Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras’s audition for the New York Mets begins Thursday evening at Wrigley Field, simply because the White Sox arrive at a fork within the street in Minneapolis.
This remaining weekend earlier than the All-Star break figures to be a most attention-grabbing one for the Cubs and Sox, two groups which have tried the persistence of their most affected person followers.
The Sox have did not stay as much as the excessive expectations that greeted the 2022 season, slogging across the .500 mark within the first half whereas supervisor Tony La Russa takes a beating on the postgame present. The Cubs haven’t even met the extraordinarily low expectations most followers had for them in April, and are more likely to commerce the favored Contreras to the best bidder, presumably even to the hated Mets.
As the break nears, Chicago has witnessed a few of the worst baseball it has seen in years. Entering Thursday, the Cubs and Sox had a mixed .400 profitable share (35-54) at dwelling, seemingly saving their worst for the paying prospects at Wrigley and Guaranteed Rate Field.
La Russa has executed the unimaginable in his second yr on the job: He has dominated the dialog on sports-talk radio, even on WSCR-AM 670, the Cubs’ flagship station. Not since former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has any native sports activities determine created as a lot heated dialogue on the airwaves.
It hasn’t translated on the field workplace, the place the Cubs are nonetheless outdrawing the Sox by a median of about 8,400 followers per recreation. But it’s much more fascinating than the Rick Renteria period. The “Fire Tony” chants have been frequent sufficient on the South Side to jolt White Sox administration, although not sufficient to contemplate making a change from the 77-year-old supervisor and BFF of Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.
La Russa invitations criticism and says he’s tougher on himself than anybody else may very well be.
“If you’re preaching accountability for the players, you better start with yourself,” he instructed reporters Wednesday. “I think our record should be better, so I should manage better.”
Many Sox followers concur, notably on the subject of La Russa’s choices to name for intentional walks to hitters already behind within the depend. If you didn’t know higher, you’d suppose he was trolling his critics, which embody Ozzie Guillén, the previous supervisor and star of the postgame present. Guillén known as La Russa “Renteria with credentials,” a shot at each Renteria and La Russa. He later apologized for the Renteria shot.
The Sox have Johnny Cueto, Michael Kopech and Dylan Cease on the mound this weekend for the showdown with the Minnesota Twins, with struggling right-hander Lance Lynn scheduled for Saturday. Winning three of 4 would finish the half on a optimistic word and go away them inside spitting distance of first. Otherwise it may very well be time to concentrate on the wild-card race.
Meanwhile, beer cup snakes have acquired extra consideration on the North Side than the video games on the sector. Even Baltimore Orioles followers have been in a position to take over Wrigley this week, because of the provision of tickets on the secondary market from disgruntled season-ticket holders. They loudly chanted “Let’s go O’s” throughout wins Tuesday and Wednesday as bleacherites stacked their cups and ignored them.
In distinction to the “tough love” strategy by NBC Sports Chicago to La Russa and the Sox, the Cubs are handled extra kindly by their station, Marquee Sports Network, regardless of being on tempo for a 99-loss season.
After their sixth-straight loss Wednesday, analyst Rick Sutcliffe concluded on the postgame present that Contreras must be traded for the Cubs’ sake, and for Contreras himself so he can attempt to win one other ring.
Even as Contreras frequently says he desires to stay with the one group he has performed for, the narrative he should go has been amplified on the community co-owned by the Cubs house owners, the Ricketts household. Go determine.
NBC Sports Chicago’s postgame reveals remind you of a school radio station taken over by scholar radicals, whereas Marquee Sports Network’s postgames are nearer to a state-run newscast spouting the federal government line. “It’s different here” is greater than only a advertising slogan.
So Contreras most likely is pretty much as good as gone, although he doesn’t really should audition for the Mets. They know what he can do for them or any contending group that wants a top-hitting catcher/DH. But if Contreras desires to endear himself to New Yorkers, simply in case he’s Queens-bound, this is able to be a effective time to take action. Mets followers are more likely to take over the ballpark in greater numbers than Orioles followers, and so they’re louder by nature.
Cubs supervisor David Ross mentioned his gamers perceive “it’s part of our business” when a group decides to unload helpful items for future belongings. The Cubs, he defined, are solely attempting to hurry up the timeline for profitable.
“We know we have All-Star caliber players that are really good,” he mentioned. “Sometimes that timeline doesn’t match up where you get to keep those guys.”
Contreras’ days of enjoying for the Cubs at Wrigley seemingly are numbered, and like Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Báez final July, he may spend a while this weekend trying round at his soon-to-be previous dwelling. After the break, the Cubs have solely two dwelling video games remaining earlier than the Aug. 2 commerce deadline.
The lengthy goodbye has formally begun.
By now everybody needs to be aware of the drill.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com