Even A Worst Case Scenario Should Give A Little Optimism For 2012

70 games

This cannot happen, and the squad you outlined would not win 80 games.

That’s the same team minus Soto plus CJ Wilson and Brett Jackson

Wilson would be a nice addition but was rumored to be discussing an extension with Texas the past couple weeks. Another playoff run and they will certainly have the $.

This team minus Soto and Fukudome would never take another walk and probably average less than 2 runs a game. Jackson will hopefully be better than Dome but unlikely in his 1st season.

And why the hell are we shooting for 80 wins to begin with? Since when is that optimistic? Just terrible.

Byrd now has 18 RBI’s despite hitting 3rd *(behind 2 guys who were getting on a lot) and 5th…need more power and RBI production from OF since Sori seems stuck on the 20 HR-70 RBI mode. Our outfield is biggest area to target for improvement.

Agree we need at least one quality starter then maybe take a flyer on a guy like Rich Harden (again, I liked him) and others hoping to hit paydirt unlike this year with Davis, Lopez, etc…

would like to see them add another pen arm like Dotel, too….

$12 million for a guy to catch the ball at 1B and go in a couple of HR stretches and otherwise hit about .220 with 65 RBI’s? No thanks.

and why would you give carlos pena 2 years and 24 million dollars? that’s ridiculous.

I don’t understand why so many Cubs fans on this website are encouraging the team to blow itself up. It doesn’t make sense to me to dump players that are currently under contract for another year into a soft market. I think a lot of clubs next year our going to be looking to dump salary. Prospects are going to be overvalued and veterans are going to be undervalued. Just look at the trades that happened this past month. The Cubs go into next season with room to spend. They should be looking to spend it.

We aren’t the Pirates.

I can fully understand that people want to see drastic changes in the team (as do I), but how?
We do have Brett Jackson ready for next season. Castillo maybe as backup C, maybe Lemahieu can get some playing time. And maybe we can really score Pujols or Fielder. As far as I can see, that’s all we can expect to add to our roster.
Next to these 5 guys, there’s still 20 roster spots to fill, which has to be done with players we already have.
The probabilty of finding better players for lesser money than we have already have in Byrd or Soto seems pretty low. Sames goes for ARam if he accepts a lower contract.

Sometimes there have to be changes just for sake of making changes. But that should be made by firing the manager and in this case Hendry.
That being said, I think we definitely should have tried to get rid of Baker, DeWitt and Marmol who seem expendable no matter what how the team changes. And if we’re going for an obese 1B FA, obviously Pena has to go ASAP.

1) Incorporate youth as much as possible. This is what I truly believe each organization should strive for. I’m not the most well versed on how deep (or not deep) the Cubs farm system is, but I do know it is on the upswing. Brett Jackson appears to have turned a corner and after a slower start at AAA, is now batting near .300 and currently has a .973 OPS. It is inevitable he will be at Wrigley Field no later than 27 days from now. He will the Cubs starting CF next year and hopefully beyond. Aside from BJax, the question marks are plentiful. Give these prospects time and as we move forward, the system is being stocked with high ceiling, raw prospects. The most recent draft is a perfect example of ownership taking stock in development and growing from within. If the Cubs can actually develop these prospects, they need to be able to put them in place without being blocked on the big league club. This is a perfect segway to my next thought…

2) Rid themselves of large, unfavorable contracts. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to let time ride its course. Luckily, the Cubs do have the opportunity to rid themselves of Aram, Pena, Fukudome (technically gone, but no $14M+ next year), and Grabow after this season. After next season, Zambrano and Dempster are off the books. I truly believe you can give someone top dollar per season, but DO NOT handcuff the organization with excess years. For this reason, I am a strong advocate of NOT signing Pujols. Instead, I would be content with signing Fielder to a 5 or 6 year deal. For him personally, I think a shorter deal with more per year would be beneficial as it would allow him to possibly net one final long contract at 32-33 years of age. I feel like resigning Pena and Aram to deals (albeit lower money and fewer years) is not beneficial to the organization.

This is where retooling comes into play, whereas the Cubs need to retool their organizational direction. YOUTH, YOUTH, YOUTH!! Develop the youth and naturally wholesale changes will follow. I like to be optimistic about this team at all times, but I don’t think this team can make enough changes to compete for a pennant in 2012. This then is where huge, wholesale changes come into play. The Cubs can start by making a splash this upcoming offseason by signing Fielder. A 5-6 year contract is going to be more beneficial than a 2 year contract to Pena. In 2013, go after a power hitting OF (Kemp, Ethier, Quentin) and go after an ace SP (Weaver, Hamels, Cain, Greinke). In the meantime, albatross contracts will come off the books and all that will remain will be the solid core of Castro, Garza, Cashner, Marmol, Jackson.

I think the whole point of my post is that we can’t do much to drastically change 2012. They’re already bad enough where you can’t get much worse. On the other end of the spectrum, they can’t do enough to immediately compete for a division title and pennant. Keep the core, let contracts come off the books and let the natural transformation begin immediately. As soon as 2013, I think we can expect to see dividends from these changes. Until then, I think the most beneficial tactic would be to not use patchwork fixes and to be smart about free agent signings.

I left a lot on the table to be blasted, so have at it.

team should have been good.good enough to contend in this crap division.when the players dont do their jobs it wont happen.does’nt matter who you have playing if they dont produce.this team is living proof of that.