Chicago Cubs focused despite a poor `12 season – MLB
When the Chicago Cubs began the 2012 Major League Baseball season, the atmosphere at Wrigley Field was permeated by both excitement and apprehension. Here was a team with a wholly different outlook, thanks to the major changes that swept the club – especially
the front office.
Theo Epstein who previously earned name and fame with his association to the Boston Red Sox, and the incredible changes that he brought for that club, was now the president of baseball operations. Incredibly ambitious, highly experienced and pre-eminently
insightful, he was bound to bring alterations in the club.
So he did. The first step was to install a new executive vice president and general manager. That was seen in the form of Jed Hoyer. All other changes in the front office are certainly too big and notable, suffice it to say that even the manager was changed.
Mike Quade was dismissed after the team’s lacklustre performance in 2011.
In his stead came Dale Sveum who was part of the Milwaukee Brewers as the hitting coach. Attached to him were hopes and expectations since he is known for his professionalism, rigorous approach and being an altogether different manager than many in the National
League.
As things progressed, there were a lot of changes in the team as a whole, trading the veteran players and inducting the young ones so as to expedite the team’s building phase. The result, though, has probably not been the way the fans were hoping, or the
management would have thought.
The Chicago Cubs, as the season concluded, had lost 101 games, 10 games more than they had lost the previous year. One of the targets of the team, interestingly, was to avoid the 100-loss mark, but they could not do it.
Much as the performance was not up to the mark despite the changes that were expected to instil winning spirit in the team, Jed Hoyer has a different perspective on the whole development. The Cubs, after all, had their third worst season in the franchise’s
history here.
Despite all that, even if changes have not worked so far, the team general manager does not rule out more of trades, bringing new players whenever needed.
“We’re not trying to hide the ball,” Epstein said in the final days of the season. “We’re trying to be honest with [the fans]. There might be some tough things we have to tell them along the way. There might be another trade deadline in our future where
we trade away about 40 percent of a really good rotation.’’
Theo Epstein had more to say about issues that have popped up lately.
“We have a plan and a vision, and it’s not going to happen overnight,’’ Epstein said. “There’s a choice: You can take a Band-Aid approach to things and try to polish it up as best we can and make that presentable and squeeze every last fan we can in and
deal with [improving] next year.”
Even if they lost 101 games, the Cubs did not yield to pessimism. Instead of dismissing the manager, Epstein gave support to the manager, defending him throughout the season. All that is done to let the players and the manager know each other and the game
well. Such a spirit, the team hopes, will be helpful to have a better season in 1203.
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