The word TEAM is missing

by HIGGY on May 29, 2007 9:13 AM CDT Comment 19 comments

In my opinion two things need to start happening for the Cubs to win:

The word TEAM needs to be stressed. To me it just seems that we have 25 individuals playing every day and no team in sight. When we are batting, everyone is trying to be a hero, they are trying to win every game themselves with every swing or they are swinging like it is their last swing ever. It just seems that there is no trust in the guy that is on deck. And lets face it you cannot win with that attitude.
Rothchild needs to go. It is extremely frustrating to watch our pitchers nit pick at every corner or trying to do this or trying to do that. Throw the ball and get ahead. This is not a difficult concept to achieve for a guy making millions. Pitching ahead changes every aspect of an at bat. Baseball is a game of failure. A batter is going to fail 70% of the time according to numbers, so bascially we need to have the confidence that our pitch is going to be better than their swing. To me it seems that our pitchers are not trusting their stuff. They dont have the confidence that they can beat the batter, and that is a recipe for disaster. Yesterday watchin Eyre warm up in the bullpen was horrifying. Erye was short arming and aiming every change up he threw (in turn might be tipping his pitches in game situations). He is pitching in fear right now and that is why he cannot seem to get anyone out. And when mental things happen like this you need your coach to step in and say something, help him out.

I know i am a minority on this site for saying this but right now, I have to point the finger at Lou. He needs to get this group of individuals working together as a TEAM. And he needs to get Rothchild to start getting our pitchers to throw strikes or get rid of him.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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You're absolutely right.

Lou needs to hold himself accountable. I give him credit for trying different things when the first things don't work.

But at some point, everyone -- and that means EVERYONE -- has to pull together.

Let it start tonight.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on May 29, 2007 9:13 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Are you serious?

The team's ERA is under 4, the starting pitching is (using almost any advanced metric) one of the top ten in baseball, and he's got Jason Marquis looking like a Cy Young candidate, and you want to fire THE PITCHING COACH?

Before we all jump on this bandwagon, can you at least tell us who you think should replace Rothschild? And what they're gonna do differently to make Scott Eyre not waste a roster space?

by cwyers on May 29, 2007 9:37 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Yes I am serious...

The bulpen has how many loses?

We walk 3.5 batters per game? And it always seems they score.

Our pitch counts get up to a high number rather quickly because of our lack of getting ahead of hitters.

Eyre is not a waste of roster space, he needs some tweaking and that goes on the PITCHING COACH.

I am not looking at our starting pitching, we went out and good some good pitchers off FA, the only pitcher that has been struggling is Zambrano (and ironically he has been under Rothchild for the longest out of any pitcher on the cubs). And if you read alot of posts around here alot of people think Marquis will falter towards the end of the season (i am not one that believes this).

by HIGGY on May 29, 2007 9:56 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, I remember during the offseason...

...when everyone was so thrilled about acquring Lilly and Marquis, the big-name pitchers on the free agency market, thankful that Hendry didn't go cheap and get Zito and Schmidt.

Oh, wait.

I think it's time for all (or at least most) of us to admit that Hendry and Rotschild might have had a better idea of how to handle this year's free agency pitching than we did. Obviously it's possible, if not likely, that Marquis will regress to the mean, but the signing still seems to be a lot more defensible that Schmidt or Zito. Ditto for Lilly.

I just think people need to start recognizing that there are babies lurking in the bathwater before we go upturning all the bathtubs around here. Panic moves are hardly ever GOOD ones. And I still think it's more likely that Scott Eyre is the outlier here.

by cwyers on May 29, 2007 10:01 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Loud, sustained applause.

n/t

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on May 29, 2007 10:04 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

My God Al......

are you not the same person who ripped Marte's stats this year?

It is still too early to say the Lilly and Marquis signings were good for this club.

Please don't start this negativity thing again Al. This team has played poorly. It is alright to criticize them. Do you really believe Jim Hendry has done a good job during his tenure as GM?

FWIW, I still think they win the division.

RIP kerrysotherwife!!!!

by timeforachange on May 29, 2007 10:23 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

You are right...

... it's too early to say anything completely definitive about this season.

It surely does appear, 1/3 of the way through, that for the money Lilly & Marquis are far, far better than either Zito (pitched poorly) or Schmidt (injured).

Apart from the Soriano signing, which isn't looking so great, yes, I think Hendry did a pretty good job this year. Previous years are irrelevant now, aren't they? We're not playing the 2006 season again, are we?

Let's look forward.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on May 29, 2007 10:27 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

No......

you are right.

I was 100% wrong on the Marquis deal. I can only hope he continues to throw this well.

As for Hendry, I comment on him due to his track record as this team's GM. IMHO, this year has been no different than the others.

He has continued to assemble a team of players who lack the knowledge or the will to play winning baseball.

This team reminds me of the early 2000 White Sox. Tons of mental errors with decent pitching.

RIP kerrysotherwife!!!!

by timeforachange on May 29, 2007 10:30 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree they have to look forward

but, to do that, you have to understand what went wrong in the past, and try to correct it. This team has not performed well for one reason - it was put together poorly, and the same was true for 04, 05, and 06. We can keep burying our heads in the sand and pretend everything will be peachy, but that usually gets you no where, which is the same place this team is going as is.

This team will not win the division as it is made up today. They need better defense in the outfield, more speed to manufacture runs in the offense, and one reliable relief pitcher. The Brewers will not continue to lose, and the Cubs will lose ground in June.

"Just give me 25 guys on the last year of their contracts; I'll win a pennant every year" - Sparky Anderson

by MPH73 on May 29, 2007 11:37 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

the issue

with last years FA is the impact it has on the Cubs future as a whole

No matter how good the Marquis and Lilly signings are if the Soriano signing significantly impacts the teams financial flexibility in the future, its going to turn out to be a BAD offseason.

With that said, there's plenty of time for things to change this season and for the early surprises of Lilly and Marquis to regress as well as Sori's early struggles (power specifically) to reverse

At the end of the year these moves can be evaluated and the important thing when comparing them is to what we had available on hand when we made the signings and what those signings have done to impact the future

i, for one, was hoping for an off-season that was pretty much the EXACT opposite of what we did. I thought the team was so far away from contention that it didnt make sense to throw money at the problem, we'll see in the end.

The big questions when evaluating this offseason at yr end:

Will the 7 yrs and 123 million left on Soriano's contract impact this team's ability to spend money in the future and will his inevitable statistical decline hold off throughout the first half of his contract
Will the signings of Marquis and Lilly make an impact over the young pitchers we had on the roster (Marshall, Guzman, etc) be worth the money given to them?
Was this team spending large amounts of money during a time period when contending for a world championship was out of the question? (i.e. during these next 3-4 years if we dont hit 90 wins once it was a waste of money and money should've been more heavily focused on scouting/player development/the draft (where the cubs continue to not leverage the financial prowess THROUGHOUT the later rds)

by DartmouthCubsFan on May 29, 2007 2:20 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I dont...

want to upturn the team. I am totally content with the team and its players. This is the reason i compilled the TEAM aspect and the Rothchild issue together.

And to address the FA signings, Marquis was a better sign than Zito for a few obvious reasons:

over the past 3 years Marquis had more wins than Zito, and
adding ANOTHER lefty would have given us too many. We had Lilly, Hill, and Marshall in the minors. Simple logic there says we do not need a fourth if we want those babies to stop lurking and come out of the bathtub.

All i am saying is look at Rothchild's track record with the cubs, Prior, Wood, maybe Zambrano now? What pitcher under him has had a steady increase in productivity and continued to get better and better??? I cannot think of one pitcher that we have had since rothchild has been here that has turned into something great. Most of them hit the DL or get sent to the minors (and this is bulpen to starters).

by HIGGY on May 29, 2007 10:15 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

ugh...

to reason #1...

just ugh

by DartmouthCubsFan on May 29, 2007 2:22 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

my opinion...

i hate to say this but i'm even starting to agree with stuff like this. although i dont think we need major changes i do agree something needs to be done. something bold. its time to fire rothschild and fire his ass now! send eyre and marmol down for cotts and cherry. take soriano outta the leadoff spot and make theriot the leadoff man every single day. those of you theriot haters that said his defense was subpar, watch a replay of yesterday's game. finally platoon pagan and jones if they want but murton has to be in rf every day. he hit for avg last year and if given a chance i think he will hit .300 again this year. the last thing is choose one lineup or another and leave the hell alone. quit changing it every single day.

Here comes the nasty leftie to shut it down in the 9th......Clay Rapada!!!!

by cubsluver22 on May 29, 2007 9:46 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I just covered...

...why I think firing Rothschild is a dumb move. Now you want to send Eyre down for Cherry? Eyre can't be sent down, and Cherry can't be called up for a few more days. Can you give us options that the team actually HAS?

by cwyers on May 29, 2007 9:55 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

why cant he???

eyre cant be sent down ala 15-day dl. they did so wit wade miller. ok cherry cant be called up for a few days whats wrong with cotts? i dont understand why he was sent down to beging with. firing rothschild might be a dumb move but its an eye opener. i think its sending a message to the players that anything less than winning the series is a failure and losing will not be tolerated.

Here comes the nasty leftie to shut it down in the 9th......Clay Rapada!!!!

by cubsluver22 on May 29, 2007 10:58 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Hitting and Rothschild

1. The Cub hitters are absolutely missing the balls that they're supposed to be driving. How many more times must I watch Soriano swing through a ball that is grooved right down the middle? Geez. Soriano isn't the only one doing it either. Ramirez missed his opportunity to spank the ball on a one strike count in the bottom of the ninth inning - only to strike out weakly on a breaking stuff way off the outside of the plate.

The Cub hitters are allowing themselves to get behind in the count because they are not driving the balls that they are supposed to be cranking on. (Fouling it straight back, swinging through it, or even swinging late.) Terrible.

2. The whole Rothschild as whipping boy perplexes me. I am not a fan of him either and have much angst over the "towel throwing" drills that he makes his guys do during rehab and spring training. Is he ineffective as a pitching coach? I don't really know. Even when I want to conclude as you do by looking at the brief history of Wood and Prior and now, Zambrano, I am always shocked to hear how "great" of a pitching coach he is from ballplayers like Greg Maddux.

Maddux was the one that told Marquis to see Rothschild this offseason. And it was Rothschild that evaluated Marquis and gave Hendry the green light to sign Marquis. I would have never have guessed that Marquis would have been this effective this year. So, who is to say? I am stumped.

Wood and Prior didn't do crap working under Rothschild but Wood did respond to Oscar Acosta (who nobody in the organization liked I think.) I'll never forget those mound meetings with Acosta going out to bitch out Wood with the index finger pointed in his face. But for whatever it was worth, Wood seemed to respond to the in - your - face type of treatment vs. Rothschild's coddling mannerism and his towel throwing drills.

I think Rothschild knows what he is doing and that he is a knowledgeable pitching coach on teaching fundamentals. However, he really sucks at riding people's asses and I think that may be the missing ingredient in his effectiveness, perhaps?

There's always next year.

by BJ Simpson on May 29, 2007 3:20 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I see what you...

are saying with Maddux, but what player do you know of that publicly calls out his coach? They always say he is a great guy.

Regarding Marquis, he has averaged 14 wins over the last 3 years. That is pretty decent numbers. They are not ace numbers but still they are numbers that we needed from a starter. Now he has gone above and beyond expectations thus far, but that is exactly what you want from a FA signing, and it is usually what we dont get. I know Rothschild did a tweak with him, but that is one pitcher out of many that i personally think he failed. (and this is only the end of May if Marqius tanks it the rest of the season people will be crying about that as well - so it is all relative).

As far as Rothschild teaching fundamentals, Marshall missing a bunt yesterday, and Eyre letting Ambercrombie run all over the place, that is a lack of fundamentals.

As far as what you said about the hitting, completely agree.

by HIGGY on May 29, 2007 3:35 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Though I do agree...

... with much of your reasoning, the wins number is overrated.

Individual pitching wins mean little these days -- just ask Marquis, who threw a great game last Thursday that the Cubs won. He got a no-decision for that one.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on May 29, 2007 4:13 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes...

most definitely, too much factors into a pitcher getting a win (run support - see sean marshall, the actual team you play on, the division the given year). And i do agree that wins number is overrated.

I guess what i was trying to get at was that he had at least a hand in winning a few games over the past few years.

I actually truly believe he is still chapped about the way the Cardinals treated him in the playoff last year and we could possibly reep the benefits of his 'revenge' or his 'out to prove something' attitude.

by HIGGY on May 29, 2007 4:52 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs