Peter Gammons Theo Epstien Is Epstien Breaking another Curse soon Gammons Daily

Peter Gammons: Curse-conqueror Theo Epstein on right path to do it again

March 23, 2015 by Peter Gammons 3 Comments

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona—The presentation on MLB Network by MLB.com’s highly respected Jim Callis rated the Cubs and the Red Sox as having the two best farm systems in the major leagues today, with a common thread named Theo Epstein. “Curse of the Bambino” was alive and well, fed even more that first year when Grady Little left in Pedro Martinez, Aaron Boone hit one of the biggest home runs in the history of THE Stadium and Little was sacrificed for Terry Francona to the taunts of “1918.”
When Epstein left after a 2011 collapse that two world championships kept from becoming another chapter in the curse, he took over a Cubs franchise that still revels in curses, be it a goat, an innocent fan’s hand, the summer of ’69, all accompanied by Steve Goodman’s  “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request.”
Think about that. Instead of being a college professor, Wall Street millionaire or the second coming of Edward Bennett Williams, Epstein took his Yale education and became an exorcist of the two biggest curses in baseball history.
When Epstein became the Red Sox general manager in 2003, his organizational goal was to use large market revenues to build a “developmental machine.” The 2004 team, some of which was assembled before he came in with the John Henry ownership then added Curt Schilling, David Ortiz, Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar and other critical pieces, was essentially built on acquisitions and free agents. But by the time they won again in 2007, the development side had provided Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury two years after they all played together in Portland in 2005.
And when you look at the system that added to the 2013 World Series and is now built back to a high level, its roots came from the realization of Epstein and the very smart people who worked with him that the draft was going to change, hence the heavy investment in the 2010-2011 drafts, when they could spend above slot for players like Mookie Betts and Garin Cecchini. Ben Cherington, Mike Hazen, Amiel Sawdaye and a number of others were major parts of the Epstein developmental team. At one point they had three future general managers—Josh Byrnes, Jed Hoyer, Cherington—working together with an owner in Henry always willing to finance the high risk, high reward nature of scouting and development, and while an astounding 12 of their current top 20 prospects list (including Yoan Moncada) have been signed in the 2012-2015 years under Cherington, the line of connecting dots starts with Epstein and his drive to find the best, the brightest and the most passionate baseball operations people.
“Sustained success is one of the most difficult things to achieve in this business,” says Epstein. Which is why the Cardinals are so universally admired. And why the Red Sox and the Cubs are so reluctant to trade their best young players—with six, often seven years of control, three years at the minimum—for a player with a year of control or $100M worth of debt in that player’s thirties.
It’s part of the business. When the Dodgers went hard after Tampa’s David Price after the 2013 season, they began negotiations by telling Tampa’s Andrew Friedman that Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Julio Urias were off limits. Friedman went to the Dodgers last fall, agreed with Don Mattingly on making Pederson the center fielder and whenever he talks about acquiring an experienced pitcher like Cole Hamels, the conversation begins with Seager and Urias being off-limits. With the confirmed support of Byrnes, Galen Carr and Dave Finley, all key former Red Sox baseball ops people now in the Dodger front office.
Now one of the treats of spring training is not only following Joe Maddon—a runner-up to Francona in the post-Grady Little search—but watching the stars of the Cubs development program. “We’re watching four of the best young players in the game, a core of a team like the ’95-96 Yankees,” said one veteran scout. With an addendum: the hallmark of this Cubs developmental class headed by Kris Bryant, Jorge Soler, Addison Russell and Kyle Schwarber is makeup. “What we have here is a bunch of guys who are dedicated, coachable and all with incredible makeup,” says hitting coach John Mallee, whom they grabbed from Houston, and who was a driving wheel for Giancarlo Stanton in Miami when Stanton was a teenager. “This is a core group that wants to make the Cubs the best team in baseball.”
And have the talent to do so.
Bryant, 23, Saturday took a 96 MPH fastball from a guy named Felix Hernandez and drove it 400-something feet to left field. He hit another bomb to right-center. He has eight homers this spring coming off being named the sport’s no. 1 prospect, a 6-5 third baseman-outfielder who is a franchise player. OK, there are endless talking points about opening the season and the Cubs trading nine games this April for a seventh season in a Cubs uniform, talk that would make Rush Limbaugh sound lucid.
Kris has Scott Boras for a smart reason, and Boras does the talking, but Bryant is smart, a future face of the game, well-raised by his father Mike (a roommate of Oil Can Boyd in the Boston system). There are no projectables on him. He’s just that model citizen, rare righthanded monster power and person who will own Chicago. Every time I watch him I start hearing Eddie Vedder singing “this year we go all the way.”
But watching 23-year-old Jorge Soler, I think the same thing. In Glendale last week against the Dodgers, he went down and took a ball down and away on a line to right. Next time up, he got a fastball up and in, pulled his hands to his body and rocketed it 400-something feet.
“Soler’s hitting tools are underrated,” says Epstein. His Marshawn Lynch body cannot be underrated. “He has not swung at a pitch out of the strike zone all spring,” says Mallee. “His hitting instincts are scary.” In 86 games on four levels from rookie ball to the majors last year Soler had 20 homers and his worst slugging percentage was .573 in 24 games with the Cubs.
Next, shortstop Addison Russell, whom Hoyer and Epstein got from Oakland for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel. When he was a junior in high school, Russell was comped to Juan Uribe because of his body. He came back his senior year and was comped to Barry Larkin. “I asked his mother what happened,” says one scout. “She said, ‘he cut out McDonalds.”
Russell is 21, a “fanatic when it comes to work and dedication” says Mallee, and may be a Larkin. The Cubs took Schwarber with the fourth pick in last June’s draft out of the University of Indiana thinking he would be a left field bat, but after hitting 18 homers in 72 minor league games, Schwarber wants to catch, has worked hard and will be given the chance to stay behind the plate.
This year is a stretch. Pittsburgh and St. Louis are very good, and there will be growing issues for these young players. Shining Jon Lester began the process of telling players they need to move on from prospects to winners, and there will be more next winter. But this core of Bryant, Soler, Russell and Schwarber is one of the joys of this spring, joys that should make the Cubs a sustainable power every season.
Jon Lester, who has been a model of reliability and work throughout his career, made sense as a free agent signing because he brought to the young Cubs a sense of the importance of winning and provides an example of what Maddon and pitching coach Chris Bosio preach in terms of work ethic. It also made sense because now that they are ready to step across the .500 line, this is the last year they will have a protected pick (no.9) in the draft. Next winter, if all goes well, they can survey the huge starting pitching market and jump for a Jordan Zimmermann or David Price.
It probably is too soon to project Russell and Schwarber as 2015 producers, but it will not be long until they join Bryant and Soler. This season may go a long way towards deciding if Javier Baez, who is actually a very good player in terms of defense and baserunning, can begin to tame his Sheffieldesque hand load and leg lift and make enough contact to become a 30 home run producer.
Still, with Lester, Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks and Jason Hammel, their starting pitching is better than it has been in years. The bullpen is underrated. They may have too many players learning to bridge the gaps from minor to major league baseball, but while they may not outrun the Cardinals and Pirates, they should be able to run with them.
In Boston, there is no more curse talk, no Babe Ruth, no Bucky Dent, no long-sufferers. They’re still there in Chicago, but not for long, Epstein, Hoyer, Jason McLeod and friends have been there before, they conquered it, and they know they are well on their way to doing it in another place, in another time.