Rozner: Chicago Cubs' call doesn't have to be about blame

Chicago Cubs fans are angry. And that's a good thing.

Expectations bring disappointment for all but one team each season, and better to suffer the disappointment of expectations than be condemned to irrelevance before a season even begins.

Prior to 2015, you have known almost entirely this as your existence.

But anger breeds hysteria and the search for blame, most often landing on the manager even when it makes no sense.

Sometimes it does, sure, but over the last week as the Cubs dropped so many 1-run games, some found ways to put it on Joe Maddon that stretch the bounds.

The most laughable was when Maddon went to Craig Kimbrel to pitch the 10th inning after that stirring comeback against the Cardinals last Thursday.

He was just activated that night, only hours before the game, so how could Maddon put Kimbrel in that situation?

This was the argument of many fans and experts in the hours and days that followed.

Gotta be kidding.

You're not active if you can't do your job. Kimbrel's job is to close games or in rare cases pitch in tie games.

In other words, the most important moments, defined by Thursday night in extras.

The team paid him $43 million for three years, and activated him for the biggest game of the year, to pitch at that precise moment.

And Maddon wasn't supposed to throw him?

What, with 10 games left in the season, he's supposed to find a few low-leverage situations for Kimbrel so he can work his way back into form and find some confidence just in time for the season to end?

This is truly comical.

Yes, Kimbrel has been terrible, but the manager is out of options.

Maddon used six relievers that night, eight the night before, three the game before that and five the night before that.

It's absolutely fair to question Maddon for some of his strategy over the years - and certainly the awful managing during the playoffs - but you're reaching now to blame this on him.

He let Yu Darvish try to finish Sunday because Darvish was pitching lights out and Maddon had nothing better.

Kimbrel blew the game on Saturday.

It was David Phelps and Steve Cishek who got beat Friday, when the Cubs started Alec Mills and used eight relievers after him.

Thursday it was Matt Carpenter getting Kimbrel in the 10th.

Last Wednesday the Reds got to Pedro Strop in the seventh and James Norwood in the 10th.

On Sept. 10, it was Cishek getting beat in the bottom of the 10th in San Diego.

On Sept. 7 in Milwaukee, the Cubs had a 2-1 lead going to the bottom of the eighth, when Phelps, Derek Holland, Rowan Wick and Brandon Kintzler combined to give up a run in the eighth and a run in the ninth.

In fairness, some of these guys have been pitching a ton and are worn out because the starters have not consistently gone deep into games.

Some are just bad.

Reminds me of walking into Jim Essian's office after games and watching him lean back in his chair and put his palms to the air.

He would rattle off the names in his bullpen, each followed by a question mark.

Then palms to the air again, as if to say, "What's a manager to do?"

Again, Maddon has never been the best at managing a bullpen, but this ain't exactly the 2015 Royals we're talking about here.

No, you can't blame the manager for 2019, and if Theo Epstein moves on from Maddon he won't blame this season on the most successful Cubs manager in more than a century.

That would be a very bad look.

Sometimes it's about wanting a new voice, a new message.

It could be that he wants someone cheaper and younger.

It could be that he doesn't want to have conversations anymore about launch angle, lineups or coaches.

He wants what he wants.

In any case, if Epstein is done with Maddon and the Cubs are eliminated before Sunday's game, he should pull the trigger early and give the manager a chance to say goodbye to his players and to Chicago.

It would be the right thing to do.