Chicago Cubs: Panicked musings from the Cub-o-sphere

Several people in the Chicago Cubs organization have made statements recently that slam the door on signing a big-ticket free agent this offseason.  They have also restated their belief that the Cubs have the players to compete.  So let’s write off the 2019 season right now.

After this week, the Cub-o-sphere is in full panic mode. Starting back before the end of the 2018 season a steady drumbeat to add Bryce Harper or Manny Machado began.  And since the curtain fell on the 2018 season that drumbeat has grown in volume and intensity.

The conversation starts with the owner being a stingy, money loving billionaire. The front office is incompetent. The manager is a sixties-era guru clown.  And the same core players who won the 2016 World Series now can’t hit, field, or throw.

Ownership only cares about money

They raised ticket and concession prices, littered Wrigley Field with advertising, are about to cut a TV deal worth tens of billions of dollars, won’t sign either of the two best free agents in a generation, and Tom Ricketts didn’t even show up at the Cubs Convention, he phoned it in on a radio talk show.  It’s all about the money, baby. We’re back to the days of the Wrigley family.

Theo and the front office are clueless

The Jason Heyward, Yu Darvish, Tyler Chatwood contracts, and the trades for Aroldis Chapman and Jose Quintana prevent the Cubs from signing Harper or Machado and depleted the farm system.  Rank incompetence! Oh, and they let Jake Arrieta get away.