Kuzul

Horrifying news broke this afternoon for Chicago Cub fans with the announcement that Player Personnel Director Oneri Fleita had his contract extended. Knowing that he was a Jim Hendry guy, you would think he would likely be out when the Cubs hired a new general manager.

With this move, owner Tom Ricketts just put the kibosh on any of the big name GM’s being bandied about coming to the Cubs. Do you think they’re going to want to be told who they have to employ?

What was he thinking? The timing is crazy, just like waiting until July 22 to fire Hendry and keeping him around another month to make trades and sign draft picks.

Was there any urgency that this had to be done now? He just handcuffed the entire organization and dashed the hopes of Cub fans everywhere.

There has been nothing to look forward to this season until Hendry was let go. Then the names came out about who the Cubs would have interest in. Finally, I was looking forward to what would happen in the offseason.

I was excited, and I don’t get excited easily.

I was wondering what the team was doing with Quade continuing to play his veterans and try to win games when it doesn’t matter anymore, and hasn’t since early May.

Because there is no one in the organization to dictate what should be done now and that is giving the young players an opportunity, this is another completely wasted year.

They also didn’t trade away any veterans for prospects because interim GM Randy Bush wanted to leave that for the new guy.

Year 2 for Tom Ricketts—same as the first—only worse.

It’s scary, but it really seems like this guy doesn’t have a clue, and he’s the one we’re counting on to make the decision that is going to affect the future of this franchise.

He was a fan before he was an owner. He convinced his daddy to buy the team for him because he told him “They sell out every game, every day, win or lose.”

You can’t have a fan running the team. Who is advising this guy?

He should have hired a baseball guy as soon as he was handed the keys. He had plenty of time to do research while the process was taking place.

Instead, he came in like a farm boy looking up at the tall buildings in the big city and going, “Golly gee.”

He’s in over his head and because he is the owner of the team—all hope is dead.

The offseason no longer matters because he will get it wrong. That’s what this move proves.

Since he took over the team, because of his looks and speaking manner, he has been compared to Mike McCaskey of the Chicago Bears, who is persona-non-grata in Chicago.

The bad news is—he is Mike McCaskey.

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Chicago Cubs’ owner Tom Ricketts has guaranteed the contract of Vice President of Player Personnel Oneri Fleita for four more years.

It’s not that Fleita isn’t a good baseball man, although I have my concerns. The bigger problem I have with this move is that it further handcuffs the next Cubs’ GM and seems hypocritical of other recent comments made by Ricketts.

‘‘The GM will be responsible for the baseball operations,’’ Ricketts recently told the media, ‘‘The results are his, and he owns them. They have to be able to have the freedom to hire the people they feel will give them results, including the field manager.”

Yet he guarantees the contract of Fleita for four more years? That just doesn’t make sense.

Ricketts continues to display just how clueless he is. Not only in regard to baseball, which is understandable since he doesn’t have a baseball background, but in business as well.

His business model states that the next GM needs to have the freedom to hire who he wants; in fact, Ricketts made it a point to say that he wanted fresh blood from outside the organization. Then he turns around and re-hires this guy to run his farm system for the next four years.

I didn’t have much faith in Ricketts before this move and this latest stunt only makes me question him even further.

If he wants to attract the best candidates, he should allow the new GM to pick his personnel, and the minor league director is one of the top moves a GM needs to make.

This move tells me that Ricketts is hiring an inexperienced GM, or a guy like Josh Byrnes or Ned Colletti, who need jobs badly. What other established GM would want a job where they can’t bring their own guys in with them?

Can you imagine a Brian Cashman or Theo Epstein coming to Chicago and being told who their personnel guy is going to be for the next four years? No, and that’s why it will not happen.

So what’s next, an extension for Manager Mike Quade? Someone needs to stop this owner before he does even more to ruin the future of this once proud ball club.

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If you took the time to watch Sunday night’s episode of CBS’ Undercover Boss featuring Todd Ricketts, I feel sorry for you. Didn’t you have anything better to do, like watching paint dry?

It was the Cubs owners’ turn to pretend to be just regular guys and do menial tasks in front of hidden cameras. All I can say is if Todd Ricketts, younger brother of chief Cubs mouthpiece Tom, is any indication of the family smarts, then Cubs fans are in for another century-long drought.

To say that the younger Ricketts is uncomfortable being a regular guy is an understatement. He is so out of his element trying to do anything involving actual work that it really makes you wonder how this guy gets up in the morning and finds the shower without a map.

First of all, he chooses “Mark Dawson” as his fake name. “Mark Dawson”…really, Todd? You couldn’t have come up with something a bit more clever? Or something more appropriate, like “Ima Goof”?

The episode starts with a really awkward scene where Todd states, “All of us siblings are equal partners, but my role has yet to be defined.” 

Um, there’s a reason for that, Todd. Your role should be to just stay the hell away from the Cubs. Your brother is already doing a fine job of pretending to know how to run a baseball organization.

Watch Todd try to clean bathrooms. FAIL.

Watch Todd try to sell hot dogs. FAIL.

Watch Todd try to park cars and work the scoreboard. EPIC FAIL.

In short, the man can’t do anything right. But it’s a sign that the Ricketts family has an ego and how this whole thing makes sense now.

No, not the appearance on this stupid program; that only makes sense if the Rickettses are intent at continuing to make the Cubs look goofy. Rather, it’s brother Tom’s refusal to seek help to evaluate Jim Hendry and his band of generally mismanaging idiots.

If that isn’t a sure sign of “ego gone wild,” then I don’t know what is.

For just as surely as Todd can’t rinse urine off a bathroom floor, Tom can’t evaluate talent or run a baseball team. Oh, but that doesn’t stop him from trying.

Now, Tom didn’t appear on the show, but it’s easy to imagine a reality show based on how he’s running the Cubs.

Watch Tom say how great Hendry is. FAIL.

Watch Tom keep Crane Kenny around. FAIL.

Watch Tom only care about Wrigley Field. EPIC FAIL.

But you have to admit these Rickettses are entertaining. In fact, this slapstick ownership group is funny as hell.

So why am I not laughing?

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