Welcome

[RayRay]

When my family introduced ourselves as the new owners of the Chicago Cubs almost two years ago, we stated our # 1 goal was winning a World Series Championship.

Today, we took another big step toward that goal by announcing today that Theo Epstein has joined the Chicago Cubs as the new President of Baseball Operations reporting directly to me.

In his new role, Theo will be given the resources and opportunity to build a strong foundation and the winning culture that our organization and fans deserve.

We are energized about our future and hope you're equally excited for the possibilities ahead.

Thank you for your tremendous support this year and I look forward to seeing you in 2012.

All my best,

Tom Ricketts

Chairman, Chicago Cubs

[YEM]

You can have him! He's decent at bringing up farm players, but man, he misses more often than not on FA's

[RayRay]

The grass isn't always greener my friend.

[YEM]

Regardless, it was time for a change

[RayRay]

I would agree but I've seen more than one fan absolutely crucifying him.

[YEM]

I definitely think he'll get the Cubs ship headed in the right direction. How far is yet to be determined

[JohnnyHustler]

YEM, refresh my memory...

How many world championships did Boston have AFTER 1918 and BEFORE he was GM?

[RayRay]

Here is my question. I know he had some high profile misses but how did Boston fans feel when the deals were made?

[Jammer]

It is a good pickup by the Cubs but don't get all dreamy until you see the moves he makes. Gillick is the only guy I can think of in baseball that has succeeded everywhere.

[RayRay]

Gillick is amazing in that as soon as he leaves a team-poof-suck.

I know Theo has had some big FA misses but he can rebuild the farm system I'll be very happy. They have dumped a ton of prospects for FA's like Garza so there isn't much talent at the higher levels, most is way down the development chain.

[JohnnyHustler]

It is a good pickup by the Cubs but don't get all dreamy until you see the moves he makes. Gillick is the only guy I can think of in baseball that has succeeded everywhere.

Epstein also had to deal with Luccino, who was getting a little too uncomfortable with Theo getting all the pub later on in his tenure. Ricketts will let Epstein do the dealing here, much like the early going for Theo in Boston.

[Jammer]

Hmmmm Johnny is sounding just like the Johnny with the Palmer thread.

[JohnnyHustler]

Hmmmm Johnny is sounding just like the Johnny with the Palmer thread.

Nope. My buddy is a Red Sox fan, and we've had this conversation many times. Luccino is a meddler, and wants some credit. Boston was flat out a perfect example of the old "too many cooks" cliche the past couple of years. When Epstein was making the moves early on, he was adding the right vets to go with younger talent that was being brought through the farm system. Suddenly, Boston overall got a mentality that they needed to be like the Yanks with signing huge contracts, and the wheels started falling off.

Oh, and it doesn't hurt that the director of scouting will be the guy who scouted the likes of Pedroia to boot.

NL fans are going to be upset in a few years, because Epstein will turn it around, and will bring in a world title. People will say at that time that the so called curse is broken, but it's broken today - the real curse was bad management that didn't know how to handle a big budget. Not a fucking goat.

[YEM]

Here is my question. I know he had some high profile misses but how did Boston fans feel when the deals were made?

Some were liked and some were "wtf"

Recent "wtf's" were Jenks, Lackey, and not so much Crawford, but rather the $$$ they threw at him


And Johnny, the Sox winning had more to do with the new owners willing to spend $$$ than Theo. A lot of people could have success throwing the $$$ around that they do.

Like I said, he's good at building up the farm system and he's above average with FA's. As a Sox fan, I'm grateful he helped bring 2 championships to the team, but it doesn't change the fact that it was time to move on

[JohnnyHustler]

Here is my question. I know he had some high profile misses but how did Boston fans feel when the deals were made?

Some were liked and some were "wtf"

Recent "wtf's" were Jenks, Lackey, and not so much Crawford, but rather the $$$ they threw at him


And Johnny, the Sox winning had more to do with the new owners willing to spend $$$ than Theo. A lot of people could have success throwing the $$$ around that they do.

Like I said, he's good at building up the farm system and he's above average with FA's. As a Sox fan, I'm grateful he helped bring 2 championships to the team, but it doesn't change the fact that it was time to move on

A lot of people don't have success throwing around $$$ too...see Hendry, Jim, McPhail, Andy, and the Dodgers. The Trib was willing to throw the cash just like the others when they wanted to sell, but got small market guys in that didn't know how to handle having money.

I hope that Theo's right hand guy works for Boston, but Luccino strikes me as a guy who would go full on Jerry Jones if he's unchecked. And that's a bad thing in any sport...a lot of good GMs have had problem years when ownership gets it in their head they're more than just the $$$ for the organization.