Sheehan: The Cubs' Scapegoat Maneuver
Submitted by cubsnet on Wed, 2005-02-02 13:12.
Joe Sheehan writes at Baseball Prospectus on the Sammy Sosa trade:
The Cubs aren't getting better in this deal, and they're not pretending to. They're just scapegoating the guy who makes an easy scapegoat, establishing that they're Dusty Baker's team now, and hoping that no one notices just how ridiculous the deal is from a baseball standpoint.
. . . .
What the Cubs have done is set up their storyline for '05. They should be better just by getting full seasons from Mark Prior and Nomar Garciaparra, and they could well win a division in which they have the most upside of the three real contenders. If that happens, it will, like the Rangers' success in '04, be sold as the positive result of dealing a superstar. In fact, this trade doesn't make them a better baseball team: They're not saving any money, and they've downgraded their talent base.
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Scapegoating
When Sheehan writes that the Cubs are not going to save any money, he's assuming the Cubs will complete the signing of Jeromy Burnitz, which it looks like they will.
I'm less convinced than Sheehan that the Cubs are placing the blame for '04 solely on Sosa. I think everyone knows that injuries and a Cardinals offensive juggernaut (to go along with some surprising starting pitching from the Cards) did them in. The Sosa trade is much more about getting rid of someone they no longer had fun dealing with than it is about scapegoating that someone.