Fire Theo

Theo Epstein takes the blame for the Cubs poor start:

“There is always a search for scapegoats when you get off to a tough start,” Epstein said in the Cubs’ dugout before Saturday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers. “[Pitching coach] Tommy Hottovy is not the problem. He’s a big part of the solution. [Owner] Tom Ricketts is not the problem. It’s not a resource issue. I know he’s another one that’s been taking a lot of heat. It’s not a resource problem. If people have a problem with the allocation of resources, then that’s on me. And it has been ever since I got here, with a lot of good and some bad.”

The bad that Epstein is referring to is mostly on the mound, where last offseason he sunk $126 million into Yu Darvish, $38 million into Tyler Chatwood and $21 million into Brandon Morrow. None has come close to paying off.

The rest of the staff hasn’t helped, either. The Cubs rank 28th in ERA so far. On top of that, they surprisingly rank at the bottom of the league in defense after a handful of games this year.

ESPN.com

Both the Red Sox and Cubs stood pat over the winter. The Red Sox had one of the great regular seasons of all time and topped it with a World Championship. You can understand them not making major changes. The Cubs had a disappointing end to their season, and maybe they needed to rethink their team a bit. That didn’t happen. Both teams stood still while others improved, and now both are finding themselves off to slow starts.

I think this is going to turn out to be a hiccup for both clubs, but it’s a reminder that no matter how good a team looks on paper, they always need to fight against the regression that usually accompanies winning.

from baseballmusings.com http://bit.ly/2WNNGEN