Cubs’ scouting director Wilken will be back
The Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers are separated by 90 miles in driving distance and light years in the standings.
The Brewers came to town Monday night with a magic number of 4 to clinch the National League Central division.
The Cubs are trying to overtake the Pittsburgh Pirates for fourth place and keep the Brewers from celebrating at Wrigley Field this week.
The magic number stayed at 4 with a 5-2 victory for the Cubs, who got 2 home runs from Geovany Soto and 6 strong innings and a career-best 8 strikeouts from starting pitcher Casey Coleman.
Both teams made the playoffs in 2008, and while the Cubs have slipped steadily since then, the Brewers reloaded last off-season for a run at the division title.
The Cubs fired their general manager, Jim Hendry, last month, and while they’ve just begun their search for a replacement, they’re keeping other key parts of their front office in place.
Scouting director Tim Wilken, responsible for the Cubs’ amateur drafts since 2006, was informed over the weekend that he will be back, at least to fulfill his contract, which runs through 2012.
Recently, the Cubs quietly extended the contract of farm director Oneri Fleita for four more years.
Wilken met with Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts on Sunday. Ricketts gave Wilken the go-ahead to retain whatever staff members he felt were vital to the organization.
“He was extremely supportive, just as he has been in the past,” Wilken said. “We talked about all different types of things. The one thing he wanted me to make sure was to tell the troops, the ones we have in place, that they’ll be coming back. He wanted to make sure we got that done as soon as possible in hopes of not losing some of our people we think are key.”
One such person was area scout Stan Zielinski, in whom the Cleveland Indians had interest. Wilken said Zielinski chose to stay with the Cubs because “he likes the situation.”
Wilken said Ricketts called Zielinski to thank him for his loyalty when he heard the scout was staying.
Hendry hired Wilken in December 2005, and his No. 1 picks since then have been Tyler Colvin, Josh Vitters, Andrew Cashner, Brett Jackson, Hayden Simpson and Javier Baez.
Colvin hit 20 home runs last year but has struggled this year, spending time in the minor leagues.
Current Cubs major-leaguers drafted by Wilken are Darwin Barney, Coleman, Jeff Samardzija, DJ LeMahieu, James Russell, Tony Campana and Steve Clevenger, who was called up Monday.
Ricketts keeping both Fleita and Wilken may have raised some eyebrows among observers as odd because the new GM may want his or her own people in key places, but it’s not unprecedented in baseball.
“He’s going to want someone to be pretty flexible coming in,” Wilken said of Ricketts. “You get (executives) like (Pat) Gillick and (Brian) Sabean, who’ve been in places, and they don’t change a lot.
“It’s a big peace of mind, especially when (Ricketts) tells you, ‘Whatever you need to do, you’ve got to get doing it now,’ for next year.”