Cubs Could Hire an Inexperienced Ex-Cub – Not Named Ross
I’ve been on the whole David Ross as the next Chicago Cubs manager for a while. Reason being – he’s the perfect option. I’m not saying that because I’m a meatheaded fan that can’t get my head outta 2016, or have a soft spot for him. I mean, I do have a soft spot for Rossy, but my opinion stretches past warm feelings. I pay attention to rumbling around the league, I understand roster creation is much more responsible for wins and losses than a manager is, and from dissecting Ross – everything points to him being a perfect option.
But there’s the whole experience thing – which if some of the most successful organizations aren’t carrying about the experience – why should a subset of Cubs fans care?
They shouldn’t. With some of the most successful managers in baseball right now having no experience, and one of those guys finding a way to beat the Cubs in each of the past two seasons, maybe it’s time for the Cubs to grab onto the inexperienced, instead of recycling the same old guys over and over?
Last offseason, the Cubs hired Mark Loretta, Tommy Hottovy, and Anthony Iapoce. These were all front office guys. All Theo Epstein guys. I don’t believe the Cubs have interest in letting any of them go. While a lot of fans will point to either hitting or pitching (or both) as a reason the season was a failure, there were several things each of them did, positively, that improved the team. The bigger part of this was, the Cubs simply didn’t have the bullets to complete daily.
I don’t get the sense that the front office is ready to get rid of “their guys” which means whoever comes will have to do so knowing these guys come with the hire. This leads me to believe the selection will be a young, inexperienced guy, which does include Loretta. Guys like Ross, or…
Sam Fuld
Maybe you just lost your shit right there, or maybe your forward-thinking enough to see this one out.
Fuld has always been a heady and smart player. He’s another one of those guys that were pegged at a fairly young age to be a future manager in the game. Currently, Fuld is working as the Major League Player Information Coordinator.
What the hell is that?
Yeah, it’s a strange title and should be listed on ‘The 50 Weirdest Job Titles.” But what this is, is actually really, really important in the game today.
Today’s game is about analytical data. How many revolutions a pitch has, the exit velocity out of the hand as opposed to the max speed in flight. The balance of the bat through the plane of the zone, the speed of which a bat enters, the exit velocity off the bat. Tabulating the data on what pitchers do in certain situations, what pitches they go to in a count, or with a runner on, or with two outs. Every single data point is captured and dissected by baseball front offices throughout baseball.
But, now that they know that information – how do they communicate it to the players.
Well, that is what Fuld does. He disseminates the information and breaks it down in a way that players can understand it, and incorporate it with their plans. Basically, outside a manager, he might be the single-most-important factor in a daily game plan. His role is described as such, “integrate the use of information in all areas of on-field performance and preparation and make recommendations regarding the most effective areas of future research and analysis.”
That’s a 2020 MLB manager’s job. Well, at least part of it anyway.
It wouldn’t be a dark horse type of thing either, Fuld has interviewed for other MLB manager jobs recently. The Cubs are an analytically driven organization, hence, the hiring of Hottovy and Iapoce as their pitching and hitting coaches (respectively). Fuld has played for several organizations that were on the front of analytics in games. He had multiple stints with the Oakland Athletics as well as a completely analytic driven organization in the Tampa Bay Rays.
Coincidently, he played under Maddon and thrived in that environment.
Tim Brown asked several of baseball’s braintrusts in 2018 on who will be in the next wave of baseball managers, and many agree that Fuld in that mix. So this suggestion isn’t out of thin air. Here are a couple of responses Brown received when asked what the traits next wave of managers will possess.
Said one of those polled: “The brainpower bar has certainly been raised because there is so much information to manage, both up and down.”
Yahoo Sports
Said another: “New-age managers are more psychologists regarding handling players; 2) analytics majors for front office compatibility; 3) media props; 4) lastly, game strategists.”
To ignore information is to fail in today’s game. If you have someone at the helm that doesn’t process, validate, or understand the information – you have an unsuccessful manager.
This isn’t to say that information drives everything. The manager must have the ability to make decisions on a particular situation, but, the best managers will use the data in their process.
There are a couple of others that can fit the mold, Mark Derosa, Carlos Beltran, Raul Ibanez, Eric Chavez, to name a few. But, if you are looking for someone that is on the front of the analytics, has a new fresh perspective, and has a proven track record of disseminating information and communicating that to players – look no further than Fuld.
