Cubs hire Greg Maddux as special assistant to the GM

[Sammy Sofa]

What constant overreactions?

[TruffleShuffle]

carrie muskat's tweet on this:

 

Duties include assisting coaching staff and teaching kids to be winners

 

teaching kids to be winners???? step one, get traded to another organization.

[Soul]

Sure, bring Mad Dog on board. Good move.

[17 Seconds]

rabble rabble Sandberg would suck as a manager and cause the Cubs to lose for another 100 years rabble rabble

Okay, this is clearly a well thought out argument.

 

Would you like to elaborate on why, exactly, you think Sandberg would make a good manager? There have been plenty of well-reasoned arguments to the negative, but I have yet to see a single logical reason as to why he would be a good choice.

 

He's fiery

Who's to say I do think he would be a good manager? I just get tired of the constant overreactions and bashing every time his name is mentioned. Quite frankly, I'd be nervous if he was hired to replace Lou after this season.

 

ther'es good reason to for the bashing, yet you act like there isn't/

 

rabble rabble dusty sucks rabble rabble

[Clem Fandango]

Neato

[daske17]

carrie muskat's tweet on this:

 

Duties include assisting coaching staff and teaching kids to be winners

 

teaching kids to be winners???? step one, get traded to another organization.

 

Is he working with little league or a MLB operation?

[erik316wttn]

rabble rabble Sandberg would suck as a manager and cause the Cubs to lose for another 100 years rabble rabble

Okay, this is clearly a well thought out argument.

 

Would you like to elaborate on why, exactly, you think Sandberg would make a good manager? There have been plenty of well-reasoned arguments to the negative, but I have yet to see a single logical reason as to why he would be a good choice.

 

He's fiery

 

Which is always odd to me because he seemed pretty laid back as a player.

 

Also, one benefit to a Sandberg-led team is that I know for a fact that emphasis would be placed on fundamentals, something that wasn't done under Dusty and is sometimes forgotten under Lou.

 

That's not to say he doesn't have more negatives than positives, but lack of fundamentals was the one thing that irked me most under Dusty. I hated watching the Little League World Series and seeing a bunch of 11-year-olds who could field and run the bases when the Cubs couldn't.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

Which is always odd to me because he seemed pretty laid back as a player.

 

He's fiery exactly because of his tame reputation. He thinks that's what is necessary. It is on purpose.

 

 

Also, one benefit to a Sandberg-led team is that I know for a fact that emphasis would be placed on fundamentals, something that wasn't done under Dusty and is sometimes forgotten under Lou.

 

A) You don't know that for a fact, B) That's something every single new manager claims C) These are major league baseball players, they are going to play in a manner that they always play and D) This isn't all that important, what's most important is how good at playing baseball your players are.

[hardcorecubfan]

Would we rather have Maddux as our pitching coach eventually or our GM?

 

 

I'd say pitching coach personally.

 

Second that

[Roast]

 

Which is always odd to me because he seemed pretty laid back as a player.

 

He's fiery exactly because of his tame reputation. He thinks that's what is necessary. It is on purpose.

 

 

Also, one benefit to a Sandberg-led team is that I know for a fact that emphasis would be placed on fundamentals, something that wasn't done under Dusty and is sometimes forgotten under Lou.

 

A) You don't know that for a fact, B) That's something every single new manager claims C) These are major league baseball players, they are going to play in a manner that they always play and D) This isn't all that important, what's most important is how good at playing baseball your players are.

And when he's already shown that he has no problem wasting his best hitters by bunting in the first inning, or with his #3 hitter - it doesn't inspire me with much confidence.

[erik316wttn]

 

Which is always odd to me because he seemed pretty laid back as a player.

 

He's fiery exactly because of his tame reputation. He thinks that's what is necessary. It is on purpose.

 

 

Also, one benefit to a Sandberg-led team is that I know for a fact that emphasis would be placed on fundamentals, something that wasn't done under Dusty and is sometimes forgotten under Lou.

 

A) You don't know that for a fact, B) That's something every single new manager claims C) These are major league baseball players, they are going to play in a manner that they always play and D) This isn't all that important, what's most important is how good at playing baseball your players are.[/quote]

 

Fundamentals aren't all that important? You aren't a good baseball player if you don't have the basic fundamentals down. If you're a liability on the basepaths and can't field for crap and can't work a count, then you'd better hit about 50 homers a year to make up for it.

[jersey cubs fan]

Fundamentals aren't all that important? You aren't a good baseball player if you don't have the basic fundamentals down.

 

And you wouldn't be in the major leagues if you weren't that good of a baseball player. A major league manager "stressing the fundamentals" is basically just words to appease the masses. Everybody said Lou wouldn't tolerate the fundamental lapses that plagued the Dusty era Cubs, and now apparantly Lou isn't stressing the fundamentals enough for people.

[fromthestretch]

Fundamentals aren't all that important? You aren't a good baseball player if you don't have the basic fundamentals down. If you're a liability on the basepaths and can't field for crap and can't work a count, then you'd better hit about 50 homers a year to make up for it.

 

Moises Alou managed to have a pretty nice career for himself, and he was a horrible baserunner and a well below average fielder who never hit 40 home runs in a season, let alone 50. And even though his walk totals weren't horrible, I wouldn't exactly say he was great at working a count (3.40 pitches/plate appearance for his career).

[A New Era]

Would we rather have Maddux as our pitching coach eventually or our GM?

 

 

I'd say pitching coach personally.

 

Second that

 

 

Sure that would be nice, but Rothschild has been doing a pretty good job. Hate to lose someone proven good when Maddux hasn't proven he'd be a great pitching coach yet. I like the idea of having Mad dog there to mentor the young guys but somehow keep Rothschild around.

[Sammy Sofa]

Fundamentals aren't all that important? You aren't a good baseball player if you don't have the basic fundamentals down. If you're a liability on the basepaths and can't field for crap and can't work a count, then you'd better hit about 50 homers a year to make up for it.

 

You're not going to turn around a player who is an established MLB player in terms of their baserunning or their fielding outside of minor tweeks. A bad baserunner is generally going to stay a bad baserunner and a bad fielder is generally going to stay a bad fielder. If a guy is at least 30 and has been in the bigs for years and is crappy at laying down the bunt or taking a count that's tremendously unlikely to change even with the best coaches working with them.

[Outshined_One]

Curious place for a recently retired player to begin his career. Special assistants to the GM seem like pointless positions given to legends, or ways to hide fired GMs. I like the idea of Maddux being involved, but I always doubt the coaching or scouting abilities of a great player, and this seems like it could easily just be a marketing gimmick for new owners to reach out to somebody the crowd loved.

 

I was going to say that but you beat me to it. Maddux is definitely the type of great player who you could see becoming a great GM or manager but great players don't seem to do well in those roles. I just don't think they can relate to a majority of players because it was always so easy for them. Jordan would be a great example. Greatest player ever IMO but can't evaluate talent worth a lick.

 

Jerry West is the only great player that could really evaluate talent that I can think of.

 

Ozzie Newsome is in the NFL HOF and has done a great job as the GM of the Baltimore Ravens. It's rare, but it's not unheard of.

[SouthSideRyan]

Ryno will teach our guys to hold the bat right side up and stop running to 3rd base after they make contact. Fundamentals? What garbage.

[A New Era]

carrie muskat's tweet on this:

 

Duties include assisting coaching staff and teaching kids to be winners

 

teaching kids to be winners???? step one, get traded to another organization.

 

 

"Teaching kids to be winners" or "He's a winner". Is one of those stupid copout phrases along with "He knows how to play the game", and "He plays the game right". LOL it makes me chuckle everytime I hear it.

[erik316wttn]

Ryno will teach our guys to hold the bat right side up and stop running to 3rd base after they make contact. Fundamentals? What garbage.

 

Yeah. Who needs guys who know what the hell they're doing out there?

[17 Seconds]

Ryno will teach our guys to hold the bat right side up and stop running to 3rd base after they make contact. Fundamentals? What garbage.

 

Yeah. Who needs guys who know what the hell they're doing out there?

 

im pretty sure that players who have gotten to the majors have a pretty good idea of how to play the game.

 

i have a question. did you like the way dusty baker managed an offense?

[erik316wttn]

Ryno will teach our guys to hold the bat right side up and stop running to 3rd base after they make contact. Fundamentals? What garbage.

 

Yeah. Who needs guys who know what the hell they're doing out there?

 

im pretty sure that players who have gotten to the majors have a pretty good idea of how to play the game.

 

i have a question. did you like the way dusty baker managed an offense?

 

I don't like a single thing that Dusty Baker ever did.

[imb]

Ryno will teach our guys to hold the bat right side up and stop running to 3rd base after they make contact. Fundamentals? What garbage.

 

Yeah. Who needs guys who know what the hell they're doing out there?

 

whoooooooooooooooooosh

[17 Seconds]

Ryno will teach our guys to hold the bat right side up and stop running to 3rd base after they make contact. Fundamentals? What garbage.

 

Yeah. Who needs guys who know what the hell they're doing out there?

 

im pretty sure that players who have gotten to the majors have a pretty good idea of how to play the game.

 

i have a question. did you like the way dusty baker managed an offense?

 

I don't like a single thing that Dusty Baker ever did.

 

if you dont like the way dusty ran his offesne then you wont like the way ryno would run it either

[erik316wttn]

Ryno will teach our guys to hold the bat right side up and stop running to 3rd base after they make contact. Fundamentals? What garbage.

 

Yeah. Who needs guys who know what the hell they're doing out there?

 

im pretty sure that players who have gotten to the majors have a pretty good idea of how to play the game.

 

i have a question. did you like the way dusty baker managed an offense?

 

I don't like a single thing that Dusty Baker ever did.

 

if you dont like the way dusty ran his offesne then you wont like the way ryno would run it either

 

If you read a few posts up, you'd see where I said that I'm not saying that his positives outweigh his negatives. I'm just saying that he wouldn't be ALL bad, that's all.

[jersey cubs fan]

If you read a few posts up, you'd see where I said that I'm not saying that his positives outweigh his negatives. I'm just saying that he wouldn't be ALL bad, that's all.

 

Nobody is ever all bad. So what? Mob bosses help people, it doesn't make them good citizens.