Hope

I ran across a comment on the Internet yesterday about Matt Davidson, that “Davidson has had a hot 40 plate appearances, but he’s still probably not very good.”  So much for hope springing eternal, not in “a season where the end goal isn’t to maximize your wins.”  Buddy, the end goal is to always maximize your wins.

Just because you’re “rebuilding,” doesn’t mean you don’t care about winning; constant losing is not good for pitching staffs and fan bases.  Right now, the Cubs are the end all and be all of franchise transformations.  What “experts” like the fellow above ignore, forget or never knew is that the Cubs basically had no choice but to go scorched earth.  The best players on the roster when Theo Epstein took over were second baseman Starlin Castro and pitcher Jeff Samardzija.  Compare that to the White Sox of 2016.  Would you trade Chris Sale for Castro and Samardzija?  I didn’t think so.  Also factor in that the Cubs’ fan base is unlike any other.  No other team in baseball can peddle ivy and a manual scoreboard as a balm for losing the way the North Siders have.  Talk about mass hypnotism.  

For what it’s worth, the Sox started off with substantially more than what the Cubs had to build with.  They have always drafted pitching (Sale, Carlos Rodon, Nate Jones), to which they added a bunch of pitching in trades of Sale and right fielder Adam Eaton.  And in true White Sox tradition, they cross their fingers on hitters.  Will Jose Abreu ever hit another homerun?  Will the real Tim Anderson please stand up?  And what about you, Matt Davidson?  Avi Garcia?

Which brings us to hope, the essence of baseball.  Fans don’t want to be sold a load of crap; they just want an honest effort from everyone in the dugout, on the field and in the front office.  Provide that, and you provide cause to hope.  Maybe Anderson, Davidson and Garcia are the real deal in 2017.  Is it such a bad thing to hope that they are, if just for the month of April?  May will come soon enough.  But keep in mind that every blue moon, hope pays off, and fans are rewarded with the Miracle Mets or Whiz Kids or the Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff or…

For me, 40 at-bats is plenty enough to start dreaming and hoping for something special on the South Side, this year, not next or the one after or the one after that, per a plan that may be so much distant pie in the sky.