Dale Sveum will have one more year on his contract.
He has been dealt a weak hand. A major league roster that is filled with bad players.
His managerial career began as a sudden end of the season replacement for the Brewers. His 12 game stint resulted in a 7-5 record, and second place. It was a disappointing Brewer season.
In 2012, Sveum had his first full year managing a team. His Cubs went 61-101 (.377 WP). As of the start of the Labor Day weekend, his 2013 Cubs have a record of 56-77 (.404 WP), a slight improvement over last season, but still on pace to lose 97 games.
The manager's record is only one part of the puzzle. Even with a bad team, a manager can be judged on whether he has helped to develop young talent into major league impact players. In that regard, Sveum has fallen short. It seems that he has picked on Starlin Castro the most for the ills of the team (when there are plenty of other candidates for being the goat). Castro is having his worst season as a professional. Castro has been moved up and down the line-up, told to change his batting approach, field his position better but at the mid-point of the season Sveum basically threw his hands up and blamed the player for all his problems. Managers cannot abdicate responsibility for player development. Yes, a player must perform but a manager's job is to place each player in the best position to succeed.
Sveum has gone Mike Quade lately by juggling his line up like he was pulling names out of a hat. Anthony Rizzo's ego could not handle batting in the second spot (even though his stats improved) so he was put back into the third slot. Sveum did not call out Rizzo's selfish remarks. Rizzo is also having the worst season of his professional career, but he does not get the attention that Castro does.
There are some executives who believe that there are some managers who are best suited for young developing teams but who are also not suited to take a team to a championship level. The prime Chicago example of this theory is when the Bulls had Doug Collins as head coach, only to get rid of him on the cusp of the Jordan era with Phil Jackson. Jackson was deemed to be a better coach to get the Bulls from Point B (contenders) to Point A (champions).
It is clear that Sveum is not the manager to get the Cubs to Point A, let alone Point B. The only question is whether the Cubs will let him ride out his lame duck season by managing the 2014 Cubs.
