I feel sorry for the
Cubs’ front office, I really do. Theo
Epstein and company break a 106-year World Series championship famine, and
their reward is to be constantly reminded what they have to do now. That championship is so 2016.
You could see as much
in the sports’ pages on Wednesday.
According to the Tribune, “Shutout [against the first-place Brewers]
isn’t Cubs’ deepest concern/Offense should be OK, but Epstein may seek some
pitching help.” Over at the Sun-Times, it was, “Too soon to know where Cubs
might need help.” I imagine social media
and talk radio are saying the same, to which I would respond: Shut up.
The trade-deadline deal
is almost always stacked in favor of the seller. You want Aroldis Chapman (or Jose
Quintana)? Well, it’s going to cost
you. Yes, Theo Epstein can say Chapman
was worth the cost of Gleyber Torres, but I’d still contend the last-minute
deal should be viewed as a course of last resort.
It should also be seen
as an admission of failure: the front office failed to provide the manager with
the right players to win; the manager failed to find the winning combination;
the coaching staff failed to develop the talent at hand. Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon is supposed to be a
genius; let him prove it. Theo Epstien
is a proven genius, as evidenced by his three World Series championship. Why not put the pressure on his manager and
coaches to produce?
Last July, the Cubs
traded outfielder Eloy Jimenez and pitcher Dylan Cease to the White Sox. Jimenez is tearing up AA pitching (and
probably would be tattooing MLB pitching if he weren’t playing for an
organization so intent on following a plan based on slow motion). Cease is 8-2 with a 2.97 ERA in high-A ball,
and who knows what he could be doing at a higher level. But the Cubs will never know what Cease could
do for them.
The Cubs need more
pitching? See Cease. More relief pitching? They look to have a conveyor belt of
relievers coming up from Iowa, all of whom have performed well when called
upon. That would seem to suggest new
pitching coach Jim Hickey knows what he’s doing, or that Joe Maddon is in fact
a genius, at least when it comes to relief pitching. That’s winning from within.
But the second you
yield to the pressure of armchair general manager to “do something,” the odds
are it’ll be something dumb.
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