By Steve Rhodes

“A season of questionable in-game decisions by first-year Cubs manager Rick Renteria found another spotlight in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s 11-1 loss,” Gordon Wittenmyer reported this week in a sort of first crack of the shield around the Cubs’ hapless rookie skipper.
“That’s when a quick succession of pitching changes in a three-run game, early in the inning, turned into a five-run inning, with Kyuji Fujikawa left in to take the brunt of the beating and face seven batters.
Renteria’s bullpen use – which includes a penchant for frequent changes combined with an apparent paranoia over how much he uses a guy – has drawn criticism and head-shaking throughout the season from within the organization as well as among baseball people outside the team.”
Whoa. And we’re just hearing about this now?

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Posted on September 15, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“The Cubs’ biggest prospects have barely started paying dividends on the field, but the club has decided to raise ticket prices for some of the most popular sections at Wrigley Field in 2015,” the Sun-Times reports.
Barely.
* Javy Baez is hitting .164 after all that hype. His OBP is .209. He has 62 strikeouts to go with eight walks. And he isn’t even hitting home runs anymore.

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Posted on September 9, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

I know everybody is having good-time feelings about the Cubs right now because Jim Hendry amateur free-agent signee Arismendy Alcantara is hitting .228 after 41 games in the majors and Jim Hendry draft pick Javy Baez is hitting .207 after 20 games, though he does have 36 strikeouts and four walks to go with his 11 home runs, but let’s not move on from Tarpgate so quickly, because it is so revealing of a franchise skating by right now on the excitement generated simply by the act of calling up prospects rather than those prospects’ actual production in the major leagues.
For starters, the Cubs are trying to create an impression that Sun-Times beat writer Gordon Wittenmyer got the story wrong when he reported the grounds crew was shorthanded that ridiculous night due in part to a cutback in hours resulting from an effort to evade paying health benefits per Obamacare.
For finishers, the incident is a reminder that Cubbie Occurences don’t happen because the team was once cursed by the owner of a goat, but because the team has been cursed by the worst succession of owners in global sports history except maybe some hapless squad of gladiators in Roman times that I don’t know about; only the meshing of this clownish history with the magic of Wrigley Field has saved the franchise (or doomed it to perpetual misery, depending on how you look at it), which is ironic because each bunch of hacks running the place have neglected that chief asset at best and tried to destroy it at worst, though it’s the only thing filling their pockets with gold.
Let’s take a look.

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Posted on August 27, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

* Tom Ricketts depositing another million dollars into his bank account.
* Rick Renteria liking everything on Facebook.
* Javy Baez swinging at a pitch bouncing three feet in front of the plate.
* Darwin Barney getting a World Series ring.
* Edwin Jackson cashing a paycheck.
* Len Kasper fixing a bump to get through another three-and-a-half hour game.

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Posted on August 19, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

Rick Rentamanager.
Carlos Villanuewavagoodbye.
John Bakeroonie.
I’ve got nothing.

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Posted on August 12, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“Castro to Baez to Rizzo” actually trended on Twitter on Tuesday night.
Let me fix that: “Hendry Draft Picks Castro And Baez To Rizzo, Acquired For Hendry Draft Pick Cashner.”
And I hated Hendry.

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Posted on August 6, 2014

By Steve Rhodes and Marty Gangler

1. You might see a no-hitter.
2. Now with less Darwin Barney!
3. Good value proposition: They will always play a bottom of the ninth at Wrigley Field.
4. Spite.
5. Wrigley Field safer than Montrose Beach.

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Posted on July 29, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

What up, Daytona?
How’s your speedway hanging?
Are those tons of Cubs prospects in your pocket or are you just happy to see us?
We turn our eyes to you because Chicago is a low-rate sports town that sells suckers on the minor leagues over and over and over and over like the global city it isn’t.
Plus, your beach is way better than ours.

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Posted on July 21, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

While Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo are at the All-Star Game in Minneapolis, the rest of the Cubs will be back home taking care of business. Here’s what they’ll be up to.
Welington Castillo: Shopping for another “l.”
John Baker: Who?
Darwin Barney: Selling his soul at the Crossroads.
Mike Olt: Reminiscing about how he used to be Javy Baez.
Junior Lake: Seeking advice from Senior Lake.

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Posted on July 15, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

When I first saw rumors on Twitter that the Cubs were about to make a blockbuster trade to the A’s involving both Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel, I wondered if we would be getting Yoenis Cespedes in return.
Instead, we got Addison Russell.
Now, maybe Cespedes wasn’t realistic. On the other hand, both he and Samardzija were just named All-Stars, and by some measures Hammel has been having a better season than his trade partner. A two-fer for the A’s!
And the Cubs certainly have a need in the outfield.
On the other hand, the Cubs weren’t interested – according to every report I’ve read – in an actual major leaguer. They were looking for prospects from the get-go. You see, that aligns with the business plan, which is to cheap it out until someone else – a TV contract, a Jumbotron advertiser, the fans – can pay the freight.
As articulated (twice!) by my colleague Jim Coffman, this has nothing to do with Theo’s genius and everything to do with the Ricketts’ smallness.

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Posted on July 8, 2014