LaHair adjusting to new role with Cubs
It was just a month-and-a-half ago that Bryan LaHair was named to the National League all-star team. You couldn’t wipe the smile from his face that day at Wrigley Field.
Things are different nowadays. LaHair starts only sporadically, and in right field, not first base. He hit his 15th home run Wednesday in Milwaukee, but it was his first since the Fourth of July.
“It’s been awhile, I know that,” he said with a chuckle. “But I’m just battling right now, working hard behind the scenes and trying to get things figured out, having good at-bats and trying to hit balls hard again.”
LaHair’s peers voted him onto the all-star team based on his April and May numbers, when he hit 10 of his home runs. But time has not been kind to LaHair. His monthly batting averages look like this:
ŸApril: 390
ŸMay: .253
ŸJune: 231
ŸJuly: 194
ŸAugust: .167
Since Anthony Rizzo came up and took LaHair’s first-base spot in June and Brett Jackson came up and crowded LaHair out of the outfield this month, playing time has been hard to come by. And if you don’t play, it’s hard to get hot again at the plate.
“It’s definitely tough,” LaHair said. “It’s not something I’m used to. Obviously, it’s not something I like. I have a role now, and I’m just trying to do the best job I can possibly do and learn that role. It’s a role I haven’t learned before, so I’m trying to learn that role.”
LaHair’s story is still a good one. At 29, he made a major-league roster for the first time out of spring training and then got to play in the All-Star Game. No matter what happens, nobody can take that from him. However, LaHair is still looking ahead.
“I’m trying to show people every day what I can do,” he said. “Every day I work hard. I have to get back on track.”
Go figure:It#146;s always fun to look back and see what the #147;conventional wisdom#148; of the day was. About a year ago, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts gave farm boss Oneri Fleita a multiyear contract extension even before a new baseball-management team came aboard.At the time, the conventional wisdom had Fleita safe for years to come while scouting director Tim Wilken was a likely goner.Less than a year later, Fleita was being fired by new president Theo Epstein just after Wilken got a multiyear deal to be a special assistant and expand his scouting duties.So much for #147;conventional wisdom.#148; And you still have to wonder what Ricketts was doing giving Fleita a contract extension knowing new baseball bosses were coming in.Here#146;s hoping #147;Fleit#148; enjoys some time off and then gets back into the game in some role. He#146;s one of the sport#146;s good guys.Pace yourself:We#146;ve kept track of the Cubs#146; won-loss pace since the middle of June, when they fell to 21-42, putting them on pace to finish 54-108.A little run of respectability got that loss pace down to 93 by the end of July, but the trade-deadline roster purge figured to send the loss total soaring again.The Cubs enter the weekend series against the Colorado Rockies with a record of 47-76, putting them on pace to finish 62-100.The Cubs twice finished with records of 59-103, in 1962 and 1966.#147;You have to stay on them about keeping their head up, which they have,#148; manager Dale Sveum said. #147;The atmosphere is fine. The atmosphere in the dugout has been OK and all that. You don#146;t see a lot of hanging their head or anything like that.#147;The process of just grinding at-bats out has got to get better. We#146;re not grinding at-bats out. We#146;re really passive (at) hitting right now. It#146;s like we#146;re afraid to make mistakes, and that#146;s what you#146;re going to do.#147;You can#146;t be afraid to fail at this level, and it looks like that#146;s what we#146;re kind of going through right now.#148;bmiles@dailyherald.comBBN27672215With limited playing time, the Cubs Bryan LaHair is working hard to get his offense back on track.Associated PressBBN