DUBIOUS ACCOMPLISHMENT

 The Cubs ended 2021 with many records. Bad records. 

The Cubs used a record 69 different players. Forty-four (44) players made their ML debut with the Cubs, ten more than the previous team record set in 2013. The Cubs also used a record 9 catchers in one season.

A host of scrambled letters went through the club house turn style: Tyler Payne, Joe Biagini, Erik Castillo, Trent Giambrone and Tyler Ladendorf made their footnotes in Cub history. None made a lasting impact or really part of any future plans.

It was an all-out fire drill sending rookie fire fighters after the forest had been burnt to the ground. 

Of the Cubs Top 30 prospects, OF Brennan Davis and LHP Brailyn Marquez will be rushed into 2022 duty. If Willson Contreras is traded then C Miquel Amaya will take his place with a long learning curve ahead of him. The rest of the Top 10 have call up years in 2023 and beyond.

The Cubs will have the 7th pick in the next Draft. If the pattern holds, Hoyer will pick the best college bat available in hopes of moving the selection through the minors quickly. But the Cubs drafting record is more dubious than their team's collapse and fire sale.

Expect 2020 to be the journeymen tour of major and minor league career AAAA players getting a cup of coffee on the Cubs roster. Expect another 90 plus loss season.

FREE AGENCY OR NOT

Jed Hoyer is about to start his first in-charge free agency as the baseball CEO of the Cubs. His first interviews will be for a new general manager. The Cubs have been operating without won since Hoyer was promoted when Theo Epstein left the club. It is not like having a GM would have made the Cubs 2021 fortunes any better. The orders were to sell and sell often. From the preseason Darvish salary dump to the late July fire sale, the Cubs were never going to be competitive or relevant. 

Hoyer spoke recently to the media. He said the Cubs would be "really active" in free agency.

But that does not mean GOOD free agents will be coming to Chicago.

On the contrary, top free agents will see the Cubs as a play pen for 30 year old minor league journeymen. The minors have been void of creating quality players, especially starting pitchers. It seems the 2021 tank is the only plan the organization has put money back in the Ricketts bank accounts.

The Cubs are set to rocket down from $215 million payroll to small market $60 million in a matter of years. There is no rational belief that the owners are willing to spend anything on the Cubs after suffering alleged "biblical" losses during the pandemic. Those losses were surely bolstered by mismanagement, taking a cue from the strange season of broadcaster carousel in the Marquee booth. Is everyone now a 1099 freelance sportscaster?

The Cubs were so bad so often that it was hard to even root for them to fail because there is no hope for the future. Hoyer was head of scouting and the minor leagues which were floundering until he was promoted to GM instead of being fired. His resume contains 180 drafted pitchers with no quality starter being developed during his tenure. This year's parade of starting pitchers seemed like an improv audition for the fifth starter/long relievers: Steele, Thompson, Alzolay, Mills, and Sampson. With Hendricks performance slipping to a #3 or #4 starter, things do not look good for 2022.

Pundits may call for one or two free agent starters, but in reality you need four. And the Cubs are not going to pay for four aces, or four #2s. Top free agent starters like Robbie Ray (30), Max Scherzer (37), Noah Syndergaard (29), Marcus Stroman (30) or even often injured Carlos Rodon (29) are not coming to the North Side.

And neither are quality free agent position players. The nostalgia signing of Jake Arrieta was a bust. Bringing back Baez, Rizzo or Bryant seems like rubbing salt into the wounds of the lack of a promised dynasty of championships. The top stars are the free agent shortstops (with Baez probably ranking #6 in that list). Nico Hoerner is your 2022 shortstop with Nick Madrigal as the pivot man second baseman. Frank Schwindel has the same WAR as Rizzo so he is the probable first sacker. Third base is an open competition between Patrick Wisdom and David Bote. Willson Contreras is the starting catcher. The outfield is really the open sports, but Jason Heyward's contract makes him the default right fielder. Happ, Martini, Thompson or Ortega really are bench players masquerading as starting outfielders.

Basically, the 90 plus loss 2021 Cubs are going to be your 95 plus loss 2022 Cubs.

UNWATCHABLE

 The summer of 2021 was the season of the unwatchable Cubs.

A bad team made of mostly old, journeyman AAA players. There has been no indication that will change in the off-season. David Ross, when asked about his 2022 starting rotation, could only say Hendricks and Mills.

Another indictment of the Cubs farm system for not developing one solid starter during the Theo era. But the problem is that Hendricks has been pitching like a #3 and Mills a #5 starter. An ace #1 starter is a pitcher who can give you a complete game. A #2 pitcher gets you into the 8th on a regular basis. A #3 starter gets you 7 innings; #4 6 innings and #5 through five. But Cub starters are barely reaching five innings pitched on a consistent basis. The young arms of Alzolay, Thompson and Steele seem like middle relievers at best (as Steve Stone said "all relievers are failed starters.")

The 2021 Cubs tried to sell nostalgia to the fans with the return of Arrieta but that was a bust from the get-go. The "lovable losers" train no longer runs after the Cubs won the championship. Fans expected more from their team for the prices they are currently paying. 

Are the Cubs going to spend big money for two free agent starters when they let Darvish go for next to nothing?

A closer by committee does solidify a modern pitching staff. Except for Heuer in the Sox trade, the rest of the arms are pretty much replacement level. The bullpen will be blown up again to be filled with new journeymen arms.

2022 is the last year of Ross' contract. I wonder if he will extend himself to shepherd a low budget rebuild. Or will he chance it that Theo will take a job with the imploding Mets franchise? 

You can tell how screwed up the franchise is when you cannot even tell who are the daily TV and radio broadcasters. The revolving door of people in the booth is symbolic of the turn style of marginal talent on the field.

JUNE SWOON

 In about a week, the Cubs went from first to 6 GB the Brewers.

It came after a historic combined no-hitter in LA.

It ended with a near historic blowing a 7 run first inning lead to get beaten 15-7 by the Brewers.

The excuses come easy to the optimists: the Cubs have had a rash of injuries (so have other clubs); the West Coast road trip took them out of their game (teams travel all the time); the pitchers are just coming back to their mean.

But angry fans on the sports radio shows complain that a series of unheard of minor league journeymen (below replacement player talent) shows that ownership is tanking the season. Tanking, so Jed Hoyer can sell off all the pending free agents to start a complete tear-down rebuild.

It is not surprising that the Cubs have fallen into a cesspool of mistrust.  The Yu Darvish trade for basically nothing was clearly a salary dump. The irony is that the Cubs desperately needed a quality starter to be competitive in the winnable NL Central. Any hope of acquiring one at the trade deadline is zero.

It is also not surprising considering the Cubs failed to sign any player extensions in the off-season. Kyle Schwarber was let go (to go on to have a career year with the Nationals). Bryant, Baez and Rizzo have all sat on the contract sidelines, with Rizzo being insulted by the Cubs last offer.

It is not surprising considering Tom Ricketts complained loudly about the 2020 "biblical losses" sustained by the team (but most believe the red-ink blood bath was the real estate development losses).

The team has not developed a quality starter under the Epstein-Hoyer regime. Only one home grown prospect, Alzolay, has made more than one start - - - and is clearly a 5th starter at best. The pitching staff has been a patch work of other team cast offs or free agents, for good or ill. It is clear Jake Arrieta's tank is pretty empty.

The June Swoon gives management the argument that the season is lost . . . so a fire sale is in the best interests of the club. If the team does not trade its pending free agents, the current CBA allows for a Round 1A compensation pick. But no one knows what the new CBA will look like (which will freeze the free agent market this off-season).

SHUFFLING THE DECK CHAIRS

 Everyone knows the Cubs are a sinking ship. Tom Ricketts continues to declare "biblical" losses during the 2020 season. Theo Epstein could not part the sea of red ink. So Theo decided to bail; he cut a deal where his friend, Jed Hoyer, would retain his job with the new President title. The move saves Ricketts $10 million in Theo's 2021 salary. (The Athletic reported that recently the Cubs laid off 100 employees which we assume does not count the scouting and minor league staff let go early in the year.)

The Cubs are still a highly leveraged (debtor) team. The Ricketts family is also highly leveraged due to their overbuilding around Wrigley Field. The pandemic crushed their real estate holdings as many tenants, including Joe Maddon's restaurant, went out of business. Tom Ricketts had convinced his parents that the Cubs were a money making machine even in bad times (under the Tribune ownership).

But the Cubs bowing out early in the playoffs since the World Championship has hurt the club, both financially and structurally. Theo and Jed put all their eggs in early first round (can't miss) prospects like Bryant, Schwarber, Almora and Happ while overpaying for free agents to fill roster gaps (especially in pitching.) 

Since 2016, the team core (Bryant, Rizzo, Baez, Contreras and Schwarber) have not lived up to high expectations. Instead of a dynasty, the Cubs gained one World Championship (which was a generational accomplishment not to be dismissed in their legacy). But as 2021 is around the corner, the cupboard is bare.

Three fifths of the starting rotation is gone to free agency. The core of Bryant, Baez, Rizzo and Schwarber are in their final contract years. The Cubs minor league system is devoid of any major prospects. The system ranked 26th with Nico Hoerner the only Top 100 prospect.

2021 appears heading toward a "crash and burn" season. The pundits believe the Cubs should trade their pending free agents to get something for them (other than a compensation draft pick). But others note that those players are coming off bad seasons so they have little trade value. A few writers even speculated that the Cubs could non-tender Schwarber to save his projected $8 million arbitration award. No team is going to take Bryant and his $18.5 million projected salary as a rental player, especially with his injury history and poor 2020 stats.

The only players with real trade value are Darvish and Hendricks. But Hoyer cannot be insane to trade away his remaining starters for prospects. Internal candidates to fill the rotation are Mills, Alzolay and Rea. Ian Happ was the only player to show a break out potential to other clubs. But trading Happ leaves Almora the sole center field candidate.

Even though money came off the books (Lester, Chatwood, Quintana), that money appears to be lost in 2021 as Ricketts clearly indicated that the payroll must come down substantially. As of today, there is not one AAA player who projects to be a starting MLB player. 

Another problem is that the fan base may not support another complete tear-down rebuild. The Cubs were good enough in a bad division to have middle round draft picks but it will be more hit and miss since the scouting department was gutted in 2020. Player development has always been an issue for this team. Hoyer indicated that he may rely more on advanced stats than scouting eyes. But that has been the problem with stat overload on major league players (and a rotation of coaches preaching new approaches). 

The Epstein era had the Worst of Times and the Best of Times and now fades back to the Worst of Times. For diehard Cub fans, the White Sox resurgence with young, exciting players, is going to be bitter pill to swallow as the Cubs begin to wallow.

BREAK DOWN

Two games under .500. Five and one-half games behind the NL Central leader.
The Milwaukee Brewers would have been thrilled with that position prior to the All-Star game.

But it is the Cubs that are in that unexpected position, looking up at the rebuilding Brewers.

It has been a rocky 2017 campaign for the Cubs. The team has only one 5 game win streak and one 4 game win streak. The team has one 5 game losing streak and two 4 game losing streaks.

The vaulted Cub defense from 2016 has been terrible. The Cubs are 14th in the NL in errors and 13th in the league in fielding percentage.

The offense has not been exempt from criticism.

Runs Scored: 399/ 11th in NL
Hits: 706/14th
HR: 117/6th
BA: .239/14th
SB: 26/14th

The pitching numbers show a sad tale as well.

ERA: 4.10/5th in NL
CG: 1/6th
SHO: 0/10th
Runs Allowed: 399/5th
Earned Runs Allowed: 358/4th
Home Runs Allowed: 105/7th
Strikeouts: 763/4th
Walks: 309/10th

The cringe worthy stat is 1st Inning starting pitching (from ESPN):

Pitcher            2017 ERA             2016 ERA
Lackey             6.35                          4.01
Lester               7.85                          3.76
Arrieta              6.50                          2.52
Anderson         21.94                         4.30
Hendricks         5.73                          3.72
Butler               4.09                           8.04
Montgomery    7.11                           4.37

Rotation:          7.34                           3.85


A few years ago, the White Sox had a similar problem with a few of their starting pitchers. Steve Stone remarked that a rough first inning to him meant that the pitcher did not throw enough warm-up pitches prior to the game. He was not in game condition. The first inning was really the last stages of a normal warm up routine. Some pitchers coming off injury or protecting from injury tend to cut back on warm up tosses. The Cubs went into spring training with the direct order not to overwork their starting pitchers who threw into November. But that order may have carried over into the regular season.

A couple of Cubs starters also remarked that there was going to be an adjustment to the pregame rituals since the bullpen was no longer on Wrigley Field. Pitchers said they used to get positive energy from the fans in the stands when they warmed up. But now that they are under the bleachers, they do not get the crowd noise, the atmosphere of the pregame or the exact weather conditions on the field.

The Cubs have broken down in all phases of the game: hitting, pitching and fielding.

The excuses have to be laid to rest this late in the season:

The team is still young; they will get better. Except, there is no historical evidence that the young players hitting below .230 are going to hit .300 when they have never hit that high in the major league careers. There is something to the sophomore slump in the majors because the other teams find weaknesses in their opponents, especially batters.

Once the summer heats up, so will the bats. This is a false myth. In Chicago, it has been above average in temperature since May. The Cub bats have been consistently mediocre all season, especially with runners in scoring position.

The NL Central is weak so the Cubs can easily come back to win it. No one believed the Brewers were contenders but they have been on top for most of the season. They believe they can win it. Their make-up contest blow-out against the Cubs was a statement game. The team will get back its best starting pitcher, Chase Anderson, from his second oblique injury. Rumors have it that the Brewers could trade for Jose Quintana which would solidify their rotation for a stretch run. In addition, the Pirates came to town before the break and beat up the Cubs. They may have turned their season around with a revived Andrew McCutheon.

The Cubs won it last year; they know what to do to win it this year. This assumes that the 2017 Cubs are the same as the 2016 team. The current Cubs are missing the leadership of David Ross (especially when it comes to talking to the starting pitchers). The team is also missing its lead off hitter in Dexter Fowler. As a carryover from Game 7, the team may have stopped listening to sugar-coated hipness of Joe Maddon's happy team routine. The Cubs accomplished a serious goal last season in winning the World Series. This year, the Cubs do not have the same type of goal or a sense of urgency to contend.

More die-hard fans feel that the 2017 Cubs will be a major disappointment and they may end the season a below .500 club. It will really depend on whether the Cubs can start off hot after the All-Star game.

TEN PERCENT SOLUTION

Joe Maddon thinks the Cubs have been playing better in the past week.

The team has gone 6-4; mostly due to the spark of Rizzo in the lead off spot.  However, it has been feast or famine for both hitting and then pitching which keeps the Cubs mired at .500.

Even if the Cubs play at a 6-4 pace through the end of the season, they would win 90 games. 90 games could win the NL Central as most people believe the Brewers do not have the pitching to contend late in the season. Both wild cards are expected to come from the NL West.

With Schwarber demoted, Russell with a shoulder issue, Hendricks have finger tendonitis for more than a month, Zobrist has nagging injuries, Heyward on the DL, things are much rougher this season than last year's championship run.

The biggest missing pieces have been:

1. Lead off hitter. Fowler was the catalyst for the Cubs offense. As noted, for 140 years, your lead off hitter got on base, the second hitter moved him over or got on, setting the RBI table for your best hitters in the three and four slots. Bryant and Rizzo should be hitting 3 and 4. But there is no one Maddon trusts to lead off or bat second.

2. Consistent starting pitching. Arrieta is still an enigma. He has reverted to his Baltimore problems. Lackey is just about out a gas. Butler is a fifth starter which means that he can throw innings but not much is expected from him except to eat innings. The lack of starters going deep into games is taxing the bullpen. Long relief has been the premium this year, and now that Montgomery is in the #4 spot in the rotation, the Cubs are carrying an extra arm in the pen.

3. Lack of focus. It seems the Cubs are not playing with the same enthusiasm as the club did in 2016. It may be natural for a champion to let down his guard. He was won the trophy. He expects to be treated like a king. He wants to bask in the glory of his accomplishment. He wants to hold on to his place in history. He wants to reap the rewards. There have been so many Cubs with new endorsement deals and media shows that it has to have some level of distraction. There is not a concrete goal in place where the team can focus on to achieve. Getting back to the Series is not the same as remembering they won the Series.

The national baseball writers still believe that the Cubs will turn things around and play like last year's team. They still believe there is plenty of time to get on a "hot streak."  Remember when Maddon said the Cub bats would come alive in the hot weather? This June was one of the hottest on record and the Cubs bats are still in a funk.

Sending Schwarber down to the minors may have been the wake up call the team needed, but many may have slept through it. The Cubs are expected to make several major deals by the trade deadline. But finding a professional lead off hitter and a quality starter will be tough.

BY THE NUMBERS

Forty percent of the season has been played but the Cubs are still stuck in a bad neutral position. Nothing is consistent except their inconsistency.

People are trying to find out what is wrong with the new Cub dynasty. Maddon said yesterday maybe "youth" is to blame.

Both hitters and pitchers are to blame.

In 2016, the Cubs hit .256 BA (6th in NL). In 2017, the team is hitting only .235 (14th).  It is more than an 8 percent drop in production.

In 2016, the Cubs scored 808 runs (2nd in the NL). In 2017, the team has scored only 304 runs (8th). The Cubs 2017 run scoring is down 6 percent from 2016.

In 2016, the Cubs had 1409 hits (7th in NL). In 2017, only 517 hits (14th). It is an 8.6 percent decline in hits per game (8.7 vs. 7.95).

In 2016, the Cubs 199 HRs (5th in NL). In 2017, 90 HR (5th). The current Cubs are hitting more HR/G than last season, but scoring less runs.

In 2016, the Cubs stole 66 bases (11th in NL). In 2017, the team has 18 SB (last in NL). That is a 27.7 percent decrease in stolen bases.

In 2016, the Cubs walked 656 times (1st in NL). In 2017, the team has 260 walks (1st). Walks are only down 1.25 percent this season.

In 2016, the team OBP was .343 (1st in NL). In 2017, it is .324 (9th). That is more than a 5.5 percent decline in production.

For team pitching, it is more severe.

In 2016, the team ERA was 3.15 (1st). In 2017, team ERA is 4.20 (5th). It is more than one run higher this year. It is a 33 percent increase in ERA.

In 2016, the Cubs were best in hits allowed at 1125. In 2017, the staff has allowed 542 hits (5th in NL). That is 1.40 more hits per game (a 20 percent increase).

In 2016, the Cubs walked 495 batters (7th in NL). In 2017, the staff has walked 223 (9th in NL). That is a 12.5 percent increase in walks.

In 2016, the Cubs truck out 1441 batters (3rd in NL). In 2017, it is 593 (4th).  The 2017 Cubs are striking out more batters this season 9.12/G vs. 2016 8.9/G.

In 2016, the staff WHIP was 1.110. In 2017, it is 1.308. That is a 17.8 percent increase in WHIP.

The 2017 Cubs have maintained or done better than last year in only these categories:

HITTING:
Home Runs
Team walks

PITCHING:
Strike Outs

The striking double digit declines come in pitching categories (ERA, hits allowed, walks allowed, WHIP). There is more than 8 percent decline in hitting categories (BA, hits per game, stolen bases).

CRASH LANDING

Sometimes you hit a home run and get fireworks. Other times, you just get a bad explosion.

The White Sox search for a solid starter has blown up in their collective face.

The White Sox 13-2 loss to Cleveland on Saturday night was an embarrassment for a club that has been a long, harsh nose dive after a great start.

The Indians got quick, big lead with  a five-run first inning by brutalizing Sox starter James Shields.

The AL Central-leading Indians sent 19 batters to the plate in the first two innings while building an 8-0 lead against Shields.

Shields, making his third start since being traded from San Diego to Chicago, was tagged for eight runs on seven hits and three walks in 1 2/3 innings.

Shields is 2-9 overall this year. The former ace is 0-2 for the White Sox, giving up a whopping 21 earned runs on 24 hits and nine walks in just 8 2/3 innings. His ERA is a staggering 21.81. His WHIP is an ungodly 3.808. He has a negative 1.0 WAR after just three games. His Runs better than Replacement Level Player is a negative 16. These statistics are worst than the pitchers, Danks and Latos, that he has replaced in the rotation.

"It's disappointing, and we've got to figure this thing out," Shields said. "We've got to keep going out there. That's the only way to go. This is a special team and I've got to keep grinding."

There is an old saying: "never watch how sausage is made." Shields may think he is grinding, but the sausage he is making is horrible to watch.

AMARO OUT

MLBTR reported that he Phillies announced they will not extend the contract of general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. According to a team press release, assistant GM Scott Proefrock will take over as interim GM, effective immediately.

“It’s never an easy decision to make a change,” said president-to-be Andy MacPhail in the press release. “Ruben has had a direct impact on some of the best years in the team’s history. He helped to create some great memories for Phillies fans with his accomplishments, but in order to return to a top-contending club, we believe this is the right thing to do as we continue the rebuilding process.”
The writing has been on the wall for quite some time that Amaro’s days as GM were numbered. It’s been widely expected that in the wake of the team’s collapse over the past four seasons, MacPhail would seek to hire a new GM to guide the Phillies — possibly one that will bring a stronger commitment to analytics to the organization.

Amaro, 50, has been the Phillies’ general manager since the 2008 offseason, when he succeeded Pat Gillick. The Phillies made a World Series run in Amaro’s first full year as GM, ultimately coming up short to the Yankees, and went on to reach the postseason in the 2010 and 2011 campaigns as well. However, a number of the trades made by Amaro that were aimed at keeping the team in contention served, instead, to only deplete the farm system while failing to pay significant on-field dividends.

This is the second major organizational move since MacPhail was hired. Ryne Sandberg abruptly resigned from field manager position.

With the Phillies now in the hunt for a GM, that creates five such openings around the league. The Angels, Mariners, Red Sox and Brewers are all on the hunt for new general managers as well, meaning there will be a significant amount of baseball operations changes in the coming months. Not only will each team employ a new GM, but those five newly minted executives will undoubtedly have some changes in store for the baseball operations departments and the field staffs which they’ll inherit upon taking their new roles.

The Cubs Jed Hoyer is believed to be high on the GM candidate lists.

SALE AFTER STORE CLOSED

Chris Sale gave up another seven earned runs in back to back starts.

The White Sox have slipped back to the first two months of the season. Having one's ace with a 7.61 ERA since the break is not good. And after the horrible pitching by the Red Sox, the Sox hitters have cooled like a mini-Ice Age.

For all practical purposes, the White Sox are not going to catch the newly retooled Blue Jays in the wild card standings. In fact, the Jays may have their sights now on winning the East.

The big win streak before the All-Star break was a mirage. The good play by everyone on the roster was an illusion that kept the Sox team together. Players don't like to be in trade rumors. They don't want to uproot and move their families mid-season. They are creatures of habit so they want to stay with their current teams. Pessimists may say that the players played well before the trade deadline so as to convince the front office that it really was an underachieving squad who had turned around the season.

But the evidence is contrary. The White Sox continue to be a frustrating morass to their fans. When the Yankees came to town, they were pistol whipped by a better team. In a battle of aces, former Cub Chris Archer dominated Sale's teammates.

The White Sox are currently 50-55, 5 games under .500. They are 4.5 games behind the second wild card slot, but find themselves behind Detroit, Texas, Tampa Bay, Minnesota and Baltimore. It is improbable that the Sox can leap frog five teams to make the playoffs.  This season is basically over except for the formalities of playing the remainder of the schedule.

As such, this may be the most disappointing Sox season in recent memory. The off-season moves should have produced a better club. But this goes to show that team projections on paper do not necessarily equate to actual records on the field.

FOR SALE USED PARTS

After losing 3 of four to the Royals, the White Sox was 13 games behind dead last in the AL central. Some one will have to pull the life support cord on this season. Whether GM Rick Hahn has the authority to do so is another question.

In all likelihood, Jeff Samardzija will be moved. The best-case scenario for the White Sox is that clubs who are looking for starting pitching, primarily in the National League where Samardzija has been a good fit, start upping the ante by bidding against each other.

But Samardzija doesn’t figure to be the only regular the White Sox can use to make deals. Jose Quintana, Alexei Ramirez, Adam LaRoche, Zach Duke and Adam Eaton all figure to find themselves mentioned in rumors over the next 12 days.

The Cardinals lost their first baseman. It has a talented farm system, so a team like that would be a fit for LaRoche.

Any team looking at Cole Hamels and his $84 million contract burden would see more value in Quintana to shore up their rotation.

Teams looking for a lead off hitter could see Eaton as an upgrade or defensive bench player for the long September grind.

Teams are constantly trying to upgrade worn down bullpens, so Duke could have an easy landing spot elsewhere.

Pundits claim it will be a Seller's market (more teams looking to buy parts than sell assets). If the White Sox want to move players, it is better to do it sooner than later.

SALE DAYS

Winning nine of the last 12 games would make most teams content. But the White Sox have dug themselves a big hole to try to find whether they belong in any playoff discussion.

The pitching has carried the team. The off-season additions have muddled expectations.

The 2015 season finds itself in the cross hairs of this weekend's 2005 championship reunion celebrations. Will the old team inspire this current club? One could hope.

If the White Sox are going to move out of the cellar and be relevant, the team needs to play well against Kansas City, who start the second half of the season with a four game home set at the Cell. The White Sox need to win at least 3 of 4. It would be best to sweep the day/night doubleheader today.  Jeff Samardzija pitches the opener, and Jon Danks is scheduled to pitch the night cap.

The Danks decision to start the night cap is puzzling. It has been reported that the Sox will call up fireballer Frankie Montas, who  is 2-1 with a 2.47 ERA in 15 starts this season at Double-A Birmingham. Montas earned a spot on the Southern League All-Star team last month and also was awarded a spot in the Futures Game for a second straight year, though he was unable to play in 2014 because of an injury. Most thought he would be called up as the 26th man under the doubleheader rules.

Today, rumors are spreading that All-Star Chris Sale may be hurt. Why else would not Sale pitch in the Royals series? Carlos Quintana and TBD are listed in the papers as the next pitchers in the series. Considering the White Sox and Robin Ventura lobbied All-Star manager Ed Yost NOT to use Sale in the All-Star game, was there an unreported issue with Sale after his last start? Sale was pretty dominate in the Cubs series last Saturday, so basically he would have had a full week of rest and still be able to pitch the critical KC series.

The White Sox could be overly cautious with Sale since he is one of the best pitchers in the game. But at the same time, this Kansas City series is make or break time. If the White Sox split or lose the series to the Royals, then the "for sale" sign will be out next week.

Sale has tried to take this team on his back and lead them to being a good team. The early season bad defense and lack of offense doomed the team. Perhaps management is trying to send a message to the rest of the team that they have to learn to win without Sale as a stopper. The only other explanation is that the White Sox are in trade talks involving Sale and want to hold him out of action to avoid an injury or nix a deal. But trading an ace like Sale with a team friendly contract would be worse than the White Flag trade.

WHITE SOX WOES

During the Twins series, the Sun Times discussed the plight of the White Sox with a veteran baseball scout who said:


‘‘The White Sox, they should be ashamed of themselves the way they’re playing,’’ a veteran scout who has seen the Sox play about a dozen times in person this season.

 ‘‘They had two good games against the Rangers [victories Saturday and Sunday], played good baseball, and then they come out and play a game like [a 13-2 loss Monday to the Twins]. It’s unacceptable. It’s shameful.’’

‘‘Errors, bad throws, mental errors,’’ the scout said. ‘‘Defense and guys not hitting in the clutch. For players, it’s not OK. This is the major leagues.’’


‘‘Ramirez is going backwards on both sides,’’ the scout said of the 33-year-old shortstop Alexei Ramirez, who had an All-Star last season but who is on pace to have his worst season ‘‘He was one of the best in the game last year. Now he’s one of the worst.’’


‘‘I’m sure Robin (Ventura) is doing his best,’’ the scout said. ‘‘Maybe one time he should fake it and throw something against the wall. This is unacceptable, and Robin has to know it. Maybe he has handled it. I don’t know what is done behind the scenes.’’

‘‘The fans see it; they aren’t dummies on the South Side,’’ the scout said. ‘‘All they want is to see the game played the right way.’’

The White Sox skipper may be resigned to his fate. ‘‘There’s plenty [blame] to go around for everybody,’’ Ventura said. 

WHO GOES?

The White Sox are mired in another long losing streak.

The underperforming team has lost six in a row. In the last 10 games, the team is 3-7 despite several quality starts. The Sox are currently in last place in the AL Central with a 28-36 record (.438), 10 games behind.

The vast majority of people believed that the White Sox had a very good off-season, acquiring good talent to fill major holes including DH, LF and the bullpen.

But nothing seems to be going right. The White Sox have a negative 68 run differential which shows that the team cannot generate any offense. They lost last night to the Pirates, 3 to 2.

The hue and cry is what can be done to right this sinking ship.

Who do you fire to fire up the team?

Probably no one.

Manager Robin Ventura is an obvious choice. In his four years, the team has never really contended to a divisional title. His laid back attitude (even though he got thrown out in last night's game) does not seem to generate passion on the field. It is not to say that a firebrand like Ozzie Guillen could get more production from this roster.

You could fire the hitting coach but no one knows his name or cares.

You could fire the general manager for over-rating the talent he acquired, but Rick Hahn has only been on the job for a short time. Some media members question whether Hahn actually has full authority to run the show, with former GM Kenny Williams lurking in the background. As has been pointed out, except for pitchers, Williams tenure as GM was a failure in drafting and developing position players. The Sox have been in a trade for and sign free agent mode to fill holes for almost a decade.

So by firing Ventura, would that make any difference since you still have the same ball players on the roster?  If the players liked Ventura, they would play harder for him. But it is not like the team has quit on Ventura or the season. There is a malaise factor that at times the team is going through the motions, perhaps because they cannot sustain an inning like the young Cubs seem to do on a regular basis (especially last night with several batting through the order innings in a 17-0 blowout of the Indians.)

The White Sox dug themselves a rut that has grown into a sink hole. Firing anyone at this point does not seem to fix the fundamental problems on this team: offense and defense.

THE UNFINISHED CONFINES

The national ESPN Opening Night showcased everything that is wrong with the Cubs.

The one film clip that was overlooked but summed up the night the best was a picture of a grounds crew guy with a metal detector and a bucket looking in the outfield for debris.

The funerary drapes of Ernie Banks to cover up the disastrous unfinished bleachers would have made even the Nixon White House blush. 

If you got one large, in-your-face impression from last night's nightmare, it was this: Cubs ownership knows about how much the fans cared about their iconic and historical ball park, but they basically told them "we don't care, we are in business to make money."  Every flat surface in range of a TV camera had new advertising plastered to it. The "see through" Budweiser sign in RF was much larger and thicker than the "artist's renderings" shown to the public during the zoning approval process.

The jumbotron is so huge and annoying that it makes the CF scoreboard look like a pimple on the face of an old woman. The white glare was shocking, so much so that the background color had to be changed to a light green. It had to affect the batter's line of sight, especially from right handed pitchers.

How the Cubs got an occupancy permit to allow the public to roam the under construction concourse is beyond belief. If you were a little shop owner in Chicago, you would have been red tagged and closed for safety reasons. But even then, the Cubs had condescending signage to remind fans that they have not finished their work, like new restrooms (relieved?)

When the announcers and team kept droning on about the changes to the park were "for the fans," that was not true. Reports this morning said that wait times to get to the open restrooms were from 1 to 2 hours long. The concourse was packed like a sardine can. Some patrons started peeing in cups, while others left the park to use adjoining businesses restrooms. 

It seemed that everything else was secondary to the Cubs having their advertising signage in place.

With all the high expectations for the team, the Cubs fell flat. Joe Maddon was upset in spring training about the lack of fundamentals. The Cubs new management gurus had three years to train the prospects on fundamentals, "the Cubs Way."  Soler booted a ball in RF (but got no error). There were two near collisions in the outfield with players. And we learned for the first time that superstar pitcher has a phobia of being unable to throw a ball to a bag!

Maddon was also screwy with his line-up card. Batting Soler second and Castro fourth made no sense. Also, batting Coghlan sixth and Lester eighth also made little sense (though it was explained that LaStella batting 9th equals a second lead off hitter). But LaStella looks like Sam Fuld's little brother at the plate, and seemingly out of place for cut off throws from the outfield. It could have been opening night nerves, but the whole team reverted to last season's epic woes.  The Cubs were 0-13 with men in scoring position. The Cubs were shut out.  Cubs batters were swinging for the fences and missing contact.

If anything happened last night, it was the deflation of expectations. The Cubs remain a bad ball club until the roster turnover is complete. The prospects and rookies are still unproven commodities.

One thing is certain. The fear that Ricketts would turn Clark and Addison into a mini-Times Square of advertising blight is coming true, but also inside Wrigley Field. The amusement park is open for business, but the baseball ride is still out of commission.

BEAR (BLEEPS) IN THE WOODS

In any professional sport, management is accountable to ownership and players are accountable to coaches and coaches are accountable to management.

Such is the circle of life in pro sports.

Until you cover the Chicago Bears.

A Super Bowl expectation pre-season has turned into a Toilet Bowl of reality.

No one seems to be in charge. No seems to be listening. No one seems to know what to do to correct things. No one seems to take responsibility for their actions.

The latest madness from Halas Hall is that four hours after Coach Trestman told the media that it was not all Cutler's fault for the offensive woes, Cutler is benched for Jimmy Clausen, a player who has not taken this year a first team practice snap.

It could have been the only time that the organization decided to slap their mumbly, pouting franchise quarterback for his poor performances with some accountability, but it seems a little and too late. Management put $54 million guaranteed on the Cutler bandwagon at the beginning of the year when the team did not have to do so. Cutler has a reputation as being a "coach killer" for good reason; look at the graveyard of past offensive coordinators.

The free fall from firing a 10-6 Lovie Smith to a lackluster 8-8 season to now a potential 5-11 disaster, the Trestman era may go down as one of the worst in franchise history. A franchise that has only won 2 championships in the last 51 years.  No doubt the reason Smith was fired was because he did not get to the playoffs. But behind the scenes, Smith was welding too much power and control over personnel decisions. He was solely focused on his defense, an arrogantly outdated Tampa 2 scheme that former Bear Gary Fencik called "high school." But still, Smith's players played hard for him, and they won games.

GM Phil Emery went out of the box thinking when he hired a CFL coach in Trestman. A report surfaced recently that NFL Coach of the Year, Bruce Arians, who guided the Colts to the playoffs during a turmoil year when their head coach was battling cancer, wanted the Bears job. But when it came time to interview, Arians was told he had to go through a "fake" news conference drill, and was also told he could not hire any of his assistant coaches. Arians had dealt with the media under pressure for an entire year. It seemed like Bears management was clueless in how to interview an experienced NFL coach. But based upon the amount of control management wanted to keep, no wonder the Bears hired Trestman, a man with no NFL experience to leverage concessions on his staff.

Trestman was hired to do one thing: fix the offense. So management brought in the worst defensive coordinator from the previous season, Mel Tucker, but told him to "keep" the Lovie Smith defense so as not to offend the returning players. It should not have mattered to the players - - - professionals have to be professional and change with the times. But to hand tie Tucker was also another management intrusion and mistake.

Trestman was supposed to be a quarterback guru. He could fix Cutler's bad mechanics, bad reads, and turnover issues. The team surrounded him with All-Pro caliber wide receivers, running back and tight end. All the pieces were in place for a juggernaut offense.

But this year, the offense regressed to being middle of the pack poor. The team comes out of the gate so poorly in the first half of games that even national commentators are baffled. The team, with all the garbage points at the end of losses, still has not scored more than 28 points this season.

The head coach is responsible to get his players and the three phases of the team ready for each game. Clearly, offense, defense and special teams have been awful. Unprepared, lack of urgency, poor fundamentals and inability to play their positions are damning problems that have not been corrected week after week. Some say the players are not that talented - - - so that goes to the general manager. But he spent a ton of money on "name" free agents to shore up the lines. He made the disastrous investment in Cutler.

If anyone wants to study "How not to Run a Sports Franchise," one only has to review the Bears' 2014 season.

A RIVAL

It used to be no matter what, there was an intensity when the Cubs played the Cardinals. In baseball Civil Wars, the front lines in the territorial loyalties splits Central Illinois in half. No matter how good or bad the opponent's record, fans were "all in" in rooting for their team to win.

A series sweep over one's rival takes the sting out of a 100 loss season.

Or it used to.

Since the financial crash of 2008, the Cubs-Cardinals series has been in decline. The buzz was lost. Ticket prices got expensive, and the quality of baseball got weak. Then it got lopsided with the Cardinals making deep play off runs while the Cubs struggled under new ownership.

In a rare occurrence, 41,500 people actually showed up to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs play the Cardinals. Now, perhaps half of the crowd were St. Louis fans, but this was the best crowd of the year. And the Cubs scraped to a 7-6 victory in a see-saw contest which saw home runs, errors, base running mistakes and wild pitches.

One game does not revitalize the rivalry because while the Cards are a competitive team year in and year out, the Cubs continue to be mired in its self-proclaimed AAA exile.  When many fans and season ticket holders lost interest in the season before it started, Chicago does not have rabid fan base it once had to drive the rivalry forward from generation to generation.

Fantasy leagues has also contributed to the lack of pure rivalries. Since fantasy players use baseball players from every team roster, they begin to root for individual players over individual teams. This dilutes the rivalry experience. A fantasy and Cub fan may have Matt Holliday on his team roster - - - so it is hard to root against him when he hits a home run.

Cubs-Cards is turning into a light verbal cue of two old guys in a nursing home, one being a ex-Marine and the other an Army veteran. Which service was better? But at some point, they will both forget that they were in the service altogether.

WHAT YOU PAY FOR

"You get what you pay for."

That is an old saying, usually referring to underpaying for a product then finding out that it is quite inferior to another similar product.

I have heard from several Cubs season ticket holders who continue to pay the major league prices for a vastly inferior product.

Some admit they are dumb for continuing to pay thousands of dollars on season seats at Wrigley. They like baseball. They like Wrigley. They are Cub fans. But they are not fans of the team as it currently is constructed for 2014.

They admit that they understand the baseball rebuilding plan, but it is hard to swallow a team tanking three seasons in a row.  They are coming down on the side that the front office could do their minor league rebuilding program but also field a competitive team. They cite even the White Sox 2014 turnaround as an example. They also find the Cardinals, who consistently draft lower than the Cubs, being able to bring up their prospects faster to the majors.

Then there are those who are angry. Many in this group gave up and canceled their season ticket packages. Some say they had been season ticket holders for decades. They felt they were being played for fools: paying premium prices for minor league games. They felt they deserved a major league, i.e. competitive team, which is what ownership said it was going to strive for when Ricketts took over the club. They don't feel it is their responsibility or obligation to fund the Ricketts expansion plans which seem to constrict what the baseball team can do, financially.

There would be less distrust, anger or resentment from the paying Cub fan if there was a secondary market to unload their expensive tickets. But that market collapsed when the Cubs lost 100 games. It is nearly impossible to give away Cubs tickets. Not even a casual fan wants to spend the effort to go see the Cubs when there is a 60 percent chance they will lose the game.

And when the Cubs market the team the past few years, it was under the guile that fans should continue to come out and "see the future" core players in action. Well, Castro and Rizzo have been up for a while, and they may be part of the future - - - but they are no longer young prospects. The marketing department got ahead of the actual baseball team player development. This leads to a perception of a disconnected organization.

In a similar light, long time Cub standard bearer, WGN, decided it was not getting what it was paying for in local broadcast rights.  With some late season games registering a zero rating, and the station losing money on every game, WGN sought to renegotiate the contract. Too bad season ticket holders can't renegotiate their ticket prices during the season. But WGN bowed out and will no longer be the flagship station for the Cubs. Many fans think this a bad milestone for the franchise.

Cubs fans are willing to pay premium dollars for baseball. But they are not willing to pay for bad baseball. That past golden goose is cooked.

PROJECTION

Cot's baseball contracts projects that the Cubs will trim their payroll obligations by approximately two-thirds for the 2015 season. Cot's figures show the Cubs 2015 payroll at $31.5 million. It also projects the 2017 payroll (where many fans think the Cubs turnaround begins in earnest) at a shocking $20 million.

It is shocking that a major market team like the Cubs would pull a Houston Astros move and contract the payroll budget to semi-pro levels in order to conserve money.

The Cubs have signed second tier free agents, but with the plan to trade them for cheaper (and riskier) minor league prospects, who if promoted only carry the major league minimum price tag of $550,000 per year. An entire 40 man roster of minimum salary players is $22 million.

The trend to slash payroll under Ricketts leadership is apparent.

The reasons are clouded in the vagueness of the concept of "rebuilding."  Rebuilding has taken on many areas of gray: is it the rebuilding of the farm system to become an actual major league team? Or is it the rebuilding of the real estate in and outside Wrigley Field that has a whopping price tag of $575 million.

Or is it a scheme to make the team so bad that the ownership can shove massive changes to the neighborhood down the city's throat? Without the changes, Ricketts implores, he can't field a competitive team. Talent costs money and he needs massive new revenue streams from things like seven new outfield signs and a dense commercial real estate and sign orgy plaza outside of Wrigley.

A friend indicated that all this non-baseball nonsense could be the final excuse for Ricketts to throw up his hands and move the Cubs to the suburbs. He could take his AAA team and find a suburban mayor too desperate enough to subsidize with millions taxpayer dollars a new Cubs park.

At this point, anything is on the table except an expanding Cubs payroll.