This will be my last post on the Cubs this season. I wrote back at the end of August that NOW it was over after watching a lethargic effort at home against a woeful Nationals team. That was the only loss at Wrigley I witnessed although I have tickets for two more games yet this season. Of course, when I bought those tickets, the thought was these games would actually mean something...obviously not so much as the Cubs go for elimination tonight as the Cards can clinch the division with a win or Cubs loss tonight. The Cubs remain mathematically alive for the Wild Card but COME ON...it's over people! The White Sox are going for complete playoff elimination tonight after being swept at home by the rival Twins who remain alive for the division with some good baseball in the final month of the season.
So here we are...after a nice 2008 campaign with both home teams in the playoffs for the first time since 1906 to back to "normal" with both teams on the outside looking in. Well, the White Sox may be in better position to get back in than the Cubs but neither are looking great for 2010 at this point. The Sox have Peavy who will be adjusting to a much tougher AL not to mention coming back from a serious although non-arm-related injury. They also have Alex Rios who has looked pretty horrible since joining the Sox. But they also have Gordan Beckham who looks like the "real deal" to build around. They are aging though and it looks like this may finally be it for Konerko, Dye, and AJ although Dye is the only likely FA. Hey, from my perspective this is a GOOD thing and as a Cubs fan, I envy this position because the Cubs are locked in on many of their older players and are stuck with their limited production for several more years.
If you have followed my blog in the past, you are well aware of my feelings about Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella. The Cubs have a new owner although I guess that won't be 100% official until the owners meetings in November following another World Series without my Cubbies. I know the Ricketts family will only be taking over officially at that point but these guys have been watching and been very involved with this club for over a year. How do they feel about their investment now? I'm guessing a heck of a lot worse than they felt when they submitted their bid last year when the Cubs were on their way to 97 wins. Well, after playing three terrible games against a better managed Dodgers team, the Cubs GM overreacted and blew up a great deal of the team with the overall goal of "getting more lefty". What an overrated crock of you know what!
We looked it up today and while I agree that a lefty-lefty match-up certainly provides an advantage to the pitcher, the righty-righty match-up is nowhere near as big a disadvantage to the hitter. Lefties are hitting .013 higher against righties overall in MLB this season. That's roughly 1% higher or 1 more hit for every 100 ABs. Is that enough of a difference to blow up your team? The team that led all of the NL in runs scored? HECK NO!!! But that's exactly what Hendry did. Now whether it was Lou that told Hendry that's what he wanted or not doesn't make any difference to me. Hendry is the BOSS and has been around baseball long enough and should have a computer to be able to pull up some stats to figure out if he could justify dumping DeRosa in order to bring in Bradley. And Lou should be able to tell if playing Fontenot at 2B was a better option than Jeff Baker just by checking the dang numbers. While Fontenot definitely hit better against RHP than LHP at .245 vs. .220, Baker hit a combined .312 vs. RHP including his HORRENDOUS numbers as a Royal before the trade to the Cubs. That's nearly 70 points higher for you math-challenged folks. Conversely, you have Fukudome and Reed Johnson in a pretty good platoon situation with Fukudome hitting .270 vs. RHP and Johnson hitting .313 vs. LHP compared to .173 and .212 if they both had to hit against pitchers from the other side.
The entire scouting department needs to be replaced as well. When was the last time the Cubs picked up anyone of significance in the draft? Mark Prior? I'll give you that one but that was the biggest no-brainer in the history of the draft as the Cubs had the #2 pick and the small market Twins couldn't afford Prior and "had" to take Joe Mauer (boy are they kicking themselves now, huh?). Theriot is my favorite player on the Cubs these days, but he's hardly a star player. He's a serviceable SS that should probably be playing 2B with someone better at SS. OK - so anyone else? How about from a trade when there are minor leaguers involved? None that I can think of. Isn't that what the scouting department is supposed to do for you? Minor league players change hands all the time and the Cubs just never seem to find anyone.
Well, maybe it's not the scouting department...it could be player development (i.e. coaching). Let's revamp that area too! Is Jeff Samardzija better today than he was coming out of Notre Dame? The numbers would say NO! In 26 games last year, Jeff had a 2.26 ERA while in 20 games this year he has a 7.53 ERA which is more than TRIPLE last year's. What the heck happened? Oh ya, "coaching"!
Larry Rothschild has got to be THE most overrated pitching coach in the history of MLB. Name one guy this guy has developed into a stud pitcher. He has coached some of the best raw talents this town has ever seen and he couldn't help keep them healthy or keep their heads on straight so they could put together a run of domination. The names Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, and Carlos Zambrano all come to mind. There's a lot of talk about trading Zambrano but my fear is that he ends up with a pitching coach that can actually get through to him and he'll put it all together and come back to haunt the Cubs. Was Lou Brock that great a ball player when the Cubs made that infamous trade back in 1964? Or was the Cards coaching that much better that they were able to get the most out of his talent? I'm afraid the same thing will happen to Zambrano on another team. BUT if the Cubs don't get new coaching, then what's the point of keeping Zambrano?
Here's the BIG thing…this AIN'T working folks! You make the playoffs two years in a row for the first time since 1908. Both Chicago teams make the playoffs for the first time since 1906 and what happens the very next year? Right back to "normal" with both teams on the outside looking in. Something needs to change. While you're at it; EVERYTHING needs to change. Start at the top and finish at the bottom…Crane Kenney, Jim Hendry, Lou Piniella, Larry Rothschild, Von Joshua, Matt Sinatro, Mike Quade, Alan Trammell…everyone with the big club.
Now, in my humble opinion, you don't really need to blow up the team at least as far as the players. Bradley absolutely MUST go…I don't think that's any secret regardless of what his mommy says. It will hurt financially, but what's it worth to make the playoffs or to have sellouts at the end of the season? Nobody wants to pay $50 for a ticket to see a guy making $10 million lose a ball in the sun in the middle of a summertime day because he didn't want to wear sunglasses or doesn't keep track of the number of outs or walks off the field without even seeing the trainer. And the manager absolutely MUST go too. How can you call out a player like he did with Bradley back in June and send him home in the middle of a game and then put him in the starting lineup the very next day? How many more pitchers is he going to let beat up a Gatorade machine without handing down some discipline? It's one thing to be a player's manager and another to be a total walk-over sap. Unfortunately Grandpa Lou is the latter.
GO BEARS!
GO BULLS!
GO BLACKHAWKS!
