Moron the 2024 Cubs Convention

Boog chats with Jed, Carter and Craig and the Kids Only session gets kinky

Moron the 2024 Cubs Convention
“Craig, does my groin look purple to you?”

Get more from Andy Dolan in the Substack appAvailable for iOS and AndroidGet the app

Day two of the 2024 Cubs Convention opened with Boog Sciambi hosting the Baseball Operations panel with Cubs President of “How’d You Like To Play For Us For Half Of That?” Jed Hoyer and the Duke’s Mayo Bowl mascot come to life, Cubs’ GM Carter Hawkins.

Carter said that before the now infamous press conference on Friday, Shōta Imanaga’s agent asked him if it was OK if Shōta “did some funny stuff on stage.” Now I’m mad we didn’t get a full puppet show.

Jed said there are variables to take into account when a player comes from Japan, with Seiya it was “can he hit velocity” and with pitchers it’s the difference in days of rest and the ball. But they used the big league ball in the WBC last year so they now have data on that. Always good to see what pitch a guy used to get a plumber from the Netherlands out with.

Jed said he grew up a Red Sox fan in New Hampshire but his favorite player was Barry Larkin. He met Barry as a kid on a spring training visit. His dad left him alone at Al Lang Field a few hours before a game and the Reds asked him if he wanted to be the batboy. Larkin hung out in the dugout with Jed when Barry came out of the game in the fifth inning.

He took Jed into the clubhouse after the game to meet Pete Rose.

Jed was twelve. Pete probably asked him if he had any hot tips on horses and if he had any younger sisters.

Boog also asked Carter who his favorite player was growing up, but who gives a shit about Carter?

Boog joked that they should Facetime Scott Boras to see what’s going on.

Jed said their job is to “do good deals, not just do deals. Anyone can say ‘yes’ to an agent’s asking price, but if you do that you’re going to run out of money quickly.”

No. Your job is to get good players, Jed. Not every player can be gotten at your price. At the end of the day if you build a team with the guys who settle for the money you want to give them, you will win 83 games and miss the playoffs, again and again.