Chicago Cubs: Joe Maddon is the guy to help this team bounce back

Chicago Cubs: Maddon in four years

Since joining the Cubs in 2015 to manage one of the youngest teams ever to take the field, Maddon’s results have been impressive.  He led the team to winning seasons all four years, including four postseason appearances, a World Series championship and the NLCS three times.

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Over the course of those four years, he has become the third-winningest manager in Cubs history (.598 winning percentage over 648 games).  Only Frank Chance (1905-1912; .664 over 1178 games) and Al Spaulding (1876-1877; .624 over 126 games) are better.

I don’t know about most fans but I’d have to really wonder about a front office that fired a manager with a record like that.

Maddon has a curious way of managing the Cubs that fans and others have noticed.  For example, some point out that there’s no set lineup.  True, he doesn’t run out the same eight players for every game.  But if we look at the number of games played Anthony Rizzo, Willson Contreras, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, we see that they average 130 to 160 games.  Bryant was hurt this year and still played 102 games.