https://sports.yahoo.com/polarizing-offseason-cubs-owners-decide-skip-fan-fest-205711705.html

Coward

White Sox GM Ron Schueler  didn't come to Soxfest 98 after the White Flag Trade was made a few months earlier.

Edited January 17, 20197 yr by WBWSF

Smart move. It would just turn into a meatball paradise. 

Listening to Cubs fans now, you would have no idea they won 95 games in 2018, and have averaged 97 wins the last 4 seasons. I hope Sox fans, if given the same opportunity, don't act the same way. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-ricketts-family-leaked-emails-20181219-story.html

Thought this was interesting...

Media requests must go through the Cubs public relations. Avoid all media contacts where possible if not through the Cubs (i.e. ambush interviews).

— Can talk to the media about other topics besides baseball.

— Stick to talking points if trapped in an unschedule (sic) interview.

— Bring a World Series to Chicago.

— Save Wrigley Field.

— Be a good neighbor.

— We are excited to be the owners.

— Never talk about players or Jim Hendry.

I can attest the Rickettses generally followed their “talking points,” including not talking about Hendry, who was on the hot seat as general manager.

Chairman Tom Ricketts proved quite adept at avoiding ambush interviews when beat writers waited for him outside conference rooms at various owners meetings. Somehow he would always find a secret exit.

The cubs are in a tough spot because their recent free agent signings went so bad. Cubs did a great job rebuilding and their initial free agent signings also went great (lester, zobrist).

 

But then they handed out 2 huge contrasts that flopped so far (heyward,darvish) and chatwood isn't cheap either.

Now the arb raises kick in and the core gets expensive too. Because of that they just don't have a lot of room to make additions now. 

Can't really blame ricketts for this and while they might not be a super team anymore they are still got and projected to win their division next year.

 

It won't get easier though, the team is only getting more expensive and the pitching is aging with little help on the way in the farm (whether as SP prospects or trade chips). They had a great run though whith averaging like 95 wins for the last 4 seasons and they likely won't be bad the next 2-3 years either.

Poor ricketts, if the city just paid for the investment for their wrigleyville kingdom, they could pump that money back into the payroll where it could be taxed and redistributed into a major organizations investment fund.

Isn't that a better use of your money, chicago?

5 minutes ago, bmags said:

Poor ricketts, if the city just paid for the investment for their wrigleyville kingdom, they could pump that money back into the payroll where it could be taxed and redistributed into a major organizations investment fund.

Isn't that a better use of your money, chicago?

Instead of rolling it into payroll though, they'll roll it into more political smear campaigns.

Maybe RH and crew should follow their lead and not take questions at SoxFest, you know 1,000% of the questions will be about Harper/Machado. I would even consider canceling the Alonso visit if machadobisn’t in a whitesox uniform by then. Not fair to that dude.

1 hour ago, Dick Allen said:

Smart move. It would just turn into a meatball paradise. 

Listening to Cubs fans now, you would have no idea they won 95 games in 2018, and have averaged 97 wins the last 4 seasons. I hope Sox fans, if given the same opportunity, don't act the same way. 

Keep dreaming. You know they will. Look at this board after 2 years of a rebuild, which most of them wanted for years.

1 hour ago, Dick Allen said:

Smart move. It would just turn into a meatball paradise. 

Listening to Cubs fans now, you would have no idea they won 95 games in 2018, and have averaged 97 wins the last 4 seasons. I hope Sox fans, if given the same opportunity, don't act the same way. 

I don't think the Sox fanbase has the same overall sense of entitlement that the Cubs fanbase does. 

Sox fans would settle for making the postseason a 4 years in a row given that even making the postseason in consecutive seasons would be a franchise first. It is unrealistic to expect a championship each and every year, even in a competitive window. As long as a team gets 1-2 championships in their window, that should be enough and everything else is gravy. I'm still shocked that the Blackhawks won 3, and game within a goal of winning 4 and 3 in a row. They're on the other side of it now, but I'm surprisingly ok with the losing because of the winning over the previous decade. I don't know how anyone can say they didn't maximize their window. 

 

Edited January 17, 20197 yr by Jack Parkman

2 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said:

I don't think the Sox fanbase has the same overall sense of entitlement that the Cubs fanbase does. 

 

Hopefully we will get to find out. 

Not gonna lie, if I was a cubs fan i'd be pissed about them crying poor to a fanbase that does nothing but support the team with dollars, when they are billionaires, and when the team is in the middle of a competitive window.

 

1 minute ago, bmags said:

Not gonna lie, if I was a cubs fan i'd be pissed about them crying poor to a fanbase that does nothing but support the team with dollars, when they are billionaires, and when the team is in the middle of a competitive window.

 

Guess it depends on what you think a reasonable salary budget is for the players. They have a massive investment in the team, stadium and surrounding area.

2 minutes ago, ptatc said:

Guess it depends on what you think a reasonable salary budget is for the players. They have a massive investment in the team, stadium and surrounding area.

Sure, but the investment in the stadium, surrounding area and team wasn't charity. It's not a hardship.

Easiest way to avoid Addison Russell questions.

40 minutes ago, Tony said:

Ricketts is on ESPN Radio right now. Any questions of them being a secret player for Harper were squashed. They just don't have the payroll right now. 

How this hasn't been obvious all winter, I will never understand.

6 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

How this hasn't been obvious all winter, I will never understand.

Charles T. Cat!

24 minutes ago, bmags said:

Sure, but the investment in the stadium, surrounding area and team wasn't charity. It's not a hardship.

No but they are massive expenditures.  Money has to come from so where in the Cubs organization.

Reading the tweets from Ricketts radio tour today, it sure looks like he is doing his best to make sure the White Sox are stripped from the headlines right now. 

 

50 minutes ago, bmags said:

Not gonna lie, if I was a cubs fan i'd be pissed about them crying poor to a fanbase that does nothing but support the team with dollars, when they are billionaires, and when the team is in the middle of a competitive window.

 

Is he crying poor or saying that they can't spend additional money because of the luxury tax? Because the first would be stupid, but the second is a legitimate issue. I don't pay attention to the Cubs so I don't know their situation, but reading all this stuff via the Manny/Harper situation, it's easy to see that the new luxury tax is disastrous for the players and just lets the biggest owners keep more of their money. The Yankees/Dodgers/Cubs could all easily spend more and just laugh at the additional tax if it was under the old system.

There is this too.

 

 

Yeah, that first quote sounds awful.

Kinda shocked how candid he is about all this.  I think most agree that they're going to be very good again regardless of big moves, but very good may not be enough in a deep ass central.  They still desperately need a veteran catcher to help Contreras and at least 2-3 bullpen arms at the very least.

16 minutes ago, bschmaranz said:

Kinda shocked how candid he is about all this.  I think most agree that they're going to be very good again regardless of big moves, but very good may not be enough in a deep ass central.  They still desperately need a veteran catcher to help Contreras and at least 2-3 bullpen arms at the very least.

People want honesty and transparency.  There it is. And he is going to pay for it.