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Chicago Cubs: Why isn’t this young core playing to its potential?
If the Chicago Cubs want to avoid blowing future capital needed to shore up the roster long-term, they need to get their current group to regularly perform.
This week, Chicago Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer finally admitted what Chicago Cubs fans have been screaming about for months. In fact, your favorite Cubbies Crib opinion writer asked in late September, in this very same Cubbies Crib section, the golden question that Hoyer just answered.
Have we seen the Cubs’ maximum effort to-date?
The answer I provided back then was that we had seen shades of greatness during the season, but nothing sustainable or remotely substantial. History now lets us look back at that analysis to see how accurate it really was.
We had not seen the Cubs maximum effort consistently all season. Somehow that eluded Hoyer in September. Remember the comment as the Cubs season closed? If we only had won one more game during the regular season.
I thought Hoyer finally understood this ‘lack of motivation’ back then, but this week he told Tony Andracki of NBC Sports Chicago Infinity Network they’ve finally figured it out. They’ve got to buckle down and get these players to produce consistently.
“We do feel like our answers are internal,” Hoyer said. “We need to focus on getting our players to maximize their potential. With that said, I think we’re open to business and listening and that will probably be our focus more than shopping at the top of the market.”
Well, thank you, Mr. Hoyer. You’ve overpaid the children, spoiled them a bit and, sure, they won the championship but couldn’t defend it because they were hungover. This last season, it sure seemed like they flat-out just didn’t feel like playing to their potential.
Is that about right?
Next. Paying for talent. dark
Chicago Cubs: Paying for talent
It’s time to stop thinking about money and start thinking about playing. Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Epstein, please don’t make the imprudent decision to even consider buying and overpaying for another child until the team is playing to their potential.
Please?
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“I’m not ruling anything out,” Epstein said. “I think we have a lot of moving parts and we have an open mind and we have a lot of desire to get better. So I’m not ruling anything in or anything out.”
Oh boy.
Now that could be a lot of smoke and mirrors just like, ‘Don’t tell the investors you’re broke,’ but Epstein has made gut moves before and paid a lot of money for those moves with Cubs high-paid notables, such as Yu Darvish, Brandon Morrow and Cole Hamels.
That’s why it’s really not about Bryce Harper. It’s about taking the team we all love and giving them some tough love. It’s time to play to your potential or get traded. Fans see the possibility of repeating a trip to the World Series slipping away over the last two seasons. For a team that has more money committed to their 2019 team than any other in the big leagues, expectations are understandably high.
The question remains: if no one could get the Cubs to play to their potential before, how are they going to do it now?
dark. Next. Give them a report card
Chicago Cubs: Give them a report card
Let’s face it, if you are a professional – you are rated, graded or reviewed. That’s what professional organizations do for their employees – it’s called, “Performance Enhancement Counseling,” or a dozen other names around corporate America.
The Cubs players are employees and need to get counseling and a rating like any other professional. Those that go above and beyond are usually rewarded somehow (most of us like cash) and those that don’t perform get fired, traded or bargained. Why should these guys be any different?
Those of us who have spent hours upon hours learning or doing this stuff know that the process starts with performance planning, feedback, then goes to monitoring performance and ends with evaluating performance. The evaluation is essentially the player report card which will determine if a player will stay, be traded or bargained.
Next. MLBTR drops their Top 50 FA predictions. dark
If the Cubs can get their players to perform to their potential via evaluation and performance measurement then not only will they be winning more with the current team they have; but will save a lot of money to use down the road when needed. This could mean bullpen upgrades or replacements for injured players. The key, as always, is getting the players to play to their potential – not just throwing money at perceived shortcomings.