2020-21 Baseball Offseason Thread

Could go on a number of pages but since it was on Stirrups Now!'s Twitter page ...

Stirrups Now!
@uniformcritic

1958: Backstage at the TV show “Dancing, a Man’s Game.”

 

No monkey suit involved this time:

 

I think Theo should GM the Clippers. They'd win a title within 3 years.

 

Ricketts family must be pissed. They spent a fuckton of money to lose to the Miami Marlins and Joe Biden in the last two months.

 

Fangraphs’ Jon Tayler on Theo’s departure and the Cubs’ future:

If nothing else, the talent on hand remains strong (assuming it remains), but the problem in Chicago is twofold. First is figuring out why this particular team is less than the sum of its parts, and why its most important players — namely Báez and Bryant — struggled so badly in 2020. Second is the fact that ownership has displayed no real interest in spending what it takes to make the Cubs better. Since handing Darvish a $126 million contract ahead of the 2018 season, the money faucet has turned off. Despite a need for one or both, Chicago sat out the Manny Machadoand Bryce Harper sweepstakes; the team’s lone major league signing that offseason was Daniel Descalso. Last winter was more of the same, as the Cubs tinkered around the margins with reclamation projects like Jeremy Jeffress and Jason Kipnis instead of splashing around in the deep end of the free-agent pool.

It’s a bizarre mindset for a franchise and ownership group each worth billions, but the Ricketts family is apparently more content to throw its dollars at political campaigns and PACs than at the lineup or bullpen. (The Ricketts have spent plenty on improvements to Wrigley Field and on surrounding real estate ventures, but that has as much to do with increasing the value of the team and the stadium and thus netting more money from its fans as it does with the players on the field, and even there they’ve complained loudly about the local government not chipping in more.) Like every other club, the Cubs have embraced fully the desire to avoid the luxury tax and to shrink payroll, and the pandemic’s economic after-effects will only lead to a further tightening of the belt. At a time when the team should be spending the money it has to lock up its homegrown stars and try to extend its contention cycle with impact free agents, you can bet that the Ricketts will once again cry poverty. That puts a hard cap on just how much Chicago can improve or avoid falling apart, and sets the stage instead for retrenchment both financially and in the standings.
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As Theo Epstein Departs, What Will Become of the Cubs?

 

Dumbass.

 

If it were cocaine, John Sterling would have a new HR call: “Robbie Cano. Got caught with blow!”

 

Well that really ends his hall of fame chances

 

As my son says, he could have still sucked without PEDs and still made $24 million.

 

His homerun totals the last 3 seasons.....10 in 20, 13 in 19, 10 in 18.
I'd be getting a refund on my PED's if I were him.

 

That was my first thought. My second is that everyone involved with the Mets organization is thrilled.