No wonder Epstein wanted out:

•Team sources claim that Terry Francona’s marital problems and use of pain medication affected his performance; Francona vehemently denied it. Sources also say that Francona increasingly took on the role of a lame duck manager with his effectiveness at reaching his players reduced as his suspicion that the team would not exercise his 2012 option grew;

•There was acrimony and resentment on the part of the players surrounding the scheduling of a double header against the A’s in August due to Hurricane Irene;

•Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and John Lackey not only drank beer, but played video games and ate takeout chicken and biscuits in the clubhouse during games and cut back on their exercise regimes against the advice and wishes of team trainers;

•Kevin Youkilis became increasingly frustrated and detached as he battled injuries, and his public spat with Jacoby Ellsbury last year had the effect of Ellbury withdrawing from interaction with most of his teammates this year;

•Adrian Gonzalez hit the ball, but “he provided none of the energy or passion off the field that the Sox sorely needed.† David Ortiz was a clubhouse disruption too; and

•Theo Epstein, you may have heard, signed Carl Crawford and Bobby Jenks and those guys kind of stunk.

This doesnt worry me much.  I dont see the Cubs as being able to spend their way out of the dumps.  They have already tried that.  Signing Pujols would be a splashy Theo type move though.

It would be his MO, but unless they arm themselves with better pitching, Pujols won't do a damn thing for the 2012 Cubs.

I'm starting to come around a bit and think that Pujols will resign with the Cards as long as he is offered the years he wants.  Maybe the money really doesn't matter.  Thus, the Cards have put all the pieces of the puzzle together for NEXT year, signing Berkman, Carp, Garcia, etc., and Pujols should feel comfortable that DeWitt is more or less 'all in' and will field competitive teams for the remainder of Pujols's contract.

So, bottom line, I don't think it matters much what the Cubs offer, even $300/10.  Pujols stays a Cardinal.

A mildly interesting read in kind of a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court way, with the requisite Christmas wish list and references to "we" like they're on the team from CubFan:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2011/10/14/chicago_is_theo_epsteins_kind_of_town/

artie_fufkin wrote:

Am I a bad person because I want Theo to fail miserably?

Did Stalin introspect if he was a bad guy because he wanted Disneyland to fail miserably? (grin)

As hilariously bad some of Epstein's free agent signings were, I can't really fault him for Lackey. He was a very good pitcher in Los Angeles and though he wasn't worth $17 million, that's a pittance for the Red Sox.

I think the Cubs are going to go to the playoffs a lot under Epstein. It won't happen in 2012 unless they pay for every free agent under the sun, but I fear that it's going to happen as soon as 2013-2014.

Depending on what the free agent market looks like, sure. Despite the Red Sox missing the playoffs this year, they were still on pace to win 100 games as late as August. And since 2008, the fourth place team in the AL East is averaging something like 84 wins. That's good enough to compete in most divisions.

I'm really not worried about Chicago's $130 million payroll as I am the Cubs setting up a good farm system that can churn out the propsects to go get an Adrian Gonzalez or a Josh Beckett. Drafting and developing is what the Red Sox do better than anyone besides the Rays, plus Epstein gets to take Jason McLeod (scouting director since 2005).

Save for a couple of injuries in 2008 and 2009, it looks like he was the same pitcher he was from 2005-2007. And not having seen Lackey enough, he appears to be similar to our own Kyle Lohse. It's not a perfect comparison, but they both throw in the low 90s, don't get a lot of ground balls and count on fly balls staying in the park. The difference is that Lackey's had a better curve/slider than Lohse.

Has anyone bothered to point out that Epstein is not going to be the Cubs GM? This appears to be getting lost somewhere, since it appears Jed Hoyer will come over from San Diego and be the GM while Epstein gets some fancy executive title.

Never mind. I went back and looked and I wasn't paying close enough attention when Lackey signed his deal. Apparently there were red flags all over the place about his elbow problems. That definitely makes the contract "hilariously bad."

I can only hope Theo brings his special brand of signing shitty free agents to Chicago.

Casey Kelly and Anthony Rizzo were the #31 and #75 prospects pre-2011.

But in the last few years they've put out Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester, Buchholz, Masterson and Papelbon.

None of the players in the Beckett deal came to the Red Sox via Epstein.  All were in the system before he arrived.

Correct. I just threw that out there to show what they could do with a deep bench of prospects.

I hope like hell I'm wrong and the Boston trio turn out to be overrated, but my gut feeling is that the Cubs nabbed themselves quite the front office. If they are as good as I think they are at drafting and developing, I think Luhnow has to keep getting better. They have a lot of exciting guys, but they need more.

Lester was drafted by Theo's predecessor.  I knew about Pedroia, Ellsbury, Buchholz and Papelbon, but all were drafted in 2005 or earlier.  I was curious what success they've had recently.

Maybe I just don't appreciate the role someone like Theo or a GM has in "developing" a player.  You mention Luhnow.  What role does he (or Mozeliak for that matter) have in a player's development?  I realize the GM decides when the advance a player to another level, but other than that, what else does the GM or player personnel guy really do?  Doesn't the development depend a lot more on the coaches and instructors within the organization than the GM?