The Bosio Decision, the Hickey Connection, Cobb, and Other Bullets

Getting Bullets done on a Sunday morning when I’m solo with all three kiddos is an adventure to say the least.

  • The Astros won Game Seven of the ALCS, and will move on to the World Series to face the Dodgers. Had the Astros won just one more regular season game, we’d have been able to say that the match up was between the two winningest clubs from the regular season (something I’m guessing is not all that common). In any case, it’s still a match-up between two dominant teams, so it should be fun in that respect.
  • By the way, Lance McCullers finished off the game by throwing 28(!) straight curveballs.
  • On the surprising decision to move on from pitching coach Chris Bosio, Sahadev Sharma talks about the Cubs’ atrocious walk rate, and Theo Epstein’s heavy commentary on the same in his season-ending press conference. Moreover, Sharma says, “[I]t’s clear the Cubs were unhappy with the way Bosio was handling certain things. There are those who believe that Bosio was too rigid with the way he handled pitchers who arrived mid-season and stubborn when given suggestions on how to handle situations differently. While his dismissal feels sudden, these frustrations have been simmering over the years and apparently finally came to a boil.”
  • About the rigidity issue, that’s not something I’d heard previously, but these things tend to come out when someone is moving on. Certainly with the pitcher deterioration this past season, the very public failure to successfully incorporate Justin Wilson, the sudden availability of Joe Maddon’s long-time pitching coach from Tampa Bay, Jim Hickey, there was apparently a confluence of reasons for the organization to move on. I’d imagine this will be one of those moves that was surprising in the moment, but 30 days out looks pretty obvious in hindsight.
  • The Tribune reports that the decision on Bosio was ultimately made by Joe Maddon, which, if true, only further suggests Hickey will be coming soon.
  • Carrie Muskat notes that the decision was technically not picking up Bosio’s option for 2018 (as opposed to outright firing him and eating salary). Just another small factor in the move, I’m sure.
  • On Jim Hickey, who could become Bosio’s replacement, Cubs Insider has a good look at the former Rays pitching coach. An ancillary item that you can’t help but notice in there: there’s so much glowing praise from Alex Cobb, who is now a free agent after working his way back from Tommy John surgery and posting a 3.66 ERA in 2017 over 179.1 innings. Think he might be a Cubs target? Yeah, you can probably bet on that, especially if Hickey does come over this way.
  • The official Super Two cutoff for the year is set, and guys with at least two years and 123 days of service time will qualify for arbitration next year as Super Two players. On the Cubs, as expected, that will be Kris Bryant and Addison Russell.
  • I went to a wedding last night, and I feel like I was personally trolled:
  • Tons of small kitchen appliances – the BEST kind of kitchen appliances! – are a deal of the day at Amazon. The personal air fryer for under forty bucks seems especially cool.
  • I love this cap:
  • https://twitter.com/BleacherNation/status/922082436489629696

  • Over at TYL, Luis has Da Jokes (give a follow for game day!):
  • And give TYL a like on Facebook, why dontcha – just smack that button:
  • 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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