Steak is Back on the Menu and Other Bullets

Jan 23, 2012

Somewhere, Billy Cundiff sobbing quietly, punctuated by nervous peaks at his door. They’re pros, so I don’t feel *too* bad for them, but, yeah – I kind of feel bad for the guy.

After yesterday’s discussion about the report noting that the Cubs had dropped the per diem for scouts from $50 to $30, a Cubs scout reached out to me, wanting to let us know that the drop was for the weekend of the Cubs Convention only, and was not a drop on a permanent, going-forward basis (to his knowledge). I contacted Toni Ginnetti, who’d written the original Sun-Times piece, to clarify, and she confirmed that she’d heard only that the per diem had been dropped for the Convention (the original article did not mention the Convention). So, for now, we can all relax – the Cubs haven’t gone massively “cheap.” Yet. To our knowledge.

An industrious Minor League Ball user utilized John Sickels’ prospect rankings for each of the 30 teams to create a ranking of the 30 teams. The methodology, which is fair, favors advanced, high-impact prospects (as it probably should), so the Cubs predictably fall about in the middle – ranked 17. Of note: no organization has more C+ prospects (typically lower level, less-established, but high-upside potential prospects) than the Cubs’ 17 of ’em, save for the Indians, who have 19. In other words, the 2012 season could see the Cubs’ farm system rocket forward. The Cardinals, whose system just two years ago was consistently thought in the bottom five, come in at number four. Grumble.

Former Red Sox International Scouting Director Craig Shipley, whom most believe has a job waiting for him with the Cubs if he wants it, has decided to “lie low for a while,” according to Nick Cafardo. Obviously you can always create a position, but maybe the Cubs felt like they didn’t have a spot or the money right now.

Bob Nightengale predicts that the Dodgers will sell for $1.73 billion, which is almost a billion dollars more than the Ricketts paid for the Cubs (~$845 to $900 million). Last year, Forbes valued the Dodgers just a few percent more than the Cubs – $800 million versus $773 million – so, either folks are being ridiculous in LaLa Land, Nightengale is wrong, or the Ricketts Family got themselves a steal when they bought the Cubs. I vote for the latter. Pay us back by spending the saved green on the organization, Ricketts.

Fergie Jenkins sees a bright future for Canadian baseball players. At present, he’s the only Canadian in Cooperstown.

Site note: BN was, for a time, using a piece of software that conveniently logged you in to the Message Board if you logged in here on the front page, and logged you in on the front page if you logged in on the Message Board (ditto log outs). For reasons too meta for even a meta bullet, I had to do some tinkering, and that automatic process will probably no longer work. So, you’ll have to log in both places if you want to be logged in (it also means for new registrants, you’d have to register in both places – the reason for registering on the Message Board is so that you can post on the Message Board, the reason for registering on the front page is so that you don’t have to type your name in each time you comment and so that you get more options (formatting, pictures, etc.) when commenting (but you don’t have to register on the front page in order to comment here)). Sorry about the change, though I suspect most of you won’t even notice.

That reminds me: have you checked out the Message Board? You should. It’s swell.

written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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