To pay his salary.

Fair enough, I can't argue that because thats my reason for me giving up on Byrd already.
I just think you have to give it more time.
Two weeks ago most people were happy with Stewart, he hit a slump and a lot of those outs had been tough outs.
I think you give him more time and if by the end of May he's not producing then you address that issue.
Maholm has looked terrible up until his last start which was very solid.
Volstad's numbers are bad , but he's not pitched all that bad, most games it was one bad inning. I know that still counts, but if he can overcome that he's no worse than many teams 4th or 5th starters.
I won't start b$#ching until about the end of May.
Right now it's just too early for me to write anybody off thats on a new team in a new surrounding.

I'm not paying it so who cares?
It's not going to prevent them from making other moves, so who cares?..........other than you.

Just don't give Theo credit by calling it a good move.

"It's not going to prevent them from making other moves, so who cares?"

you used my own line against me ...lol

I wasn't crazy about the Stewart deal, but there is no long term commitment to him, so if he doesn't work out , no big loss.
I know he wasn't going to hit like Ramirez, but few 3b do.

Well it's not , if they do need money for a player they feel will help the 6 million they are paying Byrd isn't going to stop them from getting that player like it would have in the last couple of years so that's why I say it's no big deal they are paying it.

I'm overjoyed they got rid of him this early because I've been screaming for Camapana to get a look ever since last season.
I was afraid we'd be seeing Byrd out there until June, so it would have been a good move in my book had they flat out released him and payed every cent.
It's a better move because they are getting two players in return, one guy Bowden could be a better caliber player than I thought they'd get combined even if they were selling high on Byrd.

It wasn't meant to be funny.

I personally do not think any team should ever go backwards intentionally. It happens but you do not plan it that way. If I should tell my employer that this year I have a plan to lose money but three years from now I plan to make money then I would be fired. There should be no throw away seasons. You should add at least two serviceable players each each year. From the minors or with trades and free agency. What owner is going to tell his fans "this will be a throw away season"? None, if he has any business sense. We are likely to live this year because season tickets for this year were sold before we took the field. Next year will be a different story. TV ratings will fall which will directly effect advertising revenue. Attendance will likely drop below 3 million. Even cutting the payroll may not cover this. We are probably the wost team in the NL if not of all baseball. How can anyone expect increased revenue without winning. Much less being the worst team in all of baseball. I am not sure Mr. Rickets knew what he was investing in or how to run it. There have been 3-4 teams go into bankruptcy in recent years. It does happen. The other team owners and the Commissioner chose who and who cannot buy a team. It is very likely that the Ricketts family were not the high bidders. As you may recall the Cubs were sold for $850 million dollars. This was a very large chunk of the estimated net worth of one billion dollars of the Rickets family. They do not have a lot of wiggle room. The Dodgers just sold for over 2 Billion dollars out of bankruptcy. The seller even got to keep half of the very large parking revenue. For the Ricketts to make some money they are going to have to increase the value of the Cubs franchise. At this point the value of the franchise has probably dropped substantially due to attendance and other revenues. This team will begin to make some real money when they become contenders.

The one billion is NET, not gross so the sale does not eat into their net worth.

Traded a young up and coming star in Marshall who we sure could use today. Aram was not young but could still hit near .300, hit 27 HR, and drive in 90 or so. Our current guy is hard pressed to hit .200. Hired a young new GM wizard who still believes in Billy Ball. We gave away Z and paid his salary. If we were going to pay his salary why not let him pitch for the one year left on his contract. He sure is better that the bottom two of our rotation. We can all complain about this year but in the end we have one of the worst, if not the worst team in baseball. That is not good. It is bad. Should we be content or patient as Theo says? I am not content nor am I patient.

DeJesus is only batting .262 with a .328 slugging percentage. He's got a good on base percentage (but not as good as Clevenger, Campana, LaHair, or Mather) and he hasn't stolen a base yet, but he has been caught stealing. He's a classic Cubs lead off man: when gets on, he simply stands around waiting for something to happen-- instead of making things happen.

Hitting .175, Stewart is simply a disaster. Plus the man has no history of being a good hitter at the majors. 63 AB already this year after playing practically everyday is enough to relegate him to the bench, IMO.

Signing Mather to a minor league contract was probably one of Theo's most fortunate moves. After a fantastic spring, Mather's currently hitting .286 with a .400 on base percentage-- even though Sveum has only allowed him to play sporadically.

I would trade either of the two guys at the bottom of our rotation for Cashner.

Z and Aramis had to go, no question about it. I am going to give him more than a month to turn the team around.

Marshall was not young and up and coming. He was a reliever and closing in on 30 this year. Aramis is an injury prone defensive liability at this point in his career. I don't see why people don't understand what a rebuild is.

You want win a lot of games with a 4.5 era.

Fill those needs in FA with an 88 million dollar payroll? You are not going to find many good FA pitchers rushing to Chicago to win a ring or get a big salary.

88 million dollar payroll? Do you truly believe payroll will just sit at 88 million? They are going to offer big contracts to the right guys as well as maxing out the cash they can spend on the system. There is a reason they were rumored to be waiting for Soler to get his residency finished up and then offer him 27.5 million. Same as there was a reason they offered Cespedes 6 and 36. You want things that are impossible too fast. Either you want this team to make a push into the postseason by rebuilding and being bad to begin with or you want them to continue to be mediocre and patch things rather than fix them. Your choice.

It most certainly does. if your assets (Cubs) drop in value. Your net-worth comes down. Your assets are part of you net worth. My net-worth includes the value of my home. If my home drops in value then my net-worth drops. Accounting 101.

What asset of the Ricketts' family has dropped in value? The Ricketts bought 95% of the Cubs plus everything else for 845 million in 2009. Forbes has the value of everything at 879 million as of March 2012.