Bleacher Bums Forum

Girardi has resigned his position with MLB-tv and expects a managing job somewhere.

Mets or Phillies for Girardi.

Girardi just doesn’t fit with the other candidates that the Cubs are interviewing or wanted too. It is like in football recruiting, if a kid lists SEC schools and Notre Dame he isn’t going to Notre Dame. My hunch is that Girardi was interviewed  to dig for info on how the Yankees do things and to keep Kaplan from blasting the Cubs for not interviewing him.

My opinion is that it will be Ross, unless Espada knocked their socks off in the interview.

Peter Principle

Reading tea leaves is an interesting and challenging process.  I admit that I am no good at it.

Another "not keeping up?" question....  The Cubs and Cubs-reporters seem really fired up about their pitch lab and it's value.  So, "if" the pitch lab is so valuable, why do they only have that in Arizona, where a limited fraction of pitchers have access?  Might it not be appropriate to have one in Chicago, where big-league Cubs could more easily visit it, and Hottovy?  Where Midwest-League Cub pitchers could more easily visit?  Maybe Southern-League and Midwest-League guys, too? 

I don't know how it works.  But it seems like for all the benefits they talk about, those have tended to apply to offseason stuff; to new pickups (Wieck comes over, spends a week in the pitch lab, and then starts to apply); to D-caliber prospects (Effross, etc..), etc..  Might it not be helpful to have one in Chicago?  If Edwards is in a slump, give him a one-week break to fool around in the pitch lab?  If Q's curve isn't working, what if you sent him over to pitch lab to try to figure out why?  Might The Professor like to do a between-starts throwing session in there, to do some experimenting? 

I guess I'm just thinking that having an on-site pitch lab where big-league players could do some maintenance checkups, or could get some quantification on some things they're playing with or wondering about, might that not be helpful?  I'm just thinking that whatever value it has, being able to visit a couple of times in February is one thing; but I assume finesse mechanical factors probably tend to drift over the ensuing 7 months.  So being able to pop in more conveniently to a Chicago-based lab and do some maintenance measurements might be helpful? 

Not sure how hard and competitively you need to throw for it to be useful?  Maybe Hendricks doing a between-starts throwing session doesn't help, because he's not throwing as seriously as in a real game?  And Lester can pump it up to 89-91 with game-day adrenaline; but the data in a pitch lab when he's at 83-84 might not be that valuable?  Beats me. 

Blue, I'd like to think that smart guys ought to be able to learn new things.  *IF* Theo and Hoyer are hypothetically smart, and have hypothetically been able to attract smart guys, shouldn't those  smart guys be able to appreciate the value of tech advances, and train themselves up to optimally utilize every tool available?  If they aren't smart enough to do that, maybe Theo and his people just aren't smart enough to keep up? 

This is certainly a new perspective. I don't recall anyone previously suggesting that Theo and those he has brought into the organization are not "smart enough."   As an aside, I just saw a tweet about one of these guys.

Paul Sullivan
@PWSullivan
Cubs' Director of Pitching, former pitcher Craig Breslow, has a 2000 degree from Yale in molecular biophysics and biochemistry.

Another "not keeping up?" question....  The Cubs and Cubs-reporters seem really fired up about their pitch lab and it's value.  So, "if" the pitch lab is so valuable, why do they only have that in Arizona, where a limited fraction of pitchers have access?  Might it not be appropriate to have one in Chicago, where big-league Cubs could more easily visit it, and Hottovy?  Where Midwest-League Cub pitchers could more easily visit?  Maybe Southern-League and Midwest-League guys, too? 

I'm not 100% certain what is in the pitch lab, but the equipment is likely to be at the major league level.  I think the value of having it in Arizona having a place where guys can go and apply in low leverage situations.  I bet the slom-mo camera's, trackman etc are all available at each minor league team and traveling with the Cubs.