I am not complaining about it, as I am not the one who winds up actually doing most of the dishes in the house. But I do the dishes SOME of the time, and I gotta tell you … I am the only one in this house that appreciates the value of soaking. Like, if you have eaten a bowl of certain types of food, and then you put the bowl in the sink for later movement to the dishwasher, just get a little water in there before you walk away. Then, while you are away, the water does its thing, loosens up the gunk (or keeps it loose), and it’s so easy to get off when you go to put the bowl in the dishwasher. If you DON’T do that, then a couple hours later, scraping hardened and glued rice krispies off the side of a bowl is torturous. Consider this a PSA.
We haven’t heard as much this past week from Cubs GM Carter Hawkins as we’ve heard from President Jed Hoyer and new manager Craig Counsell, but Hawkins did a radio hit on 670 The Score, discussing how it’s possible the manager role has become even more important in recent years:
“Anybody that’s been in this game for a little bit of time realizes how valuable it is to have somebody that can control a clubhouse, that can make great decisions in the dugout, that can be the face of a franchise,” Hawkins said. “But yes, the game is faster now than it ever has been. There’s just a lot more decisions that need to be made in a smaller piece of time – from ‘Am I going to do a replay?’ to ‘Am I going to make a pitching change?’ to all the different things that are happening. I think it’s just taking a lot of really difficult decisions and putting them in an even smaller box. Definitely from the strategic side, that has emphasized the manager for sure.”
Having good processes in place is a key for all of that, but also having a great deal of experience and a sharp mind. All things the Cubs no doubt like about Counsell, who has to wear many hats as the game goes on. The manager can’t ever JUST be a conduit for what the front office thinks he should do in every single situation as a game rapidly plays out. He’s gotta understand it all himself.
Hawkins also mentioned the coaching search generally, describing how the Cubs would handle it if the front office and Counsell disagreed about a coach for the staff:
“It’s a really good question,” Hawkins said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if over the next days, weeks, months, years that we will have something like that. We’re going to give our input. At the end of the day, he is that field general downstairs. He is in charge of that clubhouse. We’re likely to delegate that decision-making power to him. But we’re going to try to help him have all the best information possible and I think if you can have the trust that everybody is doing whatever they’re doing for the betterment of the Cubs, you end up in a really good spot.”
To me, that sounds like Hawkins is saying that coaching staff decisions are BASICALLY Counsell’s to make (which is why you hire a guy like Counsell in the first place), but if Hawkins and Hoyer felt really strongly about someone, they might push pretty hard to steer Counsell into a certain decision. That’s all still ongoing, and we pretty much know nothing about how the staff is going to look, other than the fact that there won’t be any Brewers coaches coming over.
A reminder of what Counsell said at his presser on Monday about the coaching staff search: “I really slowly started this, and frankly, I need to pick up the pace. But because this (move to the Cubs) has been fast for me, I need to go slow right now just to make sure I get things right. So that will pick up here as we go. Those are important conversations and I want to make sure I get them right. There is a coaching staff that we’ve got to make decisions on and those are important decisions. But at this point, for me right now, it’s important to go a little bit slower.”
This is completely random, but also delightful:
The Angels continue to be a really embarrassing club:
If you dumped a pitching coordinator and the TAMPA BAY RAYS jumped as fast as possible to give him the same job in their organization, you screwed up beyond belief. But that’s the Angels. Absolutely zero chance Shohei Ohtani re-signs there.
Stray note in that article: all but four teams in MLB have more than one assistant GM at the moment. The Cubs, having lost two AGMs over the last two offseasons (Jeff Greenberg and Craig Breslow), are one of those teams (Ehsan Bokhari is the only remaining AGM). Definitely an opportunity there to bring in an outside talent.
The Padres claimed Jeremiah Estrada off of waivers from the Cubs earlier this month, and he’s passing on his thanks:
Can’t do anything but wish him well. When he was right, Estrada had a top-tier fastball and a top-tier slider. Unfortunately, he lost a couple clicks on the fastball this year at the same time he lost the ability to throw the slider anywhere close to where he wanted. The raw components are still there, and maybe he turns it back around with the Padres.
The Brewers’ new GM had his son deliver the news to his team’s new manager:
Forgot about this incredible moment from the WBC:
NEWSLETTER
