Build, Not Rebuild, The Chicago Cubs

There is something about doing it an organizational way, from the bottom to the top. Cubs have been a mismatch and lightening in the proverbial bottle, waiting for a magical year.

There is a sense that the Dodgers, Giants, Cardinals, Twins, Yankees, even TB have it, I must say that Atlanta has created that sense. I think it goes back what Ricketts identified in their analysis of teams that are in the 7 or 8 who are consistent in developing prospects into MLB contributors.

It starts with recognizing talent, but talent that fits into a system, then developing it, not just the athletic skills but also the baseball IQ, the team IQ and ferreting out those who are pretenders and bringing in others who fill in needs. But coming to the Cubs they must also fold in, Yankees it is about appearance, symbolic but submissive because the Yankees win…Cubs need to develop that identify as time goes forward while they win.

This whole “build” thing won’t work. It will confuse Al.

Build, rebuild, tactical reset. Call it what you will.

I’m just happy to have fresh leadership. And I still want Fielder. No reason a build can’t include money spent for the right talent. Fonzie was a bad bet; Prince is a good bet and could be the cornerstone (building term, nice) of the new Cubs.

The Cubs have been on a downward spiral since the 2008 NLCS where they were embarrassingly swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in three games. Somewhere along the way, this team lost its identity and its way. A change of culture was long overdue and it had to start at the top and now has to work its way to the rest of the ballclub.

I think that this really fails to get at why the Cubs got to the point that they did a few months ago, with the decision to fire Hendry and move into a totally different direction. I think that the Cubs, in terms of performance, hit an apex of on-field performance and then saw things go downhill, but the fact of the matter is that the front office management for quite some time has failed on so many key areas. But there are a few things that I want to bring up that happened well before the playoff failures of ’07 and ’08.

- The free agent spending on the part of Jim Hendry after the 2006 season created a significant financial mess. Under Andy MacPhail, the Cubs spending was under a philosophy of allowing the team to maintain flexibility by not overburdening itself with big, long term contracts. This had both positive and negative repercussions. But MacPhail was replaced by McDonaugh and the TribCo folks were in sell mode, so the decision was made to spend money… and a lot of it. Guys like Soriano, Lilly and Marquis (and later Fukudome) were brought in via free agency. The team’s own players were resigned. All were given a lot of money for a lot of years, heavily backloaded and with no-trade clauses. Some guys failed to live up to their contracts and the Cubs were unable to reload once the performance went south because the obligations were too high.

- Under Hendry, and before him w/ MacPhail and Lynch, the front office lagged behind many other organizations in many areas. In terms of baseball operations people, the Cubs were well known to be understaffed. MacPhail preferred a slim and trim organization and the team paid the price. Hendry has never been a sabermetrics guys and until recently, the organization’s focus on statistical analysis was a joke compared to many teams. Finally, where many teams loaded up, by spending a lot of money on the draft, the Cubs waited until this past year to really pony up and gamble on landing impact players via paying over slot.

- A critical failing of the MacPhail regime was their decision to not rebuild when they first came to town. MacPhail hired an incompetant GM in Ed Lynch, and with the team being somewhat competitive in 1995, the regime changed their view on the quality of their organization and determined that a rebuild was not necessary.

- While there were many missteps with the MacPhail regime, before him, under Larry Himes and prior to that under Jim Frey, the organization was in the dark ages. Stanton Cook, Don Grenesko and co, with their GMs had little clue.

Whether they’re building, rebuilding, whatever… that to me isn’t worth battling over. But this organization has been a mess for quite some time.

Was this somehow “new” information? A revelation? A discovery of news reporting?

Theo made it clear the day he was hired. Congratulations to the Chicago media for finally grasping the picture months later. Idiots.

I heard on the radio the other day how the new CBA really hurts Theo/Jed on how they want to re-build/build the Cubs. Can anyone explain this?

but we can compete legit in 2013. The groundwork is going on and we will probably see some of our young talent play this year. This way Theo/Jed can see what we need for next (2013)season to compete. I like what I see so far, and I know my interest is up, wanting to see what some of these kids can do for us.