NEWSLETTER
The protracted slumping – especially the power outage, and uptick in strikeouts – of the Cubs’ offense apparently reached the point that the team’s new hitting coach, Chili Davis, felt compelled to ask Joe Maddon’s permission to call for a team meeting with the hitters.
Maddon gave his blessing, and the meeting took place before last night’s game.
When word of the meeting started coming out last night, I’ll admit, it got me a little nervous. Maddon, himself, is not big on officially-organized team meetings, and for reasons that I think are sound. These are experienced professionals, most of whom will shake loose any slumping on their own if they just continue to do what they do, ignore the dips, and not carry yesterday’s failures into today. Team meetings, executed poorly, can just have the opposite of the intended effect, leading to many guys just pressing more than they already were – especially if meetings are rare. It’s like, “Oh man, we’ve reached this point where we’ve gotta have a team meeting? I really have to get it going.”
That said, I trust Maddon on these things completely. When it comes to managing the clubhouse and managing players’ psyches, I don’t think there’s anyone better in the game. So if Maddon blessed the meeting, then I say it was a swell idea.
And while the meeting won’t – and shouldn’t – get credit for Javy Baez’s breakout game, he himself liked the idea of the meeting:
Javier Baez on the Chili Davis pregame meeting: “We like to talk. Even without meetings, we get together and talk about situations and plays. But it was helpful, for sure. We were just talking about passing it to the next guy and taking our walks when we needed to. Simple stuff.”
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) June 27, 2018
Davis told ESPN that one of the things touched on in the meeting was putting pressure on the pitcher, which the Cubs certainly did last night by repeatedly clogging the bases. The specifics on how to do that were left inside the clubhouse, but it’s not hard to imagine there was a lotta talk about trusting the next guy to get it done (which allows you to be more patient and confident).
Ultimately, I doubt a team meeting fundamentally shifts the landscape for a scuffling offense so much as gives it an opportunity to re-set and kinda be what it already is. There’s no denying this is a very talented club, even with Kris Bryant on the DL. The offense is there. How to better tap into the power while still being situationally successful? Well, that’s a philosophical thing that the Cubs are working on, but it’s up to the players to actually execute.
Maybe the meeting will help them all take a breath and be themselves.
