As to what’s wrong with the Cubs consider yesterday’s game against the White Sox. The White Sox were leading 1 to 0 going into the seventh. Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald picks up the story from there:
"Juan Pierre led off with a walk. After Ramirez failed to bunt, Pierre stole second, sliding around the tag of rookie shortstop Starlin Castro. Piniella argued with umpire Kerwin Danley, but replays showed Danley stayed with the play and made the correct call.
‘The tag-out, we've worked on that with the young shortstop,’ Piniella said. ‘He has a tendency to want to reach out. Instead of putting the glove on the bag where he can tag the runner, he wants to reach, and the umpires, when they see you reach and they see you reach again, they're not going to give you the call.
‘We've talked to him about it a few times. What are you going to do?’"
After the stolen base Pierre scored on single, making the score 2 to 0. The Cubs got one run in the bottom of the ninth, but that was it, and they lost 2 to 1.
It’s good that the Cubs’ coaches are trying to work with Starlin Castro on properly tagging out a runner at second, but why do they have to do it? Starling Castro has been in the Cubs system since he was 16 years old. Why hasn’t he been taught this already? Why are the Cubs major league coaches having to teach him something so basic? Aren’t players supposed to learn things like this in the minors?
If players come out of the Cubs’ minor league system making mistakes like this, then the Cubs’ player development system is not working right. If there aren’t enough coaches in the minors to teach things like this, then the Cubs need to hire more coaches. Coaches are cheap. The Cubs have six minor league teams. An extra coach at each level would probably cost no more than one utility infielder in the majors – and would be worth much more.
If the Cubs have enough coaches, then maybe they need different coaches. Or maybe the people who are leading the system need to be different. Something needs to be done because players need to learn the basics of baseball before they get to the majors, not after.
---------------
Note: If this post sounds familiar, it is probably because I said the same thing in May of 2007 with respect to Rich Hill needing to learn how to hold runners on base.
When you consider both today’s post and my post about Koyie Hill’s comments after Thursday’s game in Milwauke, you can see there is a problem that needs to be fixed.
Update (6/14/10 8:10 am): Corrected the spelling of "Starlin" Castro's name.
I disagree - Mike Fontenot is worth his weight in gold as an utility infielder. Thankfully he's small, so we don't have to pay him that much.
love, Jennie
Posted by: Jennie | June 14, 2010 at 08:09 AM