I know we got a world series championship with Chapman, but man would it be nice to have Gleyber Torres on this team right now.
MLB: ***Official 2019 Chicago Cubs Season Thread***
- Thread starter Cyched
- Start date
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Yeah. He and Baez would be something special.
I'm sure we thought Russell was going that direction, but maybe not.
I'm convinced if they hadn't won that WS the Chapman/Torres deal and the Cease/Eloy/Quintana deal would have Theo on the hot seat.
And the Heyward contract, and the Chatwood contract, and the Darvish contract and the Morrow contract
While bad, still not worse than Milton Bradley and Todd Hundley.
Heyward had a bad run, no doubt but still provided Gold Glove defense the whole way through.
His numbers this year are almost identical to his last year in StL. This is the player that was signed for that money though you do lose a little value having to play him in Center Field this much.
His numbers this year are almost identical to his last year in StL. This is the player that was signed for that money though you do lose a little value having to play him in Center Field this much.
After 108 years I'll take a World Series Championship regardless if it cost us a great player for a 1/2 season rental. I'm pretty sure Joe would have been fired by now too if it weren't for getting bailed out in game 7 for his poor usage of Chapman
It was a lack of trust in Hendricks that made Game 7 a disaster. He got to the point where he had to bring Lester in because he'd had him up twice AND brought him in to a dirty inning. If you allow Hendricks to finish the 5th and get through the 6th (which I think he would have, only threw 63 pitches and wasn't giving up hard contact), then you can go to Lester in a clean inning for the 7th and 8th to turn to Chapman for the 9th instead of asking him to get 4 outs.
But no, he got Lester up in the 3rd and then HAD to go to him when he got him up in the 5th. Wouldn't trade that win for anything but Joe got damn lucky that the rain rolled through and that Ben Zobrist has balls of steel.
Darvish and Jake were the top 2 starters on the market that year. After that there was Tanaka, Lance Lynn, Alex Cobb, Sabathia, Cashner, Chatwood, Jaime Garcia, it gets pretty rough... Tanaka and Sabathia resigned with the Yankees so they really weren't on the market. The rest of the guys have been hurt or no better than Darvish so it was a crappy free agent class for starting pitching. In hindsight wish they would have just kept Jake as he signed for 4 years instead of the 6 for Darvish and at least has stayed healthy and serviceable
That wasn't the only game Joe misused Chapman either. Chapman basically is a 1 inning closer and Joe tried to turn him into a multiple inning guy and he was gassed by the end of the world series because of it. I still would not trade any of it for that world series but Joe is damn lucky it all worked out in the end because there is no way with how hes managed since then he'd still be managing the Cubs.
It's not Joe's fault we only had one arm he could trust in the Bullpen. He managed with the pieces he had, and knowing what was on the line, I'm sure it was quite stressful and his leashes were short.
I'm not a Joe basher at all, we won the world series so it's hard to say he misused anyone for the most part, IMO. BUT, I still remember being baffled when he brought in Chapman in the 7th in a 7-2 ball game. At that point you have to be able to trust someone else in your bullpen.
I also am pretty confident everyone in the organization knew they weren't going to be resigning Chapman so they got all the juice out of him that they could
The same people are the ones who would have criticized Joe if Grimm or a banged up Strop or Rondon would have thrown more and blew a lead. He had one experienced reliever to rely on in the World Series.
I like Joe too and he earned some benefit of the doubt by ending the drought but that 7-2 game was just a dumb move when it was happening. First off it drives me nuts when he doesn't let a starter try to work out of a jam yet the bullpen cant be trusted either. Second in that situation you have enough cushion to bring in another guy and still have Chapman ready to go if they cant bridge the gap. I know his reason was they had to win game 6 to be a game 7 but come on surely even with a short leash you could hand Chapman the ball if that 5 run lead got dicey.
I get it, they knew Chapman wouldn't be back so they used the heck out of him but it got to the point he used him too much down the stretch and the playoffs he nearly cost them game 7 because his arm was tired. It's taken him forever but he's finally trusting Hendricks more and not yanking him early like he used to but even a non Cubs fan who watches Cubs games probably finds some if his pitching decisions awkward a lot of times.
Their is a video of David Ross breaking down the decision to bring in Lester in game 7 that is a pretty good watch. Was cool to see just how much the staff respected Ross to let him weigh in on that decision like they did. I still hope some day Ross wants to manage because he has so many good qualities you want from one. Former catchers usually make good managers too.
While Edwin Jackson was terrible, I don't consider him that bad compared to the others. Jackson was signed to eat up innings during their tank years.
Pretty accurate and fair piece from ESPN on the second half of the season.
What are Cubs playing for in second half? Joe Maddon's job, for starters https://es.pn/2jB5OnD via @ESPN App http://espn.com/app
What are Cubs playing for in second half? Joe Maddon's job, for starters https://es.pn/2jB5OnD via @ESPN App http://espn.com/app
I dont see any way Joe is not managing this team while the current window is open, unless he wants to be done.
