Re: For God's sake, can we make a move on Kimbrel now?

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Apr 1, 2019, 7:22 AM

Nitehawk® I've had (for lack of a better term) a love-hate relationship with Maddon for a while. I'll always respect and appreciate that he turned my "loveable losers" into a WS Champion, but I just can't condone the majority of decisions he's made for over a year now. On the one hand, he's obviously the most successful Cubs manager in the modern day era, but on the other, it seems like his stock has lost a lot of value in the last 10 months.

It's like Maddon takes everything to an excess. While people raged, I supported the multiple lineup/batting orders for quite some time, as I felt that he was searching to find himself (and the team) the "formula" that they could work and win consistently with. Guess what? 163 games later, Maddon had used 152 different lineups/orders (160 variations if you count pitchers). The most he used any lineup last year was 5 times. I wrote a commentary about that, and as I recall, the lineup that he used 5 times yielded either a 3-2 or 4-1 record, so somewhere between a .600 and .800 win %- yet he wouldn't utilize it more.

His Rotation/Bullpen management is the same way, at least a majority of the time. Play the matchup game once in a while with the pen, but jeez, let guys pitch. I was livid when he pulled Hendricks in the ninth last year, and scratch my head daily over why he leaves guy in who are sinking like rocks, yet pulls guys that look solid. As ugly as Darvish's outing was the other day, he had pitched himself out of jam after jam, and had allowed onnly 1 run. Leaving him in couldn't have ended any worse than it did after he put Edwards in there. Same thing with Chatwood last night- he walked a couple, but removing him after pitched brilliantly in his first inning, did nothing to build the guy's confidence. Last year I'd have pulled him after the first walk, but he's NOT the same guy this year.

I could go on and on as well, but I think you get the point. I guess it'll be a little sad to see him go, but I really think it may be time. It's almost inevitable in my opinion, Joe's salary ranks among the top for managers, as does his age. theo said they needed to play with urgency, but Joe continues with his laisses fare attitude. It go time (literally and figuratively).

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The season is only THREE DAYS OLD for god's sake.

Maddon has always been an idiot even when they won the series and now that the Cubs haven't renewed his contract suddenly everyone wants him gone. He is what he is and he isn't pitching or hitting or fielding so there is only so much he can do.

Last year everyone was slashing their wrists because the Cubs couldn't hit, well that problem is fixed.

Now its the bullpen that is an issue. The bullpen sucked last year too for stretches. If these pitchers can't get the job done then they will send them packing and bring up other guys in their system until they find 9 guys that can get outs.

They are not going to go out and sign a big name for any position so stop worrying about who is available. This team is what we have and by the end of the year they will be in first place with over 100 wins and everyone will be screaming for the Cubs to resign Maddon.

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For God's sake, can we make a move on Kimbrel now?