The smartest guy in the room
And not just because everybody else in the room is a dumbass



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“We have to embrace being uncomfortable.” — Jed Hoyer
No, Jed wasn’t talking about the paper thin pants that Nike, Fanatics and MLB are making the players wear this year. Rather, according to my old cubicle mate at The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal, it’s what Jed said to the baseball operations team about Craig Counsell’s input this offseason.
If that seems like a polite way of Jed saying, “Uh oh, guys, unlike the old manager, this guy is going to realize we’re all full of shit,” I think it’s because it really was that.
With David Ross sitting in the corner of the dugout throwing monkey feces at the lineup card for hours every afternoon, the Cubs’ khaki pants nerd brigade always had convenient cover. If your lineup suggestions or bullpen strategy blew up during a game, you could just blame it on Rossy being a complete moron, and you’d be right.
Now, not only will the manager know better, he’ll be unafraid to call all of you on it because he’s the highest paid non-player in the organization and has the longest contract.
On one hand, it has to be refreshing for the front office. They seemed to know that wasting 561 plate appearances on Ian Happ in the third spot was less than the optimal way to do things, but good ol’ Rossy wanted his buddy there and so it was.
Counsell comes in and publicly says not only is the batting order overrated, but that it’s irrelevant. And yet, no matter how he rates it, he seems pretty unlikely to let Happ hit there.