The Big Shake-Up

The Cubs were surprisingly inept in the playoffs, but they appear to have saved the biggest surprises for the off-season in terms of the dismissals of pitching coach Bosio and hitting coach Mallee, also their third base coach as an afterthought.

Bosio's firing was probably the biggest surprise, as he was credited with improving a host of starting pitchers, most of whom were traded off to build the players who developed into the championship and perennial contender the Cubs are today.  Some of them are still around, though, and formed a basis for the team's success, including Arrieta, Hendricks, Quintana, Duensing, Edwards, and Strop, to name a few.

I have speculated that the replacement of Bosio with Hickey, a longtime Maddon associate, might signal a shift on the Cubs part toward the development of younger arms, something, with the exception of Hendricks and Edwards, the Cubs have not accomplished.  In any case, the deed was done.

I was not especially surprised at the dismissal of Mallee.  By and large, the Cubs hitters did not take the next step this season after their World Series triumph.  Injuries held back Addison Russell, but, Schwarber, for example, was a bust for most of the season and Heyward continued to struggle.  Chili Davis has a great reputation, so lets hope he delivers the goods.

The biggest hit in the whole affair was taken by Maddon, who looked either like a superior Machiavellian manipulator or a complete jerk depending on one's point-of-view.  This is mainly the result of his pre-elimination interview where he virtually assured all his coaches they were coming back if they wanted to stay and then promptly dumped the better part of them.  Epstein had to come out and rescue the peerless leader by claiming the whole mess was a decision of the triumvirate of himself, the manager, and GM Hoyer and just part of the overall evaluation process that would make things better in the end.

Generally speaking, I like Maddon and I think he is a good manager, but lately he has been getting on people's nerves, chiefly by never owning up to bad decisions and taking responsibility for them.  He managed the team rather badly through the playoffs, not that they would likely have advanced in any event, but, still...

There was an adage in baseball, or maybe I made it up to suit my point, to the effect that players and teams win games and manager's lose them.  That honestly was true in the World Series last season when Maddon did put them in a position to lose and the team rallied on its own to claim the championship.