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From a very distanced perspective, it seems to me that Ross is much more no-bullshit than Joe. "Sledgehammer" is probably never a word that would be used to describe Maddon, and the fault in Joe's temperament is likely being too nice.

From public comments (both from Ross and his contemporaries), it seems like that's not a problem for Ross, and that, for however much he buys into the idea that players are adults and don't need to be micro-managed, he was also very much an enforcer in the 2016 clubhouse.

That sounds pretty spot on for the kind of cultural change we need. In fact, trying to force wholesale cultural change through an organization can be *very* destructive. Upholding the low-pressure, respect-oriented culture while installing a leader whose natural instinct is to nip (sometimes forcefully) at the heels of guys who aren't keeping up their end of that arrangement sounds great to me.

The Cubs just posted the David Ross press conference on Facebook.  Just listening to some bits and pieces of it, he seems to appreciate a lot of the criticism that his hiring his brought on.  When asked about his relationships with former teammates and the "Grandpa Rossy" nickname, he talked about how that was a little bit of a misnomer at times, like a lot of the conversations he'd have on the mound with Lester.  He pretty much said if he'd gotten mic'ed up for a lot of those conversations, they were pretty far from friendly a lot of the time. 


On being a puppet for the front office, Theo recalled an anecdote where he wasn't happy about how Ross was calling pitches for a rookie pitcher that had been called up and set up a time to talk to him about it.  He came in with his data and minor league reports about what worked for that pitcher in the minors and he was expecting Ross to just go along with it.  Instead Ross pushed back on him pretty hard about why he was calling things the way for that pitcher.

Have to admit, I think Ross sounded like a guy who's ready to be a manager.

I think it's a mistake to view the Ross hiring as simply because he was a guy they liked from the 2016 team.

He was on the 2016 team because they liked him as a future manager.  This has been in the works for a long time.

We heard over and over again that Ross will hold Cub players "accountable".  What does that mean in practice?

It means he is a registered gun owner and knows how to use it.

We heard over and over again that Ross will hold Cub players "accountable".  What does that mean in practice?

It means Ross is dutifully spouting the company line.  Right now it doesn't mean much else - we'll see in time if that remains the case.

Fox News weighing in quickly, as always.