A shout out to Tom Ricketts !!

Here we are about 25% of the way into the season and the Cubs have the lowest winning percentage in all of baseball!!

Hey Hey!

Their own attendance projections call for 2.1M in paid attendance and over a 20% no-show rate (down from over 3M a few years ago).

Holy Cow!!

And all of this while The Shark and Jason Hammel are still on the ballclub.

Holy Mackeral!!

But all is well. Crane Kenney himself has spoken about Google TV and Apple streaming Cubs games and even Forbes magazine is saluting The Plan!

No doubt about it The Cubs are on their way!!

your a meatball.

Stop overreacting.

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

They sure are REALLY. SMART. PEOPLE. Call me funny but there will be some die hards (not a lot) that will refuse to come back from this period. Sure they will love their Cubs but from afar. I truly think we will hear in coming years some Cub fans talk about this year like Jerry Reinsdorf's 1994.

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Just stating facts.

Inherent in The Plan is getting the Number 1 overall pick. It has alluded us until this season but we are well on our way!!!

yeah,I was kidding of course. but I'm always out of line for not seeing the "future" like Theo's apologists.

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

dude, you spelled mackerel wrong. IMU is gonna be really pissed!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I'm still a fan but not of Ricketts. Here is buried balls deep in debt and it would not surprise me to see Theo or some of his team (especially Jason McLeod) begin to bail on this ownership.

No way do I see these guys sticking around if they aren't given at least a 150M payroll by 2016 to supplement the players that do make it out of their system.

Brickhouse is rolling over in his grave!

How exactly would this work? Does that Kenilworth cocksucker think MLB Advanced Media is going to let individual teams sign new-media distribution contracts? That's league business.

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Do not ever question the vision of President, Business Operations Crane Kenney!

How dare you blaspheme!

You can also blame the MLB owners who Didn't want to let Cuban into their club, but a guy like Ricketts who has to go in debt up to his ass? Sure..let him in! At least Jerry is happy.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

That is 100% accurate. Cuban was blackballed. Shortly after his intent was made known, "suddenly" that whole insider trading thing surfaced against Cuban.

It has since been dismissed as was Cuban's overture to MLB.

Imo, Two years is reasonable to rebuild in a way where W-L is not as important as development. Especially taking the contracts that expired in those first two years. Any more than that and you're the fuckin Royals/Pirates

They should be attempting to win now. This years#1 pick will be up in what? 2018?

And the difference in first rounders is not as big as other sports


But whatya gonna do? Shall we tar and feather Ricketts on one f the rooftops?

Why? That was Vince Lloyd who said that.

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

is this Year Three or Year Four now?

That would be good!

Much better than watching James Russell or Nate Schierholtz.

Woo Boy you are right again!

Lloyd and Lou Boudreau were outstanding.

Great great announcers.

Their record is horrible.

I do not expect that to change this year.

But I see reason for hope and I am happy.

Rizzo and Castro are playing well this year. Olt, Lake, and Castillo have shown flashes.

Their pitching has been decent.

Bryant is tearing it up in AA.

But this better be the last year of this. This offseason will be very telling.

If we are sitting here next year in the middle of May with the same shit show then I will be joining many of you in the shit show

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Agreed on everything except next year. I don't see them spending any money until at least 2016. Hopefully Castro and Rizzo continue to play well and establish themselves and hopefully the flashes of Olt, Lake and Castillo plus Ramirez, Grimm and Rondon plus even Rosscup continue not to mention Vizcaino at some point.

What is scary though is they just don't have the starting pitching and unless they start developing some top tier arms they aren't going to win shit unless they start shelling out huge money for free agents, which gets back into the Ricketts debt covenant bullshit where "the family" can't spend significant dollars because of the leveraged purchase.

Yea maybe they get lucky and deal Shark for young arms that pan out out but I'd rather they re-sign him for 5/75 although now that window has probably passed so that will leave another gaping hole in the rotation.

But hey, you will still be able to go to Wrigley and shake hands and get a "selfie" with Fan Boy himself!

Now where else in MLB can you do that!!!!!

That's scary...the Cubs have no remarkable pitchers in the pipeline and will likely lose their two best ones currently on the MLB roster. 110 losses are possible. This is as much of a tank job as we've ever seen...I'd love to see Bud Selig hit Ricketts with sanctions on his way out.

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a tank job for what? more 1st round draft busts?

Which two are you talking about?

The Cubs are not unique in having "no remarkable pitchers in the pipeline"

Samardzija and Hammel.

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While I only declared my Cub fandom this year, even I know this would have been the absolute worst year in The(o) Plan to have gone in on free agents. Our guys are almost here. I just don't know what I will do if each and every one of these guys don't all hit at the same time and Rizzo and Starlin regress as this year proceeds, because that really is what has to happen in order for The(o) Plan to work before 2016, the final year of Theo's contract.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

If Theo knew then what he knows now, I'm not sure that he would have accepted the Cubs job. Ricketts financial situation & the Cubs organization were both in worse shape than he thought. What I cant understand is I was able to review Ricketts finances & the financial details of the Cubs purchase, as were many others, & determine that the numbers just did not add up. Theo should have known exactly what he was in for.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I said this 3 years ago & I will say it again: If you can't plug a hole with a youngster,then go get a capable mid-level FA. IF the Cubs just sprinkled the lineup with a few hitters,the last 3 seasons might have lasted longer than early May. The Cubs could have filled the stadium with a more competitive team. Sale HOPE at least. With the extra WC added right when Theo took over,I said it was the wrong time in baseball history to think a complete teardown was needed. You just need to get invited to the dance. Sometimes 85 wins can be good enough.

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

I've sort of given up. I tried to get excited but they just are so fucking bad. It's sad.

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You know what Jimmy, as time passes you are looking more and more correct. Still time for Theo to turn it around but you cant expect people to wait 5 years.

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Pansies.

I really can't the difference between this "era" and any of the other ones in Cubs history. You chuckleheads knew what the Cubs were when you signed up.

2003 changed everything. From that point on there were expectations to win.

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