Maddon Suggests Chemistry to Blame
While watching Chicago Cubs games over the past couple seasons, I haven’t gotten the sense that the roster was fun. That sense of fun was something that I picked up on early on in 2015 and was a big reason I thought the club was going to have success. Then 2016 came and the team was even more fun to watch. You could just see them having fun while watching the game. You saw them jawing with each other when Anthony Rizzo took a spill rounding first base. They had a feeling of a team that you just wanted to hang out with.
But then something changed sometime in 2017. Maybe it was two of the ringleaders of fun leaving, David Ross and Dexter Fowler? Maybe it was the stress of expectation? Or maybe it was these young players that had little responsibility began to mature?
Cubs manager, Joe Maddon spoke to some of this before Tuesday’s game.
“If you want to look into it any more deeply, it may have to do with behavior before the game, what you do,” he said. “I’m not accusing them of going out at night, because I wish they would. That’s the one part of this game we’re missing is that guys don’t go out and have a beer and talk about stuff.
“That’s not (being) old school or anything. That’s just social. Everybody is more (comfortable) wanting to stay in their room and play video games. Part of it is just not to expose them to social media and the weirdness of the world outside of their room. That’s just us. I know there are other good teams that have had great road records at night. I get that.
“But every team has a different personality. And I’d just love (if) our guys interacted a little bit more away from the hotel at night.”
Coaching staff’s don’t normally want their players to go out and have drinks at night. They especially don’t like it when the team is on the road. But, if they are all reserved to just going back to their rooms at night, jumping on Xbox, they are secluding themselves from the guys they spend more than six months of the year with.
Maybe they all go back to their rooms now because most of them are all recently married or have little ones running around? They’re in that weird new stage of their marriages where they can’t fathom leaving their room cause they might miss that FaceTime call with their wife and kids.
If you traveled separately for work just after you were married, you know that awkward feeling you get when you might be enjoying something but half your mind is thinking about your significant other. Then to avoid that, you tell colleagues that you’re not feeling up to going out and spend the night in your room on a call back home that lasts six hours till you fall asleep to each other’s voice.
A lot of these guys are still in that mindset. Heck, Kris Bryant says all the time that he’s a homebody. Just likes to sit and watch sitcoms on Netflix. There’s Anthony Rizzo that just tied the knot this last offseason. Willson Contreras was married in 2018 as well. On last Christmas, Kyle Schwarber popped the question to his girlfriend. Javier Baez is recently married with an adorable little Baez running around.
Maybe, just maybe a lot of these younger guys are homesick?
Look at Jason Heyward, his road splits are better than when playing at home. Jon Lester has a lower WHIP on the road than at home. Ben Zobrist’s batting average is 40 points higher on the road. Several veterans, guys that have been there, done that for years seem to be fine when away. The younger guys seem to have troubles. Rizzo is slashing .354/.459/.571 at home and .233/351/.469 on the road. Contreras slashes .291/.365/.593 at home and .256/.349/.489 on the road. Schwarber is slashing .283/.377/.585 at home and .214/.298/.469 on the road.
I’m not saying that new family is the reason for the woes, but Joe Maddon asked for a reason, and this one makes some sense.
“At night on the road, we get our butts kicked,” Maddon said. “If you could actually take a good look at that yourself, please (do) and give me a good reason and I’ll take it. Because that’s been the mystifying part about this season.”
Ok, well… he didn’t ask me.
If the players aren’t hanging out, goofing around with each other, having fun, maybe sipping a beer together and talking about life – they might not be growing together, but actually growing apart.
