There are various rumblings from fans when will the Cubs 2.0 management call up hot prospects Rizzo and B. Jackson. The simple answer is in 2013. That is not a joke.
The new breed of general manager is more focused on controlling their prospects free agency time line than quickly promoting a player to the major league roster. The reason is simple: after a certain time period, a good prospect can turn into a Super Two ( two plus years of ML service) as being the top 17 percent of the rookie crop, which means one less year of arbitration (one year earlier for free agency). The status also means a bump in pay, too. So cost conscious teams want to limit the amount of Super Twos on their roster.
The Cubs rank last in power stats. LaHair has half of the team's total HR total. The current starting outfield (Soriano, Campana and DeJesus) have zero. Statistically, LaHair may be the second best NL hitter behind LA's Kemp. LaHair's fast start is another reason that Rizzo will remain in Iowa for the full season.
Another reason is that the Cubs are on pace to lose 106 games. An 8-15 April does not show the team is ready to compete for the division. Why start the free agency clock when the team is not going to contend?
A third reason may be marketing. By leaving Jackson and Rizzo at Iowa to build up monster numbers, the Cubs PR machine will use them as new hope for 2013 (in an attempt to get season ticket renewals from an exhausted fan base). Yes, it is a cheap and unrealistic ploy on the team's part.
Another reason Jackson and Rizzo will not be called up soon is that they are effectively blocked by current players. Manager Sveum has stated that Campana is going to play 80% of the remaining games as his center fielder. That blocks Jackson from playing every day. Campana is a one dimensional player (speed) compared to a five tool prospect like Jackson. But Sveum thinks he can use Campana in the second hole and create some offensive, steals and scoring chances for the middle of the order.
LaHair's fast start blocks the need for Rizzo to be called up to play first. LaHair has no other natural position to go to; playing him in LF instead of Soriano makes the team weaker, since Soriano is still the number one HR power source on the club. Playing RF instead of DeJesus would be a stretch because LaHair is not fast to cover that corner. It would also highlight a potential mistake in signing DeJesus in the first place, a thing that the new administration would loath to give the media fodder to criticize the Theocracy.
Rizzo and Jackson are part of the Cubs future. But the Future is still a long ways away.
