And most interviewees are not obligated to be interviewed. "Why do you suck?" is not a terribly useful interview question most of the time.

That's what made Lorenzo Cain's departure from Milwaukee so different. He basically went, "yeah, I suck at this piont, can we wait until day X and then when you release me I'll retire." And then Cain went on the record and said so.

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

Must of been turn back the clock day.

Kap asked Hoyer, "The club's not playing well. It's got to be fixed...How did we get to this point where we're rebuilding in Chicago for the second time in 10 years... Here we are again... How does this happen?"

He didn’t answer that very directly or succinctly but if you knit together various answers of his throughout the entire 30 minutes he acknowledges that he and Theo failed to do a variety of things. All the things we know at this point. Draft, develop homegrown talent, especially pitchers as well as adapt to the way the game was evolving.

I’m fine with that admission but frankly what else can he say at this point.

What is most annoying is how he dances around the spending issue. He says he’s never once been concerned about the financial commitment ownership has made to the on field product and that money will be spent when the time is right. But when pressed for when the time will be right he says he’s not comfortable giving timelines…

A direct question I would have asked is “what’s the down side of ownership spending on a few big name free agents while the young talent develops, so that the on the field product will be at least watchable? Clearly baseball is not basketball where one or two big name free agents all but guarantees you a playoff spot, but why have the wheelbarrows full of cash Crane and Tom once referenced been completely MIA the last several seasons? And if the answer is simply COVID, then why do the Cubs seem to have been significantly more effected by that than the other teams of similar market size?

That would have been a great line of questioning. And it is even harder for Hoyer to defend since he (and/or Ross) is playing a bust like Heyward, so he can't say he doesn't want to sign other FA at the expense of getting a look at the prospects.

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Hoyers in a win-win situation even if the rebuild fails. He'll always work for good pay in MLB no matter what happens. He's pretty slippery to corner in an interview. His goal is just survive and keep cashing the paychecks. Never really say anything. We've only seen the tip of the iceberg with MLB gambling revenues. Winning might not even be that important for revenue like it is in the NFL. Hoyers not losing any sleep over any sustained winning missteps. Probably laughs his ass off at the loyal Cubs fans.

I think that’s a pretty poor read on him frankly.

I don’t think he’s there to simply cash checks and survive. He’s not Gar Forman for christsakes.

I think he took this job after Theo left knowing it was gonna be very difficult from a PR standpoint but truly wanting the chance to build something of his own. I’d also be willing to bet he’s been a bit blindsided by how tight Ricketts asshole has been from a check writing standpoint.

Now all he can do is try and make the most of it.

First of all Ricketts isn't tight.
Second of all if some asshole coming to you asking for 200 million for a guy is the same clown show that signed Heyward are you giving him the money?

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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

Let me rephrase then if you take exception with the word tight.

This year the cubs are right at league average for payroll. Coming in behind the likes of ATL, TOR, STL, and the other team in town. And about 10 million ahead of Minnesota, Detroit and Texas. And only 13 million ahead of the Brewers.

Last year, they were 12 million above league average good for 13th in all of baseball. Equal to Toronto and the nationals and 4 million ahead of the sox.

I think all that is completely unacceptable. Falling out of the top 5 in an attempt to shed some payroll during a few “re-load” type down years….fine I get that.

Falling out of the top 12 and being right at league average while you completely rebuild? I think that’s a bit ridiculous.

What’s the reason for these massive cuts in payroll? COVID? Marquee? The plaza? Renovating Wrigleyville was supposed to be from a “separate bucket” than baseball operations? Clearly that’s not the case.

As far as trusting Jed to sign impact free agents? If Tom was gonna hold the JHey signing against in for eternity then why the fuck did he promote him from GM in the first damn place.

Thing that separates the Cubs from the Dodgers, Yankees, & Cards is poor talent evaluation. Spending doesn't cure all ills. Hoyer could sign another Heyward for 8 years. The whole front office should of been cleaned out. Hoyer should be asked why Jason McCloud stuck around all these years with poor drafts. Hoyer hung on to Baez, Bryant, and Rizzo too long where all they could bring are 19 year olds. Hoyer today played the COVID, injury, and world series win cards masterfully. I will say Kap & Hood other than no Heyward follow-up did all they could do pinning down the little weasel without muddying the waters for future interviews. M & H were as expected fawning company shills.

The last time Heyward had back-to-back multi hit games was late August of '21

Last back-to-back multi RBI games was mid June '20.

I was hoping that maybe Hoyer and Epstein were at odds and Jed was the one who saw the "core" as a bunch of underperformers who Theo refused to get rid of. But I have seen precious little from Hoyer to think he is the answer. Maybe he can sign Aaron Judge for $400m.

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To be clear I don’t really care that much about this but I’ve got some time so fuck it…

I totally agree that spending doesn’t cure all ills. Look at the past 20 years of the Angels. Hell even the Yankees over the last decade and a half. So we are in agreement there.

Also, I don’t think you’ll see another 6 plus year contract from this ball club for a while. And if we do see one, it will definitely be the exception and not the rule. In other words, I think the organization has learned from the Heyward debacle in more ways than one.

Ultimately my point is that I totally understood Ricketts wanting to work within a budget during 2020. I was also on board with flipping the core to simultaneously get younger and avoid long term high AAV contracts that sure would have become albatross like.

What I don’t understand is why this team is going to lose 100 games while also being league average in payroll. Not only that, this team is YEARS away from being a true contender.

Why would any reasonable fan invest their time in this roster? No names that suck and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. There is absolutely no one that is truly worth tuning in for in a nightly basis. So, why not give the fans a few names that can actually play that ups the entertainment value?

Ultimately the dogshit place this organization is in is despicable

it's looking like every time there's a stated/unstated 'rebuild', that equates to a cash windfall for a patch of time. the obligatory lower payroll only pads the other revenues still coming in. there's no other reason for mngt. to appear to look forward to and/or take glee in rebuilds.

I was supportive of bringing Villar in during the off-season given the injuries to Bote and Madrigal, and the hitting uncertainty around Wisdom and Schwindel.

I was totally wrong. He is toast, and they need to cut him before the plane leaves Pittsburgh tonight.

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

Quintana is better than that fatass Lynn.

Getting throttled by Cuntana for six innings so far is the ultimate gut punch to this sorry ass season...