I have to be honest about the vibe I got from Jed Hoyer’s presser and the other Cubs balls

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For reasons that will appear later in The Bullets, I have one song in particular stuck in my head. Endlessly. I can’t take it out. And I did it myself.

• Sometimes individual quotes, or even collections of quotes, don’t give you all the “vibe” you get from a presser. So let me give you the vibe I got from Jed Hoyer’s intro / early season presser, who, hey, I’m just a dude. I could have read it wrong. To me, it was like there were going to be a lot of short-term pay cuts. Yes, Hoyer and Ricketts have indicated that the budget is fluid right now, depending on the circumstances, and yes, Ricketts has rejected the idea of ​​a total dismantling (although he will defer to Hoyer on baseball decisions. ). But that was just… a feeling that you got in the way things were answered, the things that weren’t said, and the way Hoyer wasn’t particularly touchy in talking about the “weather” issues. of service ”the team faced and the“ financial realities ”of the pandemic. To be very clear: this front office, which dates back to Theo and Jed’s early days, is still at its most careful when it comes to payroll and budget. They don’t like to give the rest of the market an idea of ​​what they are capable of doing, as this can only hurt them in the negotiations. So it could be smoke. But I’m just saying I’ve watched a lot of these things, and I feel like I have. The reduction in the wage bill is approaching and the eye is more turned towards after 2021 than towards 2021.

• None of this is to say that the Cubs cannot yet compete in 2021, what about the weakness of NL Central and a good bit of talent existing in a team which won the division in 2020. But where the needs to reduce the wage bill collide with those of the competition in 2021, money issues will prevail, especially if and where they can be translated into future, younger players. Maybe that doesn’t mean a total teardown (it always seemed pointless to me), but these “heavy reboot” rumors? Where are you moving maybe Kris Bryant AND Kyle Schwarber AND another positional player AND a pitcher? Yeah, I think it’s possible. From there, you target short-term cheap coins to see if you can get your hands on at least one coinflip shot in 2021, and call it competitive. And then you start to spend the next offseason again. A total teardown would mean trading anyone and everyone for value, and no plausible chance of competing in 2021 OR 2022. I don’t see that.

• Again, a simple quote may not really make sense to you, but if I * had * to choose a quote that sums up all of the above, it would probably be this, from Hoyer:

“I think in this job you always have an eye on the present and an eye on the future. I think the truth is, given the realities of service time I mentioned, I think the eye can be a bit more focused on the future than usual.

“But that doesn’t detract from the point. And the goal is still to qualify for the playoffs and give this organization a chance to go deep in October.

“There are always challenges in trying to do both. I think you have to keep an eye on both things. You have to be opportunistic when decisions allow you to do both. As for the competition on the pitch, we have some great players and this group has been together for a while. I know there is some frustration with the way things have ended in recent years, but I think at some point you have to look at the big picture. We won the division this year, we are really talented. I think we can do both. But that probably means being a little opportunistic at times.

• He talks about threading that needle between still being good in 2021, but also making progress to improve for the future. But in doing so, it felt like things were going back to a version of “Yes, we want to compete in 2021, but here’s the thing…. “

• The Cubs have a new hitting assistant coach, although he’s actually a guy that’s been in the hitting development pipeline for a while. Minor League Strike Coordinator Chris Valaika gets the big league staff job as number two behind Anthony Iapoce. Both guys come from a minor league with a history of development, which isn’t unusual, obviously, but also seems fitting given what has happened in recent years with the stagnation of many Cubs hitters (and what will follow, with a STRONG need for some bats to take a big step forward). Valaika last played in the big leagues in 2014 with the Cubs, and he wasn’t particularly good. But they still say that sometimes these guys make great coaches because they’re so familiar with all the ways the game can beat you.

• I made a stupid tweet but it made me laugh:

•… and maybe that’s because I saw this last night (look bottom left) and just wanted to think some happy thoughts about Báez:

• Massagers, boots, knives, drinks, cast iron cookware and more are your first Black Friday deals on Amazon today. #a d

• The Korean Baseball Championship ended earlier this morning and I can still enjoy a celebration of the victory:

• Be careful if it’s in your region:



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