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2023

First Week Overreactions: Is David Ross Going to be on the Hot Seat

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I’m no one to make fun of fans for overreacting after one week of baseball because I was writing about players who should be called up immediately after the first couple of games. However, the growing outrage from some Cubs fans over David Ross is probably just a bit over the top. Don’t get me wrong, he definitely deserves criticism over some of the moves he’s made early on in 2023, but to already call for his job? C’mon.

The big thing for me is much of the angst comes from the previous years of bad moves from Ross, but let’s face it, ever since the trade deadline in 2021, and you can go back to June of that season, the Cubs have been a bad team, not because of the manager and the moves he’s made, but because the team wasn’t designed to be good. I’d even argue that given the lack of talent on last year’s team, it was a solid job of managing by Ross in 2022 to get that group to 74 wins.

But that’s in the past now and this is where I do agree that there should be more focus on what Ross does moving forward because the Cubs are expecting to compete for a playoff spot in 2023. As far as the questionable bullpen moves, it’s also tough to pin everything that goes wrong on Ross because frankly there are a few relievers who most likely won’t be around by the summer. He’s trying to figure out who he can trust, who’s good, who’s bad and that’s what happens in April when a bullpen isn’t quite solidified from the start.

That’s also not a jab at the front office because as frustrating as the messaging may be from Jed Hoyer, you do have to credit the team for bringing in pitchers and improving them over time.

So, David Ross on the hot seat at some point in 2023? Yeah, an overreaction, but you do hope that the decisions have a clear thought process behind them and put the team in the best spot to succeed. I mean, I’m mostly annoyed over the Patrick Wisdom bunt call more than anything so far through the first week.

But hey, let’s switch over to some positive overreactions because speaking of Patrick Wisdom, how about his start to the season.

Patrick Wisdom Elite Contact Hitter

Wait, what? Yeah, of course it’s a small sample size, 18 plate appearances, but the dude with a career strikeout rate of 36.7 percent that has previously made contact only 65.3 percent of the time, is a top-30 contact guy after Wednesday’s action.

Oh! Wisdom also has a 95 percent Z-Contact%, which measures how often a hitter makes contact with pitches in the strike zone. That’s up 20 percent from his average.

Again, very small sample size, but it just goes to show you that if Wisdom can cut down on his whiffs, then he does become a dangerous hitter in the middle of a lineup because when he makes contact he hits for a lot of power. Wisdom is 6-for-16, with two home runs and two doubles in four games, striking out three times, walking once and getting on once via HBP.

Dansby Swanson, Ian Happ NL co-MVPs

Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson got a lot of love after his first series at Wrigley Field and followed it up with a three-hit game in Cincinnati. Swanson is 10-for-20 at the plate with two doubles, four walks and only a pair of strikeouts. But it’s not just that Swanson has been getting all these hits, he is so locked in right now and has been hitting the ball hard. Two of the 10 outs he’s made have been on balls he’s hit at 106mph and 109mph, both caught on the warning track in center field.

Swanson’s average exit velocity so far is at 94.7mph, which means he’s hitting the ball hard every time he’s been up at the plate.

Yet, despite Swanson hitting .500, Ian Happ is off to an even better start to the season, slashing .438/.609/.750, with seven walks. I’ve always liked Happ’s approach because even when he does struggle, he’s still willing to take his walks and when he has it all going, then he’s a beast in the middle of the lineup for the Cubs. Happ has reached base at least two times in each of the first five games.

We get into David Ross’ decisions, the bullpen situation and the offense catching fire against the Reds in the latest Pinwheels And Ivy Podcast.

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