Cubs News: So where are all those Joe Girardi for manager fans now?

At 13-4, the Chicago Cubs have the best record in baseball and are off to their best start since 1907. Yeah, that move to hire David Ross as manager was a total fail.

Perhaps it’s the pandemic. Maybe it was the day to day verbal war between the owners, MLB, and the MLBPA that went on for months. Perhaps it’s the ongoing Bryant saga or the 13-4 start to the season.

Whatever it is, it seems we forgot that way back last fall; the Chicago Cubs had a manager to hire. Rumors and speculation ran rampant. No group was more emphatic, more confident, and more brutally dismissive of others than the Joe Girardi for manager fans.

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I don’t carry grudges on baseball. It’s just too mercurial a sport, even over 60 games. One week your flying high and the next week you’re mired in a six-game losing streak. But this time it’s different.

Maybe that’s because the pro-Girardi folks were SO sure. On top of that, a lot of them absolutely scalded David Ross for manager fans about how unqualified he was compared to Girardi.

Well, the Girardi-led 6-9 Phillies were swept by the 104 losses in 2019 Baltimore Orioles led by former Cubs coach Brandon Hyde. The Phillies haven’t been above .500 all season. They haven’t been worse than .500, and that was when they were 1-1.

Yes, I’m here to celebrate. Darn right, I am. This time I’m calling you out. I’ve remembered those Girardi people on sports sites and Cubs pages who belittled us Ross backers. On behalf of all of us, I’ve got an enormous plate of crow, and I’m serving it to you hot.

The starters that everyone thought were a disaster? They are near the top in just about every category, rivaling the 2016 superb squad. The defense is also reminiscent of 2016, and Ross has effectively handled the Cubs’ perpetually defective bullpen.

My Cubbies Crib colleague Erik Mauro was too nice about all this in his assessment, but then the season was just underway. Nonetheless, he noted several changes and improvements from 2019 that seem to have led to the resurgence in 2020.

They will still lose games. COVID-19 could catch up to them until now seemingly immune Cubs. The bullpen could fail—one area of concern. Runs scored vs. Runs allowed.

RS vs. RA, which converts to Pythagorean Win-Loss pretty accurately, stands at +19, at 86 vs. 67. It’s difficult at this stage to compare this ratio to other teams because the schedules are so messed up. But the Pythagorean Win-Loss indicates the Cubs should be closer to .500 at 10-7.

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They are living on starting pitching, defense, and the bottom of the order hitting better than the top five. Ross needs to find a remedy to the hitting by the top of the order soon.

Oh, the Phillies Pythagorean W-L? It stands at 6-9, right where it should be. Just in case the Girardi for Cubs manager fans were wondering.

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