The Cubs' season has mercifully ended and now things get interesting again as Theo continues his overhaul of the entire organization.
All Coaches Returning Next Year, Please Step Forward. Not So Fast, Pat…
The strains of the final playing of "Go Cubs Go" were still echoing in the park when the team announced Pat Listach would not be returning in 2013. Lucky bastard. I wonder what he did wrong?
"He did a great job, and it's not anything he did," Sveum said.
Ok… well… it appears they loved his coaching so much, they decided to cut it short. /Quade'd
Hope You Enjoyed Iowa, Boys
Theo had a season-ending press conference and among the snippets tweeted out (which I'm sure will be covered more thoroughly later) were his thoughts on Brett Jackson and Josh Vitters:
"We will build the 2013 team this winter on the assumption that Vitters and Jackson are going back to AAA."
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) October 4, 2012
#Cubs Theo on Brett Jackson "his swing just wasn't ready for this level."
— Rafer Weigel (@RaferWeigel) October 4, 2012
#Cubs Theo "J Vitters has struggled on every level initially. It takes him longer to adjust. Not surprising. It'll help him in the long run"
— Rafer Weigel (@RaferWeigel) October 4, 2012
I saw in the last thread that people had varying takes on what Theo's words mean, but I personally think they are hoping to still work on Jackson's swing so he can one day become useful in the majors, and they aren't going to cut Vitters or anything, but I think their expectations of him are dwindling. But he did not commit to either player as part of the Cubs' future, so I'm guessing this was mostly a way to spin their less-than-optimal debuts as positively as possible as they head into the off-season trade talks. I would not be shocked in the least if either or both of these guys are packaged with someone (Soriano? Marmol?) in an attempt to pry some starting pitching away from somebody.
Gordo and Boras Do Not Care For the Cubs' Rebuild Strategy
I honestly don't know what Gordo was getting at except that he was displeased and he was quoting Scott Boras as his expert-in-the-know to support his uneasiness with Theo's rebuild plan.
“They’ve sold you guys a bill of goods,’’ agent Scott Boras said.
Then Gordo goes through a list of reasons why the Cubs have more money to spend to superficially build the major league team up while they fix the foundation in the background, but that's easy to say when it's not your money. Boras obviously wants the Cubs to be players in the free agent market because he wants as many large market teams bidding against each other as possible. Scott Boras doesn't give two shits about what is best for the Cubs. He wants the most money for his clients and himself so he is suckering guys like Gordo into writing stories like these to rile up the masses. The problem is that Theo isn't as gullible.
Theo: “The dollars you spend in major-league free agency provide the lowest return on investment of any dollarswe spend in baseball ops."
— Bruce Miles (@BruceMiles2112) October 4, 2012
(via MO)
Did We Move the OV Forums Again?
Yes. http://www.obstructedview.net/community/topic/new-new-forums
Why?
I don't fucking know. Spam or some shit.
GIF of the Day
GIF of the Day 2: Electric Boogaloo
(Thanks to GBTS for both GIFs of the day)
A's Pitcher Pat Neshek and His Family Need Some Thoughts and Prayers. Seriously
Shortly after the A's clinched the division, Pat Neshek sent out a depressingly soul-crushing tweet:
Please pray for my family.Tonight my wife & I lost our first & only son 23 hours after he was born with no explanation.
— Pat Neshek (@PatNeshek) October 4, 2012
I can't comprehend the rollercoaster of emotion he and his family must have gone through yesterday.
Far Less Important and Far Less Depressing News About Moving a Wall at Wrigley
Because we can't end on that note, here's one last blurb about the Cubs getting approval from the Commission on Public Landmarks to move the wall behind home plate an extra 3 feet closer to home plate. This addition to the ballpark is expected to accomodate one more row of 56 seats from which rich assholes can mime giving blowjobs to the camera.
Thanks for reminding me that Dennis Miller used to be funny and original.
Man, listening to this Theo presser on The Score, it’s really, really good. He knows exactly what he’s up against.
Now that Brett Jackson comment makes SOOOOO much more sense.
Here’s the context of the quote:
I have no idea why every fucking writer in town is divorcing this quote of context, but fuck them for doing it.
Theo is really good on FA:
“You don’t want to have to go into free agency telling yourself you need free agents. When you dot hat you know you’re in trouble.”
Says FAs too often get paid for past performance and so he prefers not to rely on FA.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Makes you wonder what was up in the last couple seasons in Boston then.
GW, regarding the last thread, I think I mentioned last night that trying to rebuild only through the farm system is the equivalent of a Hail Mary. I couldn’t agree more with what you wrote even if it took me longer to get to where you were rather quickly. I do think this team picks up an impact free agent. They kind of have to because it’s going to be very difficult to accrue the talent that they need to content by only attacking amateur talent. And it’s not like you can really attack that front anymore since you’re so limited.
(dying laughing)
@ Rice Cube:
I got the impression he was speaking from experience there. Sounds like he might have learned a hard lesson or two.
Theo said they let Listach go because of a difference in philosophy, said he didn’t think Listach was a bad coach, just Listach’s philosophy and that of the org weren’t really matching up.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
That’s interesting considering the comments Bill James had recently.
Agree with MO that Theo is a very good speaker. I’m anxious to see what they do this offseason. I don’t expect the 2013 Cubs to be any good, but the rebuilding has to start and the farm system is only one part.
I know MO referenced a tweet in the last thread about getting the least amount of value on free agents, which I’m sure is true. I do wonder though, how much money do teams spend on player development and what kind of return do they get? It seems to me every article I’ve read on this looks at this guy earning league minimum and being worth 3 WAR. Well, what about all the players who never advanced above A ball? What about all of the expenses required to develop this talent? I’m sure it still favors amateur talent. I’d be surprised if it didn’t.
@ mb21:
Yeah, I think Theo has really had to reconsider the way he’s valuing players, or at least that’s the vibe he was giving off in his comments. These comments from James kind of confirm that suspicion for me.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
That was sortave what I was going to say. He experienced some professional failure in Boston regarding free agents and now knows better how to deal with it. And, the Cubs WILL be players in free agency, but this ignores the fact of how hard it is to negotiate with guys when you’re as bad as this team currently is. Also, only certain players really make sense. We can only really sign two types of players; 1) Holdovers for burgenoing minor leaguers or 2) Impact talents who are still relatively young
Youk fits 1. Greinke and Upton fit 2. Still, I don’t think there’s any reason to mortgage the system for Upton, considering the presence of Almora, Jackson, and Soler. Remember, Theo did a whole lot of things well in Boston, I for one, will trust him and be awaiting the fun of this offseason.
@ Jed Jam Band:
I’d go for Greinke, BJ Upton, and Youk. All they cost is money, and only Greinke will command top dollar.
They could always re-sign Dempster and trade him to Atlanta at the deadline, out of sheer spite. (dying laughing)
It’s nice to see Theo say this stuff about FA’s because before this season, there was a lot of “he’s good at everything but FA’s” talk. Maybe take 2 will be better for him.
On BJU, if his defensive issues are bad routes to balls, then OF coach Dave McKay can probably fix it, as he did with Soriano this year. BJ probably never had daily OF coaching.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
I wouldn’t be the least surprised if they didn’t re-sign Dempster. But I kind of hope they don’t.
I think the rebuild philosophy was explained between the lines by Theo: We might trade 40% of a rotation. Do it. Sign guys like Maholm and when they work out, trade them for talent while you pay their salary. That’s how big market teams are going to rebuild farm systems quickly.
This is from the bbtf link a couple of threads back. Not sure how useful it would be in practice (most of the bad contracts are really bad, to the point where teams just don’t want the player in question), but it’s sort of an interesting idea that hadn’t occurred to me.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Wow. That’s piss poor.
@ GBTS:
Yeah, I was completely shocked when I heard the full thing. There was enough in the answer to fill a paragraph (he went to speak in a bit more detail about how they had handled Jacksons and how they knew he was really going to struggle), and every one of the local scribes runs with one fucking sentence, and on top of that, they treat it like it’s an assessment of Jackson’s season, instead of a stipulation when they called him up! It’s awful, awful reporting.
Mercurial Outfielder wrote:
Is there any other reporting?
Blast from the blog meme past…
http://news.yahoo.com/usa-today-founder-honors-nd-olive-garden-reviewer-230644977.html
Hmmmm…how can the Cubs make this work so they can get Justin Upton…
St Bernardus Abt 12 is currently trying to help me forget about politics and this shitty season. It’ll be better tomorrow with something to distract me (namely, a “play-in” (whatever the fuck that word means)).
No baseball tonight??
@ GBTS:
But the Rams and the Cardinals are playing. And historically speaking, they’re kind of the same team. So it’s weird. I know that sounds strange, but trust me. Turn it on. Weird.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
What internet is it on? Is it on internet?
(Drunk)
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Weren’t the Rams in LA before they went to STL? I know the Cardinals started in STL though.
@ Rice Cube:
The Cardinals started in Chicago, believe it or not.
@ Rice Cube:
Cards went Chicago to StL, to Arizona. Rams went LA to StL. It’s just weird because I have memories of both teams playing in the same place.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
They played at Comisky, I think. And people cared about them then about as much as they do now. Which is none.
@ josh:
The Cardinals do have a sweet field that slides out on a tray though if I recall correctly. I don’t know why such a technology is needed, but it’s still cool.
@ Rice Cube:
Slides out on a tray? WTF? Really?
Apparently, Bradford just threw a 51 yard TD. I think the Cards are going to lose this one.
@ josh:
http://www.universityofphoenixstadium.com/stadium/statistics
Apparently there is a method to the madness. The grass field slides out to get as much sun as possible before heading back in for events. Actually really clever.
@ Rice Cube:That’s the craziest shit I’ve ever heard. I like it, though. The thing said it weighs 18.9 million pounds. That’s literally inconceivable.
@ Berselius:
I’ve only seen a couple episodes of the BBC Sherlock show but I really like it. It’s made by the same dudes who do Doctor Who. Kinda makes me wish I had watched Doctor Who way back when before the revival.
@ Rice Cube:
From what I gather from Who fans, you’re better off just sticking with the revival.
FWIW there are only 6 episodes of Sherlock. MOAR PLEASE.
@ Berselius:
My wife tells me the Fourth Doctor has some of the best of the older episodes.
@ Rice Cube:
I watched the first series of the revival with that guy who only lasted one series (ooOOOoo, British terms!), and I enjoyed it. I only watched one episode of the next guy. I can’t explain why. I have ADD or someth–SHINY OBJECT!
AZ is sucking it up in terms of penalties.
@ Rice Cube:
That’s like saying that Travis Wood is the best pitcher remaining in the Cubs rotation.
@ Berselius:
In context, the Fourth Doctor was pretty memorable.
The new BBC Sherlock is the shizznittlebamsnipsnapsnap.
Also, Benedict Cumberbatch is the most British name, ever.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Isn’t there also a new American Sherlock? Oh, now that I think about it it had Lucy Liu.
OOOH! I get the joke now.
I’m smrt.
@ GW:
I think that would be relatively easy to study and I don’t think it would be productive. We’re talking about salary dump type players. The Cubs have tried to trade him for nearly a year. They actually succeeded, but Soriano declined. We have no idea what the Giants were willing to give the Cubs, but based on the lack of interest I think we can assume it wasn’t much. We have good reason to believe the Cubs were willing to eat nearly all of his contract and would have gotten little in return (more than likely). And Soriano is actually still productive.
I think for this approach to be effective they’d have to target guys like Cliff Lee and then be willing to eat nearly all of his contract. The question is, would the return on that investment be worth it? It would basically be a gigantic signing bonus for unproven talent. I think you’d be better off spending on free agents.
Teams have trouble trading these guys for a reason. It would be a huge risk to do something like this and in all likelihood you get nothing in return.
@ mb21:
Yeah, that’s my general impression, too. Interesting thought, though.
@ GW:
Yeah, I’d never thought of it either. Took me a few minutes to think it over. We could be wrong, but I don’t see teams willing to give away elite prospects for salary dumps (has it ever happened?).
@ mb21:
well, the bosox got a pretty decent haul (dying laughing), but the dodgers are lunatics
@ GW:
Ned Coletti is the new market inefficiency.
@ Berselius:
I believe he’s the new Star Trek villain.
@ GW:
Sometimes the answer is too easy.
@ mb21:
I think we’ll see this happen in some cases, particularly for big market teams that are down. Not that I can think of any at the moment. I see it happening like this.
1. Suppose there is a small market team with an underperforming bigger contract player. They may be willing to basically dump that player for payroll freedom. Example: Ubaldo Jimenez. Cubs pick him up for Josh Vitters or one of our Aug/Sept call-up starters, whose names I’ve already forgotten. If Ubaldo sucks, well, that’s not going to hurt 2013 much. If he performs well, as he has in the past, then you trade him for good prospects while paying his salary.
2. Soriano/Lee types. Soriano doesn’t want to go somewhere cold, but he’d be a good fit in a southern AL market like Texas, Houston, Tampa, Carolina (oh, wait, they don’t have a team yet). I think he could still bring a good prospect or two, and if the Cubs eat most of his salary, he should bring something decent. Same for Lee, if the Cubs had him
3. Sign FAs now with the half-intent of trading them away like they did with Maholm. I’d sign everyone to at least a 2 year deal, or 1 with a club option. That way if you trade them this year the other team will have another year of control and can get the draft pick after the contract runs out, if the player is good. That seemed important to Atlanta.
Last week I said I thought we’d see a major league player come out within the next couple of years. I didn’t expect this. Orlando Cruz has a pretty strong following in the PR boxing community. And in PR, boxing is still a HUGE sport. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, because I’ve never felt like the island is all that gay-friendly.
Some asides from the article: The quote from Cruz about his father is kind of sad. The spokesman from the National G&L Task Force, Serrano, is from here as well and has a lot of press time over the years. I think he is one of the best spokesmen for this issue, or any pressure group, that I’ve ever seen/read. Somehow he toes the line between firm and shrill expertly.
Morning chuckles…
http://profootballmock.com/?p=4810
@ Rice in limbo:
(dying laughing)
In the time it took you to link that you killed 3 dogs
Yeah I went there…
@ WaLi:
Ho ho, you terr lacist joke!
/Asian stereotype
@ SVB:
I read the quote about his father as meaning that his dad supports him, but maybe is uncomfortable with his homosexuality. Or was there a different quote?
“He praised his mother and sister for their unconditional love and said his father has always backed him.
‘Like every father, he wants his son to be a full-blooded man,’ Cruz said. ‘But he is aware of my preference, my taste.’”
@ Rice Cube:
Well I was going to say “eat three dogs” but decided to tone it down.
@ WaLi:
After all… this is a respectable blog.
@ WaLi:
I guess if that happened you can call it a…
*removes sunglasses*
…three dog night.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH
SVB wrote:
If Soriano had much value, he’d have been traded by now. It’s kind of weird. Early in his career he was thought to be quite a bit better than he really was. Now he’s actually better than people think he is.
I think you have to get lucky, or trade with the Dodgers.
New shit:
http://www.obstructedview.net/previews/wild-card-friday-series-previews-including-an-all-new-playoff-results-simulator.html
Cool, great ideas!! I also like my son to help me out at the grocery store when I’m picking the fruits and veggies. I tell him, necesitamos pimentones verdes, me puedes decir cual de estos son los verdes? He loves it and he is happy to help me pick them and count them while he puts them in a bag