Category archive: Chicago Cubs
The hiring of Theo Epstein as club president marked a new era for the Chicago Cubs, but there was no chance that the change would manifest itself in the standings this year, and there is little chance that it will change anything next year.
The Cubs' problems are simply defined. They are probably about five or six young pitchers short of having a legitimate shot of contending. They are four or five players short among their position players, and those they do have -- Starlin Castro and Triple-A first baseman Anthony Rizzo -- need more development time.
Castro's career-high batting average of .316 masks a raw approach at the plate that is pervasive in this organization right now. We're a quarter of the way through the season and Castro has just four walks and a .326 on-base percentage, and he already has eight errors. To repeat: Castro has twice as many errors as walks. And he's supposed to be the Cubs' best player.
So this sets up perhaps the most compelling crossroads of the summer: How far should Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer take their restructuring of the roster, particularly in the case of Castro, Matt Garza and Bryan LaHair, who has been a bright spot in the organization this summer? (It would seem to be a fait accompli that the Cubs will deal Ryan Dempster, the 35-year-old right-hander who is headed to free agency in the fall.)
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
Buster Olney
Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of two books. "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," is a Times best-seller, and "How Lucky You Can Be", about basketball coaching legend Don Meyer, was released in 2011.
He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).
Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."
Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN