Gammons: Cubs New Front Office Can 'Strike Gold'
(WSCR) The new plan for the Cubs focuses on two key things: the draft and developing players.
With Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod in charge, the trio is working to build the Cubs into a contender through the draft and through player development.
Though things may look bleak now, one baseball expert thinks Cubs fans should be excited for the future.
"The good news if I'm a Cubs fan is when Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod took over the Padres, their farm system was, I believe, rated 26th or 27th in baseball," Peter Gammons of MLB Network told The Mully and Hanley Show. "Now, they're rated number one. What they did in a series of about five or six trades and the draft has completely altered the franchise. I think that's what you'll see in this case too. I think they'll be very careful about what they do, but when they do it, I think they'll really strike gold."
LISTEN: Peter Gammons on The Mully and Hanley Show
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Working against Epstein and Co. are the new draft rules put in place by Major League Baseball. Teams are no longer allowed to infinitely spend on the draft. Each draft position is slotted to receive a specific amount of money -- something Gammons thinks will ultimately hurt the game.
"I think it makes it much more difficult," he said. "It's much more restrictive because you can only spend so much and there are caps. They can't go draft a guy in the ninth or 10th round and give him, if they really think he's worth it, $1.6 million, or whatever you might give him. Plus, there isn't as much time. You're not going to August 15, you're going to July 15. I think things have changed and will change. It'll cost Major League Baseball a lot of extraordinary athletes. I don't think the Jeff Samardzija of the world are going to play baseball in the new agreement."
