Cody vs ACME: Will Cubs Delete Playoff Hopes?

In Commentary And Analysis, Uncategorized by andcounting42 Comments

What’s worse than being a Cubs fan with a World Series addiction? How about being a Looney Tunes fan with a hankering for new movies. Today we heard reports Warner Bros. is shelving straight-up deleting the no-longer-forthcoming film Coyote Vs. ACME. Nostalgia? Joy? Hope? Heartbreak? Pursuit of the incessantly elusive prize? Delete it all, say the lucre-sucking suits. Sorry, fans, there’s just not enough money in it.

If it feels familiar to watch billionaires back away from the negotiating table with a “too rich for my blood” sigh, if scrapping a perfectly good plan to save a couple* bucks gives you a nasty case of déjà vu, if you’re tired of, you know, endless greed and late-stage capitalism and the deterioration of all that is good and beautiful in favor of long-term investments in fascism and stuff . . . SORRY, you’re in the wrong news cycle.

After the Cubs greeted the dawn of the offseason by snagging Craig Counsell like a ravenous early bird, they’ve taken more of the procrastinating worm approach to surviving the big-ticket free agent market. Notable Boras clients Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Jordan Montgomery, and reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell are heretofore unemployed. I don’t know that anyone is completely surprised by this; Boras is pretty notorious for holding out as long as necessary for the biggest deal possible.

It’s time to sign Bellinger

But the Cubs are still . . . not good. I know Jed and any MLB front office person loves to find value. Anyone can just pay a ton of money to the obvious free agents, but where’s the fun in that? Well, the fun is in watching good baseball. I would like to watch good players play good baseball. I care more about that than watching GMs make shrewd business decisions to free up cash for super PAC spending sprees. If all the Cubs ever do is get great deals on undervalued players, the endgame becomes paying our favorite players as little as possible.

Is this really what we want? What’s the use in steering clear of an albatross contract like Jason Heyward’s if Jed is going to keep shopping at flea markets and Big Lots anyway? Look, I’m all for finding value. I’m all for keeping an eye to the future. I’m a huge fans of great deals when you can get them. But guess what? There are no more great deals to be had. It’s the last minute. It’s peak season. The police auction is over. Our plane to spring training is about to take off, so it’s time to bite the bullet and pay airport prices for everything we need.

Mr. Right Now

The big coup to get Counsell made it feel like the Cubs were desperate, but as fast as the Cubs had to act to make it happen, that move didn’t really indicate an urgency about 2024. Upgrading at manager is a long-term, improve-the-baseline maneuver. Upgrading the farm system is too. I love what the Cubs have done to put a framework in place that gives them a really high floor moving forward.

But right now, the Cubs can’t be picky about their 2024 upgrades. We can have super high hopes for what the Cubs top prospects might accomplish this season, but the floor for this season (let’s call it The Twenty-Twenty-Floor . . . or not, I can’t tell you what to do) is still awfully low. If they make no significant moves, this team could easily wind up in the 90-loss wilderness. That’s absolutely unacceptable. I’ll take a handful of bad contracts before I put up with another bad season. This team is too rich to fail that badly.

Just do it, Jed Hoyer. Get Bellinger. Get Chapman. Make this team the defensive juggernaut you know it can be. Bargain season is over. Boras season has begun. Pitchers and catchers are about to report; now it’s time to let Passan and Rosenthal report as well.

*hundred million

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  14. Perkins

    Managed 5/9 former Cubs today. Could have been more except the really obvious one would have tanked the rarity score.

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 316 9/9:
    Rarity: 16
    IMMACULATE!
    🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩
    Play at:
    https://immaculategrid.com
    @immaculategrid x @baseball_ref

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  24. Rice Cube

    Hmmm, the Cardinals (and possibly other teams) about to adopt actual shirseys

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  29. Rice Cube

    In before “false” (from my The Athletic email blast)

    Did Shanahan screw up OT?

    Back to a simmering Super Bowl debate for a minute. The decision was criticized instantly:

    Why is Kyle Shanahan starting overtime by electing to receive, rather than gaining the advantage of making the Chiefs go first — and then knowing exactly how many points he’ll need? Don’t the 49ers know about the NFL’s postseason rules, installed after the 2022 Chiefs beat the Bills in overtime without Josh Allen getting a chance to respond?

    It turned out, no, many Niners didn’t know. And there was much public caterwauling, especially once Chiefs players revealed having practiced “that exact same scenario multiple times” since training camp.

    It makes for easy shorthand. Shanahan has now blown three different double-digit Super Bowl leads, going back to his days as Falcons OC (who didn’t get to respond in Super Bowl OT, smh), and here’s evidence that his team wasn’t prepared for the biggest possible moment.

    But wait, there’s more.

    “I threw a touchdown to this dude at the end of the game, and he looked at me, and he had no idea,” Patrick Mahomes said while embracing Mecole Hardman, who’d caught the game-winner. “I said, ‘Dude, we just won the Super Bowl!”

    Football’s complex, y’all. There’s a lot going on.

    So: Are we making too much of this?

    The Niners should’ve better prepared their players, but did that part ultimately matter? What, was Brock Purdy not going to try to score a touchdown regardless?

    Taking the ball was strange to those of us who’ve watched a lot of college OT (where going second is the move due to a slight math edge), but smart guy Bill Barnwell says it was fine: “The value of getting the ball first is to get in position to have the third possession of overtime, where you can win with a field goal.”
    Verdict: Though Shanahan’s decision benefitted the Chiefs, who knew exactly what they needed on their final fourth-down call, there were numerous scenarios in which it could’ve won San Fran the game.

    How about we take a deep breath and watch a 17-second party video that explains everything there is to know about the NFL’s reigning pair of brothers. Jason Kelce, we’ll see you in Philly at WrestleMania, right?

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  31. berselius

    Rice Cube,

    From what I’ve seen it’s about a coin flip in a neutral situation. Given that the defense was probably gassed from KC’s drive to tie the game, taking the ball first was probably the right move.

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  32. Perkins

    Rice Cube,

    The MLB logo is too low off the collar and the ring of stitching makes it look like a t-shirt. It also might be an angle thing, but the number looks a little high and the name lettering too small.

    I’ll be curious how many players hate them and whether it forces a change before the regular season.

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  39. Rice Cube

    andcounting,

    The MLBTR summary was relatively tame but I’m sure they were laughing as they typed. Basically the A’s can’t get a certain pool of money if they move outside the Bay Area and there are no good venues within the area besides the SF park and the Oakland Coliseum, so they’re kind of stuck. The best news is that the city knows they have leverage and can charge just a tad more for rent now.

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