And everybody would be bitching about firing Kirk Gibson.

The Cubs would still be terrible And everybody would be bitching about firing Kirk Gibson.

But they would be busting their tails and playing the game the right way – and keeping their heads in the game.

You’d be willing to pay to see the effort, if not the results.

Plus, the opportunity to see the manager go “BOOM” every so often (for entertainment value)

As a matter of fact…. just about anyone not named Mike Quade would’ve been a good choice.

Of course, today’s players are too young to have any specific memories of either Gibson or Sandberg as a player, but that likely only increases the power and effect of the legendary status each man holds. There is no convenient metric to determine whether the D-Backs or LV Iron Pigs play harder today than they would for less-renowned managers, but I think most of us have a gut feeling that they have, and will continue to do so, as long as Kirk and Ryno deal fairly with their players.

This effect reminds me a little of what Chicago music legend Leonard Chess had to say years ago about his choice of automobiles – a new Fleetwood or Coupe de Ville every year. “If it was up to me, I probably would drive a Plymouth,” Chess said. “But if I did that,” he continued, “my artists just wouldn’t respect me.”

To most any performer, flash is substance. All else being equal, ballplayers instinctively will respond better to managers and coaches who have played the game at the highest level.

because he was already named the manager for the D’Backs a good 5-6 weeks before Lou Pienella retired.

They’d be in 5th place just ahead of the Astros…but, with fewer nicknames. Unless Gibson can hit, run and field the ball, he ain’t the answer either.

the D’Backs are 8 games over .500 right now, in first place, and I don’t believe for one minute that their roster is as talented as the Cubs. Their payroll is around $45M and includes a lot of players that the Cubs have rejected (Xavier Nady, Aaron Heilmann) or never would have in the first place (Willie Bloomquist, Ryan Roberts, Gerardo Pera).

When Gibson took over the 1st of July last year, you could see a difference in the way the team played immediately. Gibson is much more aggressive in the way he manages. His style is similar to Mike Scoscia.

But, the players were still bad, so there was no improvement in wins and losses, and what you saw were poorly executed bunts, players thrown out taking an extra base or on steal attempts, strike outs and a historically bad bullpen.

But, after a full year, and especially a Gibson run Spring Training this year, the team is better at executing the type of aggressive play that KG demands. That coupled with a better bullpen has resulted in some significant improvement.

I still think the D’Backs are due for some regression this year due to talent level, but there is no doubt Gibson and his staff (Trammell, Nagy, Baylor, Williams) have had a major impact and are getting the most out of the talent they have.

Could they have done that for the Cubs, who have more talent to begin with? Certainly…why not?

How much of the DBacks improvement is defense?

Another surprising improvement team are the Nationals and they have a bunch of castoffs too. Hairston, Nix, Morse, Ankiel. Livan and Marquis are two of their starting pitchers. Ryan Zimmerman also missed time with injuries.

Rizzo caught a lot of flak with letting Dunn go and trading Willingham. That was 2 of their 3 best hitters. He said he wanted better defense and I think that is a big part of their improvement.

Runs Scored:
ARI 356, Cubs 308
Avg/gm ARI 4.6, Cubs 4.1

Runs Allowed:
ARI-334, Cubs 376
Avg/gm ARI 4.3, Cubs 5.0

Runs Surplus/Deficit:
ARI-+22, Cubs -68

One Run games
ARI 17-9, Cubs 9-12

The numbers don’t lie. The D Backs are scoring more and giving up less by a good margin. The D backs are 90 runs better than the Cubs and the halfway point is a week away.

Is that players or manager? Or both. Someone with more time can compare production out of the 3-4-5 slots in the batting order an I’ll bet there is a huge discrepancy there, too.

They would suck if Ryno was here. They would suck if Pinella had styed. They would suck if LaRussa had come.

This team sucks.