July 14, 2021: What About Ross?

I wanted Joe Girardi as the Cubs manager. The whole ex-Cub thing is nice, no doubt, but he won a World Series in New York. I thought he would be the perfect guy to come in and manage the Cubs after Joe left. It didn’t happen.

The Cubs hired David Ross; we remember him? Grandpa Rossy from the 2016 Champs; Lester’s personal catcher, but so much more for that team. You can go down that 2016 roster and name many guys who we couldn’t have won without; is Ross part of that list? I think so. What he brought to that team was much more than the stats he put up on the field. When I heard the Cubs had hired him, I was OK… I wondered how he would do managing many of the guys he was a teammate with. Of course, a guy with zero managerial experience is always a crap shoot; he’d certainly be better than say Robin Ventura was with the Sox. At least he’s won a World Series; I always like catchers as managers, figuring at the very least, they would know how to manage a pitching staff, which nowadays, is one of the most critical things as a manager. Let’s see what happens.

Well, then the global pandemic hit, and the weird season that was in 2020. But the Cubs made the playoffs, so success, no? Well, they got immediately knocked out by the Marlins; the Marlins?!?! Yeah, those bums… swiftly losing to them didn’t leave quite the best taste even after making the playoffs (again) in a very weird year. Will the Cubs ever be able to complete the job again?

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Enter 2021, and Rossy’s first full season as manager. Just like most managers, there are plenty of decisions that he has made that I don’t agree with; specifically with the pitching changes, some he turned out to be right, others I did. It’s usually kind of like that. As far as the lineups he runs out there, I have questions about that as well. Of course, you can’t really bench your big guns… you shouldn’t have to; if they’re not performing, that’s not on the manager, right? When it comes to the depth of the roster, that was surprisingly better than I thought heading into the year, that’s on the front office right? When that depth gets ravaged with injuries, and you have to go next level, and that next level doesn’t get it done, that’s not on Ross either right? As far as who he is plugging in the lineup every day, he can only put in guys that are available right? I don’t know… am I talking myself out of blaming Ross for any of the mess that has happened thus far this year?

I want to put some of the blame on Ross; I certainly think the coach deserves that when things are going bad, just as they deserve kudos when the team is performing well. Back to the pitching staff, the combination of subpar starting pitching and outstanding bullpen pitching has been interesting to put it one way. How has Ross managed through that? This was supposed to be his specialty; I think he’s been average at best there, but a painter is only as good as the paint he’s using right? I don’t know; I buy the cheap stuff. But this isn’t painting, and you need horses to get the job done. When you don’t have them, you have to get creative; still, I think Ross has been average at it.

In general, I guess that’s where I’m at with him. He hasn’t been great; he hasn’t been that bad either. If I had to pick, I’d put more of this blame on the front office; the players deserve blame too, especially the big guys that we need to be big on a consistent basis that aren’t. Doesn’t mean we have to trade them, but that’s what everybody is talking about right now. I wonder how much input Ross has in these decisions… You know, I almost forgot about Willson’s comments, and Ross’ response. Things certainly can’t be easy with all the losing and all the talks about “breaking up the band”… Managing through this can’t be easy, but hey… that’s why they hired him right? Things are about to get interesting… When all the dust settles, will Ross still be here? Should he be?