Chicago Cubs: Karl Ravech talks Cubs-Cardinals, Cole Hamels addition

We sat down with Karl Ravech to talk about the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals rivalry, the Kris Bryant injury and the legacy of Sammy Sosa.

Ahead of this weekend’s showdown between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, I sat down with Karl Ravech of ESPN. We covered a pretty wide array of topics, ranging from the Cubs’ acquisition of Cole Hamels to Sammy Sosa‘s legacy in the game.

Can Hamels provide stability in a Cubs rotation that was supposed to be the club’s biggest asset this season? Who will succeed Mike Matheny at the helm of one of the most storied franchises in baseball? If Kris Bryant misses the rest of the year, what does it mean for Chicago?

Obviously, the Cubs head into Sunday’s finale looking to avoid a sweep. St. Louis outscored the Cubs 11-4 over the first two games of the series as the visitors’ starting pitching continues to struggle. Ahead of tonight’s action, though, let’s talk some Cubs and Cardinals.

Chicago Cubs: Losing Bryant long-term could sink the Cubs

For the second time in just over a month, Kris Bryant is on the shelf with an ailing left shoulder. He hasn’t swung a bat in nearly a week – and his injury, along with the subsequent power outage, has fans more than a bit worried.

On the year, the 2016 National League MVP carries a still very respectable .276/.380/.474 line in 76 games. But his power has been way down. Thankfully, the breakout campaign from Baez has helped fill that void in the lineup, to a degree.

Still, having Bryant back and doing what he’s capable of? That gives the lineup tremendous depth and, at least on paper, the Cubs would likely boast the best offense in the league. But if a worst-case scenario emerges and he can’t get back, Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer could have to improvise.

“It would be an enormous blow if Bryant were not able to participate in the postseason for the Chicago Cubs. But the inflammation thing, let’s hope that’s all it is. He’s as important to that team as any player on that team, including Jon Lester and Javy Baez and Anthony Rizzo. They’re a very different baseball team when Bryant is playing, when he’s healthy and when he’s hitting the ball to right field.”

Bryant dismissed questions about a potential offseason shoulder surgery over the weekend, saying he’ll be back and better than ever before October. A lineup with him in it gives the Cubs a very real chance to go deep into the postseason – and Bryant knows that.

“I’m trying to be smart about it and stubborn, like most of us are.”

Chicago Cubs: Sosa’s future in Wrigleyville? Cloudy, at best

Whenever the Cubs and Cardinals hook up, it’s hard to not reminisce over the epic battles of yesteryear. For my generation, at least, that means memories of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa slugging it out in the summer of 1998.

But over the last two decades, the sentiment surrounding Sosa has changed a great deal. He’s been blacklisted by the Cubs and Major League Baseball – and does little to help his own case, if we’re being honest. The suspected PED user continues to skirt around any questions about his career – carefully dancing around ever confirming what he may have done to enhance his abilities.

Ravech, for his part, has trouble believing the game will ever welcome him back – at least while Sosa keeps up this approach.

Given his recent interview, I don’t. I think there’s got to be sort of a cleaning of the closet with Sammy Sosa that I didn’t feel existed in his most recent interview. That was a very confusing, puzzling path he tried to walk down and I don’t think an organization would embrace someone who refused to answer the questions he was asked.

In that interview, Sosa continually repeated the phrase ‘I never tested positive,’ when asked about suspected PED usage. Of course, that’s a far cry from ‘I never used performance-enhancing drugs,’ and that did not go unnoticed by the baseball world.

On the North Side, Sosa was an icon – one seemingly destined for Cooperstown with a white flag with the number 21 flying down the line at Wrigley. Instead, Tyler Chatwood dons the uniform and the odds of Kyle Hendricks hitting 95 on the radar gun are higher than Sosa ever being enshrined at the Confines.

What does it come down to? Owning it – and acknowledging the past, as so many others have done.

“There’s been so many examples of players who have confessed, admitted, acknowledged and it seems, for the most part, they’ve been ‘apology accepted.’ He wasn’t willing, at that moment, to issue any type of apology or acknowledgement or awareness that he had done anything that was not within accepted rules of the game – even if they weren’t written down rules.”

So, as the Cubs look to avoid a series sweep tonight at Busch Stadium, Ravech gave us plenty to think about. A straight-shooter, he’s watched this rivalry grow and evolve over the years – and there are few better equipped to talk about it outside of the two respective organizations.

Now, let’s go get that win.