Under the headline that the rebuilding contains some "rough edges," Tribune columnist Dave Van Dyke spoke to Cub President Theo Epstein. Epstein seemed to be relieved that the Cubs have begun to win enough games to avoid a dreaded 100-loss season.
"No one wants to be associated
with a 100-loss team, so it would be really nice to avoid," Epstein said. "No one wants to be a part of that."
Yes, indeed. No one, including fans. Only 26,946 tickets were sold for Friday's contest, and only a fraction showed up to see the Pirates game.
There has been some public push back on the Cubs near stealth rebuilding program, especially when Epstein desperately tried to trade away three starters (Dempster, Maholm and Garza) at the July trade deadline.
"We're trying to be transparent about (the pain of rebuilding)," Epstein
said. "We have a plan and we have a vision, and it's not going to
happen overnight.
"We're not trying to hide the ball. We're being honest with (fans). …
There might be another trading deadline in our future when we trade away
40 percent of a really good rotation.
"You do that because there's going to be a day when you acquire two
starting pitchers at the deadline to cement your club and go on a run in
the postseason."
Epstein is aware that the cross town White Sox are in first place. GM Kenny Williams has a different approach, trading prospects for veterans and free agent signings to build a competitive ball club.
"There's a choice," Epstein said to Van Dyke. "You can say
we're going to Band-Aid this thing and try to polish it up the best we
can and make it as presentable as possible to try to squeeze every last
fan through the gates this year and we'll deal with next year next year.
"Or we can say we want to make this thing right, no matter how tough the
road is. We're taking the second path, so it doesn't matter how many
teams are in the city, we're going to take the path we feel is right."
Epstein's path appears to rebuild the minor league system, with a heavy emphasis on drafting and developing starting pitchers. However, there was a third path that Epstein did not discuss. It was the way the Tribune and former GM Jim Hendry ran the team. The Cubs spent heavily on free agent talent, while at the same time overdrafting pitchers. The risk of this plan is that free agents are older, more expensive players with limited shelf life, and developing pitchers is a real art form that some organizations never master. The rag tag number of pitchers in the Cubs organization used this season shows overdrafting young pitchers is not a guaranteed solution.
The "rough edges" that are apparent in Epstein's approach is several more seasons of very bad and bland teams. A roster filled with old regime rookies and journeymen players until Epstein's own prospects mature in three or four years will be torture to some die-hard fans and unwatchable to the casual fan, who will stop coming to Wrigley for games as shown in this current Pirates series.
