Random Facepalm (10-4): Thank the Good Lord That’s Over

In Facepalm by aisle42467 Comments

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:

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.

(via MO)

Did We Move the OV Forums Again?

Yes. http://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:

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.

 

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  2. Mercurial Outfielder

    Man, listening to this Theo presser on The Score, it’s really, really good. He knows exactly what he’s up against.

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  3. Mercurial Outfielder

    Now that Brett Jackson comment makes SOOOOO much more sense.

    Here’s the context of the quote:

    “You know, Brett Jackson, he was brought up for very specific reasons….we sat around in Dale’s office for a long time and said, ‘You know this guy’s swing is not ready for this level,’ but we felt like there were things we could teach him up here…”

    I have no idea why every fucking writer in town is divorcing this quote of context, but fuck them for doing it.

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  4. Mercurial Outfielder

    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.

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  6. mb21

    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.

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  9. Mercurial Outfielder

    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.

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  10. mb21

    @ Mercurial Outfielder:
    That’s interesting considering the comments Bill James had recently.

    “We’re trying to think more clearly about player’s value,’’ said James in an email, his preferred mode of communication these days. “Our process in the past has relied on making good judgments about players, and then paying whatever the market demanded we pay for those players that we liked. That process had sprung a wheel, so we’re trying to think about player’s value in a more organized, cohesive fashion. That’s essentially what’s driving this, I think.’’ — http://bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/other_mlb/view.bg?articleid=1061162349&srvc=sports&position=3

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  11. mb21

    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.

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  12. Mercurial Outfielder

    @ 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.

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  13. Jed Jam Band

    @ 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.

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  15. Mercurial Outfielder

    They could always re-sign Dempster and trade him to Atlanta at the deadline, out of sheer spite. (dying laughing)

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  16. SVB

    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.

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  17. SVB

    @ 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.

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  18. GW

    Yup. The Cubs have to leverage their advantages, and now they really can’t do it without significant spending on the MLB payroll. I am interested in how far they can push this – would it be possible to trade for a good player on a bad contract, eat the contract and trade him for prospects? You’d be pushing up against the bounds of Selig-approval, but it seems like a game they should try to push as much as they can.

    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.

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  20. Mercurial Outfielder

    @ 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.

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  23. Rice Cube

    Earlier this week, Diamondbacks General Manager Kevin Towers told Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com that he will target a shortstop, a veteran starter, and a third baseman this offseason. When talking to the press today, Towers added that he will also look to pickup a lefty specialist, tweets Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic.

    Hmmmm…how can the Cubs make this work so they can get Justin Upton…

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  24. josh

    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)).

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  26. Mercurial Outfielder

    @ 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.

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  30. Mercurial Outfielder

    @ 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.

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  38. Rice Cube

    @ 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.

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  42. josh

    @ 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!

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  49. mb21

    @ 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.

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  51. mb21

    @ 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?).

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  56. SVB

    @ 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.

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  57. SVB

    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.

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  61. josh

    @ 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.'”

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  65. mb21

    SVB wrote:

    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

    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.

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  67. Mirta Schrieber

    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

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