Big League Success in 2013 and Other Bullets

Sep 16, 2013

Today’s the real meat of The Taylor Family move (i.e., the moving truck comes), and the Series Preview for the Brewers series is going to be the primary casualty. Although there will be other content today to keep you awash in Cubs coverage, I just haven’t been able to get to the Series Preview, and won’t be able to pull it off today. Suffice it to say that it’s a series between two teams battling at the bottom of the standings. I know you can’t root against the Cubs, but losing a couple to the Brewers wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

When Dale Sveum evaluates the 2013 season, he knows it’s about more than just the wins and losses. He sees players developing, buying in, and succeeding when they stick to the game plan. In terms of on-field success, the 2013 big league Cubs were a failure – everyone would agree. But in terms of The Plan, where do the Cubs – again, the big league Cubs – fall on the success/failure spectrum? I suspect there would be a great deal of debate, focused particularly on the performance regression of Starlin Castro, and apparent regression of Anthony Rizzo.

The second best minor league pitcher – in all of baseball – by kwERA? That’d be top pitching prospect, C.J. Edwards.

Cubs hitting coach James Rowson on Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro.

An interesting quote from Travis Wood in the Cubs.com game recap yesterday. “We’ve definitely made strides,” Wood said, complimenting Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer for getting players who want to be on the team. “I’m excited to finish out the season and see how we battle back next year being together for a full year.” The reason I find the quote interesting is that most of the players Epstein and Hoyer have snagged over the last two years have been fungible types that could be sold at the deadline as easily as they’re brought back the next year. And, heck, this year, there was as much turnover as ever. None of this is to say I have any beef with Wood’s comment or the front office’s approach – I like them both, actually. I just found the comment about being together for a full year kind of funny.

The Cubs offer compliments to the Pirates who just beat them.

written by

Brett Taylor

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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