Bleacher Bums Forum

I had several overall impressions from Theo's  press conference.  The first thing is how consistently he stressed the need to focus on the future, not 2016 and the past. He took responsibility for relying on the talent of the young players from 2016 and his belief in those players' abilities to continue to grow.  But over and over he kept saying the Cubs need to look forward and not backward to prior successes.  He talked about building something new. 

The second thing was his focus on hitters making contact, as opposed to relying on power, given the current MLB environment.  Somewhat related was his clear preference for players with high on base percentage.

The third was his firm commitment to not simply focusing on the current "window" but rather building toward the future, while still being committed to the goal of winning the World Series in 2020. He was clear in not being willing to sacrifice the future for the short term (even though his own contract runs only through 2021).  He implied regretting some deals he'd made in the past in that regard, I thought.

The fourth was his emphasis on embracing change, at all levels of the organization.  I would be very surprised if there is not at least one player who at least some of us have considered to be core players.  My own expectation is that Kris Bryant, after being unwilling to sign a long term contract, will be very aggressively shopped.  I think it's very likely that some team will be willing to make a sufficiently attractive offer for the Cubs to trade Bryant over the winter.