Image
Mike Quade
An Early Sunday Rainout, so it's TIME TO RANT
They called the sunday (almost) finale of the Giants series early enough that a fan from Kenosha driving to Wrigley didn't have to get much past the Illinois border before turning around and calling a sports talk show to say thanks for the game cancellation update. Postponing the game early was the right thing to do. Playing last night in similar weather was not. I guess a national Fox broadcast causes funny decisions to be made.
Today's rainout has been rescheduled as a day-night doubleheader on Tuesday, June 28th. It's a quirky schedule that has the Giants coming to Wrigley Field twice this year otherwise they would have lost a scheduled day off to make up this game.
I need to vent some frustration and reflect on the week just past...
The Tao of Q-Ball
You've probably read or heard about yesterday's dugout fracas between Carlos Slim and Aramis Ramirez after the first inning. The Cubs continued their defensive indifference that has plagued their early Cactus League games with 3 errors in the first inning - 5 total on the game (Yahtzee!) - and that led to a 6-run first inning. You try not to infer too much meaning in spring training results, but despite what Carlos said at the Cubs Convention about not having to compete for a spot in the rotation, the reality is that it's between him, Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner for two of the spots. And while his hefty contract may earn him the benefit of the doubt over Wells or Cashner, both of whom still have minor league options, you hope he will have to demonstrate some modicum of success in March. Thus he was somewhat justified in his anger if he felt his teammates let him down in the first. But like his namesake has hopefully learned by now, you can't act on it in the dugout in front of witnesses.
- Read more about The Tao of Q-Ball
- 57 comments
- Log in or register to post comments
Quade Named Cubs Manager; Sandberg's Fate Undetermined
I had a decent write-up on this, but Firefox ate it. Eff it.
Mike Quade Just Ran Circles Around Tony LaRussa.
More after the jump...
Mike Quade Era Starts With A Bang, Will Surely End with a Whimper
The Cubs came out thumping last night for their new manager knocking out 15 hits and taking 6 walks, 3 of them by Soto as they pitched around him in the 8th spot. The last time the Cubs had an interim manager it was 2002 and the job went to Bruce Kimm (with Rene Lachemann getting one game before Kimm took over). The Cubs responded well that first game for Kimm, winning 7-3 over the Braves, but he ended up going 33-45 on the year, nearly identical to Baylor who was 34-49 before being fired.
You have to go to 1991 for the next mid-season firing, when Don Zimmer got canned after going 18-19 and once again a one game gig was given to bridge the gap, but this time to Joe Altobelli before Jim Essian took over. If my math is right, the Cubs won that game as well for Essian, a 5-2 win over the Mets thanks to Greg Maddux, but Essian didn't fare much better than Zimmer did for the rest of the season finishing with a 59-63 record.
Some other interim manager results since 1970 for the Cubs.
Recent comments
crunch (view)
PCA finally gets a hit! 2r HR!!!
Charlie (view)
They certainly could be coupled. It could also be the case that a team needs good players at the heart of the team and if they are not coming from one source (development) they have to be sought out elsewhere. I don't see the evidence needed to infer the cause.
crunch (view)
bases loaded for the cubs, 0 out...and no runs score.
cubbery.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Walker was a complimentary piece who was well past his prime. Edmonds, Holliday, Ozzie Smith and a few others were good trades. Notably, they have almost always been quiet in the free agent market. But the fundamental workings of the organization were always based primarily upon the constant output of a well oiled minor league organization. That organization has ground to a halt. And when did that hard stop start to happen? Right at the beginning of the Goldschmidt/Arenado era, perpetuated by the Contreras signing, followed by the rotation purchases during the last offseason. The timing is undeniable and, in my mind, not coincidental.
Again, we are all saying that player development became deemphasized. I’m just linking it directly to the recent trades and involvement in the free agent market. I don’t see how the two concepts can be decoupled.
Charlie (view)
The Cards also traded for both Jim Edmonds and Larry Walker. It's the developing part that has fallen off. Of course, it could also be the case that there are no more Matt Carpenters left to pull out of the hat.
Childersb3 (view)
Cubs sign 28 yr old RHRP Daniel Missaki. He was in MiLB from his 17yr old to 19yr old years and did pretty well.
He's been in Mexico and Japan the last four years and has done well also.
He's supposedly Japanese and Brazilian.
Interesting sign. We obviously need to RP in the system
Injuries are mounting everywhere!!
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Sure, they made generally short term trades for established players to enhance what they already had or traded for players early enough in their careers that they were essentially Cardinals from the start. What they never did was to try to use the more established players as foundational cornerstones.
Essentially we’re saying the same thing. They have given up on player development to the point that even their prospects that make it to the bigs flop so that they have to do things like buy most of their rotation and hope for the best.
Dolorous Jon Lester (view)
I don’t buy that. They had been doing that for years.
They did it with Matt Holliday. They did it with John Lackey. They did it with Mark Mulder. They did it with Jason Heyward, who had a great year for them. I’m sure there’s more but those come to mind immediately.
I attribute it more to a breakdown in what they’re doing in terms of development than a culture thing.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
They won those trades and sacrificed their culture. That’s exactly their problem.
Dolorous Jon Lester (view)
The other part that’s kind of crazy is they made two very high profile trades, one for Goldschmidt and one for Arenado, and they very clearly won those trades. They just haven’t been able to develop players the last handful of years the way they usually do.
I guess the moral there is it’s hard to stay on top of your game and be good at what you do in perpetuity.