Call To The Pen appears each Monday. The author’s views don’t necessarily reflect those of the Times-Union.
On a day when most of the smoke comes from fireworks, Friday it came from the ears of some Chicago Cubs fans. The Cubs traded away ace Jeff Samardzija, along with Jason Hammel, to the Oakland A’s for top prospect Addison Russell, Billy McKinney, and Dan Straily. Shortly after the announcement, Cubs fans voiced their opinions on social media to anyone that would listen. On the north side of Chicago, patience is wearing thin. For a team tabbed the “Loveable Losers,” you would think that the need for patience has come and gone. It has, after all been 106 years since the Cubs have hoisted the World Series trophy as champions of Major League Baseball. It could be the goat, or the black cat. It might even have been on Bartman. One thing is for sure, though, Cubs fans are starting to think that the Curse of Theo could be alive and well. In 2011, when Theo Epstein took on the role of President of Baseball Operations with the Cubs, he knew he was in for a challenge. He was left with hefty contracts to unload, and a very weak minor league system to build from. Epstein’s goal wasn’t to just bring a World Series to the corner of Clark and Addison, he also wanted to put together a system that would be successful year in and year out. With Friday’s trade, the foundation for that is in place. It marks the first time since 2009 that I feel the Cubs are prepared to improve with their current organization. More moves will surely be made, but the nucleus of the Cubs from now until the next decade is very bright. After Friday’s trade, the Cubs have fiv top-50 prospects in all of baseball. Unfortunately for impatient Cubs fans, you won’t be getting any relief from Kris Bryant just yet. While bringing these young guns up to take their lumps might make sense in some sports, baseball is a different animal. By holding Bryant and Javier Baez down and not promoting them to the Majors, it will allow the Cubs to avoid salary arbitration until 2017. With Baez, a possible position change could be in the works depending on the future of Starlin Castro’s contract which, has five years and $43 million left. Castro has followed up his worst season as a professional in 2013, by eclipsing his home run and RBI totals from last year – in just 85 games. But as Cubs fans, we’ve seen it all. We just know that something has to go wrong. To us, when things fall into place, it’s only a matter of time before those pieces will ultimately collapse. But this time feels different. By all intents and purposes, they’ve made all the right moves. Management has developed the worst farm system in baseball into arguably the best in just three short years. They also appear to have even struck gold with 2014 first-round pick Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber plays for Kane County (A) in the Midwest League. In just 15 games, he’s hitting .358 with 4 HR’s. While it might not be next year, the cavalry is coming. Cubs fan be patient. I mean, what could go wrong?
