Renteria

So the choice is Rick Renteria.  We are hearing all the good things it is possible to make up about this guy.  Some of them may be true.  Some may not.  At bottom, unless you are dealing with a proven commodity, you have to defer to management in terms of the choices they make.  In any case, how could he be a worse choice than Dale Sveum?  Of course, on the other side of the ledger, the same team that chose Sveum has chosen Renteria.

In other news, we hear from Theo Epstein that the Cubs will be passionate in their pursuit of quality pitching.  Sounds good, but lets recall that in their brief tenure, Epstein and Hoyer have traded away five starting pitchers of some ability, Cashner, Dempster, Maholm, Feldman, and Garza, only one of whom, Dempster, who is over the hill, would have any difficulty breaking the Cubs current rotation.  In addition, they traded the solid set up man Sean Marshall.

Now they have received a bunch of guys in return and one of more of them might turn out to be keepers, but, so far, in terms of major league talent, they have got back Anthony Rizzo, a first baseman, and Travis Wood, a genuine good pitcher.  Still, I doubt anyone would care to hang their hat on that level of return.

Supposedly the Cubs are all in on the Japanese phenom Masahiro Tanaka.  One hopes this means what it says.  Last time around, the Cubs underbid on two genuine star international free agents, Darvish and Cespedes.  They would have been a different team with either of those players on the field.

Back to Renteria, one legitimate concern, actually two, is his history.  Everybody talks about how great he is in developing young talent, but I cannot recall a single young talent, a real talent, that San Diego has developed recently.  Of equal concern is that San Diego doesn't exactly have the reputation of being a franchise that has a winning tradition.

The Way Forward?

Hey, I don't know about other fans, but I'm a little confused about the "plan."  In the sense of, geez, what is the plan?  So far we have had the firing of Dale Sveum, completely justified, but something that was initially presented to the world as not just a rejection of Sveum's style and methods, but a step toward bringing in a genuinely successful manager who might turn things around, namely, Joe Girardi.

Now maybe that was never in the cards, but no one among the Cubs brass made much of an effort to deny the rumors and it does appear some behind the scenes dealing was going on and the Cubs lost out.  A critical view here is they were played.

So now, in the managerial search, we hear, several hours before he takes the Detroit job, that Brad Ausmus is a serious candidate.  So much for that.  Next we hear that Torey Lovullo of the Red Sox is in the mix, but, unfortunately the Red Sox are invoking some sort of agreement that the Cubs made not to hire any of their people.  Not ever.

That's a little weird because most of the non-competition agreements I know of pertain to the hiring of individuals who are on the payroll at the time of the agreement, not several years after.  Lovullo came over to Boston from the Toronto organization along with John Farrell a year after Theo Epstein left.  In any case, the whole thing is a bit of a shambles.

Other rumors and pronouncement from on high.  The Cubs will not seriously compete in the free agent market this year, primarily because their farm system is so well stocked with prospects who are at least two years away from the majors.  Oh, um, whatever.  The truth is that there are several players who would be an instant upgrade for the Cubs.  The best ones would be expensive, but fact is that teams cannot compete without making an investment in good players, players who make a difference.  The Pirates and Royal, for example, after years of building up their farm systems, only became respectable when they invested resources in players who would make a difference right now at the major league level.

Another random thought.  Jeff Sarmardzija and the Cubs have not been able reach agreement on a contract extension.  So all the experts naturally make him the next Matt Garza.  Got to trade this puppy while we can still land the pick of someone's A ball prospects who are three years off.  I've been critical of Samardzija in the past, but he is a pretty good pitcher and guys of his ability and age get  five year contracts in the range of $13MM-$15MM per year.

Final Thoughts on the Series

Ultimately I think the Red Sox won because they saw more pitches from the Cardinals starters than the Cardinals saw from them.  Post-season ball, especially late in October in northern cities often boils down to pitching.  The one problem with the way the Cards are built is they take a very aggressive approach at the plate.  This worked well for them all season, although you have to question whether that same tactic can be sustained.  They have good hitters, but when it comes down to the crunch, good pitching can silence these bats.  Boston's starters were pitching into the eighth inning most of the time and then turning it over to Uehara.  St. Louis's starters, on the other hand, were up to 100 pitches by the sixth inning.

There is a lesson here for the Cubs.