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chicagocubsreactions · 6 months

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Craig Counsell Always Wanted to End Up With the Cubs

[original article]

As Craig Counsell headed into manager free agency this month, two objectives stood at the top of his wish list: kickstart what had been a fallow financial market for managers and coaches and to honor his Midwestern roots. Only the Cubs could satisfy those two objectives. That is why he is the Chicago manager today.

The results of managerial manic Monday—Counsell to the Cubs, David Ross out of a job in Chicago, Carlos Mendoza to the Mets and Stephen Vogt to the Guardians—seemed shocking in the staccato burst of news. Counsell to the Cubs seemed like the biggest shock of all. But based on Counsell’s roots and desire to get to free agency in the first place, the result makes perfect sense.

The Cubs knew this, which is why they placed a call to him on the first day he was a free agent.

Chicago was very much aware that Counsell grew up and lives in Wisconsin, played at Notre Dame, has sons playing college baseball at Minnesota and Michigan and has two daughters in high school in Wisconsin. “The Midwest [pull] is real,” says one source familiar with negotiations between Counsell and the Cubs.

As the Cubs did their homework, knowing Counsell chose to play this year out rather than sign an extension with Milwaukee, they were told by one of Counsell’s friends, “If he ever managed anywhere else, the Cubs have always been his dream job.”

Counsell became a free agent on Nov. 1, the day after his Milwaukee contract expired. The Cubs called Nov. 1, such was their interest in acquiring what one team source called “one of the one or two best managers in the game.”

By then, the Mets already had contacted Counsell. They jump-started the process when David Stearns, the Mets’ newly hired president of baseball operation, called his old club, Milwaukee, for permission to talk to Counsell before his contract expired. With the money of New York owner Steve Cohen and with the shared history of Stearns and Counsell—seven years together as GM and manager in Milwaukee—the Mets were portrayed as the most likely team to sign Counsell.

There were two problems with that assumption. Stearns did not hire Counsell in Milwaukee. He inherited him when he was named GM in September 2015. They worked well together but were not particularly close, especially as Milwaukee emphasized analytics more in game decisions. Moreover, the Mets’ advantage of money was offset by geography and where the team stands on the winning curve. It is not a plum job despite plum money.

“Over the last few days people were still writing that it looked like it was Counsell’s job,” says a source who spoke to Counsell during that time. “That wasn’t the case. He was all but out over the past few days. New York was not at the top of his list.”

Says one executive, “If you look at recent history, managers don’t come out well on the other side of that job.”

Mendoza will be the sixth named manager of the Mets in the past eight seasons, following Terry Collins, Mickey Callaway, Carlos Beltran, Luis Rojas and Buck Showalter. Going back to Jerry Manuel and Art Howe, the past seven Mets managers have not landed another managing gig after leaving Queens.

Stearns needed a manager with experience and/or a working understanding of the New York landscape. He settled on Mendoza, the former Yankees bench coach who turns 44 this month and has not managed above Class A ball. It comes at a time when the race to identify the next inexperienced managerial whiz has lost its luster as experience returns results. The ages of the past six World Series managers: 58 (Torey Lovullo), 59 (Rob Thomson), 65 (Brian Snitker), 68 (Bruce Bochy), 72 (Dusty Baker) and 73 (Baker).

The Mets were 29 games worse than Atlanta last year, the furthest they have been from first place in 20 years. The job comes with uncertainty in terms of how quickly they can rebuild. Likewise, Counsell’s free agency came just as Milwaukee is staring at a rebuild. Pitcher Brandon Woodruff underwent shoulder surgery and could be out for all of next year. Pitcher Corbin Burnes and shortstop Willy Adames could be traded this winter in advance of pending free agency.

The Cubs, however, are on the upswing, just as they were (if not quite as sharply) when the team dumped incumbent manager Rick Renteria in favor of free agent manager Joe Maddon after the 2014 season. Similarly, the Cubs liked Ross but decided when one of the game’s best managers is available and that person has strong ties to the Midwest, they felt obligated to pursue the top talent.

Chicago gave Counsell $40 million over five years. The annual salary of $8 million is a record, topping the $7.5 million Joe Torre earned from the Yankees more than 20 years ago ($13.3 million in today’s dollars). As analytics grew in baseball, executives became stars, not managers. Executives not only came to earn more than managers but they also reduced the influence of managers by relying on information-backed systems rather than wisdom.

For instance, when the Cubs hired Maddon, they paid him $5 million per year. President of baseball operations Theo Epstein was making $3.7 million. By the time Epstein left he was making $10 million, and the manager/GM balance of power in MLB had flipped.

The financial market for managers cratered in the analytics age. Terry Francona, with two World Series titles, reportedly was the game’s highest paid manager last season at $4.5 million. Maddon’s contract eight years ago (before he won a title) equates to $6.8 million in today’s dollars. Likewise, contracts for major league coaches remain stagnant at a time when the minimum player salary has risen 42% in the past eight years to $720,000.

“That’s one reason why you see so many coaches today who never played in the big leagues,” says one AL coach. “It’s almost like asking, ‘Who wants to coach for $120,000?’ There are a lot of guys who never played who would volunteer in a heartbeat. But if you’re in a big market, with taxes and living expenses, you’re almost working for free.”

The investment in Counsell is a signal that the Cubs are all in next season. You don’t hand out the most lucrative contract for a manager without consolidating that investment on the player side.

Conversely, the Brewers offered Counsell a raise from $3.5 million to $5.5 million but were never going to get to the level of Cubs money. Just days ago, they traded veteran outfielder Mark Canha to Detroit for a minor league reliever, rather than bring him back for $11.5 million or pay a $2 million buyout.

“What I don’t get is why the Brewers just didn’t pay to keep him,” says a source close to Counsell.

Based on how the teams are positioned and market resources, Counsell was worth more to the Cubs than to the Brewers. Milwaukee is scheduled to meet Tuesday morning with Pat Murphy, Counsell’s bench coach and former coach at Notre Dame, about replacing Counsell. Murphy also is expected to be offered a job on Counsell’s staff in Chicago.

Milwaukee could stay in house as it develops young players from its productive farm system, or it could try to take the public relations sting out of losing the franchise’s best manager—to the rival Cubs, no less—by hiring a “name brand” manager. Among those likely choices, according to a source, are Ross and Don Mattingly.

#chicago cubs #cubs #craig counsell #as a midwesterner #where all my family is here #and my husband and I have thought about moving elsewhere but again: all our family is here #the pull is real #can't believe I'm already relating to our new manager wtf

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desolationlesbian · 8 months

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still the funniest plot point in all of pmmm that Homura Akemi is a 14 year old magical girl who realized that her sparkly transformation sequence did not come with a cutesy custom weapon like everyone else's so she just went online and googled "how to build a bomb"

#and so now everyone else is fighting with bespoke magical thematically-and-aesthetically significant #swords and spears and elegant floral bows that shoot magic light arrows #and Homura is standing right next to them and pulls out a very real and non-magical glock. that she stole with time magic #madoka magica

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celinou · 9 months

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To buy or not to buy Baldur's Gate 3? That is the question. To disappear from the face of the earth for 200+ of gaming hours or stay in the real world and write those chapters! That is the real conundrum.

#chapter 37 is calling me #but Baldur's Gate voice is louder!#I must resist #the pull is real #will I survive its enticing siren's song

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majunju · 28 days

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bunny suit

#honkai star rail #my art #mildly annoying aventurine nd wary stelle is my fav dynamic #the idea of someone who usually dgaf (stelle) being so riled up by an annoying mf is so funny to me #so called chill mfs when a real yapper turns up to the party #also good luck to everyone pulling tmr ! hope u all win ur 50/50s

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humans-are-tasty · 1 month

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#whatever #sir crocodile #dracule mihawk #animation #crochawk #one piece #cross guild #my art #these are from the past few weeks except the gif which is early january #some are from pengu's whiteboard #i can't believe i'm still drawing crocodile and it's been over two years #this has been an s-tier hyperfixation #catboy mihawk #and autistic mihawk is kinda real to me #also if you're around toronto i'll be at TCAF in May debuting a graphic novel #it's not for fandom but if you're interested in comics and art come by... admission is free #i love mihawk's moustache... i hope he grows it long so it can be twirled / pulled on....

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glow-worms-are-believers · 11 months

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Dream Lover (dp x dc)

The alarm on his cellphone rang and Danny groaned as a fumbled blindly to close it again.

“Wha’ izzit?” Came a sleepy voice at his back.

Danny rubbed his eyes as he sat up. Then, he turned towards the other man entangled in the sheets.

“Nothing, go back to sleep,” Danny said before dropping a kiss on the man’s forehead, displacing his white streak. The man muttered some unintelligible words as he wriggled around a bit before settling back down.

Danny gave him a fond look before a yawn forced his eyes closed. He slipped off the bed and padded down to the kitchen. With bleary eyes he put the coffee machine on and got the milk out of the fridge as he waited for the beans be ground.

The machine was way fancier than anything Danny had ever owned but his boyfriend liked good coffee and Danny liked making him happy. The breaker-hammer noise stopped indicating the coffee was done and the halfa sipped at it as he tried to figure out what that niggling feeling in the back of his mind was.

Before he could delve into it very far, he heard his boyfriend coming into their little kitchen.

“Did the noise wake you up?” Danny asked as the man wrapped his arms around the smaller man’s waist and buried his head in his back.

“Was already ‘wake,” the octopus masquerading as a human mumbled.

“Want some coffee?”

“Please.” His boyfriend pressed a kiss to his nape before staggering towards the kitchen chair and sagging into it.

”Good night?” Danny asked as he started the machine again.

“The usual,” the man said as he rubbed the sleep out of his face.

“Why are you up early?”

“Gotta fix up the bike.” The man yawned which made Danny yawn too. “It kept backfiring last night.”

Danny hummed as that niggling feeling came back at the mention of the motorcycle. There was something there…

“What about you?” The man said as he held his face in his palm.

“Nothing much,” Danny said as he refocused on the conversation. “I don’t have to go in today, so I’ll probably just study.”

“I made butternut pasta when I came back. There’s some left for lunch,” his boyfriend said as he grabbed a banana from their fruit bowl.

“You’ll be here for lunch?” Danny asked as the flow of coffee stopped and he took the cup away from the little shelf.

“Thanks,” the man said as he accepted the cup. “Probably.”

Danny nodded and he leaned on the counter as he looked into the distance. His eyes caught on a clock and again, that annoying sensation he was forgetting something tickled him.

Clock meant hours which meant seconds which meant sand trickling in an hourglass which meant time passing and Time meant-

“Everything ok?” Came the low tenor of his boyfriend.

Danny shook away the thought and smiled at him. “Just zoning out.”

Then the smaller man finished his cup before he put it in the sink. “Gonna go brush my teeth,” he said as he walked out of the kitchen

“You didn’t even eat!” Came the voice Corning from the other room.

“Not hungry,” sing-songed Danny as he grabbed his toothbrush.

As he put the paste on the brush his mind wandered a bit. He started brushing, in the back and made his way forward. He was up to his canine and he started on his fangs which had him frown. Fangs? Wait a minute.

And then it all came rushing back. Phantom. Ghosts. This was a dream which meant-

“Nocturn,” Danny said. Sure it had been a while since he dated anyone but this was a whole new level of single if Nocturn had resorted to creating the ideal boyfriend to trap him in a dream.

Danny walked back to the kitchen and stood in the door entrance and stared at his imaginary dream boyfriend. Said boyfriend turned his head around and lifted an inquiring eyebrow.

“You really are perfect,” Danny said.

“You say the sweetest things,” the dream-construct said and the corner of his eyes creased beautifully as he smiled.

Danny sighed wistfully before bending to kiss his cheek. “Until then, dream lover.”

With a snap the dream collapsed and the halfa opened his eyes to the green of the Infinite Realms with the ghost sensation on his lips.

Simultaneously, in one of his safe houses in Gotham, Jason’s eyes snapped open as his hand flew to his cheek.

#Nocturn can’t make up people in his dreams #And also pulling real people in makes the dream more realistic #Danny is unaware of this #Jason woke up feeling loved and happy and is suspicious as fuck #dead on main #dc x dp #dp x dc #roxpox #roxpoxwrote

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introspectivememories · 3 months

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in a better world, nico rosberg and lewis hamilton never get divorced and nico still retires after his one wdc and he still becomes a reporter and instead of the the awkward interview we got last year, we get thousands of brocedes interviews where they're being stupid together. lewis moves to ferrari and nico publicly quizzes him on his italian. nico interviews another driver and lewis is in the background making fun of nico. people make compilations of lewis and nico making each other laugh during interviews.

#i am struck with a vision so potent of lewis pulling nico into a hug in the middle of nico interviewing someone else #lewis winning a championship and nico and vivian are the first ones to spray him with champagne...#the amt of uncle lewis content we would've gotten with nico's kids #it would've been vivian‚ vivian's husband nico‚ and nico's homoerotic friendship lewis #they would've been terror together. reporter!nico and racer!lewis #AUUUGH WE COULD'VE HAD IT ALL #god could you imagine teamlh and nico rosberg on the same side??? menaces for real #lewis hamilton #nico rosberg #brocedes #f1

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vaguely-concerned · 3 months

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sometimes I think of all the on-the-surface warm, well-meaning but deeply ineffectual advice and attention john gives harrow through harrow the ninth (make some soup and get some sleep! get a hobby! don't be so hard on yourself! self care harrow! as long as I need take no actual responsibility in this relationship whatsoever I would have loved to be your dad!) set up against the stark truth that with his other hand he has been staging her attempted horrific murder again and again and again like a living nightmare on the logic that it will 'put her down or fix her'. and then I find that I wish there is a hell. a special hell where twitch streamers turned necromantic death emperors go

#the locked tomb #harrowhark nonagesimus #john gaius #harrow the ninth #this is why I don't buy john as misunderstood and initially well-meaning AT ALL #this is a pattern you see with him again and again and again -- right down to his interpersonal relationships #(and indeed it's in the more grounded interpersonal relationships you can most clearly see him as he is I think #the fantasy death empire of a thousand years doesn't register quite as viscerally because it's like. heightened; not quite real #but the emotional violence and manipulation that surrounds him? oh boy that is EXTREMELY real and scarily well-observed)#there's a premeditation to so much of what he does (contracts with planets that only end 'in the event of the emperor's death' anyone?#yeah john we get it you're hilarious and I wish you weren't)#the greatest trick john ever pulled was making anyone think he's just a lil guy. what does he know he's only god #when you first read the book the complete callousness of the other adults is so horrible that john seems like an oasis of care #(though you start to get this uneasy feeling when that care never seems to translate to like... relief or soothing or resolution)#and it makes it feel almost obscene when you find out what's actually going on #it's the mercy & augustine enabler hour but at least they're completely honest in their cruelty there #while john is -- well he sure is being john huh #this is just me being angry with him btw philosophically I don't think this is how the story will or should end #(with john slam dunked right into hell that is)#it's just... harrow is so vulnerable. and what he does to her is so insidious and fucked up #john is very deeply human. unfortunately the capacity to quite simply suck so much is deeply human too

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rottmnt-residuum · 4 months

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Part 11 of Arc II (Part 37)

huzzah! exposition be upon ye

⇇ | ⇽ | index | ⇾ (censored) | ⇾ (gore)

#rottmnt #rottmnt michelangelo #residuum #rottmnt residuum comic #repo mantis #c #g #i see a lot of you in the audience are maybe a little gay for repo #*looks at how i drew him* ... (￣▽￣)"#i cant help it lksdjfks im weak for musculature #tbf there are diegetic reasons for why he looks like that right now... he's gonna be waaaay scrungier later #but anyway. brace yourselves #this scene is almost done! which means... uh. who's ready for more exposed brain matter?#*awkward laugh*#none of the turtles though!#...ough i struggled with this update in more ways than one #pulled a back muscle and burned my wrist real bad at work ahaha

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hiding-under-the-willow · 4 months

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you: this guy

#atlas.art #artists on tumblr #mcyt #hermitcraft #hypnotizd #I'm gonna be so real with y'all right now. I don't even watch hypno #i'm just obsessed with this cunty little pose he's pulling in the new banner askjfshdhb #and i designed him a few months ago when I was drawing all those headshots of the hermits. so. y'know. might as well use it lol

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p4nishers · 6 months

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can't believe tom hiddleston ACTUALLY interrupted the interviewer to say "one last thing, i think mobius is loki's friend and i don't think loki has ever had a friend before" like king. i love how u felt the need to add that truly

#he's so PASSIONATE about them oh my god like im sorry but w sylki he was literally STRUGGLING to put sentences together and get his meaning #across but with loki he's literally just. rambling for a full five minutes barely taking a breath like he's so likes them together SO much #him interrupting the interviewer after half of a minute was so funny like u can see he's not paying any attention he needs to get this one #little thing in and what he says is just so sweet and i really love how he emphasis that mobius is loki's first friend basically every time #he talks about them bc he knows how very important this relationship is to loki and he wants to get that across. bbg always pulling thru for #us he's a real one #loki season 2 #loki series #mobius m mobius #lokius #loki #tom hiddleston

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thewhizzyhead · 7 months

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looking at the npmd tumblr posts I'm kinda glad that we seem to be all on the same page when it comes to npmd's portrayal of bullying and that putting a stop to it isn't as easy as simply having the victims stand up to them - examples being Max still beating the shit up out of Pete, Richie, and Ruth even when they make a stand in their own way. Standing up to them directly and telling them "i'm not a loser" or "you're just a bully" or something along those lines in order to take away their power is simply a disproven cliche because bullies don't care if their victims retaliate. They only care about the power they hold and when such power is taken away from them by force - so kudos to Starkid for having bullying portrayed as not just a regular schoolboy nuisance but as genuinely life-threatening shit that needs to be taken seriously because if it isn't nipped in the bud, once that bully gains more power, they will grow crazy with it.

#i dunno i just really like how max is a real fucking villain in this show #like he's funny as fuck but he is genuinely murderous and someone to look out for #and i know that he alMOST couldve turned around and be kinder to the nerds when he actually liked the prank they pulled #but he still fucking haunted them in the afterlife right? and he wanted to go for sycamore and clivesdale too #so yea bullying narratives isnt as simple as simply telling the bully 'no'#because who the fuck gives a shit about a no when you can deliver an uppercut #nerdy prudes must die #npmd #npmd spoilers #starkid #max jagerman

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egophiliac · 9 months

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Of the TWST cards you own, which is your favorite (or favorites of you can't decide)?

(not that I'm still salty over that, nope, no way)

seriously though, this turned out to be harder to answer than I thought! I did actually manage to pull Stitch Lilia (THANK YOU TWSTFEST for the free bonus keys!) and he's absolutely adorable, I've literally been doing random battles just to watch him surf around and high-five Stitch. a fine addition to the Lilia collection!

in terms of proudest/most unbelievable achievement, that is 100% when I somehow managed to pull every single Scary Monsters card except one (only missing Rook!). I think I used up all my luck on that one, but at least it was for the Halloween cards! (after Scary Monsters and Glorious Masquerade, I'm so afraid of what this year's Halloween event is going to be, what if they look amazing how am I supposed to save my keys nooooo)

if I REALLY have to pick one, though...there is actually one card that I think I would call my favorite! he just makes me happy every time I look at him. :>