Report: Fredi Gonzalez is Chicago Cubs’ Top Choice for Next Manager
The Chicago Cubs will search far and wide for their next manager, as they should. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a first choice already – and according to “sources,” that top man is former Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez.
Sources say that Gonzalez is at the top of general manager Jim Hendry’s wish list in the early stages of the process and that he prefers a manager with major-league experience — with Class AAA manager Ryne Sandberg considered the strongest, if not only, serious candidate without that.
Gonzalez’s communication skills with Latin players he has managed, as well as his swift and decisive handling of Marlins star Hanley Ramirez’s loafing earlier this season, are considered significant strengths in his favor.
Gonzalez, 46, has a strong relationship with Hendry that goes back three decades and included time together in the Marlins organization.
Reached by phone Tuesday night, Gonzalez would neither confirm nor deny interest in the job or contact by the Cubs.
”I don’t have anything I can tell you,” he said, ”except Jim and I go back to my high school days. He coached one of the opposing teams when I played. And we worked together with the Marlins.”
Asked specifically whether he had interviewed or expected to, he declined comment. But indications are he’s in the first group of candidates on Hendry’s interview list. CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
Gonzalez is also expected to be pursued heavily by the Atlanta Braves to replace retiring skipper Bobby Cox. Gonzalez was a coach with the Braves from 2003 to 2006.
While with the Marlins, Gonzalez had a .497 winning percentage, including back-to-back winning years in 2008 and 2009. He was widely regarded as one of the best young managers in the game, if not one of the best regardless of experience.
For my part, I view Gonzalez and Joe Girardi as options 1 and 1A in the managerial search. If the Cubs land one of them, I certainly won’t complain, but that said, I remain open minded with respect to whomever the Cubs end up with. So far, I don’t see anyone on the list that I’d scream bloody murder about – like I did (on the inside) when the Cubs went with Dusty Baker, and, to a lesser extent, Lou Piniella.
Chicago Cubs Interview Eric Wedge for Managerial Opening
The Chicago Cubs have interviewed former Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge for their managerial vacancy. Wedge was not among the names rumored to be on the Cubs’ short list as recently as a week ago, so this is at least a moderate surprise.
Wedge managed the Indians from 2003-09, winning the American League Manager of the Year Award in 2007, when he guided the Indians to the ALCS, only to lose to the Boston Red Sox after going up 3-1.
Wedge, 42, won over 500 games with the Indians, including a first-place finish in 2007 and finishing second in 2005 behind the world champion Chicago White Sox.
Wedge, who resides in Richfield, Ohio, was fired by Cleveland after the 2009 season. The Indians are paying Wedge through this season.
The former major league catcher, originally from Ft. Wayne, Ind., was an All-American at Wichita State and was on the 1989 Shockers team that won the College World Series.
At that time, Hendry was the head coach of league rival Creighton University. That’s when Wedge first caught Hendry’s attention….
Wedge would have to be considered a top candidate for the Cubs job. Others to get interviewed will include Ryne Sandberg; former Florida Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez and Washington Nationals coach and former Cubs minor league manager Pat Listach.
Mike Quade, the Cubs interim manager, also will get strong consideration. Friends of New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi have stated he would have strong interest in the Cubs job if he left the Yankees after the season. ESPN Chicago.
It remains a simple fact that, if Girardi does not re-sign with the Yankees, and his demands are reasonable, he will be the next manager of the Chicago Cubs. Here’s hoping that, by interviewing other available candidates long before Girardi is available, the Cubs do not box themselves into a corner – i.e., they’ve got a candidate like Wedge that they like, but he’s got another team like the Mariners breathing down his neck to make a decision. And yet, the Cubs are waiting to hear from Girardi. In that instance, interviewing Wedge so early could put them in an awkward position – and possibly even a position to be left out in the cold with respect to their preferred candidates.
Wedge was fired in 2009 after the Indians were incredibly disappointing for the second consecutive season. The team had a strong core built going into the 2007 season (in which they were very good), but that same core disintegrated over the next two years, leading to Wedge’s undoing.
Starlin Castro: Rookie of the Year?
I semi-jokingly made the comment in an EBS a couple of weeks ago, but Chicago Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro is making it look a whole lot less jokey lately. Could he really be the NL Rookie of the year?
Castro, a legitimate contender for National League Rookie of the Year honors, is batting .318 with three homers, 20 doubles, five triples and 32 RBIs in 77 games. He posted his first career four-hit game on Wednesday, missing the cycle by a home run. It was his third consecutive multi-hit game.
Since July 10, Castro is batting .432 with 13 runs, 11 doubles, two triples, a home run, 10 RBIs and 13 multi-hit games. Part of the surge during that stretch could be because his family has been with him, joining him in Chicago from the Dominican Republic since the All-Star break.
“The kid’s a good player,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of Castro. “He’s getting confident with that bat. He’s hitting the ball in the gaps and this kid’s going to be a good player for a long time in the big leagues.”
[Buster] Posey, named NL Player of the Month for July, was batting .355 with a .540 slugging percentage. Davis has 53 RBIs. Atlanta’s Jason Heyward, the preseason favorite for the NL rookie award, has 50 RBIs and 11 homers in 90 games. Mike Stanton drove in 52 runs in 53 games at Double-A before he was called up to the Marlins in early June. He’s driven in 31 in 47 games so far. cubs.com.
If going solely by OPS and games played, Castro compares adequately, but not favorably to Posey and Heyward. Posey leads rookies with a .922 OPS, but he’s done it in just 58 games. Heyward has an .826 OPS in 91 games, which should give him the slight edge at this point over Posey.
Castro has an .823 OPS in 77 games (get this, he’s actually out-slugging Heyward at this point), which probably puts him somewhere in the same league as Posey and Heyward, but maybe slightly below them.
But that’s only if you consider offense. Castro has been playing shortstop – the most difficult and important defensive position (outside, arguably, of catcher), and by all accounts has been average. Tell me, folks: would you rather have an average defensive shortstop putting up the kind of numbers these guys are putting up, or an average outfielder or part-time first baseman/part-time catcher?
Jim Hendry All But Confirms that the Cubs Will Be Sellers
As if there were any doubt that the Chicago Cubs – if they make trades at all – will be sellers this year, General Manager Jim Hendry has effectively removed all such doubt.
“Anything we will do, we’ll try to set us up better for the future,” Hendry said this weekend.
While he is bitter that the Cubs are not in contention this year, Hendry is at least being realistic.
“Like I told everybody the other day, we’re not ever going to go into a season thinking we’re not going to contend. In my mind, we should have been right in the thick of contention now. We just didn’t get it done. That being said, we’re starting to get better young players coming up in the system. A lot more of those guys are going to be coming in two or three years.”
Dealing contract-heavy veterans to open up spots for those youngsters will be one of Hendry’s primary tasks over the next few weeks. Still, he doesn’t envision the Cubs going into a full-on Marlins-style rebuild.
“We’re not going overhaul the program and think, ‘Oh, we’re going to be young for a couple years and can’t win.’ We’re going to go into it to get ready for next season thinking we’re going to contend again just having the ability of having some of our young guys come up and be part of that.”
Oh Great: Carlos Zambrano is Getting Frustrated
Chicago Cubs setup pitcher (still weird to say it) Carlos Zambrano helped hold down the Cubs’ 4-3 win yesterday over the Florida Marlins, but when manager Lou Piniella came to get him in the middle of the eighth inning, Zambrano was visibly unhappy with either the decision or his performance, or both.
Aside from the way Marmol finished his first save opportunity in nearly two weeks, the only late- inning glitch was Zambrano’s exit before finishing the eighth — walking Jorge Cantu with two outs to get a visit from manager Lou Piniella, then giving up a broken-bat single to Dan Uggla and getting replaced by Marmol.
Zambrano snatched the ball angrily when thrown back to him after the hit and didn’t look at Piniella as he left the field. He was unavailable after the game.
”I wanted Zambrano to basically, hopefully, get the last outs in the eighth inning,” Piniella said.
How much longer Zambrano will be asked to stay in the setup role might depend on whether a good late-inning guy becomes available. But for now, they like the results since the switch — whatever Zambrano’s thoughts might be.
”We’ll always keep looking, but to blame the bullpen for the past couple weeks is very shortsighted,” general manager Jim Hendry said. ”We haven’t lost a lead in the seventh, eighth or ninth inning in the whole stretch.” CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
First, a quick and obvious jab at Hendry’s ridiculous comment: Jim, of course you haven’t lost a late lead in the last couple weeks. That’s because you’ve had exactly two late leads in the last nine games. And one of those was a 12-run lead (which shrunk to seven runs late).
But now to the main point: Carlos Zambrano was obviously unhappy with the move to the bullpen in the first place. If he’s now unhappy with how he’s being used in the bullpen, to boot, that ain’t good. We know that Z is a temperamental guy, and although that shouldn’t be cultivated or facilitated, you do have to wear kid gloves with the guy if you want him to be at his most effective.
Am I saying Lou should have left Zambrano in the game just to mollify him? Of course not. What I’m saying is that this is just another problem that comes with moving a guy like Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen.
Report: Cubs Looking at Braden Looper
The Chicago Cubs have finally started looking externally for solutions to their bullpen woes. According to Ken Rosenthal, the Cubs hosted free agent Braden Looper late yesterday in Chicago (though the team is on the road in New York, so it’s unclear for whom he threw).
Looper, 35, could not find work in the offseason after a 2009 season that saw him go 14-7 for the Brewers… with a 5.22 ERA and a 1.49 WHIP. It was the third consecutive disappointing season for Looper – not coincidently, the third straight season after being converted to a starter.
Before that, Looper was a very effective reliever for the Cardinals, Mets and Marlins. You could generally count on him for an ERA in the mid-3s, and a WHIP around 1.3. The Cubs, obviously, would gleefully take those numbers in their pen.
If the Cubs take the plunge, you’d have to imagine it will be a minor league deal, where Looper will be given a chance to prove he’s in MLB-ready shape at AAA Iowa.
Why the 2010 Milwaukee Brewers Will Suck
Editor’s Note: Yes, it’s that time of year again – the time for us to settle back into our protective bubble where the Chicago Cubs are destined for greatness, and every other team in the National League Central is bound for spectacular failure. If you’d care to check out last year’s fare:St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros. Already featured for 2010: Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros.
The 2010 Major League Baseball season is nearly upon us, and that means two things: (1) we’re all so deprived of real baseball action that we’re willing to treat meaningless Spring Training games like they’re the playoffs, and (2) the prognosticators are out in full force. Yes, every sports publication in the world puts out a season preview. Some are interesting, some aren’t. For the most part, folks just don’t have the time necessary to do the kind of in-depth preview that is going to be of any use to a reader that actually follows the team being previewed.
So most previews end up being pretty surface level, and boring. Well, we’re not going to do that here at Bleacher Nation. It’s much more interesting (notice how I subtly pat myself on the back?) to simply examine why the team currently sucks and is going to suck in 2010.
So enjoy – we’ll be previewing the suckiness (suckosity?) of the other teams in the National League Central over the next five weeks. Up next, Bud Selig’s favorite beer-swillers, the Milwaukee Brewers. Read the full preview on why the 2010 Milwaukee Brewers will suck, after the jump.
Why the 2010 Houston Astros Will Suck
Editor’s Note: Yes, it’s that time of year again – the time for us to settle back into our protective bubble where the Chicago Cubs are destined for greatness, and every other team in the National League Central is bound for spectacular failure. If you’d care to check out last year’s fare:St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros. Already featured for 2010: Cincinnati Reds.
The 2010 Major League Baseball season is nearly upon us, and that means two things: (1) we’re all so deprived of real baseball action that we’re willing to treat meaningless Spring Training games like they’re the playoffs, and (2) the prognosticators are out in full force. Yes, every sports publication in the world puts out a season preview. Some are interesting, some aren’t. For the most part, folks just don’t have the time necessary to do the kind of in-depth preview that is going to be of any use to a reader that actually follows the team being previewed.
So most previews end up being pretty surface level, and boring. Well, we’re not going to do that here at Bleacher Nation. It’s much more interesting (notice how I subtly pat myself on the back?) to simply examine why the team currently sucks and is going to suck in 2010.
So enjoy – we’ll be previewing the suckiness (suckosity?) of the other teams in the National League Central over the next five weeks. Up first, the home of Fat Elvis: the Houston Astros. Read the full preview on why the 2010 Houston Astros will suck, after the jump.
