It's About Time Someone Said Something....

It's only taken 3 years and a re-newed multiyear deal but finally a member of the Cubs coaching staff has held the team accountable for lacking in fundamentals, that man - Larry Rothschild. He wasn't as harsh as he should have been, and presented an out for the coaching staff to not be held liable, but at least hes finally commenting on something that has been lacking on the north side for many years. Rothschild said,

"I don't like to use excuses, it's time for us to look at it that whoever is healthy and on the field needs to play the game right and play the game well. I don't know that that happened all the time last year."

Wow. He should know better than anyone if these guys are playing smart and hustling, sounds like they weren't. Let's see if he keeps his word about excuses.

"When you keep having to shift guys because of injuries, you don't always get the performance you want. Whoever is on the field, we need to play the game well. If we do, we will win games. Dusty is a big believer in fundamentals and we need to get to the point where we execute on the field day in and day out. Any excuse that are out there...it doesn't even matter."

So he says he doesn't like excuses, then he makes what sure sounds like an excuse immediatley afterward. Then Rothschild claims that Dusty is a great fundamental guy - a man who has publicly stated that walks are overated and batters are up there to swing away - and then re-affirms that excuses will not be tolerated. If Baker is a big fundamentalist why doesn't he have the team work on fundamentals during spring training and throughout the season if he's coached 3 teams in a row that are flawed in that area.

You can't place the blame on any single area for the lack of fundamentals on this team as everyone is accountable from the minor league coaches up to the players themselves. I would have loved it if Rothschild came out and said, 'yea, we didn't teach them properly and they didn't push themseleves properly,' but at least its a start (or percieved start) of something better.

One thing from Rothschild which I very much enjoyed was this on the subject of Kerry Wood,

"I think, as an organization, we look at it that if Kerry comes back, when he comes back it's going to be a bonus. We have to plan that he is not going to be back at any certain level we can predict. The surgery indicates that everything if very positive. But if and say were going to depend on him going into spring training...it's just stupid on our part. I think we go in thinking we're going to build that staff as strong as we can. If Kerry is back then we're than much stronger. I believe he will be, but i'm not going to depend on it."

Right on Larry. I found these comments to be extremely interesting, especially coupled with this Ken Rosenthal report that the Cubs are one of the four major players in the A.J Burnett sweepstakes along with the Blue Jays, Cardinals and Red Sox. Although I do not think the Cubs will obtain Burnett and that they are in reality just token players in this hoopla, it is possible. Hendry and Burnett are said to have good relations and the Cubs have money to spend this offseason. There are hangups in the fact that Burnett wants at least 5 years on his deal, something that Hendry has shied away from in the past. But if he is willing to give it to Furcal, will he give it to Burnett? Burnett seems to be made to pitch at Wrigley as his career flyball to groundball ratio 1.44 and for last season was 2.42 - good for 6th in MLB. He also has a stellar career K/9 average of 7.94, and is actually better than that over the last four years.

Yes Burnett has major questions about his health due to his elbow blowing out in early 2003. However since he came back from that he had only a minor tingle in sept of 2004 which caused him to miss a start. The health portion of this equation doesn't seem so bad to me. Many people believe that he posses the best 'stuff' of anyone in the majors. Calling out his team and manager as giving up at the end of last season shows he has competitive fire inside, something many Cubs players appear to lack. His career record of 49-50 doesn't bother me because W/L record is more indicative of your run support than anything else. The only problem I can see is that he walks a few to many people, and even though its still low, his BAA has been rising the last four seasons.

If Hendry gets Burnetts signature on a contract even without Woodie the Cubs will have an arguement to the best rotation in the league. And if Wood comes back healthy there is no arguement. Trouble is, Toronto wants him really bad, so Hendry will actually have to work to sign him since he's a top end free agent, and thats something he has not done during his tenure here.

Another thing of note with the signing of Burnett is that probably puts the writing on the wall for Kerry Woods departure in 2007, unless he completely dominates when he returns. Whether Burnett's signs or not it will take either a healthy season long performance or a Cy Young calibre return from injury for the Cubs to pick up that $13.5 million option after next season as I don't think Kwood will get the 334 innings pitched needed for it to kick in automatically.


The offseasons first moves....

The first moves have come down this offseason and one of them affects Chicago...well the south side of Chicago. In the first trade of the hot stove season the Mets pulled Xavier Nady from the Padres for CF Mike Cameron. Cameron complained about moving from CF to RF ever since the Mets signed Carlos Beltran last season - after initally saying he wouldn't mind the move probably thinking they had no chance. So Mike gets his wish to play CF again and gets to do it in Sunny San Diego. Xavier Nady Will either play 1B for the Mets, play RF for the Mets, or be moved in a trade to Boston or Tampa Bay. Nady is a solid young player who never got a full chance in San Diego and the Mets would probably be better off keeping him around, but most likely aren't smart enough to do that. This move will utimately lead to other moves as San Diego now needs to see if Dave Roberts will move to LF and Ryan Klesko to 1B otherwise Roberts will need to be moved to another organization. Good move for San Diego as they have better prospects than Nady coming up and they recieve a Gold Glove CF to roam the vast wasteland that is the outfield in PetCo.

The next move also involved the Padres as White Sox World Series hero Geoff Blum was the first free agent to switch teams this year signing for $650,000 over 1 year. If you don't remember Blum hit the home run in the 14th inning of Game 3 which turned out to be the winning run.


Goodbye Jonny....

Do you know what your favorite moment of the Jon Leicester era was? Niether do I. Thats too bad, as we have no more chances of making those moments as the Cubs dealt Leicester to the Rangers for the infamous PTBNL. Up until his horrible last season in AAA Leicester might have been able to be a bargaining chip. Oh well.


Someone please tell me...

Why the Cubs cannot sign Rafeal Furcal, A.J. Burnett, B. J. Ryan, and Brian Giles to play at Wrigley next season. Last year thier payroll was a bit over the $100 million mark and they still made a substantial profit. Next year not only will they raise ticket prices again, but their also adding 1500 seats to the bleachers (a column coming on that later) to the tune of at least a $4,680,000 increase in ticket revenue. And on top of all that due to the sale of the Nationals this offseason and the increase in the TV contracts they will recieve around an additional $15 million. There is no excuse for the payroll to push towards $120 million.

Rumours abound....

There appears to be a rumour floating about the mill that the Cubs are about to announce the signing of left-handed set-up man Scott Eyre to a multi-year deal. Many teams were after Eyre this offseason as he had an outstanding 2005.