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#Post#: 37099--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: davep
Date: October 9, 2011, 11:52 pm
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I hope they keep Zambrano. I remember when everyone was saying
that Sosa would never again play for the cubs. Comments by
owners are seldom binding.
#Post#: 37101--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: CurtOne
Date: October 10, 2011, 12:44 am
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Sosa never did play for the Cubs again.
#Post#: 37104--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: davep
Date: October 10, 2011, 1:08 am
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I am talking about when they were trying to trade him to the
Yankees. He played several years after that.
#Post#: 37105--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: StrikeZone
Date: October 10, 2011, 1:18 am
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He was still quite productive then, though and hadn't walked out
in the middle of a game yet.
#Post#: 37109--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: CurtOne
Date: October 10, 2011, 3:00 am
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Yeah, we're talking post boombox, Dave.
I think the excuses used to not let him pitch in September,
Dave, was a clear indication that he won't wear the Cub uni
again.
#Post#: 37133--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: davep
Date: October 10, 2011, 10:51 am
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I also think that they will get rid of him. Too bad. He is
still one of their better pitcher 95% of the time. For that
matter, he is still one of their better hitters 95% of the time.
#Post#: 37146--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: Jes Beard
Date: October 10, 2011, 11:40 am
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THAT would have been a worthwhile experiment with Zambrano.
Sit Soriano and put Zambrano in LF the last couple of months of
the season.
Not likely to have resulted in a two-way player, but it would
have provided some excitement, some amusement, would have helped
encourage Soriano to retire to avoid that kind of embarrassment,
and might have helped Zambrano grow up a bit, too.
#Post#: 37367--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: CurtOne
Date: October 11, 2011, 5:56 am
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Two players I think the Cubs should move on fast are Buehrle and
Mike Cuddyer. Cuddyer can play anywhere and is clearly the best
option if we really do lose ARam. For those who don't like
Barney, if we keep ARam, Cuddyer would upgrade 2B. Those two
guys would allow us to then sit back and look at other FA and
start putting together some clever trade packages.
#Post#: 37391--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: Jes Beard
Date: October 11, 2011, 11:05 am
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I hope the only FA the Cubs sign for the 2012 season are roster
fill signed just before, or even slightly after opening day.
Any effort to win in 2012 will disappoint me, because it will
inevitably lead to the kind of thing we saw after that big FA
sugar-high after the 2006 season.
And we have several seasons now of a total lack of effort (or
lack of resources) to improve through the draft and
international signings. It appears Ricketts is serious about
reversing that, but think a moment about it.
After the 2006 season the Trib wanted to sell the Cubs, and
directed Hendry to spend heavily on FA to make the team an
immediate winner in the hope of driving up the price. Zell then
bought the Cubs as part of his purchase of the Trib, and had no
intention of actually developing the team or organization and
was interested solely in flipping the Cubs for as much as he
could get as quickly as he could get it.
From the time the Trib decided it was going to sell, thru the
time Zell sold the Cubs, Cub ownership had no incentive or
interest in long-term investment in the team, in doing things
like hiring more or better scouts or giving them the budget to
make all of the scouting trips they might have liked. This is
because anything spent on scouts, or on improved facilities, or
on travel budgets for scouts would produce tangible results only
4-5 years later, if ever. Ownership also had no interest in
spending more to sign draft picks or international FA, for the
same reason. Those would have been expenditures which would
have been unlikely to produce any improved sales price in the
team.
And when the Ricketts family took over in October of 2009, it
first had to figure out just what it had, and what it needed.
And even by the Ricketts it would have realized the Cubs needed
to seriously upgrade scouting and spending on draft picks and
international FA, it would have been too late to do much to help
the 2010 draft, less than 7 months after the Ricketts assumed
control.
So the 2011 draft was the first one we have seen in which the
increased spending on signing picks, and on scouting would have
been involved, and it has been encouraging, both with the draft
and with international signings.
But we are not likely to see much of anything in Wrigley field
from that increased effort for at least two years, and possibly
3 or 4 years.
That being the case, simply build toward then. Bite the bullet.
Accept the losses which come with building a team from the
ground up. Play games and the next two seasons without concern
for the W/L record, and instead only for the purpose of
developing players and assuring that those on the field play the
game right, even if they do not do so very well.
Trade vets for prospects at the trade deadline, and make sure
that anyone like ARam who might block a trade understands that
doing so will result in him sitting on the bench the rest of the
year while the team plays a prospect for development
purposes.... and the vet sees his FA value fall with each game
he misses. And offer arbitration to players who could bring a
decent draft pick if they leave, while making clear to them that
if they accept arbitration, the team will trade them for
prospects as soon as the rules allow or will sit them in favor
of developing prospects if no good trade prospects are offered,
not as punishment, but because that will be the best way to
develop the team internally. Then pocket the draft picks to
further stock talent in the system.
#Post#: 37409--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs in '12
DIR By: Deeg
Date: October 11, 2011, 11:43 am
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Buehrle will likely get 4/56 or so. Would you give that to a
guy with his skills who'll be 33 next season?
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