Cubs on the cheap AGAIN
- Thread starter jdbrees922
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I disagree. Some of the most die hard fans I know wrote them off after they clears house last year. The first series attendance was putrid including the worst opening day attendance in over 20 years. It was a lot worse as many season ticket holders put down a 20% deposit in mid November with the expectation the cubs would spend some money but they lowered payrol significantly. Tickets were discounted less than 2% mostly because of the lack of premium games this year.
They ruined a lot of the wrigley traditions and aren’t on wgn anymore (tv or radio). They are losing loyal fans by the droves. Some people I know who were deep on the waiting list for season tix got the call this year. If they have another year like last year (which by this roster I fully expect it)… it will be bad news for the cubs. When I was a kid I could walk up to wrigley and sit in the bleachers for $8 the day of the game and drink $3.25 beers (and this was 20 some years ago), the white Sox were the hot ticket in town. They are heading back in that direction. I think ricketts took their fan base for granted.
Dodgers have traded some top prospects recently, most notably for Turner and Scherzer, it'll be interesting to see how the finances look for them in the next several years and if there's a fall off for some of these high profile players on big contracts.
IMO the Yankees front office is putting up a facade of being all in, the roster construction looks like a middle schoolers MLB the Show team with trades and budgeting off.
I'm not sure the Astros are going to be very good after Altuve and Bregman go. They've already lost Correa. Luckily for them, the AL West is not very good and they could still make the playoffs fairly easily.
Cubs sold their souls for a WS and the owners are content with that. From a owners perspective, if they couldn't resign Bryant, Rizzo and Baez it was better to get something instead of just letting them walk.
The Dodgers retained virtually every top prospect while they built the virtual All-Star team that they have. Lux...Buehler...May...Smith...they traded nobody of consequence as they built what they have via trade and free agency...they gave up next to nothing for Machado (for the brief time that they had him)...they really did not even give up THAT much as part of the Betts deal (and, they got Betts, so, it is irrelevant). They got Turner essentially for free as part of the Scherzer deal, as, the Nationals were just clearing salary...and, Scherzer was a rental, so, they did not give up a ton for him either.
Fair point certainly on the Yankees, but, they ALWAYS spend and ALWAYS will, so, while the roster construction sucks, it just turns into them identifying what they need and then just spending more than anyone else in turn the next year to get it.
Astros lost Springer as well, but, they added guys along the way (like Brantley), and, they have not shied away from spending at least. To your point, if/when they do lose some of the other guys, if they have not either developed or added someone, it will take a toll. They did what the Cubs did....tore it all down and then built through the draft, through trades, and, with selective free agents...but, like say, once they got to a point of being good, they did what it took to remain there for as long as they could...the Cubs did not.
Cubs...they absolutely went all in when they had the opportunity to win a WS, but, once they did...they quit trying...and, they got almost nothing for letting literally everyone go, including all of the guys that they elected not to re-sign last year (or before). They are So cheap that it is embarrassing...or should be, in that they do not even care...they ONLY care about making money, and, as much of it as humanly possible. I am a lifelong fan and as big of a fan as anyone, and, I am at a point where my interest could not be less, and, I have never been as disenchanted as I am...which, is crazy given a virtual lifetime of them losing and being bad way more often than not.
Yankees have a $245M payroll and are nearly $30M over the luxury tax threshold. If that is a facade of being all in, I hate to see what they will spend when they are really all in (maybe will find out in July).
I agree you should get something instead of just letting them walk. Your error in that statement is that they couldn't resign Bryant, Rizzo, and Baez. Its that they refused to. Bryant said they did not even talk to his camp about an extension in over 5 years (might have destroyed that by screwing him on his service time, which required a rule change, again shame on the cubs). Baez said he wanted to resign but they never made him an offer. Rizzo turned down their lowball offer in the offseason and they never came back with a counteroffer. It was never their intentions to sign any of them. Cubs fans are upset because ownership refused to spend the money to keep anyone there (didnt try on Schwarber, Baez, Bryant, or Rizzo or any pitcher other than Hendricks) and they are already showing they will let Contreras go with their lack of an offer and signing of backup that is too expensive to ride the pine. I believe Ricketts will regret this someday. At the average Cubs ticket price if they lose 5,000 seats like they did opening day that is $25M just in ticket sales plus vendors, impacting his kingdom he is building around Wrigley, and worst of all will kill their TV ratings.
Now that is been a month… cubs continue to suck and their attendance shows it. They are averaging fewest fans per game through this many games of the season since 1997 when mlb was still recovering from the 1994 strike. And that was with a smaller wrigley field, baseball generally sold fewer seats back then, and the cubs were playing way more day games. They have had some good matchups and already played 6 Saturday games at home. 2023 will suck. A lot of the cubs season ticket holders will continue to abandon them. Ricketts deserves this.
They’re still charging Contender ticket prices. Some folks will wait until they start delivering a commensurate product before they plunk down their $100 per ticket or whatever again.
No kidding. With dynamic ticket pricing they are now charging less for many if not most games than what season ticket holders got soaked for. If they lose that base they are screwed.
They probably have to go after 1 or more of these free agents next year to have a face of the franchise:
Trea Turner -SS
Xavier Bogaerts - Ss
Nolan Arenado - 3B
Aaron Judge -Of
Pitching wise DeGrom would be risky.
Contreras will be traded soon which will be sad.
Trea Turner -SS
Xavier Bogaerts - Ss
Nolan Arenado - 3B
Aaron Judge -Of
Pitching wise DeGrom would be risky.
Contreras will be traded soon which will be sad.
Contreras is considered a top 10 position player free agent next year so one of those guys essentially is a slight upgrade over losing him. It would be hard to justify only one. I think the cubs think they can just add players like that but why would they want to leave their current teams for the cubs? My guess is the rebuilding will be several more years because they will get stick with underwhelming mid-level signings like Stroman and Suzuki. Eventually they will be decent like in 2016-2019 when these young guys they keep trading for work their way up. But in 2016 they had the benefit of some good veteran leaders as carryover from the prior regime. They won’t have any veteran star power moving forward. I really wish they would have signed Contreras to a long term deal and built around him. Rizzo and Contreras could have made this team.
I'm a brewers fan. we have 0 World series titles. we would have won two if Fingers was healthy and pitched against the Cards in 1982. We were in first with a commanding lead in the year that was canceled by the strike. I guess MLB didn't want a Brewers / Expos world series that year. so rather than delaying it, they just canceled it. The brewers should never have switched leagues. But Bud caved in to the complaints of the astros and said Ok, I'll move the brewers instead of you.
it has often been said of the Cubs, the packers, and the bears ..... as long as the seats and season tickets are sold, there is no reason to spend more money than we absolutely have to. The packers could have signed OBJ last year, but decided not to waste their money.
it has often been said of the Cubs, the packers, and the bears ..... as long as the seats and season tickets are sold, there is no reason to spend more money than we absolutely have to. The packers could have signed OBJ last year, but decided not to waste their money.
Hey Wole, I think your "misremembering" a little. The Brewers were pretty far back in '94.....it was the White Sox and the team-formerly-known-as-the Indians who were neck and neck in the AL Central. I do agree that they probably let the '82 World Series get away.....that line-up was a wrecking crew - Cecil Cooper, Robin Yount, Ben Ogilvie, Gorman Thomas, Ted Simmons.....and oh yeah, Paul Molitor. Off the bench - reliable Don Money.
Also had a good shot in the shortened '81 season when Fingers was MVP.
Finally - hated to see them go to the NL and have the Astros in the AL.....wiped out a lot of old rivalries.
Don't get me started with Selig....I already have indigestion.
Rizzo would have made a difference this year over Schwindel. Looking back Baez trade looks ok with Crow-Armstrong batting .364 in the minors. Need to see how the other minor leaguers are doing. Hard to believe Bryant with 0 homers in Coors. Shwarber is doing his usual all power, no average.
Harvey’s Wallbangers were a great team. A couple guys in my grade school were big fans. Should have won that year. I tried to emulate Ogilvie and Cecil Cooper batting stances in wiffle ball. Too bad I was a righty😀.
Most of the revenue now is Tv revenue. People don’t want to watch a losing team whether it’s the cubs or the brewers. With regards to attendance, If the cubs had a decent team they should sell 3M tickets each year and lots of beers. They will be lucky to get 2.4M this year. They also have dynamic pricing so a lot of that 2.4M will be paying discounted prices. They will lose tens of millions and maybe close to $100m when you factor in the concessions and extracurricular activities the ricketts own in wrigleyville. Not investing in this roster bill ultimately be a terrible business decision on their part.
Not to belabor this, but I’m a geek for this stuff in particular sabremetrics, but if the cubs had done the following:
- not traded yu darvish to unload salary (5th starters are essentially 2-6 for the cubs), assume they don’t sign Smylie
- resigned rizzo to $20m average salary prior to last season
- signed Bryce Harper when he wanted to join team for same salary as Phillies (assume he moves to DH this year and still sign Suzuki)
The cubs payroll would be around $205m good enough for sixth highest just behind padres, very close to Red Sox and white Sox. This is where we should be.
looking at sabremetrics this would be good enough for 9 more wins. That would be enough to be just behind the brewers but looking great for wildcard. It’s probably better as we would be doling out 9 more losses mostly to NL teams. If that sounds crazy to you, cubs have 12 losses by 1 run. I would hope by trade deadline they would trade for some infielders as well.
- not traded yu darvish to unload salary (5th starters are essentially 2-6 for the cubs), assume they don’t sign Smylie
- resigned rizzo to $20m average salary prior to last season
- signed Bryce Harper when he wanted to join team for same salary as Phillies (assume he moves to DH this year and still sign Suzuki)
The cubs payroll would be around $205m good enough for sixth highest just behind padres, very close to Red Sox and white Sox. This is where we should be.
looking at sabremetrics this would be good enough for 9 more wins. That would be enough to be just behind the brewers but looking great for wildcard. It’s probably better as we would be doling out 9 more losses mostly to NL teams. If that sounds crazy to you, cubs have 12 losses by 1 run. I would hope by trade deadline they would trade for some infielders as well.
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