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.
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