Repeating Mistakes: A Cubby Trait
Posted on
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
by Gary A. Ballard
My name is Gary Ballard, and I am a Cubs fan.
Since the magical season of 1989 (followed by the magical choking disappointment of the playoffs), I've been a Chicago Cubs fan. I have ached with the collapses of years past. 2003 was a year of soaring highs followed by a crushing low. No, I don't blame Steve Bartman. I blame Alex Gonzalez, the shortstop who couldn't hit above .230 but could field like a Gold Glover. I blame him because it was his boot of a routine grounder that would have been a sure double play which gave the Marlins that victory in October of 2003. The Bartman ball makes for an easy scapegoat, but it ignores all baseball wisdom. That double play that wasn't would have sent the Cubs to the Series.
Now that Dusty Baker is gone, a year too late in my opinion, the Cubs have or will be giving the manager's job to Lou Piniella. This is a typical Cub flaw and mistake #1. Now Piniella is a good manager. He has actually won a World Series, unlike Baker, and everywhere that he's gone he's won except Tampa Bay. His losses in Tampa really cannot be pinned on him so much as on management's refusal to spend more on payroll than they receive in revenue sharing. Those owners are gone, but Lou left before them. But Piniella is a typical Cub mistake in that they hire the "proven" guy, the big-name splash guy who will make headlines, collect and check and really not be able to coax a true winner out of that dugout. He's another Dusty Baker, only he throws bases and kicks dirt on umpires, the opposite of Baker's calm demeanor. But the splash guy isn't going to be anymore successful than any of the last 20-something years worth of managers.
They should have hired Joe Girardi. Any man that can make the 2006 Florida Marlins get withing sniffing distance of .500 ball as well as the wild card race, deserves the chance to manage, no matter how acerbic his personality may be. The Marlins fielded what could be generously called a Triple-A team this year. Dontrelle Willis, Miguel Cabrera and Joe Borowski were their only players with real major league experience. The rest were a collection of top prospects who you've never heard of. No one on the team had 30 home runs. Only one player, Cabrera, had more than 100 RBI's. They had 5 starting pitchers with 10 wins or more, and that's with only Willis reaching more than 200 innings pitched. Next year's Cubs' pitching staff promises to contain a ton of guys with less than 1 full year of major league service, like Carlos Marmol, Rich Hill or Sean Marshall, not to mention good position players like Ronny Cedeno and Matt Murton. Felix Pie may be ready to move into the center field spot which will probably be left vacant after the Cubs fail to sign Juan Pierre. Mark Prior hopefully will be healthy though I expect Kerry Wood will be seen off to free agency.
In short, Girardi is the kind of manager who obviously can handle young players with potential and turn them into good major leaguers. Baker couldn't do that, and Piniella wasn't able to do that in Tampa. I expect Girardi might have been able to turn that woeful Devil Rays team into something.
So on the heels of that mistake, the Cubs seem ready to make yet another one. Piniella wants to trade for Alex Rodriguez. Yeah, that A-Rod guy.
Please God, somebody stop him before he does this.
A-Rod is a good player, if you look at his stats. He has the kinds of numbers that scream "Hall of Famer." His stat line is a wet dream for fantasy baseball guys. And yet...
He's never made it past the League Championship Series. He's never played in the National League, although with the downswing the senior circuit has taken in terms of pitching quality the last two years, I don't think that would matter. But most importantly, he's never been clutch. He's never been that guy you think of when your team is three runs down in the 9th, that guy you want at the plate with runners on and the season on the line. He's WILTED underneath that pressure, especially in New York. His playoff numbers in New York have been putrid since their 2004 collapse.
But most importantly, he's never been able to carry a team on his back when the rest of the team can't hit a softball pitched by a granny. He spent a number of seasons in Texas, all on losing teams, and no one could ever say he carried that team. He didn't make the team better by his presence. If anything, his ginormous paycheck hurt the team by cutting down on their financial abilty to sign good pitching which they needed more than his homeruns. In 2005, when Aramis Ramirez struggled through injuries for the Cubs, Derek Lee took that team on his shoulders and pounded the ball, almost winning the Triple Crown. They'd likely have been much worse if Lee was not the type of player who could do that. When Lee went down in 2006, missing most of the season, the best they could do as a player to step up was Michael Barrett. Ramirez was invisible the first half and Barrett lacks the power to do what Lee did. And Piniella wants to get rid of pitching to get A-Rod, which would likely send Aramis Ramirez out of town?
That's bad baseball. A-Rod won't win the Cubs a championship. They probably wouldn't even make the playoffs. But that'd be the typical Cub mistake, picking up big-name stars that put asses in seats, and losses in the standings. Need I mention such stellar signings as George Bell or Mike Morgan?
What the Cubs need is to keep Ramirez, get Lee healthy, move Barrett to the outfield so that a catcher who calls a good game and can defend can play, like Henry Blanco, and get some of those young players like Pie and Marmol ready to win. Otherwise, I'll be ignoring the 2007 playoffs in October again because my Cubs have broken my heart one more time.
Since the magical season of 1989 (followed by the magical choking disappointment of the playoffs), I've been a Chicago Cubs fan. I have ached with the collapses of years past. 2003 was a year of soaring highs followed by a crushing low. No, I don't blame Steve Bartman. I blame Alex Gonzalez, the shortstop who couldn't hit above .230 but could field like a Gold Glover. I blame him because it was his boot of a routine grounder that would have been a sure double play which gave the Marlins that victory in October of 2003. The Bartman ball makes for an easy scapegoat, but it ignores all baseball wisdom. That double play that wasn't would have sent the Cubs to the Series.
Now that Dusty Baker is gone, a year too late in my opinion, the Cubs have or will be giving the manager's job to Lou Piniella. This is a typical Cub flaw and mistake #1. Now Piniella is a good manager. He has actually won a World Series, unlike Baker, and everywhere that he's gone he's won except Tampa Bay. His losses in Tampa really cannot be pinned on him so much as on management's refusal to spend more on payroll than they receive in revenue sharing. Those owners are gone, but Lou left before them. But Piniella is a typical Cub mistake in that they hire the "proven" guy, the big-name splash guy who will make headlines, collect and check and really not be able to coax a true winner out of that dugout. He's another Dusty Baker, only he throws bases and kicks dirt on umpires, the opposite of Baker's calm demeanor. But the splash guy isn't going to be anymore successful than any of the last 20-something years worth of managers.
They should have hired Joe Girardi. Any man that can make the 2006 Florida Marlins get withing sniffing distance of .500 ball as well as the wild card race, deserves the chance to manage, no matter how acerbic his personality may be. The Marlins fielded what could be generously called a Triple-A team this year. Dontrelle Willis, Miguel Cabrera and Joe Borowski were their only players with real major league experience. The rest were a collection of top prospects who you've never heard of. No one on the team had 30 home runs. Only one player, Cabrera, had more than 100 RBI's. They had 5 starting pitchers with 10 wins or more, and that's with only Willis reaching more than 200 innings pitched. Next year's Cubs' pitching staff promises to contain a ton of guys with less than 1 full year of major league service, like Carlos Marmol, Rich Hill or Sean Marshall, not to mention good position players like Ronny Cedeno and Matt Murton. Felix Pie may be ready to move into the center field spot which will probably be left vacant after the Cubs fail to sign Juan Pierre. Mark Prior hopefully will be healthy though I expect Kerry Wood will be seen off to free agency.
In short, Girardi is the kind of manager who obviously can handle young players with potential and turn them into good major leaguers. Baker couldn't do that, and Piniella wasn't able to do that in Tampa. I expect Girardi might have been able to turn that woeful Devil Rays team into something.
So on the heels of that mistake, the Cubs seem ready to make yet another one. Piniella wants to trade for Alex Rodriguez. Yeah, that A-Rod guy.
Please God, somebody stop him before he does this.
A-Rod is a good player, if you look at his stats. He has the kinds of numbers that scream "Hall of Famer." His stat line is a wet dream for fantasy baseball guys. And yet...
He's never made it past the League Championship Series. He's never played in the National League, although with the downswing the senior circuit has taken in terms of pitching quality the last two years, I don't think that would matter. But most importantly, he's never been clutch. He's never been that guy you think of when your team is three runs down in the 9th, that guy you want at the plate with runners on and the season on the line. He's WILTED underneath that pressure, especially in New York. His playoff numbers in New York have been putrid since their 2004 collapse.
But most importantly, he's never been able to carry a team on his back when the rest of the team can't hit a softball pitched by a granny. He spent a number of seasons in Texas, all on losing teams, and no one could ever say he carried that team. He didn't make the team better by his presence. If anything, his ginormous paycheck hurt the team by cutting down on their financial abilty to sign good pitching which they needed more than his homeruns. In 2005, when Aramis Ramirez struggled through injuries for the Cubs, Derek Lee took that team on his shoulders and pounded the ball, almost winning the Triple Crown. They'd likely have been much worse if Lee was not the type of player who could do that. When Lee went down in 2006, missing most of the season, the best they could do as a player to step up was Michael Barrett. Ramirez was invisible the first half and Barrett lacks the power to do what Lee did. And Piniella wants to get rid of pitching to get A-Rod, which would likely send Aramis Ramirez out of town?
That's bad baseball. A-Rod won't win the Cubs a championship. They probably wouldn't even make the playoffs. But that'd be the typical Cub mistake, picking up big-name stars that put asses in seats, and losses in the standings. Need I mention such stellar signings as George Bell or Mike Morgan?
What the Cubs need is to keep Ramirez, get Lee healthy, move Barrett to the outfield so that a catcher who calls a good game and can defend can play, like Henry Blanco, and get some of those young players like Pie and Marmol ready to win. Otherwise, I'll be ignoring the 2007 playoffs in October again because my Cubs have broken my heart one more time.
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:10 AM
1 Comments
|
|
Save This Page
| 
1 Comments:
Cubs fan. Lawlz!
Sox win! :p
Seriously, they did choose Piniella, and a friend of mine said something similar to you about choosing him for manager. The fact is, the Cubs need some thing, not sure what. Fans will follow their every game, making each one a sellout, whether or not they are playing well. The Sox suffered through years of not being able to fill their park yet the players came through.
Personally, I think they spent too much time worrying about individual stats and the like (such as keeping that idiot Sosa on for far too long) and not working as a team and keeping fit and healthy. We got to goto one of the Crosstown Classic games this year at Wrigley, and the thing that the four of us noticed was that the Sox players were all warming up, stretching with the trainers, etc. The Cubs players looked like they ran a few weak sprints and maybe did a few stretchs. No wonder they can't stay healthy.
Something needs to happen with the Cubs though. Someone to kick the players in the arse and get them into gear and performing like the highly (over) paid professionals they are and not a bunch of wannabees.
Maybe next year. ;-)
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home