After the 2nd half collapse in 2012, the Chicago Cubs made the tough choice of having to rebuild. With aging veterans like Matt Holliday, Aramis Ramirez and Victor Martinez and holding onto some bad contracts like Oni Taki. The Cubs were in a position that they were handcuffed and made the difficult decision to rebuild. This decision to rebuild was questioned by many owners and many of the prognosticators said that the Cubs would not be in a position to contend again for a good 5 seasons.
Here we now are 2 seasons after the start of the rebuild and the 2015 roster of the Chicago Cubs make you scratch your head and wonder one thing. Are they Back?
When you look at this roster you will notice something different from the back to back team that played in the NLCS in 2011 and 2012. Michael Almnazar 24 years old, James Aitkenhead 25 years old, Nick Trudeau 24 years old, Starlin Castro 25 years old, Antonio Diaz 22 years old, Eric Gossage 24 years old, Agustin Toulis 23 years old, Manny Barbely 23 years old and Kelvin De La Cruz 26 years old. This revamp of the Chicago Cubs is built around youth and they will not have father time on their shoulder and the pieces that are at 30 or above are pieces that can be replaced. The Cubs in 2011 and 2012 did not have another thing, players in the minors ready for their time. Those teams treated the minors as trade bait to acquire that next piece to the team. Thomas, Trout, Widdup and Morris are players that in their time when they are ready can all be solid contributors to the current ball club and are in no threat of going anywhere in the near future.
With that being said, I still do not feel like the Cubs of 2015 are done with this roster as of yet. The newly added co-gm and gm have been in lengthy discussions about some directions of improvement. With the recent acquisition of Aybar at 2nd base, gives this Cub team something that they did not have in 2011 and 2012. A very good defense up the middle. Castro, Aybar, Diaz and Morrison are very good defenders. In the first 11 games of this season, the Cubs have committed only 1 error and that 1 error was committed by the best defensive player on the roster, Michael Almnazar.
The Chicago Cubs owner went on the record last night in FCM radio show in saying "We are not a playoff team". They might not be the front runner for the playoff spot in the National League but I think the National League will soon find that this 2015 Chicago Cubs are not the Cubs of 2013 and 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment