Theo Is Gone - Boston Herald

[jacksonianmarch]

Pretty good strawman.

 

What i initially said is that he won't set the market for closers, because he's not worth that much money, and chances are he won't. You're grasping at straws to debate the undebatable.

 

He's going to make the most money this offseason for closers, otherwise known as setting the market

[Palodios]

NWIH he gets 15 . I say 12 max

 

Soriano got 3/35 after only one full season of closing. Papelbon probably won't get 15 per year, but I don't think it is impossible either.

[User Name]

He's going to make the most money this offseason for closers' date=' otherwise known as setting the market[/quote']

 

Whatever bro. If twisting my words helps you sleep at night, then sleep tight.

[jacksonianmarch]

I see. So you give up when I prove you wrong.

[User Name]

Fantastic combination of both idiot and baiter.

[jacksonianmarch]

Fantastic combination of both idiot and baiter.

 

Wait, so you said he wouldnt set the market, but you agreed that he would make $13-14 mil annually, which would be the most on the market. Otherwise known as setting the market. I called you on it, and I am the idiot? LOL. I love your logic

[User Name]

Bro, i should not keep wasting time on you, but i will, just because you seem to need help with basic definitions.

 

When Papelbon spoke of setting the market for closers, he meant highest AAV for a closer ever, and unless you live under a rock, i'm certain you know this. He will not break Rivera money this year, which is what everyone's been referring to here.

 

You either got caught in a moment where you didn't understand what was being talked about and didn't have the balls to backpedal, or you do live under a rock.

 

Don't be a dumb-ass please.

[jacksonianmarch]

If you meant that he would set a record for highest AAV as a closer, then you should have said that. I would have agreed with you, as I dont think he gets Rivera money, but he'll get close. But this yr, he is setting the market. He's the best closer on a market that has a lot of good closers. He will set the market for 2012. That's a given. It's standard terminology. He will get a lot of money, probably money that the sox will be uncomfortable with, but something they need to pay

[User Name]

He's talked about setting the market, period. A benchmark, most money ever, etc etc etc. Why would i be talking about this year when it's clear that he'll be the best-paid closer?

 

Even if he comes back at 2011 salary, no one else will break 12 mill.

[jacksonianmarch]

He wants to set a record, he will set the market. It's just standard terminology

[User Name]

What he won't do is beat Rivera's contract, which is what i've been talking about all along.

[jacksonianmarch]

Alright, we agree then

[User Name]

I apologize for calling you a dumb-ass. It was a mix-up of "semantical" nature.

[jacksonianmarch]

This is a message board, no harm taken man.

[Dawgma]

Theo took some darn good teams apart.. What an idiot... and not the idiots that won us a World Series.

Credit to the Yankee's for the loyalty they show for there players. Now the wussy is gone for good maybe we can get back to having fun while doing business and winning ball games!

[a700hitter]

From Wednesday's Chicago Tribune. It doesn't seem like Theo is being treated like a King by the Chicago Press. It doesn't seem like he's getting much of a honeymoon:

 

Isn't Theo supposed to help whoever his new manager is?

 

November 16, 2011

 

Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer are working on a second round of the managerial interviews, which they claim is not really a second round, but what else do you call a second interview with, say, Dale Sveum?

 

Truth is, it doesn’t matter. Theo and the kids can call it what they want. They can take all the time they want, too.

 

What’s not fine, however, is the way they might be setting up their new manager to fail.

 

Epstein, see, took a lunch Monday with Carlos Zambrano, his babysitter agent Barry Praver, and Cubs farm director Oneri Fleita. Zambrano, you’ll recall, is team captain of the disqualified list after quitting in the middle of a game last summer. That extended the most embarrassing rap sheet in Cubs history, which would seem like the place to start blowing things up as part of the “culture change’’ everybody at Clark and Addison has been talking about.

 

But no.

 

The Cubs’ Baseball Moses told the big goof he could “earn his way back to being a Cub, that nothing would be given to him. He could earn his way back "through very hard work this winter, through rebuilding relationships man-to-man with all his teammates and through other steps we discussed."

 

Epstein didn’t detail the “other steps’’ Zambrano must satisfy. He didn’t explain how Zambrano should rebuild relationships man-to-man. Blah, blah, blah. Zambrano acts like an idiot, Zambrano acts contrite, Zambrano acts like an idiot. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

The idea that Epstein cracked open the door to Zambrano’s cage is crazier than Zambrano himself. The only sensible explanation for this nonsense is that Epstein is desperately trying to build a trade market for the big loon. Good luck with that $19 million bluff for a pitcher coming off a 4.82 ERA, even if you’re willing to eat all the salary.

 

And good luck giving your new manager a chance, too.

 

If you’re not lying and you do bring back Zambrano, you won’t be changing the culture of sports’ most pathetic losers, you will simply be changing the clowns getting out of the Volkswagen.

 

Look, you’re supposed to hire a manager for 25 players, not for one big overpaid, underperforming, quitting, lunatic baby.

 

Let me try explaining this another way: The best predictor of future performance is past production. Isn’t that what Epstein and his decimalheads live by? OK then. Zambrano has been a nut job for years. He’ll be a nut job for the rest of his career. Connect the dots, Theo.

 

Zambrano has been the nut job who punched a teammate a couple times, ignored his managers, acted like a diva on the mound toward teammates, ripped teammates publicly, and finally last season, quit on the field when got himself thrown out of a game and then quit off the field when stormed out of the clubhouse.

 

That’s only a small part of what this blasting cap has visited upon people who ostensibly were on his side. Point is, what part of “nut job’’ doesn’t Epstein understand? What part of “serial nut job’’ doesn’t Epstein understand?

 

Maybe Epstein has an algorithm for lunacy. Or maybe this is all a charade. Maybe the plan always has been to act like Zambrano is welcome while trying to get rid of him, knowing the default setting is paying him to stay home. Hope so.

 

Otherwise, there would seem to be little hope that the new guys’ thinking would be different from the old guys’ failures. I want Epstein to succeed. I want Baseball Moses to lead the Cubs out of the desert after more than 100 years. But that won’t happen if this journey starts in Stupidtown.

 

Here’s the deal: Bringing Zambrano back because you can’t find a trade market for him, actually letting Zambrano wear a Cubs jersey again, and Epstein goes from Moses to Hendry.

[seabeachfred]

700, let's just be succinct and say the Red Sox's good fortune is the Cubs' bad fortune and be done with it. After I listened to the tape of the Gresh and Zo show I'm convinced that Epstein was nothing more than a narcissict bastard who thought only of himself and threw the whole Red Sox organization under the bus.

[User Name]

If he's gone, why do you people keep whining about him? Move on.

[a700hitter]

700' date=' let's just be succinct and say the Red Sox's good fortune is the Cubs' bad fortune and be done with it. After I listened to the tape of the Gresh and Zo show I'm convinced that Epstein was nothing more than a narcissict bastard who thought only of himself and threw the whole Red Sox organization under the bus.[/quote']I don't know if I would go that far. but I did think his hissy fit and self imposed exile in the off season after 2005 was not something a team player would do and it demonstrated that he had an over-inflated view of his value. People here beat on Ortiz for interrupting Tito's presser for a scoring decision on an RBI, but what Theo did was far worse than that or anything that Manny ever pulled.

[a700hitter]

It seems clear that Theo has to deal with at least one independent minded sports writer to in Chicago, unlike the team directed media hacks in Boston, who spent a lot of time creating a myth about the Boy Wonder. The Chicago Press doesn't seem anxious to buy into the myth.

[FredLynn]

It seems clear that Theo has to deal with at least one independent minded sports writer to in Chicago' date=' unlike the team directed media hacks in Boston, who spent a lot of time creating a myth about the Boy Wonder. The Chicago Press doesn't seem anxious to buy into the myth.[/quote']

 

I am going to laugh my ass of as Epstein destroys the Cubs franchise as he did ours. He is simply not that talented a GM, and frankly, there is something a bit unseemly and slimy about him.

[SoxSport]

Hey, anybody can do that job with a 100 million bucks to work with.

There's a hell of a lot tougher jobs out there for a lot less money.

Theo, Ben and the rest of them are lucky guys.

[a700hitter]

I am going to laugh my ass of as Epstein destroys the Cubs franchise as he did ours. He is simply not that talented a GM' date=' and frankly, there is something a bit unseemly and slimy about him.[/quote']One of the other articles in another Chicago paper closed with a reminder that when he took over the Red Sox they had won 93 games the year before. The Cubs won only 71 games last year.

[iortiz]

Hey, anybody can do that job with a 100 million bucks to work with.

There's a hell of a lot tougher jobs out there for a lot less money.

Theo, Ben and the rest of them are lucky guys.

 

Ask Andrew Friedman what would he do with those tons of money in TB.

[VA Sox Fan]

If he's gone' date=' why do you people keep whining about him? Move on.[/quote']

 

Some folks simply CANNOT and WILL NOT move on. Gotta get their point across a few hundred times and additional media reports help that.

 

It's an extemely slow time......currently.

 

93 days until Pitchers and Catchers! :thumbsup:

[a700hitter]

Some folks simply CANNOT and WILL NOT move on. Gotta get their point across a few hundred times and additional media reports help that.

 

It's an extemely slow time......currently.

 

93 days until Pitchers and Catchers! :thumbsup:

I can't speak as to why others posted about Theo today, but i posted the article, because I had heard that Theo was being treated like royalty in Chicago. I decided to check the Chicago papers, and I have to say that I was surprised that he is not exactly being fawned over. I thought it was noteworthy on a slow news day.

[jung]

I actually enjoyed seeing that article. The common view is that the Boston media is either completely owned by club management or outrageously antagonistic towards the clubs. That actually looked like something that could have been written in Boston. So I enjoyed it more for the media slant than the Theo slant.

 

That said I could definitely see a Chicago guy going off the deep end about Zambrano. I did not follow that whole Zambrano mess closely enough while it was happening but on the surface that did look as close to breech of contract as anything a player could pull.

[example1]

I can't speak as to why others posted about Theo today' date=' but i posted the article, because I had heard that Theo was being treated like royalty in Chicago. I decided to check the Chicago papers, and I have to say that I was surprised that he is not exactly being fawned over. I thought it was noteworthy on a slow news day.[/quote']

 

Yeah, interesting that you found opinions contrary to the widely-held belief.

 

I bet Theo is enjoying himself quite nicely, thank you very much. Nice suits, limo, living in a cool new city. I bet the new job hasn't lost its gloss yet.

[a700hitter]

Yeah, interesting that you found opinions contrary to the widely-held belief.

 

I bet Theo is enjoying himself quite nicely, thank you very much. Nice suits, limo, living in a cool new city. I bet the new job hasn't lost its gloss yet.

It was the first article that I found about Theo in the biggest newspaper in Chicago. It was just quite different from the fawning articles that we read in the Boston tabloids (they don't deserve to be called newspapers). I enjoyed the writers style. It was blunt, sarcastic and irreverent.

 

BTW: Didn't Theo make enough money to shop at the better Boston clothing stores to get nice suits?

[SoxSport]

I actually enjoyed seeing that article. The common view is that the Boston media is either completely owned by club management or outrageously antagonistic towards the clubs. That actually looked like something that could have been written in Boston. So I enjoyed it more for the media slant than the Theo slant.

 

That said I could definitely see a Chicago guy going off the deep end about Zambrano. I did not follow that whole Zambrano mess closely enough while it was happening but on the surface that did look as close to breech of contract as anything a player could pull.

 

 

Actually, both the Boston and Chicago media don't give a damn about the Sox or the Cubs.

All they care about is MAKING A PROFIT. They do it any way they can.<_>