Baseball is still
two weeks away? Come on, baseball. I need you in my life.
If baseball season really is eternal (it is), why does spring training seem like it lasts longer than a whole 17-week NFL season? I just want to see Mark Buehrle school the Indians already. I'm getting restless.
Right before a new season starts in a sport I like - still not hockey, sorry -, there's always something that serves to get me pumped up. In football, it's going to Bourbonnais for Bears training camp and buying "Madden". In the NBA, it's usually just conversations with friends. Amping me up for baseball this year? Aw yeah, these Will Leitch
team-by-team previews. I'm enjoying the hell out of them.
Leitch's
White Sox column, unfortunately, was kind of disappointing. His Cubs column that ran today at Deadspin, however,
is pretty great. I loved this part.
I can't help but think we've dodged a bullet. The Cubs had everything
fall their way over the last 10 years. They should have won a World
Series. But they didn't. It's not a curse, it's not a hex, it's not a
goat, it's not bad mojo. Sometimes the hand doesn't fall your way. The
Cubs are hotter right now than they will be again for a long time. If
they don't do it this year, very soon, Cubs fans will look back at the
frustrations of the last 10 years and wonder if it will ever be that
good again.
I really don't have second favorite teams in sports, but if I did, the Cardinals would for sure be my choice in baseball. Cubs hate is a brotherhood.
As you expressed in your dislike for Leitch's White Sox column, I as a Cubs fan must say that he's an idiot when discussing anything but his red birds. He's looking at the team (and ballpark) from the perspective he describes in his first 'graph - somebody who goes to Wrigley maybe once a year to have a relaxing afternoon. The reason he doesn't want the sign in left field is because he knows the new owners will use the money towards raising the payroll for the team and increasing the talent level of the roster. I don't think the Cubs will be good this year, but like always, I will take great pleasure in seeing those assholes from STL choke in the playoffs.
True, and that's another good point about the payroll. Ricketts and co. seem to be exploring creative ways to improve the ballpark and increase cash flow, including the billboard. They also have determined that every penny made will be spent improving the team and the ballpark. That includes all concerts, football games, hockey games, etc hosted at Wrigley Field.
Along with that, big changes are planned for the park itself, including a triangle building adjacent to the stadium that will include parking, shops, concessions, etc.
Rather than buy into Leitch's antagonistic gloom-and-doom viewpoint of the Cubs future, I am as excited as ever to see what Ricketts does with this team.
That article is extremely fucking stupid and really just comes off as wishful thinking from a biased Cardinals fan.
First off what the fuck happened that constitutes everything having gone the Cubs way? A screaming line drive to the elbow of a promising young pitcher? A base path collision involving the same pitcher? A manager who rode his young pitchers to the ground, negatively affecting all of their careers to varying degrees? A prolific slugger taking a pitch to the head and never returning to form? A first baseman missing 40% of the season after injuring his wrist in a collision a season after his breakout year? And then taking several seasons to fully recover? A botched routine ground ball in Game 6 of the NLCS? Nomar? Soriano? Hawkins? An ownership situation that has been in a state of flux for the past 4 years? Gimme a break everything fell their way. What a bunch of fucking nonsense that is, especially coming from a guy whose favorite team was carried to a World Series championship by the likes of Jeff Weaver and Yadier fucking Molina.
The tone of the article is particularly ridiculous considering the Cubs took second last year in a season where very little went their way. It took an unrepeatable second-half performance by Matt Holliday and struggles/injuries for Soto, Soriano, Ramirez and Fontenot for the Cardinals to take that division by 7.5 games (not to mention Chris Carpenter staying healthy all season, which isn't likely to happen again given his age and injury history.) Granted, the Cardinals are the favorites to win the division, but it's not going to take "the rest of the division falling apart" for the Cubs to win it.
Finally, any "it's all down hill from here" predictions for the Cubs make no sense. Potentially, the Cubs have Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Ted Lilly coming off the books this season. That's $41 million. Potentially another $23 million after 2011. The Cubs also have a top 10-15 farm system depending on who you ask (#7 if you ask Keith Law). Most of that talent is in the lower minors right now, and as long as that talent advances through the system, Wilken keeps drafting for the team, and they continue to bolster their Pacific Rim scouting, that ranking will remain consistently high. Law had the Brewers, Astros, and Cardinals (the only three divisional rivals the Cubs should ever be concerned about, at least as long as Dusty is managing the Reds) in the bottom 5. (The White Sox were last, for the record.)
To go along with that, the Cubs have a significant spending advantage over the rest of the division. They have recently been taking increasing advantage of that. THAT is the main reason this decade has been among the most successful in franchise history. Before this decade, the Cubs didn't spend for shit. Now they do. And there is no reason to think that is going to change anytime soon. In fact, Ricketts and Kenney mentioned that the Cubs, even with their $145 million payroll, can afford to add talent at the deadline if they are in the playoff hunt.
Yeah, I guess that article was better than the goofy-as-shit profile of Mark Teahen, but that doesn't mean it wasn't terrible.
Cubs-hate is really fucking stupid. Chicagoans that hate the other team really need to grow the fuck up.
It's sports, it's really not that important. If not being objective as a fan really pisses you off, you probably take baseball way too seriously. In what other aspect of your life can you hate something unconditionally for no good reason? Outside of sports, that makes you a real asshole. But yeah, in sports, no big deal, it's funny, who cares.
Someone said: "Cubs-hate is really fucking stupid."
And your point would be ... ?
I think his point was laid out pretty clearly. I don't think there's a hidden meaning encoded in those six words.
I don't think the doom-and-gloom prediction was meant until the end of time, just for the next few years. Like, yeah there's potentially money coming off the books next year, but doesn't this Cubs team need Lee and Aramis? Wouldn't you think that it's likely in the Cubs' best interest for Ramirez to pick his $15 million player option for next season? And I would think Lee will likely be re-signed, too. Maybe he won't get $13 million annually at age 35, but he'll get a significant percentage of what he's making this year. Like I said, that's not a bad thing - he's still a good hitter and an integral part of the Cubs' lineup - but I'd just be surprised if the Cubs are way under this season's budget heading into next offseason.
Then you've got $18 million to Soriano for this season and the next four after that. I'm not saying that he can no longer be a productive hitter, but I think it's unreasonable to believe he can carry an offense anymore, ie: OPS something around .900. Is it unreasonable to think that given it's length, Soriano's contract might be one of the worst in sports?
Then you've got C-Zam for $18 million or more for this season and the next three after that. Zambrano wasn't too bad last year - I was actually surprised how much the majority of Cubs fans blasted him, a guy who has pretty much been as reliable as anyone for years. But $18 million is just a ton of money. Not "dead money", I don't think there's any reason to believe Zambrano will fall off the face of the Earth, but it seems unlikely to me he'll earn the majority of that contract.
K-Fuk is at $13 mil this year and next year. Dempster is making a bunch of money and has a $14 mil player option in 2012. Even Silva will be making $11.5 mil for 2011.
That's a lot of money tied up in players that are past their peak. And while you both pretty much convinced me in all the flaws from this Leitch column, I think his point was that 2008 might have been the best chance they'll have for awhile. Sure, the new owners will spend at least as much as the last owners did, but I don't see a quick fix for the Cubs on the horizon. They basically have to hope for big time bounce back years from all the guys that failed them last season. Not impossible, but maybe unlikely? It just seems like the Cubs are kind of a mess right now, and the only way to clear it up is for time to pass and for a lot of those gigantic contracts to expire.
While I still have my Cubs hate handy:
I think that both K-Fuk, AND C-Zam are going to majorly disappoint this year. Also ... Soriano will be on the DL before the All Star break.
It's all about the hate, baby!
Neither of those things are out of the realm of possibility, but most of Kosuke's peripherals suggest that there is nothing fluky about his stats. He really is what he is at this point. High OBP, doubles hitter with very good defense for a RF. Most projections have him somewhere in between his first season and his second season, but much closer to his second season. I'd be pretty alright with that.
I also don't really see any reason to believe that Z will be any worse than he has been the last four seasons or so. Mid to high 3s in ERA, relatively reliable IP count (exception being last year), WHIP around 1.30.
Soriano's been on the DL all three of his years with the Cubs, so you're not exactly going out on a limb there. With all of these predictions, you're just throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks. It's about as meaningful as me predicting Buehrle to implode, Carlos Quentin to get injured, and Paul Konerko to stop trying because he suddenly realizes he already got his big contract (that's how sports work, right Villano?) Two are baseless and one's kinda obvious.
"With all of these predictions, you're just throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks."
It's not easy getting shit to stick to an ivy covered wall.
See this is what pisses me off though. Since August, the 2010 Cubs team has been deemed a failure. Everyone is under the impression that the team is a mess. The 2009 Cubs won 83 games. There were 14 teams worse than them in baseball. They don't even need EVERYONE to bounce back for them to be in the playoff hunt (which they were essentially in for 75% of last season when everything was going wrong). Just a few guys need to improve. I'm resting so much hope on Soto that it's probably ridiculous, but the guy had a .246 BABIP and a 41.3 LD% last year. He ran into A LOT of bad luck. There's no reason he should have hit .218, and there's little reason to believe that he won't return to form, especially when you consider that he lost 40 pounds over the off season. Lee should be fine. Theriot is nothing special, but he's fine. Marlon Byrd doesn't really light the world on fire with any aspect of his game, but he also doesn't have a glaring weakness, which is nice, and Fukudome's production is probably a little lacking for RF, but he shouldn't have much problem equaling what Bradley did. After that, you have 2B, LF and 3B. One of Baker/Fontenot/Blanco/Darwin Barney should be able to provide adequate production at 2B.
You never know what you're going to get from Ramirez health-wise, but at least that's less of a concern this year with a viable option for when Ramirez goes down (Chad Tracy) rather than the shit they were forced to field last year.
I can't even predict what kind of year Soriano will have, but the hope is that his leg injury was the key factor in his abysmal year. Hopefully an early end to last season goes a long way to fixing that.
I'm more confident in the bench this year with Tracy, Baker, Nady (if he can be healthy) in the event of players being injured/bad.
As far as the financial situation, yeah Ramirez probably will pick up that option, but even if Lee or Lilly are back, there's no way they're re-signed at the salaries they are currently earning. So they should still shed payroll.
And the bigger point is that Crane Kenney said the Cubs still have money to spend. The Ricketts family has said the Cubs are in "zero-sum" mode, and they are going to pour every extra penny into improving the team. If that's true, who cares how much Soriano makes if it doesn't stop the Cubs from trading for whatever pitcher/slugger finds his way to the trading block in 4 months? I was way more pessimistic about the Cubs when I thought they were locked into this roster, win or lose, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Furthermore, I was more pessimistic about the Cubs future before the farm system turned a gigantic corner this season (you know, back when Jeff Samardzija was our beacon of hope). Even if they were unable to add payroll, it makes it a little easier to deal with when you can sprinkle in Castro, Vitters, Wells, Andrew Cashner, Jay Jackson, Brett Jackson, Esmailin Caridad, Chris Carpenter, Darwin Barney, Hak Ju-Lee, John Gaub, Jeff Stevens etc. at rookie-level contracts. Some are ready now, some will be ready at some time this year, some are a year or two away, but if they can fill out the roster with young productive talent that provides the payroll with plenty of relief.
Having said all this, I don't really understand how Leitch's statement about the Cubs prospects being a year or 2 away from contributing supports his claim that the Cubs are on the way down. Rephrasing that sentence to, "The Cubs should have numerous good prospects coming up in 2011 and 2012" pretty blatantly contradicts the notion that the Cubs are on the way down.
fast forward to about the 1 mminute mark and just wait for it...you'll see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LU_KM17LFE
Yep that's all Cubs fans and this is every Sox fan
http://www.desipio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/traditions.jpg
I agree 100% with Ricky's point. Sports are the one place where you can openly hate people and it is perfectly acceptable. That being said, there's no reason to group every type of person from one fan base (except Packer fans, they're all dumbass cheese-heads). Not every Cub fan is rich dude in a polo who would rather drink Old Style than watch the game, and not every Sox fan is a white trash hick with their shirt off who thinks beating up first base coaches is a good time. The Crosstown Classic is so much fun because it allows smart fans from both sides of the city to talk shit and argue about their team. But at both Wrigley and the Cell, the assholes should stay at home.
I didnt have any intent on bashing the cubs by posting that video, i just thought the video is hilarious. but i guess not seeing your team do anything notable over your entire lifetime can give you a soft skin
Guy sez: "I guess not seeing your team do anything notable over your entire lifetime can give you a soft skin."
Au contraire my friend ... I think it takes a tough, thick hide in order to be able to endure failure and suffering for that length of time.
I never understood why two people in a hyper-specific incident was the rebuttal/counterargument to a type of person (disinterested/polo/college/racist) when discussing the Sox vs. Cubs fans stereotypes.
Sox fan: You've got all these fans who act a certain way! And that's your whole fanbase!
Cubs fan: You've got those two guys who did that one specific thing that one specific time! And that's your whole fanbase!
I dunno.
Well, both are gross generalizations that really don't make sense, so...
For all the bashing the Cubs fan base takes on this blog, I've seen plenty of Carlos Zambrano Mows My Lawn and Wrigley Field: World's Largest Gay Bar shirts while attending Sox games, but I don't paint the entire Sox fan base as homophobic racists, because, well, that would be just as moronic as EITHER of the two examples you just outlined.