Cubs' Epstein downplays talk of added emotion of Red Sox visit
The Boston Red Sox will provide the Cubs with their next interleague test as they invade Wrigley Field this weekend.
Saturday night's game (FOX) and Sunday night's game (ESPN) will be seen by large audiences.
On top of that, Cubs president Theo Epstein came to the Cubs from the Red Sox after a bitter breakup in Boston last fall.
Earlier this week, Epstein downplayed talk of added emotion as best he could.
“I'm sure there will be,” he said. “First and foremost, it'll be great to see everybody, renew acquaintances with everybody. Yeah, it'll be fun to have those guys in town and compete with them.”
Epstein's Red Sox clubs won World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, but they fell just short in 2008 and last year, with an epic late-season collapse.
The Boston Herald ran an Epstein story Thursday.
”When you don't quite live up to that same standard in the standings, even for a brief period of time, those pressures get magnified; it gets harder to manage, and I think I personally we didn't do a good enough job of executing our baseball plan, even in a vacuum, towards the end,” Epstein told the paper. “And I didn't do as good a job of managing that.
“Had we been completely true to our baseball philosophy that we set out and believed in and followed, we probably wouldn't have made certain moves that we made anyway, moves that, as I look back on them, they were probably moves too much of convenience, of placating elements that shouldn't have been important. Those were my mistakes.”
Epstein added in the Herald story: .”There are always going to be pressures and tensions, and it was a real palpable thing that we talked about, where there was a natural tendency to look at the successes and the spikes that came with the World Series championships and assume that's the new baseline.”
Stewart to DL:The Cubs put third baseman Ian Stewart on the 15-day disabled list with what they termed left-wrist soreness. The injury has been lingering for a year with Stewart, and he will go to Cleveland to get a second opinion. #8220;I was trying to battle through that,#8221; he said. #8220;If I wasn't going to go out there and really produce and help the team, there was no sense in being out there if it's hurting and not getting any better.#8221;Stewart has had a rough year at the plate. He has a hitting line of 201/.292/.335 with 5 homers and 17 RBI. The Cubs obtained him last winter in a trade for outfielder Tyler Colvin and infielder DJ LeMahieu. Catching moves:The Cubs made a flurry of roster moves. To replace Ian Stewart, they selected the contract of infielder Luis Valbuena from Class AAA Iowa. Valbuena was on the Cubs' opening-day roster but was sent to Iowa after one game. The Cubs also activated catcher Welington Castillo (knee) from the disabled list and designated veteran catcher Koyie Hill for assignment. Hill was with the Cubs for several seasons and was obtained from the Reds organization last month after the Cubs had lost Castillo, Geovany Soto and Steve Clevenger to injuries. #8220;He filled a spot,#8221; manager Dale Sveum said. #8220;We were very lucky to be able to pick him up out of Double-A. He filled a big void for us ... basically, and did a nice job. He always handled the pitchers really well and does a great job.#8220;It's too bad. Hopefully, we keep him in the organization for depth and still have him. On the other hand, he's such an ultimate professional that you'd like to see him get claimed on waivers, too, and go straight to the big leagues with somebody, too.#8221;