Bleacher Bums Forum

Tend to agree with Ron.  Even Pujols has made comments in the heat of the moment of frustration.  Last year, for example, he made some biting comments regarding Rasmus, but they quickly blew over.  It happens.  When Z does it, it makes banner headlines, like when Bradley got tossed by an ump, it was blown out of proportion each time.  (Not defending Bradley, just that the media latches onto story lines and can't let go.)

My perception is that the Cubs' total spending on the draft last year was below the MLB average. Part of that could be due to drafting late in each round, but I don't recall as many well-over-slot guys as usual. That might be due to (Larry) Bud and his stupid rules, of course.

If you include the Szczur money, this past draft spending was I believe somewhere in the 12-16 area of the draft.  The international spending was considerably higher.  So I believe the total procurement spending was likely top 10. 

I might be wrong.  Obviously a key to what they spent was that they spent little on Simpson.  It may be that they had a limited budget, and the savings on Simpson may have enabled some of the overslotting later. So maybe the average spending reflected that they were limited to an average draft budget and a high overall procurement budget.  But it's also possible that the only reason the spending average was only average was because Wilken honestly and sincerely thought the discount guy was BPA and he happened to come very cheap.  Add an extra million and they'd have been in the top dozen at least in draft spending too. 

I may be wrong, of course.  But my sense is that while they haven't had massive spending, it's certainly not been low.  They might not have like Boston budget, but it's not like Wilken's been getting shorted. 


The Jackson draft was low spending.  Drafting last, mostly slot or modest overslot, Raley the only major superslot. 

This is exactly the type of situation that should be handled in the locker room. 

No media, no coaches, just players.

I just saw the video of Z's comments for the first time.  It seems to be very calculated by him...he never calls anyone out by name or uses a pronoun like "he" or "him"...it's always "we".  I agree with those who are saying that if these comments came from Dempster or Wood or Byrd that the media would be praising them for their leadership and courage to tell it like it is, and they'd point the the "we" language as a major plus.  Here is the video:

http://www.csnchicago.com/pages/cubsvideo?PID=T_SWu5_LILtv6L6Z0L84eAgp9pwRz_on

There's a poll in the Tribune's site about whether the Cubs should suspend or applaud Zambrano for his comments.  89% are saying they would applaud his comments.  The media (except for Bruce Miles) and the Cubs (Hendry in particular) reacted quickly and extremely negatively after the comments...I'm sure they thought popular sentiment was going to be against Zambrano (which is more evidence of just how out of touch they are). 

It'll be interesting to see how much backtracking is done in the next couple of days.  You think fans are mad now?  Think how bad fan reactions will be if one of the few guys who is actually doing his job this year is punished for making comments that everyone perceives as truth.

Hendry probably loves it.  Again he gets to point fingers at someone other than himself.

Hendry probably loves it.  Again he gets to point fingers at someone other than himself.

Cub management has to be delighted by any distraction.

Zambrano merely said what most of us had been thinking and posting for the past month. He's absolutely right.