Joe Maddon to the Cubs. UPDATE: He’s gone (p 19)

[jim]

It's a pretty good gig. A brilliant and almost unbelievable history of failure, so that future failure is almost expected, yet with a young core of players where failure is almost impossible (depending on your definition of failure).

Yeah he's going to come out of this smelling pretty good I think. To all of the people that say he's a smart guy - you are right!

[33anda3rd]

I think he's a good manager, and pioneer had a good point about him being a "star" manager which important for the organization. But between the white lines - it's going to be Bryant and Baez and Rizzo and Soler and Russell that are going to carry the team, not Maddon.

I, too, think he's a "star". He was competitive with a low payroll for his division. And he markets himself better than any other manager. But that's really it.

I think you're short selling him quite a bit.

[pioneer98]

The expectations are just so, so, so sky high with the Cubs right now. I don't know how you ever live up to it. Maddon is walking into a situation where the media has convinced people the Cubs have like 3 or 4 Alberts coming up through the farm. It's set up so that if they do win a World Series it will be the greatest team of all time, and Maddon will be elevated to whatever is above a genius. And if they don't, Maddon will likely be run out of town just like Dusty and Lou. Just my feeling, but I don't think there will be much room for middle ground - it will either be the best thing ever or a colossal failure.

[pioneer98]

It's a pretty good gig. A brilliant and almost unbelievable history of failure, so that future failure is almost expected

That's the thing though - I don't think people expect failure. The Cubs are being hyped so much right now that the expectations are sky high. That's one thing (of many) I find annoying about the Cubs - whenever they look pretty good on paper, the expectations go through the roof. The media has a lot to do with this phenomenon. You'd think after all the crushing losses their fans would learn to temper their expectations, but they don't. Maybe this is the 1 time where the expectations are finally justified. We shall see.

[pioneer98]

See what I mean?

With Maddon hire prompting heavy action, odds on #Cubs winning '15 World Series drop from 50-1 to 20-1, per @BovadaLV

[heyzeus]

See what I mean?

With Maddon hire prompting heavy action, odds on #Cubs winning '15 World Series drop from 50-1 to 20-1, per @BovadaLV

Lolol. If only I could make any money by betting the Cubs won't win the World Series in 2015, I'd bet my life savings.

[obucard]

See what I mean?

With Maddon hire prompting heavy action, odds on #Cubs winning '15 World Series drop from 50-1 to 20-1, per @BovadaLV

Clearly they don't want to end up like this guy.

[BW23]

I think he's a good manager, and pioneer had a good point about him being a "star" manager which important for the organization. But between the white lines - it's going to be Bryant and Baez and Rizzo and Soler and Russell that are going to carry the team, not Maddon.

I, too, think he's a "star". He was competitive with a low payroll for his division. And he markets himself better than any other manager. But that's really it.

I think you're short selling him quite a bit.

Not really. He's good, but he's not the best manager in baseball. He won because of the great, cheap talent Tampa had. His entrance and exit were both examples of perfect timing. And he does more to get in the national media than any other manager. Maybe more than all combined. Those two things prop him up more than he deserves to be.

Now, his value is probably high with getting young guys to play well. But I'm sure if he managed the Cards, I'd complain a lot about his in-game strategy.

[pioneer98]

See what I mean?

With Maddon hire prompting heavy action, odds on #Cubs winning '15 World Series drop from 50-1 to 20-1, per @BovadaLV

Lolol. If only I could make any money by betting the Cubs won't win the World Series in 2015, I'd bet my life savings.

My first thought when I saw that was if I had just bought the 50 to 1 odds last week, if there was a secondary market you could sell your bet on to someone who was happy with 20 to 1. Maybe they'd pay extra to get the bigger potential payout. Why wait for the whole season to play out to cash in?

[jim]

It's a pretty good gig. A brilliant and almost unbelievable history of failure, so that future failure is almost expected

That's the thing though - I don't think people expect failure. The Cubs are being hyped so much right now that the expectations are sky high. That's one thing (of many) I find annoying about the Cubs - whenever they look pretty good on paper, the expectations go through the roof. The media has a lot to do with this phenomenon. You'd think after all the crushing losses their fans would learn to temper their expectations, but they don't. Maybe this is the 1 time where the expectations are finally justified. We shall see.

A lot of people around here are skeptical. I just talked to a guy this a.m. at my gym (I was wearing a Cards t-shirt as usual) and he was pretty skeptical. He really didn't know much about the prospects, he almost seemed surprised about how genuinely high I was on the Cubs. He reminded me about Pinella and Dusty and Soriano - and I just told I believe this is different. And I believe it, I do think the Cubs are setup pretty good, and would be very surprised if they aren't very competitive for many years coming up soon.

A lot of local fans want to believe, but they are so guarded that if they do fail they almost to some degree expect it or at least let their brains think about it to not get their hopes up too high.