Chicago Cubs: Panicked musings from the Cub-o-sphere

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Several people in the Chicago Cubs organization have made statements recently that slam the door on signing a big-ticket free agent this offseason. They have also restated their belief that the Cubs have the players to compete. So let’s write off the 2019 season right now.

After this week, the Cub-o-sphere is in full panic mode. Starting back before the end of the 2018 season a steady drumbeat to add Bryce Harper or Manny Machado began. And since the curtain fell on the 2018 season that drumbeat has grown in volume and intensity.

The conversation starts with the owner being a stingy, money loving billionaire. The front office is incompetent. The manager is a sixties-era guru clown. And the same core players who won the 2016 World Series now can’t hit, field, or throw.

Ownership only cares about money

They raised ticket and concession prices, littered Wrigley Field with advertising, are about to cut a TV deal worth tens of billions of dollars, won’t sign either of the two best free agents in a generation, and Tom Ricketts didn’t even show up at the Cubs Convention, he phoned it in on a radio talk show. It’s all about the money, baby. We’re back to the days of the Wrigley family.

Theo and the front office are clueless

The Jason Heyward, Yu Darvish, Tyler Chatwood contracts, and the trades for Aroldis Chapman and Jose Quintana prevent the Cubs from signing Harper or Machado and depleted the farm system. Rank incompetence! Oh, and they let Jake Arrieta get away.

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Has the Cup-o-Joe gone cold?

Starting with those awful those decisions in the 2016 postseason to pitch Aroldis Chapman until his arm fell off. And ever since it’s been one series of blunders after another. And those ever-changing never a player in the same place line-ups!

The players can’t hit, field, or pitch

It usually starts with Kris Bryant. Clearly, he’s lost it. Last season saw a decline in every hitting metric. He was terrible at the plate and never was very good at third and should be in left field. Some have gone as far to propose trading him.

Speaking of left field and trades, Kyle Schwarber should be traded to an American League team to be a DH because he’s terrible in left field and can’t hit for average.

They don’t have a center fielder or a leadoff hitter since they failed to sign Dexter Fowler. And right field…do I need to go there?

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And Javier Baez had a one-off year in 2018 and he’ll regress to the same free-swinging K machine he was in 2014 and 2015. Anthony Rizzo is plateauing and now the Cardinals have Paul Goldschmidt. Then there’s Addison Russell, or not, maybe, who knows?

Willson Contreras had a terrible year, is a blundering fool behind the plate, and can’t frame pitches.

And the pitching! Jon Lester is over the hill, Kyle Hendricks has lost his velocity, Jose Quintana was never worth the trade, Cole Hamels is a hope and prayer at $20 million, and Yu Darvish…again, do I need to go there.

And the farm system is depleted too, by the way. We have developed no pitching and traded away our best prospects.

It doesn’t. And mostly because it is all wrong.

First, the Ricketts family is why we’re even here talking about this. They had to wage war against a Chicago political establishment that had thwarted Cubs owners for decades. First the Wrigleys, then the Tribune Company, then they tried their same nonsense with the Ricketts family. Until the Ricketts gave up and spent their own money on renovating the field (when has THAT happened in any sport recently?). The Ricketts also addressed a farm system infrastructure that has been in extreme disrepair since Dallas Green left the organization. I wasn’t all in on Ricketts either to be sure until he fired Jim Hendry in the middle of the 2011 season. The times were about to be a-changin’.

The front office has won far more than they’ve lost

As for the front office, anyone who objected to signing Heyward, raise your hand, go on…yea that’s what I thought. Darvish we just don’t know about yet, and if the worst mistake they make since 2016 is signing Chatwood, well, that’s not too bad.

As for the trades, Quintana for Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease? Neither has seen a day of MLB play. Not one day. Jimenez will likely be called up sometime this season but when he was traded he was in A-ball batting .271/.351/.490. Cease is still navigating his way through the minors.

And they traded Gleyber Torres and three others for Chapman. And won the World Series. And Torres basically plays second…I think we had that spot covered if I’m not mistaken, with, ummm…who again?

Yes, Maddon is a little different

Joe Maddon is the third-winningest manager in the long arc of Cubs history. Only Frank Chance and Al Spalding have better winning percentages. Google them if you don’t know who they are. And, he’s one of the winningest MLB managers since 2015. Enough said right there. As long as he keeps winning like that I don’t give a darn about his line-ups. Oh, and most of the regular players have played every day in the same position; Rizzo, Baez, Russell, Bryant, Conteras, Heyward.

The kids will be alright

The everyday players are veterans now, tested by the pressure of a historic World Series run, injury, slumps, and the long slog of three to four seasons. The young core is just entering that that age range where most players enjoy their best years. Not every player has progressed as far or as quickly as fans or the Cubs even, might have hoped. Progress is not linear. Some are definitely on the bubble, namely Albert Almora and Kyle Schwarber.

Next. Chicago Cubs: Lack of offseason moves isn’t necessarily a bad thing. dark

But the panic I’ve seen near and far on one Cubs board after another, on Twitter, and Facebook is irrational. Which is why Ricketts and Theo are taking that sage advice: They who listen to the fans usually ends sitting with them.

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