Cubby-Blue

Kyle Schwarber is now a Nat.

Kyle Schwarber signed with the Washington Nationals for 10 mil/one year. 
Had he stayed with the Cubs and gone through arbitration, the projected numbers were "somewhere between $7.01MM and $9.3MM."
From MLB Rumors: "The fact that Schwarber surpassed even the highest arb projection in landing $10MM from Washington is indicative both of how much interest there must have been in his services, and a sign that the Nats are taking more stock in some of Schwarber’s advanced metrics than his bottom-line 2020 numbers."
I guess I was surprised he didn't go to an AL team, but knowing the guy... his determination, coming back from injury, the weight loss, and also how hard he worked at playing left field... I bet he wanted to stay in the NL.
And Nats park has the added benefit of being just 335' down the RF line while it's 353' at Wrigley.
You know I'm a Cub fan but I sure hope Kyle hits 50 bombs and keeps throwing missiles from left field so he can politely, in the privacy of his own home (because I figure that's how he'd do it), lift a middle finger towards Chicago.

And people are going nuts for the Kris Byrant to the Mets rumor.
Should that happen, well, they say the Cubs want the Mets top catching prospect in return. Which means... of course we all have heard this but would make a Willson Contreras trade way more sensible for the Cubs.

Tell you what.
I'm just not expecting the Cubs to look anything like we've gotten used to over the years. 
You should, too.
That way, well we can do that private little cry, but maybe then we won't be so shocked when we're looking at a team that has a bunch of Nate Schierholtzes running around.
Tell you something else, I do not envy Jed Hoyer's position right now.
I can't get this video out of my head (go ahead to about 1:35):

Old Joe makes perfect business sense here.
But now, the part about "selling every ticket, to every game, win or lose" seems not such a sure thing.
And I imagine a phone call between old Joe and young Tom that went like this: "Hi Tom. Our business model is broken, so get rid of the parts that cost the most."
Right after that, Tom called Theo, Theo turned into Jed, and here we are.

Don't want to leave you on that note because when you're done here, there are so many other headlines to depress you, so... here's some other stuff I hope makes you smile. I did these leading up to Jan 1, 2021.


Have a good one, and go Cubs.

Change came: Yu Darvish is a Padre. And I still detest Steve Garvey.

This was supposed to be a funny New Years post.
I did this painting of Garvey because I was thinking about how much 2020 has sucked.
The headline was going to be:
IF 2020 WERE A BASEBALL PLAYER, IT WOULD BE STEVE GARVEY.

Instead, I accidentally looked at Twitter and saw this:


And this:


And this:



So... not a funny post.
Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini are going to the Pads for ex-Brewer and really bad mustache guy Zach Davies + 4 prospects, none of them in the top 10 of the Pad's system. 
I have to keep reminding myself, I knew change was coming.
We'll find out more about the prospects in the coming days.
For today however, I'd rather just jump back to the top of this page.
The part about 2020 sucking.
I mean, the Cubs were tightening the purse strings long before Covid came to town.
We knew change was coming.
Then Covid hit and... a lost season of revenue caused Tom Ricketts to say the losses were "biblical".
(Whether you believe that or not is another matter).
The core didn't pan out in time, they kicked out Kyle Schwarber, Theo left, and now this.
Baseball is supposed to be fun and it's the high point of my own personal summer entertainment. 
And, it just wasn't that much fun watching them struggle.
We knew change was coming.
We figured that would be significant, and bang - it sure is.
And it stings.
Bad.
Darvish had come SO FAR.
Remember his first year was a disaster and so many fans were just so mean.
Then he got healthy, righted his own ship, became a stud again, and... he also turned out to be SUCH a fun guy.
Not only on the diamond but just as a person.
And Caratini was cool, too.
So, let it out.
Go scream in a pillow if it's too cold out.
Get it out of your system because I can pretty much promise that this is not the end of it.

More change is coming.
Except for the part about Steve Garvey.
I'll always detest that guy.

Believe it or not, I'm still trying to fix comments.
If it's not working and you want to comment, please email me and I'll just add it to the bottom of this post.

Here's a comment from Bud:
_______________________
I have a bit of a business background.  And as such, after the latest "salary dump and rebuild for the future" moves by our Cubs, I'm left pondering a pretty basic question: What makes pro sports different from other businesses?  Imagine if you can, any other business that would do this to their product and expect their customer base to stick around. 

 

What if McDonalds decided that their balance sheet is loaded with too much debt, they've invested too much in low-return capital improvements, and now they're coming off a bad covid-induced revenue year?  Would they attempt to solve their problem by introducing lower quality burgers, putting fewer fries in a serving and laying off the employees who clean the restaurant and bathrooms?

 

Imagine further, that in an executive strategy session they decided that when their loyal customers inevitably complain about the changes, they'll just tell them to "be patient, we're rebuilding our business and the food will taste better and the restaurants will be clean again "in 2 or 3 years". 

 

Absurd you say?

 

Well that's exactly what we're being told.  We're expected to stick around, continue to buy the lower quality product (for the same or higher prices) and in a few years the product will (maybe) be good again.

 

I love when people try to rationalize sports teams tanking / salary dumping strategies by saying "well, guess what...it's not just a sport, it's a BUSINESS now".  

 

My response:  "Really...well if it's a business, how about running it like any other successful business?  Your customers want a superior product that's worth what they're paying for!"

 

Guess what?  I'm not 40 years old anymore.  I don't know if I'll be here 3-4-5 years from now to see the next temporary version of our new and improved Cubs.  

 

Business 101: In a well-run business, the future is ALWAYS now.  And the product is ALWAYS superior. 
_______________________

Thanks Bud.
Looking around, not a whole lot of fans are rationalizing this as anything more than a salary dump.

And if the Cubs were McDonald's, then I bet lots of people might be looking at that shiny Burger King on the South side of town.

 

Ex-Cub Sam Fuld named Phillies GM.

Really, Sam Fuld was a Cub for just a minute.
He appeared in 98 games from 2007-2009, then got traded and ended up playing for Tampa, Oakland and Minnesota.
But in the little time he was here, he really made an impression and especially with his glove.
One of those Cubs you rooted extra hard for.
Just 5' 9" and 180 pounds you looked at and thought man, baseball is so cool if a guy 5' 9" can play!
He made his debut in Sept of '07 as a defensive replacement (he'd be a d replacement alot).
I just searched you tube and can't find it, but on Saturday Sept 22, 2007 he made an incredible catch, an I-don't-care-about-nothin' violent crash into the right field ivy, catching the ball and chucking it to Derrek Lee to double off the runner.
Ended up Cubs 9 Pirates 5 (here's ESPN's writeup), and was the kind of catch... I bet some of you who read this may remember, if not that exact catch you'll remember his glove and his fearlessness.
I never knew this, but Wikipedia says that he was injured in '04 (the year he got drafted), and spent the time as an intern with STATS Inc. here in Chicago.
He'd read "Moneyball", and began trying to find new stats on his own.
So even way back then, you might say he was training to be a GM.

Pretty cool for Fuld, the Phils are obviously upgrading so maybe he'll be a part of something big in Philadelphia. 

Anyway, that catch inspired this little painting. 
I missed it live on tv because I was shopping for mums at Home Depot with my wife, but I was carrying my transistor.

And... here's a couple other things I've been painting lately...

Watching the Bears with the cat...



And an inappropriate holiday greeting card...


And oh yeah... GO CUBS!

Len Kasper's leaving isn't about the Cubs. At all.

Hi.
I was soooo distraught yesterday about the Len Kasper news.
I'm sure you were, too.
Anyway, it turns out to have nothing to do with the Cubs.
He's not leaving because of something bad.
He's leaving for all the right reasons.
Like my first boss told me, "Never leave someplace just because it's bad, but do go someplace because it's good."
He really, truly wants to do radio, and honestly even though it's for the Sox, it's still good for baseball.
I haven't had the opportunity to listen to a lot of other radio guys, but I dread the day that Pat Hughes retires because he's such a treasure and he knows how to do it the best possible way.
I can't imagine there are a lot like him.
But I bet Len will be.
Anyway, he did an awesome farewell interview on The Score and you can listen to it here.
And since I don't have a baseball painting, here's another one of Goblin Cat.

And btw, still working on fixing the comments...