David Ross: Managerial fire or fired? |
David Ross has been a hot topic of discussion throughout the majority of this 2023 season. Ross was the guy that the organization pegged to not only man the ship during the Cubs’ second rebuild of the last decade but also the manager the Cubs expect to be at the helm when the Cubs turn the tide and start competing, highlighted by his three-year contract extension signed last season.
This season has certainly been up-and-down. The Cubs have had high highs and low lows — best described by the stretch of 20 games the Cubs played from June 9th to July 2nd. The Cubs won 11 of 13 games and then dropped six of seven. The season’s turbulence has had many people wondering what the Cubs' plans will be at this season’s trade deadline, but even more so, a general criticism of David Ross and his decisions on a day-to-day basis. The manager is obviously a really hard position. When David Ross puts in Michael Fulmer and he blows a lead, it’s Ross’ fault — and when Ross pinch-hits Yan Gomes, and he knocks a game-tying 2 RBI single, it’s Gomes’ clutch gene. The point is fans like to point fingers at Ross when things don’t go well and praise the players when things go right. One thing that is important to note, Ross has no control over who stays in the big leagues and who goes to the minors. For example, Ross couldn’t control the fact that Christopher Morel was in the minors until almost June, and the Cubs had to play Miles Mastrobouni and Edwin Rios around the diamond frequently. It wasn’t Ross’ choice to sign Eric Hosmer and Trey Mancini to play first and block Matt Mervis from first base for the majority of the first few months. Ross didn’t decide to keep Miguel Amaya in the minors and carry three catchers: two of them being Luis Torrens and Tucker Barnhart. And it wasn’t on Ross that the bullpen that Jed Hoyer constructed was not very reliable. This isn’t an article to praise Ross, he has certainly made some questionable decisions. Whether it was leaving Fulmer in the 8th and 9th inning too long, calling for bunts in questionable situations, bringing in pinch hitters with too much dedication to splits, hitting a variety of different players in the leadoff position, having veterans out of position, having too long or too short of a leash for starting pitchers, or ever having guys like Edwin Rios, Eric Hosmer, Luis Torrens, and Miles Mastrobuoni take at-bats away from Yan Gomes, Trey Mancini, Ian Happ or the likes of Miguel Amaya, Nelson Velazquez, Matt Mervis, Mike Tauchman or Christopher Morel (most who are now with the team). But the fact of the matter is, when the Cubs are the only team in the division with a positive run-differential, lead the division with the amount of All-Stars, have the most wins from the starting rotation in the MLB, and have 12 losses by one-run you certainly have to question the man on the top step — don’t they always say it starts at the top? The Cubs are in third place and below .500 heading into the All-Star break, but their expected winning percentage is much better than their record. This has led many people to start calling for his job. However, Ross has seemed to win a lot of fans back with the fire he was shown over the past 10 days. The Cubs have had four major comebacks in the last week thanks to some of Ross’ pinch hit and bullpen decisions — not to mention Ross has been ejected from a pair of games and showed some fire with some exclamatory quotes both to the media and the respective umpires that have tossed him. dont care what anyone says, never tell me david ross doesnt care about this team pic.twitter.com/GO0HjySL3d
But at the very least, Ross is showing some fire, and the Cubs definitely have some momentum heading at the All-Star break. Is the fire enough to prevent Ross from being fired? We’ll see.
