When Theo Epstein was hired to be the Cub baseball operations guru, he said he had a plan to make the Cubs a consistent contender. Part of that plan was to blow up the organization by rebuilding the farm system so every season new talent could be promoted to the Cubs roster.
As part of the plan, the Cubs tanked for three seasons in a row. The teams were dreadful and unbearable to watch. But the pain of losing seasons allowed the Cubs to draft higher to collect a couple potentially great hitters. The Cubs stayed away from the big deal free agent market until this year when Jon Lester was signed for $155 million.
The Cubs front office has spoken about having a "core" group of players who will be together for a long time. However, after the St. Louis series, ESPN's Buster Olney thinks he found a flaw in the Cubs rebuilding plans.
After being swept over the weekend by the St. Louis Cardinals, the
Cubs had lost five in a row while starting pitchers gave up 17 runs in
23.1 innings during that stretch. And when one looks at the farm system for help, there is nothing to be found.
Olney believes the Cubs don't have enough starting pitching, and finding some will be tough to do in the trade market.
Olney notes that there may not be many starting pitchers available
and those who may end up on the market come with red flags for the Cubs,
whether it is a divisional rival (e.g. the Reds) or a player who has
spurned the Cubs before (e.g. Jeff Samardzija).
The bigger problem for the Cubs is that they can't turn to their
minor league system for help, and that lack of depth in starting
pitching was by design as the Cubs focused in on hitters while other teams balanced with top pitchers and position players. Of the Cubs' top eight prospects, only one is a pitcher.
Olney believes most MLB teams have subscribed to the theory that
pitching wins championships and there are two ways to acquire pitching
talent. Teams can either overspend on aging arms and hope they can stay
healthy and effective, or teams can hoard a ton of young pitching
prospects and hope a few of them pan out and become talented big
leaguers who don't take up a lot of payroll space. The New York Mets are a prime example of developing four or five really good young starters that are controllable assets for the next five years. The Cubs have yet to draft and develop a quality starting pitcher. And that is the flaw in the rebuilding plan.
