Sour grapes and more excuses. It has come a trend with the Cubs front office.
First, they said their original plan of overspending on hard to sign draft player and international prospects was derailed by the new CBA.
Second, Epstein realized a year or more into the gig that the Cubs were highly dependent on gate attendance for baseball operations. And since the revised plan was to tank several seasons in a row to get down payroll and get a higher draft pick, he found himself prospect rich but cash poor.
Now, Epstein is grumbling about the Cardinals receiving a bonus draft pick in the 2015 draft.
St. Louis got a bonus pick for the 2015 First-Year Player Draft (just
after the first round) for the Competitive Balance Lottery. The Cards have made the playoffs 10 times since 2000 and advanced to the
NLCS and have drafted extremely well the past decade.
Epstein told CSNChicago “I could talk all day about the Cardinals and how much we hold them
in high regard. That’s a fantastic franchise. They have
been for the better part of a century. They do extremely well from a
baseball standpoint, and from a revenue standpoint. That’s probably the
last organization in baseball that needs that kind of (an) annual gift.”
He continued. “Because it’s not necessarily the type of thing that they need, given
their performance on the field and off the field. They do a fantastic job. It just doesn’t seem like something they need
at this point.”
The Cardinals are eligible for the Competitive Balance Lottery
because they play in one of the 10 smallest markets (by population) in
Major League Baseball. USA Today writer Bob Nightengale predicts that the Cardinals will use this high draft pick as trade bait to land Rays ace David Price. If so, Epstein will have more bitterness for his interdivisional rival. Welcome to Chicago, Theo. It is not Red Sox-Yankees, but it is close.
