Dale Sveum Will Not Give Great News Conferences; Hopefully, He'll Just Win

he can look like a statue in the dugout for all I care.

Not sure was his length of contract is, but he’s all ours now and will be for the next few years. I am positive he will make mistakes. But, as in any good manager, I hope he doesn’t repeat them very often. I really wish him all the luck I can muster up. He will need it. Just like he will need some pitchers, fielders and hitters to get the job done. If he ain’t got ‘em, we ain’t winnin’.

Good luck man, hope you know what you’re getting into.

Is 3 years enough time to do that? Does that signal that the Cubs are embracing a re-building movement?

If Sveum insists players run out every ball, Ramirez would be in tvrouble.

Ann Sather’s restaurants, in fact considering it is owned by Alderman Tom Tunney who the Cubs want tokeep in their pocket ( he has been mostly resting comfortably there) it seems like a perfect deal. He can say how Svell the Svedish meatballs are.

Not only does it show a calmness and stability from your leader in any situation, but as Mariano Rivera recently said in an interview… he never wanted to show any emotion on the mound, because he didn’t want the batter to know what he was feeling; whether he was confident, frustrated, upset, hurt, tired, etc.

A composure helps you maintain focus, think rationally, give you a poker face, and lead your team under the most strenuous moments.

I could care less what he says to the Media as long as his talking is done on the scoreboard.

He was asked how he’d handle Carlos Zambrano, whom the Cubs are considering keeping despite his perennial suspensions.

“You sit down with Zambrano, face to face,” he said. "I don’t know the guy. We all know that his nine strikes are up. And I think, talking to Theo (Epstein) that I think (Zambrano) realizes that. He knows it. He knows he has to win back the respect of the players as well as well as management. At some point, we’ll sit down and talk.

“Hopefully it’s face to face. So handle it. A lot of times you don’t know what situations you’re going to have to handle, but you try and get a grip on the guy and try to understand where he’s coming from. He’s out of strikes.”

“9 strikes are up…” Interesting.

"Ryan Dempster texted to say, ‘Congratulations, I’m going to try to stay out of jail,’ ’’ Sveum kidded.

may not give good interviews but who cares. The most important thing is wins! I do like the fact that he doesn’t show his emotions either in game or in interviews. Always leave em guessing.

ESPN says that the Cubs hired “hard-nosed baseball man Sveum”, like he is going to come in kicking butts left and right.

TJ, your ship has come in!

Now we can start talking about important things like adding some winning players, building a new winning culture and winning baseball games. It’s all about the W’s, baby….

I hope that fans and media (in general, not just on this blog) understand the constraints the team has to work with in 2012. Would I LOVE them to have a winning record? YES. Do I expect them to have a winning record? NO. I hope the rest of Cubedom understands as much.

On a side note: Maybe we can trade Zambrano to the Mets in return for Bobby Bonilla’s contract?

A manager has one master key to motivate and get attention of every player and that is playing time. Playing time translates into role and the only thing a manager can do is determine when and where a player is going to play, the how is up to the player. Therefore if playing time is the gold standard for a player than an effective manager uses it as a reward for performance or an opportunity to get more playing time—-that simple.

So when he speaks of not playing favorites that is what he is at least saying. It will be interesting once the roster is set in the final week of March how that is translated into actions. I only see only significant culprit and that is Soriano. If he does not produce and shows up not controlling what he can do….how will Sveum discipline him?

There will be other veterans on the team but unless they are some big contract the effort part I doubt will be a problem.

Now the next action part, whom he chooses for his coaching staff. Pitching coach will be a key, secondly will be bench coach. He is not a pitcher so someone who is of the caliber that Rothschild would be important. Bench coach I would like to see an experienced hand, possibly a protege of LaRussa, Torre, Leyland or Cox…anyone out there? Riggleman would be a good choice.

If Sandberg is not picked up as a Manager I would like to see him here as a 3B or 1B coach. He could work with Castro and the other expected young infielders even if it were for one year.

Theo (who we all trust) hired someone who isn’t the most camera savvy and people are complaining. How many great managers also give great press conferences?

I watched most of it and didn’t think it seemed anymore “boring” than most other press conferences…..I liked most of what he said, I think he is the right man for the job.

Did anyone notice what he implied and/or tiptoed around when talking about what he saw in the Cubs, particularly from the Brewers dugout?

It sure sounded like that team – and likely others – saw the Cubs as the undisciplined team that they were, and have been for too long. To his credit, he appeared to try and say it with some tact, but the sentiment was clear: “We’re playing the Cubs? Oh good…”

I dream of the day when people look at playing the Cubs like playing the Yankees. ie, You can never score enough runs, ‘cause you can be damn sure they’re going to do everything they can to win that game. I believe that’s the attitude he was getting at when he said he wanted his players to play like every game is Game 7 of the World Series.

Let’s hope it happens…

I’d say “Okay fine, now we’ll wait and see”.

(Other than Mark Riggins, I think Sveum kind of let the cat out of the bag on that when he referred to ‘who we bring in for pitching coach’ – some time after mentioning that he would talk to the coaches here first before assembling a staff. Riggins probably doesn’t need to wait and see.)

They had a list of about 5 or 6 pitching coaches. I think the coaching staff will be as vital as the manager this year, given the rebuilding, of players & attitude they will be working on

The worst media thing you can do as Chicago sports manager, is appear pressured, unknowledgable, or frustrated. The media take it and attack like sharks with blood in the water.

Sveum’s duller/boring style may work to his advantage. It’s one less thing the media can criticize him for. This works well for Lovie Smith. You may not like his time out management, but he doesn’t give the media anything to run with at a press conference.

…but honesty compelled me to vote “Meh.” It’s not that I think this is a bad hire at all, but I’ve resolved not to get too excited about any manager and we obviously need to see much, much more from Sveum before determining how well he can do his job. I do wish him the best of luck.

Of this I am excited.

Dale after his presser and I liked what he said. He said he’s not afraid of confrontation with players. It will be nice to have someone who will hold players accountable.

Sveum seems like the type of guy that can back up his words. Let’s hope that he does.

Its about time somebody from this organization holds people accountable….

Aram does not want to play here because he could see where things were headed.
Soriano will not be pleased that he will have to hustle….

Something thing so easy-running a ball out. Cant be handled by some players or their fans that make excuses for them.