The Cubs’ Managerial Search Enters the Home Stretch and Other Bullets

I’m trying to remember the last time the Bears and Lions squared off in a game so meaningful for both of them…

  • Friday’s (final?) managerial interviewee Sandy Alomar, Jr. shared a bit more on the nature of the Cubs’ interviews on the radio yesterday. “Here with the Cubs it was pretty much everything … the three gentleman[, Epstein, Hoyer, and McLeod, were] in there and they bombard you with different questions, different angles from one style of play to the next or from lineup making to video evaluating and moves. Many different things all at once to see how your mind reacts in a short period of time and what decisions you make and if you are in place with the right ones.”
  • Paul Sullivan aggregates the various media answers of the Cubs’ four managerial interviewees – Alomar, Mike Maddux, Dale Sveum, and Pete Mackanin – by category, for a hand cross-comparison.
  • Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe guesses the Red Sox will end up with Sveum and the Cubs will get Maddux. That’s probably a common guess – it’s been the smart money for almost a week. Still, I could genuinely see the Cubs ending up with any of the four.
  • Carlos Zambrano made his second Venezuelan Winter League start yesterday, going six innings and giving up three earned runs. He gave up five hits, two walks, and struck out five. So, it was definitely an improvement on his first start, but still not quite what you’d like to see. Hopefully he keeps improving.
  • Almost all of the AFL Cubs got in on the action yesterday: DJ LeMahieu had a couple hits, Josh Vitters drove in a run, Junior Lake stole his 18th base, and Andrew Cashner threw a perfect inning of relief. Jeff Beliveau had a rough outing, though, giving up three runs in his inning of work.
  • At a charity auction in Vermont this weekend, Cubs’ President Theo Epstein reiterated that he’ll always be a Red Sox fan. “It’s always going to be a part of me,” Epstein said. “I’m not going to try to take it and deny that. It’s in pretty deep in the blood running through my veins. I’ll still follow the Red Sox. I think we’re allowed one American League team to pull for a little bit.” Assuming interleague play increases in the near future (as it is expected to, after the Astros move to the AL), that last statement will become slightly less true.
  • Minor league free agent, and former Cubs washout, Brad Snyder has been scooped up by the Astros, where he’ll undoubtedly hit a game-winning grand slam against the Cubs next year.
  • 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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