Mike Quade is Dorothy, Apparently and Other Bullets

At this point, you’d have to consider a non-sweep in St. Louis to be a success. How fast and how far the Cubs – and our expectations – have fallen.

  • Don’t expect the Cubs to land high school stud Bubba Starling in Monday’s first round of the MLB Draft. Multiple experts now think he’ll be off the board at nine. If he somehow slips, though, you can expect the Cubs to leap. High school pitcher Archie Bradley is the name you hear more and more.
  • Aramis Ramirez will probably sit again today with his busted lip. The Cubs hope he’ll be back in there on Sunday.
  • With Rodrigo Lopez making an appearance in relief last night, it seems increasingly likely that he’s the odd man out when Matt Garza returns from the disabled list, as he’s expected to do in Cincinnati on Monday. My bet is that Doug Davis remains in the rotation, starting Tuesday, Lopez heads to the bullpen, and Scott Maine is sent back to AAA Iowa.
  • Mike Quade, along with his boss Jim Hendry, is starting to feel the open criticism in the mainstream media (criticism he’s faced around other parts of the ‘net for months). He’s resolute, though. “That goes with the territory,” Quade said. “Whatever heat comes, bring it on. I meant what I said a while ago. It has been frustrating and all the rest of it. But you believe in yourself, you believe in your guys, you believe they’ll come out and give you a good effort every night. And that’s all you can do. People are going to criticize. That’s fine. I’m too concerned about the guys we have, to get healthy, to get ready to play tonight, than I am about anything else. All of us have had adversity in our lives, and anybody who thought it was going to be the yellow-brick road for Mike Quade or anybody else who does this job is nuts.” As long as he’s prepared himself for the very real possibility that he’ll have to say goodbye, yellow-brick road…
  • Despite their inclusion on a nine-team list related to non-compliance with MLB debt service rules, Commissioner Bud Selig doesn’t think the Cubs are in any financial trouble. “I have zero concern,” Selig said. “Everything we’ve ever asked of them, they’ve done it and then more. … I’m unhappy that a story [like this] reflects badly on the Chicago Cubs under Tom Ricketts. There is no reason anybody should have economic concerns. … It’s so unfair to Tom Ricketts and the family. I normally don’t talk about our business, but I can’t let this go on. This is just wrong.”
  • Whether the debt issue, now raised, flags us to the fact that the Cubs might not have as much to spend this offseason as we thought is another matter. Gordon Wittenmyer flags it here, and I’ll have a more complete writeup on it tomorrow or Monday.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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