The Chicago Cubs lost both of their first two regular season games in Tokyo to the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s tough to pin the blame for both of those losses on one man, but Cubs fans have tried with manager Craig Counsell, who made several questionable decisions in the series.
First, the Cubs skipper removed Shota Imanaga from a no-hitter in Game 1, and the Dodgers pounced on his replacement, Ben Brown. Second, Counsell’s lineup construction left Dansby Swanson and rookie Matt Shaw out to dry. Swanson is a $177 million man for a reason, yet he wasn’t made the centerpiece of the Cubs lineup and thus did not receive an opportunity to tie the contest late in Game 2.
These are relatively simple errors that, over the course of 162 games, will likely be forgotten. The Cubs have greater goals than winning in Tokyo, but MLB’s schedule construction does not help them in that regard. The Cubs have nearly two weeks between their final Tokyo Series matchup and Opening Day against the Arizona Diamondbacks. That leaves plenty of time for chatter and finger pointing from Cubs fans who would’ve preferred an international split, at the very least.
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Craig Counsell is tired of explaining himself to Cubs fans
Counsell has tried to explain himself on several occasions. First, he admitted he removed Imanaga early because of pitch count and long-term injury concerns. At the time, it was only mid-March. We can forgive him for that. As for his reasoning for asking Shaw to hit ahead of Swanson, Counsell hasn’t helped his case.
“Look, that’s kind of, you pick …” Counsell said, with his voice trailing off. “I think when we lose there’s something for everyone to jump on, absolutely. If something went wrong, then we lost. I can promise you that every day we lose, something went wrong.”
It took a season-plus, but Cubs fans may have finally broken Counsell.
A four-year playoff draught may seem like a lot to a younger generation of Cubs fans, but prior to 2016, the north side of Chicago was a baseball wasteland. The Cubs hadn’t won a World Series in well over a century. That magical season changed everything and increased expectations for the better.
Signing Counsell to the richest managerial contract in MLB history also adds pressure. Counsell knows what he signed up for, but what he could not predict was the lack of patience from a fanbase that hasn’t had much to root for over the last century. It’s tough to blame them, then, for not wanting to waste this glimmer of hope.
