For Chicago Cubs' Maddon, it's all about team
With expanded rosters and players off the disabled list, Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon has decisions to make every day about whom to play and whom to sit.
It's all based on one thing, according to the manager.
"It's all about the team right now," he said before Monday night's series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field. "I would want to believe that these young professionals understand that. It's not about them. I hope they're at Stage 5 right now where all they want to do is win. That's what you're looking for. That's what it takes.
"Baseball narcissism is not going to work right now. It just cannot be about you. You have to be about everybody else, whether it's to be pinch hit for, place in a batting order, pulled from a game. To whine about that right now would be in appropriate."
Chris Coghlan started in right field Monday, while Jorge Soler was on the bench for a second straight game. He recently returned from a stint on the disabled list. Starlin Castro has been in and out of the lineup, and Maddon has not been afraid to yank a starting pitcher early.
The Cubs began their serious run July 29, when they began a stretch of winning 15 of 16 games.
"I think (Maddon's approach) really fit with the tone of the club organization, really overall, in early August, when we made some decisions to try to maximize our chances to win," team president Theo Epstein said. "We started to ask a lot of our players in terms of the role they would take or not take and how they needed to put the team first, and maximizing our chances to win every night was the only thing that was going to matter anymore.
"The way he managed within certain games fit the way he started to use personnel to fit the different things we were going on in the organization at that time, which he did really effectively."
Loading up for Pirates:
Thursday's off-day in the schedule will enable the Cubs to skip No. 5 starting pitcher Dan Haren's spot for the three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs will start Jon Lester, Jason Hammel and Jake Arrieta, respectively, in the games Friday-Sunday.
Minor-league honors:
The Cubs named catcher Willson Contreras and right-handed pitcher Ryan Williams the organization's minor-league player and pitcher of the year, respectively. The two will be honored during a pregame ceremony before next Monday night's makeup game against the Kansas City Royals.
Contreras, 23, led the Southern League with a .333 batting average to go with 34 doubles, 4 triples, 8 home runs and 75 RBI at Class AA Tennessee.
Williams, also 23, combined to go 14-3 with a 2.16 ERA in 26 games (24 starts) between Class A South Bend and Tennessee.