Playoff teams provide lessons; it's up to the Cubs to learn
If the Cubs, along with the rest of America, have been able to stay up late enough and pay attention, there are a good number of lessons to be learned from the teams that advanced past the first round of the playoffs.
Chief among them:
• You don't need a $100 million payroll to get to the World Series. Nor do you need to commit more than $300 million during one winter, only to come up wanting.
• Player development is a must.
• A shrewd trade here and there can make all the difference.
• A sound offensive philosophy matters.
Let's look at them one by one. The Colorado Rockies entered this season with a player payroll of about $54.4 million. Their salaries range from the $16.6 million Todd Helton received down to $381,000 for Troy Tulowitzki, who may end up being Rookie of the Year.
The Rockies beat the Diamondbacks, who started the year with a payroll of $52 million. The Cleveland Indians opened at $61.6 million.
The Cubs tried to emulate the Red Sox and Yankees, who've been engaged in a United States-Soviet Union arms race for many years.
Next, look up and down the Rockies' roster. You'll see homegrown talent, again ranging from Helton to Tulowitzki, with players such as MVP candidate Matt Holiday, Brad Hawpe, Jeff Francis, Garrett Atkins and Ryan Spilborghs in between.
The Cubs made strides this year in bringing homegrown talent to the big leagues, but they've still got a ways to go before their own drafted-and-developed players are in the lineup every day.
If the Cubs can ever get the hang of this, they won't have to go on spending sprees like the one last winter. Ryan Theriot made $390,000 this year and will make a little more next, and if catcher Geovany Soto is the real deal, he could be playing every day in 2008 and making just above the major-league minimum.
It would be a start.
On the trading front, few have done better than the Indians. They got Grady Sizemore from the Montreal Expos. They also nabbed Travis Hafner, Josh Barfield, Asdrubal Cabrera, Franklin Gutierrez and Kelly Shoppach in trades. Couple that with drafted players such as C.C. Sabathia and Ryan Garko, and undrafted free agents such as Jhonny Peralta, Fausto Carmona and Victor Martinez, and you've got yourself a nice and relatively inexpensive ballclub.
Finally, the Cubs get tired of hearing it, but they've got to start developing an offensive philosophy based on high on-base percentage. Manager Lou Piniella knows this.
In 2006, the Cubs were last in the NL in OBP and 15th in runs scored. This year, they improved to ninth in OBP and eighth in runs scored.
See the correlation? There's more.
The NL champion Rockies were first in OBP and second in runs scored. The playoff-bound Phillies were second in OBP and first in runs scored. In the American League, the Red Sox were second in OBP and third in runs. The Indians were fifth in OBP and sixth in runs. The Yankees were first in OBP and first in runs.
During the playoffs, the surviving teams didn't go up to the plate hacking at every first pitch or every pitch out of the strike zone, as did Cubs hitters on too many occasions.
The beauty of players with high OBPs is that they usually maintain it throughout their careers. In other words, it's a constant stat, not a random one, such as how a guy hits with runners in scoring position or how many runs he knocks in from third base. Those stats usually vary from year to year.
The lessons are there. Will the Cubs heed them so they can get back to the playoffs and advance next year?