Learning from the Cubs
Rebuilding a team can take a long time
It’s fashionable these days to jump on the Chicago Cubs bandwagon. Just look at the number of their fans who returned over the weekend to visit Miller Park, which is back to being Wrigley Field North.
But would Brewers fans stomach the long, painful period it took to get the Cubs back to respectability? It’s a question worth asking as the Brewers have just begun their rebuilding process with a flurry of trades.
In 2008, the Cubs were 97-64 and one of the best teams in the National League. Then came the slip — 83-79 in 2009 and 75-87 in 2010. When the team began to bottom out with 91 losses in 2011, Theo Epstein was hired away from the Boston Red Sox to oversee a massive overhaul of the roster.
The next three years were painful ones — 61-101 in 2012, 66-96 in 2013 and 73-89 in 2014. So, in the four-year period from 2011-’14, the Cubs averaged 94 losses a season while finishing last in the NL Central each time.
As the Cubs have returned to contending mode this year, let’s not forget how ugly it was for so long to get there. Without a crystal ball, there’s no way to know how long it’s going to take the Brewers to return to that status, or how tough it will be.
“I don’t know if I know the answer to that,” said manager Craig Counsell, whose team was swept in the four-game series by the Cubs. “I think the difficulty is, you start at a place and the whole thing is a building process. We’re building something.
“How we evaluate that building is what’s going to get dicey. Do we evaluate it every day after a game? How do we pick the way to evaluate how we’re progressing? That’s going to be the tricky part. If there are (many) losses, it’s not going to look good. It’s not going to look like we’re making progress.
“There can be progress out of failure for players. I think we’re going to have to understand that a little bit going forward. We’re building. That’s how we’re always going to look at it.”
As for the daily approach, Counsell said, “We’re always going to be trying to win a baseball game. Every day, we’re going to try to win a baseball game. But evaluating it from a bigger picture is part of our jobs as well.”
Asked if that requires some guesswork on management’s part, Counsell said, “I’m not thinking about how long (it will take). You’re just working with what we’ve got and trying to rebuild it.”
Proving ground: With hothitting Gerardo Parra shipped off to Baltimore, Khris Davis can be assured of playing regular in left field the remainder of the season. The two shared time while Parra was cranking out hit after hit.
It will be up to Davis to take advantage of the opportunity and prove he should be included in the team’s rebuilding plan. He put himself on the Brewers’ radar in 2013 — after Ryan Braun was suspended for the final two months — by hitting 11 home runs in 56 games with a .949 OPS.
In a full season of play in 2014, Davis batted .244 with 22 home runs, 69 RBI and a .756 OPS (.722 in the second half). Like most of the team’s hitters, he got off to a poor start this season, then missed five weeks with a knee injury.
By the time Davis returned, Parra’s bat was smoking. Now, he needs to prove he’s a keeper. After going hitless Sunday, he is batting .232 in 65 games with two homers, seven RBI and a .734 OPS.
“I think that’s fair to say,” said Counsell. “Khris is a little more than a year and a half into his big-league career. That’s not that far.
“He’s going to get pretty regular at-bats here. He’s got two months left, 175, 180 plate appearances left. So, he’ll have plenty of time to have a good season. There’s no question Khris shows you why you want to put him in the middle of the lineup. When players are young, you’re always looking for them to take the next step.
“This isn’t the baseball rules by me. There’s development for these guys. It’s not always even, but you want to see everything go in the right direction.”