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thought it'd be fun to get everyones perspective on what the cubs will have and be up against in the division over the next 3 years or so...let's start with the rest of the division

Reds : Dusty will be gone in a few years and that could cause a bit of a rift (for better or for worse) hopefully their cornerstones of votto phillips bruce and cueto will start their downfall cause that core can make it easy to win a lot of games as we've seen in recent years...but their farm system doesn't scream smooth sailing for the team on their own...jocketty is a real wild card depending on who he decides to pull the trigger on...but that can also get the low-mid market franchise in trouble..i see the reds as the best bet of winning the division almost every year for the next decade or so

brewers : they'll definately hit but their pitching will always be mediocre. financial constrants prevent them from ever buying those extra pieces and there farm system is in shambles due to the deals they've made in the past 5 years...hopefully they become the new astros over the next decade

pirates : they may actually be onto something here..mccutcheon will be a star for the next 5 years at least and i really think he'll stay there until his final years in baseball...they still have 3 big names ready to be promoted in taillon cole and marte and if the FO cashes in sometime soon they could give the reds a run for their money year after year

cardinals : all of their leaders are quickly leaving, the veteran pitching they've relied on the past few years is fading in lohse leaving, carp deteriorating, waino and garcia are damaged goods and this could lead to them burning their young pitching that will never have the chance to fill out. i don't see how they can continue to be great on offense now with pujols and berkman gone, beltran could retire any day now and they'll be left with their best hitters being mediocre in molina holliday craig and freese. their coaches are now greatly watered down with basically inviting the old 2004 team back into the dugout to replace hall of fame minds in larussa duncan and recently but to a lesser effect mcgwire..they'll have money off the books with pujols gone but with him being gone...what superstars will want to play there?

which leads us to the cubs...playing slow and steady for once...we're in an excellent position to have a great team by 2015 and maybe as soon as 14' but when it does happen it will be here to stay with young talented cost controlled players. the names of those players? your guess is as good as mine but i expect to see a few of the guys we have now to be packaged for future stars to crowd the field and lineup...i think pitching will come first which will help us jumpstart into competitiveness and once we crack the bank vault with a few smart FA signings and develop a position player star or 2 of our own we'll be set for a new culture here...it's the reds we need to model ourselves towards beating

competition will only increase with the worst team in the game leaving this year...who do u see us going head to head with down the wire in 15' and beyond? here's my prediction of the final NLC standings in 2015

1. Cubs
2. Reds
3. Pirates
4. Cardinals
5. Brewers

Really hoping the cards see what the basement finally looks like and stay there...and i really think it could happen

Hmmmm

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[The sound of fastballs] was one of those things that told me my pitches were fast....because I've never heard pitches as loud as mine.

Really hard to predict what will happen in 2015. Obviously that's what the FO is hoping for, but we still have very little in the way of pitching for the future. Our offensive players look promising, but are still very young and in the low minors. Our big advantage is money assuming Theo decides to start spending it.

The Cardinals simply won't let themselves finish below 3rd in the division. Ever.

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The poster formerly known as "Aramis Fan."

there's no reason for a smart, major market team like st louis to ever have to bottom out in order to be good

Yeah, the Cards are pretty consistent as opposed to the Cubs, Pirates, and Brewers.

There's also the whole Cardinals have one the top 5 farm systems thing to take into consideration.

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Chicago Club has gone back on us. Please Send Expenses. Am Broke

They must've been bad for a long time to build that up.

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I have always thought that teams like the Cardinals and others don't focus so much on who to pick as much as they focus on how to develop. I am sure there is some great debate about this subject somewhere.

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“There are 2,000 verses of Scripture that call upon us to respond to the needs of the poor. And yet, I find that when Christians talked about values in this last election that was not on the agenda, that was not a concern. ”-Tony Campolo

So you're telling me we don't have to suck for 2-3 years to make sure we get top draft picks?

/kyle

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but we weren't smart, employed Jim Hendry for way too long and had extremely little in the way of a foundation to build on so here we are

this is crying over spilt milk

"Extremely little" until it's time to drool over Castro, Baez, etc.

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Team Theo.

If you don't like the path the FO is taking, I'll let a great man sum it up for you: "If you don't like it, learn to love it, because it's the best thing going today! Whoooooooooooooooooooooo!"

The Cubs had a higher ranked system (according to BA) as recently as 2011.

ETA: And the year before that, the Cardinals were ranked 29th.

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Who are the etc's here?

How do you punctuate "etc.'s"?

Almora, Soler

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@jeimer24C: @KCCougars Finally I make the tweeter

And what else? One great ML asset and one in the low minors. Oh, and Shark. Other than that, it was a wasteland.

Love the "etc.", as if there was anything else of note. He left something, but it was pretty [expletive] far from a foundation.

It speaks volumes of Hendry's regime that nearly all of our top prospects have been added in the past 12 months.

Except for Castro, Rizzo (who we got for Cashner), and all of the other prospects we received by trading Marshall, Dempster, etc.

And Garza. And Barney. And the trade bait that got Rizzo, Wood, Torreyes, Vizcaino and Lout. And that 4-win LFer we put out there. And the entire low minors draft class that owned the NWL lists.

But other than a middle infield, a middle-of-the-order bat, three-fifths of a rotation, a bunch of trade bait and a wave of prospects, there was a completely blank slate for St. Theo to work his magic.



On the Fangraphs top 15, our current regime inherited 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15. And it didn't exactly take a wizard to turn the top two draft picks into top-15 organizational guys.

It speaks more of our current regime that nearly every worthwhile major leaguer is a legacy.

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Team Theo.

I would highly recommend not using the Fan Graphs top prospect list. I mean, Dillon Maples at #4?



I think it speaks more to the fact that the current regime has been around for ONE year.

Vizcaino came from trading two guys that Theo/Jed signed, Maholm and Johnson.

The moving target from "being frustrated with the talent level on the MLB roster" to "using the same moves that created the MLB roster as justification that the talent level in the system was fine" is a confusing one to me.

Hey, it's that thing where people pretend you can still acquire elite amateur talent without being bad again.

i like this constant distortion where whenever the Theo regime turns a mediocre reliever into a frontline starter or damaged goods into a franchise player, full credit goes to Hendry for giving him that player- "we traded Greg Rohan for Tommy Hanson? well done, Hendry!"

and what a laugh, seeing Barney as like the third name listed..."i fully stocked the cupboards for you; there should be a can of Hormel chili and maybe a granola bar in there"

What about the constant distortion that everything Theo has done has been of his making. The plan was always to turn Shark into a starter. Any GM (including Hendry) would have made the deal trading Cashner for Rizzo because the Padres had already committed themselves to Alonso. The cupboard wasn't as bare as some of you are making it out to be.