twisting yourself into cockamamie statements. focus on heyward criticism.

And if one of those years yields a WS, his contract is worth five times what they paid him. This is bad trolling.

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For fucks sake! Once again, Zobrist was worth 4fWAR last year!

The Cubs won 97 games in 2015 and lost in the LCS. The Cubs won 103 games in 2016 and won the world series. The Cubs have averaged 100 wins the last two season. In 2017, the Cubs look to be poised for another solid season with a playoff berth a high probability. In 2020, the Cubs will most likely launch some form of their own cable network that could very well put them into a new economic stratosphere.

I love reading the Sox fans trolling posts about the Cubs. It's so cute. The Cubs are stuck with Heyward and a bad contract that will cost them $$. The Cubs have a manager who almost choked away the WS. Poor Cubs!

Meanwhile in Guaranteed rate stadium...Home of Modello beer...there is um, well there is.....I mean there are $10 ticket nights.....and um,....ya,...oh fireworks...ya fireworks, and a....hmm good concessions,....and good seats available,....and a.....hmmm....a bar built by the state / tax payers that the owner gets to keep the profits of,....and a hmmm...dog night....and umm,...hmmmm...a possible (fake?) rebuild....and....hmmm....The far superior Abreu....

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Looking upon the Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez and David Price deals that the Red Sox doled out, couldn't one lend some credence to the idea that some of those big signings in Boston were decided by someone above him?

That being said, he fully owns the Jackson and Hayward deals here in Chicago which in my mind, are far outweighed by the Lester, Zobrist and Ross signings which are and were worth their weight in gold.

A lot of us kind of laughed off the Ross thing as him being nothing more than Lester's caddie, but that sumbitch contributed waaaaaay more than any of us could've imagined. And Zobrist, that guy is the definition of "ball player." He does everything you ask of him and more. I'm willing to bet that the majority of Cub fans were more than happy that it was him who was up to bat there in the top of the 10th. Great, great sighing he was. There's no disputing that now.

Which brings us back to Theo. He now has 3 titles to his name and his fingerprints are all over a 4th one. Us Cub fans can live with his Free Agent ups and downs.

There are MANY trolling statements made in this forum. What you listed are facts, not troll items...

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fair enough.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Frank, go back to putting farts in jars.

Remember when Jake Arrieta was Oriole's trash and Kyle Hendricks wasn't deserving of a rotation spot because he wasn't a big time prospect? Amazing how things can change.

If Arrieta walks away after this season, that money plus some would be allocated to another top of the rotation starter, and I predict a midseason trade this year will bring in another controlled starter.

You could be looking at Ace 1, Ace 2, Ace 3, Ace 4 and Lackey in 2018, with Montgomery, Cease, Underwood and any other minor pickups as "depth."

I am not crying about 2018's pitching depth on March 14, 2017.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Back to the topic... Bernsie and Goff had Zobrist on this afternoon. They were asking about the WS and Zobrist said there was another leader type player that gave a speech after game 4. I couldn't hear who but the gist was that this was a far more important talk to the team than Heyward's was.

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David Ross talked to the team...then Rizzo played Rocky movies the next day.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Don't forget Rizzo's naked antics

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

Zobrist is a jealous Sox fan.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The part about the Sox having fireworks or the part about the Sox having dog night (which I'm a huge admirer of, btw)?

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The Cubs are not going to resign Lackey. "If" Arrieta walks? Somebody is going to offer that guy big, big money. I highly doubt it will be the Cubs. Jake was the Orioles trash, then he came here and discovered yoga and steroids. And the only reason he is on your team and not the Sox is because Jesse Crain was hurt and failed a physical.

Cease , Underwood, etc might be viable MLB pitchers, but to place them in the same category as the Cubs seem to have with outfield and infield depth is flat out wrong at this point.

You talked about great organizations building depth at every position, and now you are talking about signing even more starting pitchers, presumably to big money deals. Amazing how things can change.

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Here's an interesting excerpt from Tom Verducci's upcoming book.



An hour before Game 5, Rizzo had broken out his pregame inspirational and comedic presentation, quoting motivational lines from movies with no clothes on. The Cubs won, so Rizzo did it before Game 6, too. They won again, so he did it before Game 7 as well.

An hour before the seventh game of the World Series, Rizzo stripped off all his clothes, cranked the theme from Rocky on the clubhouse stereo one more time, jumped on top of a coffee table, and began quoting lines from the movie and throwing his best shadow-boxing punches. Pitcher Hector Rondon, joining in on the hijinks, picked up an aerosol can of shoe cleaner and sprayed it in the direction of Rizzo’s groin.

Startled and angered, Rizzo stopped and yelled, “What the heck, man!” He cut the music and stormed off toward the showers to clean off the spray. “I’m thinking, Dang, what’s he doing?” Ross said. “We can’t have this negative vibe right before the game. I go by there. I can tell he’s a little irritated.”

Ten minutes went by. Rizzo finally emerged from the shower. He walked back silently to his locker with a towel around this waist. The room was quiet and uneasy.

Ross walked up to Rizzo and broke the silence.

“Hey! It’s not how many times you get knocked down. . . it’s how many times you get up!”

Rizzo chuckled. “You know what?” he said. “You’re right!” Said Ross, “He rips the towel off, runs up, turns the music on again, and he jumps back on the coffee table and starts doing the Rocky motions again.”



WTF was up with Rondon? I guess it could've been worse or better, (depending on one's desires) he could've been Izturised.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I never specified depth solely due to the draft and international signings.

The Cubs leverage all methods of obtaining star players.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

They don't, but ok.

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Ross? I wrote "big dollar free agent signings". It doesn't take much to sign a backup catcher. However, the collective you were ready to run Ross out of town on a rail after his first season.

If the answer to every question is going to be "2016", as much as I protest that it doesn't reflect the entirety of a situation.

If Theo's fingerprints are all over a fourth, then you have to equally acknowledge the other fingerprints on the first, while also recognizing the teardown and lost jobs caused by his spending spree in Boston.

I don't think it is valid to just say "it came from above". That is a popular dismissal by The Cult of Theo.

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

You're right about the 1st title. That was a much more ready situation to step into.

You don't think there's at least a little something to the idea that Lucchino and Co. wanted to make big splashes and may have nudged Theo in that direction? Hell, as soon as he could, Lucchino hired Bobby Valentine because he was a "big" name.

He opened the checkbook but Theo chose the players.

I don't know why (well, actually I do) it is such a controversial statement here. Theo was pretty open about it the day he got arrived in Chicago.

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

Right before the Cubs won the WS I had two White Sox fans try and tell me how the Cubs were in trouble and how they might be good this year and next but then they are going to be screwed. How NLCS MVP Javy Baez is going to want more money. How Bryant is going to get tired of going to the outfield every so often. How Babe is going to have no position to play because Rizzo is at first. Etc etc

I appreciate when one side of town has absolutely nothing to look forward to for the foreseeable future and they want to tell me how my favorite team is going to be in trouble.

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It's not controversial.

As RPB has stated, and I'm sure most of us would agree, big FA contracts has been Theo's weak spot. I'm just think there was enough evidence of two mind sets in Boston regarding players.

I agree. The Cubs pretty much have the next 4 World Series titles locked down.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Anything can happen but I'd say you're pretty much right with this thought.

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I guess that's my point, if you had starting pitching depth you wouldn't have to worry about who is in the FA class next year or trading for a pitcher this year. Almost by definition this means they lack pitching depth. I mean you're not worried about the FA class for SS's next year are you? Or 2b guys? Of course not because the Cubs have unreal depth at those positions.

Unless you plan on kicking the bucket in 2017, the majority of people in the know seem to think the Sox have plenty to look forward to in the foreseeable future.

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

Waaaaah