The Future of Brett Jackson

There are two articles today, or rather yesterday, dealing with the immediate future of the young Cubs outfielder Brett Jackson, both based on the same interviews, primarily with manager Dale Sveum.  One is by Patrick Mooney at CSN Chicago, the other by Carrie Muskat.  Both articles conclude that Jackson, no matter how well he does in spring training, will begin the year at AAA, essentially because he is blocked by two starting outfielders who are fixtures in the Cubs plans for 2012, namely Alfonso Soriano and Marlon Byrd.

Now I know that it is something of an advantage for a team to delay a promising rookie's debut until later in the year in order to preserve control of his arbitration eligibility and ultimately when he reaches free agency.  I kind of thought, though, that, financial considerations aside, the whole idea here was to win games.  Lets face it, fans, since when does playing Soriano and Byrd every day mean you will win games?

Another thought is this, by what warped logic do these two marginal players become central to the team's current plans, especially when it is no secret that the front office has spent the major part of the winter trying to unload them and their bloated contracts?

I'm certainly willing to cut this new management team a lot of slack, and, by and large, the things Hoyer and Epstein say make a lot of sense.  I cannot really say the same thing, though, about Sveum.  If you have a potential star sitting on the bench who is blocked by aging and flawed veterans, you really should not tell the kid to wait.  You need to move the veterans or bench them to make room.  This is even more the case with Soriano and Byrd who, at this stage of their careers are at best platoon players.

What We Learned Last Week

Actually, not too much.  We learned that the bunting contest still goes on and that nobody really cares who wins it.  We learned that despite repeated threats, Alfonso Soriano will not bat leadoff for the Cubs.  That honor will go to David DeJesus, who was the only conceivable candidate in the first place.

We learned that the aforementioned Alfonso Soriano has made some slight adjustment to his timing mechanism and this accounts for his rejuvenation this spring.  Hey, guys, it is spring training.  It is Arizona.  Nothing that happens here with veteran players matters.

Actually, I am starting to lose some patience with all the stories about Soriano and how he can still hit home runs and all that blather.  Come on, this guy stinks and everybody knows it.  I'm prepared and even anxious to give the new regime a shot, but when the manager starts talking about playing Soriano every day and moving him up in the order, it makes you wonder.

It's still too early to say much about the rest of the camp.  Samardzija, by all accounts, looks very good.  Garza looks awful, but he seems to be allergic to Arizona, so I would not worry.  I watched a lot of the first televised game on Sunday.  Not very impressive.  In fact, it looked as if they were sleepwalking.

I know it is spring training, but one cannot help but wonder if this spring is really all that different than the past.  I know that they are stressing fundamentals, and so on and so on, but here's the thing.  Every year there will be someone who has a breakout spring, some young player who is not expected to make the roster, or at least is not expected to start, who plays his way into the lineup. 

Last year that player was Darwin Barney.  This year, there appear to be two interesting players that the brass assures us will begin the year in the minors, namely, Anthony Rizzo and Brett Jackson.  I can see letting Rizzo regain his confidence as he was rushed up prematurely by the Padres last season, but why is it that Jackson, no matter what he does, seems assured of demotion?

The least the Cubs can do is to play these kids against major league pitchers and not be content to insert them into the lineup in the late innings when you will largely learn nothing of their readiness and potential.

Another thought is this.  Aside from starting pitching, the biggest problem the Cubs had last year was their outfield, particularly Soriano and Byrd.  Everybody knows they are going to be replaced and that as long as they are fixtures, the Cubs will never really be any good.  Logically, the young players they are blocking are Jackson and Rizzo, as the Cubs are likely to move LaHair to LF if Rizzo is ready.  The least they could do is give LaHair a few innings in the outfield to prepare for this eventuality.

Sweet Fancy Moses!

I mean, what is this about?  Flamingos, marlins.  Will there be mermaids in the bleachers.  Make way for the new Marlins.

Hey, These Guys Look Great and, by Golly, They Really Believe They Can Win This Thing

0r everything you always wanted to know about Cubs spring training traditions but were afraid to ask.

Amor Fati.

It is that time of year again, an especially and poignantly awaited and dreaded time for Cubs fans.  That’s right, it is spring training!  I suppose you might say the same thing for all fans, but being a Cubs fan, it is always a little more special and stressful.

Actually, you could write the whole scenario before it even starts, just substituting names here and there.  This year, maybe hope springs a little more realistically than in the past, what with the arrival of Theo Epstein and his entourage.

In any case, this is it.  All you ever wanted to know about spring training without having to watch a single game or practice, read any interviews, or go through any boring analysis of prospects.

First off, pitchers and catchers report in mid-February.  Everyone is looking extra fit and ready to go.  There are always four or five non-rostered washed-up has-beens who have no chance of making the team and are basically there to throw batting practice and eat some early innings until the actual pitchers round into shape.  Several stories will be written about them, more often than not about their early careers or else human interest stuff about how they grew up six blocks from the ballpark and how it has always been their dream to pitch at Wrigley Field.

I have to admit that I was a little bewildered that Epstein and company have continued this tradition somewhat by inviting failures from the Hendry regime, notably Rodrigo Lopez, and failures from other teams like Manny Corpas and Andy Sonnanstine.  I suppose this is a continuing tradition that no one can either understand or violate.  Not to worry, by the middle of March these guys will all have gone home, retired, or injured themselves in some way. 

One of the fixtures of the annual rite of spring had been the arrival of Carlos Zambrano, who invariably vowed that he was in the best shape of his life, that he was a changed man, and that he would win the Cy Young award or come damned close to it.  I read somewhere where Carlos had arrived at the Marlins camp where he stated that he bore no ill will to the Cubs, that he was in the best shape of his life, etc.  Actually, I rather miss this ritual.  Readers of my blog will know that I have a soft spot for Zambrano and that, notwithstanding his many flaws, I thought he was a good pitcher and an entertaining player to watch.

Also, of course, on the catching front, Geovanny Soto will have either sprained a thumb, tweaked a groin, or stubbed a toe before the first exhibition game has even been scheduled.  Reporters will have noted that before hurting himself, he looked unusually trim and fit, as did the rest of the returning veterans.  This year, it was the groin.

Management will hold a big meeting and insist that this is a new year and they expect everybody to play hard and hustle and run out every ground ball.  They are going to emphasize fundamentals like never before.  That includes making routine plays and throwing to the right base all the time, and so on.  Once the first few games are played and it is clear nobody has paid any attention to these admonitions, all the announcers and writers and coaches will insist that it is just spring training and that the games are meaningless and that players are playing in unfamiliar combinations and it is hard to teach good habits anyway so just shut up about it.

This year, notwithstanding that statistically speaking sacrifice bunts are a bad strategy, the new Cubs manager Dale Sveum has organized an elaborate bunting contest which has gotten a lot of play from reporters covering Cactus League preparations.  Unfortunately, the managers and coaches were allowed into the contest pairings and right now it looks as if Sveum himself is likely to win.  So much for fundamental skills.

As we edge closer to actual exhibition contests, reporters will start interviewing the better prospects, or the organization will simply put forth their comments.  This, of course, is a good chance for the youngsters to practice their interviewing skills in the fashion of Bull Durham or the old Bob and Ray skits.  The highlight will be statements from the guys who have the best shot at stardom.

This year Brett Jackson and Anthony Rizzo are the guys.  They will vow that they just want to be part of the team and learn the fundamentals, that they are thrilled to be at camp, they will take each day one day at a time, and play each game one game at a time.  Hey, actually, they have already jumped the gun and done that.  Finally, they will categorically state that they are quite content to wait their turn and they have no problems being blocked and going down to AAA for another year while watching aging and overpaid mopes like Alfonso Soriano and Marlon Byrd pop up on the first pitch whenever they come up with men on base or strike out with the bases loaded the inning after they have misplayed a routine fly ball into a triple.  This is what baseball is all about and it is part of the glorious tradition of the sport.

One of the final preparations for spring training games is the obligatory interviews with unpopular and overpaid stars who don’t get it.  Alfonso Soriano has stepped up to this role for several seasons now.  He will be puzzled that he is the only Cub to be booed consistently and conclude that it is because the fans see only his inflated salary and fail to look beyond that to the real Alfonso who tries real hard and is a good teammate especially now that spoilsports like Carlos Zambrano are gone, guys who just want to bring you down and drag around that unnecessary burden of over-competitiveness when you merely want to kick back and enjoy the game for what it is and watch the glorious arc of warning track fly balls against the night sky as they plop harmlessly into outfielders’ gloves.

At this point, hopefully merely to gin up the trade market, management will step up to defend the star.  Yeah, that eight year deal was a mistake - thank heavens it wasn’t our mistake - but the guy still has some value, doesn’t he?  Some of those lazy fly balls land in the seats, man.  I mean, now that he can settle down in a happy clubhouse governed by a new regime that emphasizes the fundamentals and is willing to sit around and teach people how to bunt, he couldn’t be as bad as he looks on paper and in person, could he?  For crying out loud, we still owe him $54MM, so shut up about it already.

All things being equal, the single greatest surprise of spring training has been the admission by Cubs brass that they have actually employed a shrink to buck up players’ morale and teach them how to breathe properly.  Not to belittle the man’s efforts, but this brings back memories of the College of Coaches era and again Bull Durham.  Perhaps this is an effort to revive the Neitzchean notion of eternal recurrence.  In that case, let us embrace our fate and play ball.

Crash Davis was unavailable for comment on this segment.

What We Learned Today

Today we learned that this team believes in itself and, by golly, they think they can win now.

We also learned that Jeff Samardzija looked great and he threw great and hit 97mph consistently.  We also learned that he has really, really long hair. Skeptics like myself will wonder if he can extend that dominance beyond his usual 18 pitch limit.

We also heard that Darwin Barney has bulked up and that he looks like Godzilla, or maybe a real little Godzilla, but he is strong.  Really strong.

Most of this courtesy of a brief interlude of spring training talk by David Kaplan on WGN this afternoon.