February 10, 2015: Swing and Miss

That sucks doesn’t it?  Swinging and Missing isn’t fun, and no, I’m not talking about the Hawks last night.  This beating of teams we should beat isn’t as easy as it should be for both the UC teams.  Today, I want to talk about some baseball, and the free agent game, and why swinging and missing may not be such a bad thing.

I’m going to focus more on the Cubs (go figure), although there was one perceived swing and miss that the White Sox were happy to have on their record.  Victor Martinez was linked to the White Sox this offseason, but ended up staying in Detroit.  He’s an awesome player, but… very injury prone, and lo and behold, he tears his meniscus in his knee.  Will he be back in time?  Will it be a recurring issue?  Will other injuries creep back up?  Guess what… the Sox don’t care, because they did NOT get him.  Whew!

There have been a handful of swings and misses with the Cubs lately too, and no I’m not talking about the last 107 years Sox fans…  I’m talking about the last few free agent years.  Last year’s big fish was Tanaka.  The Yankees ended up getting his services, but then… hurt.  Tommy John surgery potentially at some point.  That’s a whole lot of money invested there in someone who now has an arm problem.  Everybody pissed off about the Cubs not getting him last year are breathing a collective sigh of reliet.

We’ve had a few guys go by the boards this year too.  Russell Martin and most recently, James Shields come to mind.  I was disappointed that we didn’t get Martin, but…  to pay him that much money for that many years maybe wasn’t worth it???  Maybe the addition of Montero and Ross will turn out better?  Only time will tell.  The same goes with James Shields.  Supposedly the Cubs offered 3 years, but he wanted 4… and got it with the Padres.  Did we miss out on this one?  Yes, but did we NEED to hit on this one?  Maybe not.  Back to the whole catching situation… maybe now with that newly acquired depth we’ll be able to move Castillo for another pitcher?  Are the Cubs done adding pitchers?
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I don’t think so.  I think there will be another addition.  Lester, Arrieta, Hammel, and Hendricks represent a very good 1-2 and average 3-4; we could always be better.  Then you have Wada, Jackson, and Wood battling for the 5 spot, and maybe CJ Edwards???  Thing is, there is a little bit of depth, although it would be really nice to add another marquee name in that rotation.  Does it happen before the year starts, or in a midseason acquisition?  I like Cole Hamels personally, but he’s getting a whole lot of money.  That’s OK though… Cubs got money, however, do we really want to trade away these young prospects that make us one of the best systems in MLB to get him?  Well, if Hamels is THE guy to push us over the edge, then yes.  Who really, truly knows the answer to this question?

That’s the whole moral of the story.  HIndsight makes us all look like geniuses, but at the time, something that looks great could turn out not so much.  Do I need to mention examples, such as Soriano, Bradley, Dunn, Boozer, Cutler…  These are ALL guys that we were happy to acquire… OK, minus the nut case Bradley.  What if we “missed out” on those guys?  How would the future have looked?

Things happen for a reason, and sometimes these swings and misses are good for us.  Sometimes NOT getting what we want is better off for us in the long run.  It’s funny, but it kind of works that way in life too.  So don’t get too excited about the misses, OR even the players that we DO get.  At the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding.  Only then, looking back, we will know if things worked out or not.  I’m hoping to look back on Lester, Gasol, Cabrera, Fox, Richards and remember that these were the moves that helped put us over the edge.  Stay tuned!