Here is the article referred to earlier by Gordon Wittenmyer of the Sun Times. Gordon absolutely eviscerates Theo Epstein in this article, and it is all 100% true.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs/2...hat-performed-as-well-as-its-roster-was-built
These are basically the things I was saying during last year's 96-win season, indicating that the window was going to close very quickly because of their ineptitude at pitching development (and overall player development). Several of the more level-headed posters said they weren't concerned about the Darvish/Chatwood/Morrow contracts because it was "just money, not prospects" and "would not prevent them from making other moves to improve the team."
Statements like these were made with the assumption that Tom Ricketts would spend money like a drunken sailor, which no organization does anymore.
Dave Dombrowski (who is basically Theo Sr.) was fired 10 months after winning a World Series. The Cardinals fired Walt Jocketty in 2007, less than a year after winning a World Series, because their farm system was in shambles.
Why should Theo Epstein not lose his job? What gives us any hope that we will turn it around?
Theo walked into a stacked team in Boston with a big time payroll, and made tweaks and additions to win two World Series. Following the 2007 title, his team got worse every year, the bad contracts mounted up, and the farm system was bad.
With the Cubs, he had the opportunity to unapologetically tank for four years. Theo was very good as a "seller." He was able to effectively steal Anthony Rizzo, Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks, Pedro Strop, and Addison Russell in trades as a "seller."
He has made some good moves as a buyer -- Lester, Zobrist, Chapman trade, Castellanos trade, acquiring Dexter Fowler prior to 2015 -- but the bad ones are the reason he will never win another NL pennant in Chicago.
