Talked with an employee of the Bulls last night who told me the impression of folks working for the other sports franchises in town is that Ricketts is going to slice and dice spending anywhere he can.

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Wunnerfuull!

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

EXHIBIT A......the amount of money the fat ass heart patient Silva is owed next season.

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Not sure I understand this... how is this Rickett's fault? Hendry is the GM.



Besides, is there anyone who believed he was going to spend more? This organization is in awful shape. I don't mind them trimming the fat and starting in a new direction.

The point is that Ricketts is going to cut costs any place he can.....It doesn't matter who drove up the debt.

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Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

No, I get that. My point is, why wouldn't he? This organization is bloated, and the way it was running clearly wasn't getting it done.


Lots of businesses need to be stripped down before you can build them back up. This is a work in progress, with a helluva lot of work to do. Too early to give them a report card, IMO.

That is bascially Milton Bradley money. What could Ricketts have done about that?

Ricketts is in a tough situation, no question about that. He really had two ways to go. 1) Bring in new baseball people and rebuild on the fly, or 2) Let all the existing contract expire, including Hendry's, and then rebuild. He chose the latter.

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Johnny, I shouldn't have used one player as an example...He's interested in streamlining the entire business and he has said many times he is looking for new revenue streams.

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There goes one over the fence..Tru Link Fence..Beauty, Privacy Security....Call Tru Link.
Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

I'm all for new revenue streams as long as it goes back into the team. And I'm not talking about a state of the art Arizona training facility. The Cubs biggest problem IMO is that they need better player personnel people. Talent evaluation and acquisition is the most important job in sports.

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The Cubs biggest problem is that %$#*& Toyota sign,right ASFB?

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

then why did he put padding on the dugout benches?

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Are you sure it wasn't a friend of a friend of a cousin of an employee of the Bulls who heard the impressions of folks working for other franchises?
Thanks for the really solid investigative info!!!

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Host of the weekly "We Fish ASA" podcast
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don't say that word around hungry cubs fans! like i just heard on grote-n-rosenbloom (and i must say, grote seems to be better than paruch from just a combined ~30-45 mins of listening whilst in transit) they'll never admit the rebuilding thing in lieu of selling tickets.

but hey, have faith... hendry said that this team is only 3 or 4 moves away from being a real player. suffice to say we're not going to have xavier nady bringing his talents to first base or anything. and i'm sure whoever replaces lilly in the rotation will be the goods. remember, the cubs decided to bullpen/bench a coming-out-of-the-funk zambrano because you couldn't deny the gibsonesque dominance of one tom gorzellany early in the season. is angel guzman under contract? he could come back and be thunder to marmol's lighting. i, for one, can't wait to ride the blake dewitt experience ride that they're going to open up at great america next season.

snarkiness aside, i had been saying for a minute that the cubs are facing a minimum of 3-4 years of suck at some point after they realize there's no point trying to soup up the datsun to have another run at the daytona 500, so by that estimation i think we're starting to open the window of sucktitude. ramirez will be gone after this year, silva in another season or two... i think this is fukudome's last year, and now you're starting to get out of the soriano contract as there's only FOUR MORE YEARS, FOUR MORE YEARS, FOUR MORE YEARS!!

that said, the real shame is that ricketts might be selling snakeoil in claiming he's not rebuilding and staying competitive... i mean, he's gone from that opening press conference to that last statue dedication where he wore those dumbass giant harry caray glasses. that image will stick with me until these cubs actually start making moves, like example, who do you fancy at 3B in 2012? who's the big bad third sacker prospect coming up through the system? who's your RF in 2012? who's your 1B in 2011+? those are big slugging "get me a studly hitter" positions and i don't think the optimal answers are on this roster, or necessarily in the farm system at present.

thank god we retained jim hendry for continuity's sake, eh? =D

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this is flat out dumb...the reason they wont admite the rebuilding thing is because they WONT rebuild...Hendry is so disillusioned that he doesnt WANT to rebuild u dumbass...has nothing to do with selling tickets...the tickets sell no matter what

it has everything to do with Hendry being so starry-eyed that he thinks he is the Yankees...and, like after the 2006 season, he is gonna go for broke and fill his team with veterans and suffocate the young talent...now cut it out with ur conspiracy schemes

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ah...so you'd prefer who they traded him for?

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