Addison Russell’s Terrible Day, and Joe Maddon’s Candid Response

Addison Russell had a very bad game yesterday – the kind you more or less don’t ever see from a big league player.

This is all from ONE GAME:

Oh, and that doesn’t include a failure to move up on a wild pitch and a routine throw so bad that it nearly took Anthony Rizzo’s wrist into the break zone.

That’s a collection of little league crap, all coming from one player – a player who has not shined so brightly this season that you would otherwise easily excuse a few really embarrassing lapses in focus and effort. None of that is to say anything of Russell’s suspension for domestic violence, from which the Cubs are giving him an opportunity to return and re-establish himself. I know those things are totally disconnected for some folks, but they aren’t for me. The Cubs’ daily decision to retain Russell on the big league roster was always a tenuous one for me, but every time he effs things up on the baseball field, it feels all the more indefensible to keep him on the 25-man.

Even Joe Maddon was not happy:

No, Maddon didn’t absolutely bury Russell, but if you have followed Maddon’s comments closely these past five years, you know he really doesn’t say things like this. He’s not one of those managers who puts his players on blast in an attempt to motivate them (or just out of his own frustration). So him going this far is about as much as you’d ever hear him say about an individual player. He’s ticked.

From here, if Russell has things to work out and focus to regain, why wouldn’t he be sent to AAA Iowa to do that? Because right now, I’m not convinced he’s actually helping the big league team win games (he’s not alone on that front – more on that later). I get that maybe the front office wants to be able to trade him, but how can they continue to justify his presence on the roster – and the starts he gets – when they preach urgency and production over talent and all that stuff?

Maybe I’m just frustrated after watching that circus.

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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