This will be a quick blog because I’m presently on my way downtown to meet family for dinner and take in this Trey Anastasio concert.
I’m a big on family-balance and this is a perfectly good example. And as I’ve said before and will repeat again, it’s hard to beat quality time with loved ones. In fact I would argue it’s technically impossible because family time is the #1 time all time.
Nevertheless, I wanted to use this News & Notes blog on just one topic today, and that’s Craig Counsell’s decision to take out Shota Imanaga.
I don’t disagree with the reasoning at all.
In fact I think it’s a good opportunity to draw a line on how we feel about Craig. Because it’s very easy right now to complain about him and that aligns with my natural disposition towards him. But you can’t be mad that he took Shota out with a 70-pitch count after the 4th inning. You just absolutely cannot under any set of circumstances hold that against the manager.
For starters, it’s mid-March and Shota’s got another 32 starts to make in the regular season PLUS another 4-5 quality starts in October if things go according to plan.
The dumbest thing you could do is risk injury or fatigue just to stretch him into the 5th inning when it’s well established he’s not going past 70 pitches.
The next reason you shouldn’t complain about it is that Shota would never throw more than 4 innings in a March 18th spring training start. Using common sense, I can’t let Rob Manfred’s global-scheduling conflict supersede Shota’s natural progression to prepare for the season.
In other words I won’t let MLB dictate Shota’s workload just because they want to play the season opener in Japan because the American audience is rapidly dwindling. That would be stupid and I’m actually glad Counsell didn’t give in like that.
If anything, I think it’s a shitty situation to put MLB players in live situations 2-weeks before any of their peers. I think that’s vehemently against the routine and habits of an MLB starting pitcher. And I think that’s exactly why you saw some breaks in command from Shota today. Give him another couple weeks and a couple more developmental starts and I would imagine there’s going to be more polish.
That’s by far and away my biggest takeaway from his outing today. The fact he wasn’t remotely sharp but still held the Dodgers hitless should be celebrated much more than Counsell should be criticized for taking him out.
That said – I still don’t like Craig because he’s an unlikable guy. I don’t like how smug he is and I certainly don’t like that his arrogance. The entire package really pisses me off because I think he represents some of the worst aspects of rich uppity northshore yuppie pussies. And that’s exactly what I want to be distanced from in my Cubs fandom.
Unfortunately, that guy’s our manager and the contract says he stays no matter how much I hate his guts.
The only thing I want to point out for now though is that I don’t hate his guts over the Shota pull.
I hate his guts because I hate his guts and some times it’s just that simple.
And if that doesn’t make sense, then allow me to explain better when the Monday Morning Cubs Show returns with Mahoney in April. Until then just trust me not to trust that guy. He’s got a long way to go.