This Is the Best Maddon Has Ever Been
He drives the most knowledgeable baseball fan insane with his against the grain decisions or non-decisions. These decisions have prompted a lot of heated debate among Chicago Cubs fans across all forms of social media. His lineups will cause the sanest of fans to pull their hair out. The Chicago Sun-Times ran a hit piece on the Cubs skipper. There are groups out there that are openly calling for the Cubs to fire Joe Maddon.
The slant-eye towards Joe all started in Game Six of the World Series. With a 7-2 lead and two outs in the seventh inning, Maddon turned to Aroldis Chapman to face Francisco Lindor. Now, this was the World Series, but the Cubs had a five-run lead and two outs already in the inning. Joe explained it as that point in the ballgame (seventh and eighth innings) being the real save opportunity.
This can happen in a game. Sometimes, based on who is coming to the plate and the situation, the most important outs come before the ninth inning. But, then Joe turned to Chapman, who earlier in the year mentioned how he wasn’t keen on pitching more than one inning, to do it yet again in Game 7.
It was the usage of Chapman, as well as when he lifted Kyle Hendricks for Jon Lester, which caused many fans to claim, “we won in spite of Joe.”
Now, of course, that isn’t true. The Cubs won because of Joe Maddon. Sure he might not have coached his best series in the World Series, but the Cubs do not make it that far and do not win if he wasn’t the coach of that team.
Sure you will fire back, “with that roster anyone could have coached them to win!” This simply isn’t true. The things Joe does to prepare the team is what makes him a successful manager. Joe allowing his players to have their personalities on the field makes him a successful manager. Not restricting players from bunting or stealing (both things Joe doesn’t like) and allowing them to make their own calls, makes him a successful manager.
Fast-forward to 2018.
There are tons of fans, you read their comments every day, that will curse Joe’s lineup card. They will complain that Albert Almora isn’t in the lineup. Then they will complain when Almora is in the lineup, but not leading off. Then they complain because Ian Happ had a great day at the plate, but is sitting the next day. Maybe they don’t like that Javier Baez is too low in the lineup, and then they don’t like that he is too high in the lineup. Or, God forbid, a power guy is leading off!!!
There are many complaints about his usage of the pitching staff, questioning him firing both the hitting coach and pitching coach after last season and hiring Jim Hickey and Chili Davis. The complaints have continued to the players’ inability to make contact in high-leverage spots and pitchers unable to get guys out in those same situations.
There are all of these things circling around the Cubs, but what if I told you the Cubs were in first place and all of these things were true:
Anthony Rizzo slashed .242/.338/.401 with 12 HR through the first 82 games
Kris Bryant would have been on the DL twice missing 30 games and has 11 HR
The Cubs best free agent pitching acquisition has been Steve Cishek
Yu Darvish had started a total of eight games
Tyler Chatwood was removed from the rotation
Kyle Hendricks has a 3.97 ERA
Jose Quintana has 4.26 ERA
Brandon Morrow has two stints on the DL
Do you want to know the reason the Cubs are in first? It is because of Joe Maddon’s decision-making.
Fans were upset that Ian Happ got so many starts early in the season while Albert Almora was hitting the ball. But even with the struggles, Joe stayed with Ian and put him in good positions. Since June 16th, Ian has hit .292/.414/.434. Not only that, Happ has been a decent glove, filling in at six different positions this season.
Joe did this same thing last season with Almora as well. While Jon Jay was an adequate center fielder and offered the team a potential leadoff hitter, Almora began to find his way. His bat was coming around and he was tearing the cover off of the ball. But a lot of this was due to Maddon picking and choosing Alberts at-bats. Getting him in against guys he would be successful against.
Joe did the same thing with Kyle Schwarber. Kyle had a horrible 2017, a season in which he was sent down to the minor leagues. He was like Frankenstein in left field. But Joe stuck with Schwarber, he found those at-bats at the end of 2017 that he could succeed in, and that positive momentum carried over to 2018. Joe had been rewarded with a much improved Schwarber, especially in the field.
Again, when everyone in baseball wrote Jason Heyward off as a complete and utter bust, Joe kept finding ways to get him out there. Oh, and his hitting coach was able to fix the hitting issues that had plagued Jason since he has been a Cub.
Oh, and what about Javier Baez? Here is another guy that Joe’s continued conversations with have helped improve. He has been preaching a more tempered approach at the plate since he has been here. Him staying with Baez, Davis’ ability to be the voice Baez needed to hear, both of them getting to Baez has taken a kid with immense talent to the heights of being an All Star in this game.
Now it is true that several players having bad years, but that should speak even more to the job Maddon has done this season.
It is easy to sit on social media and criticize moves that didn’t work. But it is a lot harder for a manager to manage a group of guys, with egos, with millions of dollars on the line and continue to pull the right strings. Joe Maddon, for all his quirkiness and head-scratching moves, and Wrigley Field zoos, and dress ups. Joe is the best dude to lead the Cubs. He was that guy in 2015, he was right in 2016, 2017, and 2018 is perhaps the best job he’s ever done.
