CSN: Theo hungry to establish new Cubs way

April 4, 2012, 10:18 pm

MESA, Ariz. ? It?s hard to believe when the building is almost 100 years old, and the customers have been so loyal for generations, but the Cubs might as well be a start-up company now.

On a recent morning, Theo Epstein sat in front of a laptop inside his office at HoHoKam Stadium, sneaking glances out onto the field. He wore a dark Penguin polo shirt and a Nike cap, the casual look you?d expect to find in Silicon Valley.

The copy of Sports Illustrated on Epstein?s desk with Albert Pujols on the cover predicted that the Cubs will lose 96 games. ?The Cubs Way? manual rested on another corner.

When you think of the Cubs, you can feel warm and fuzzy and picture sunshine and Old Style. But if Epstein?s vision comes into focus, this organization will be innovative like Groupon, manage risk the way Aon Corp. does and find efficiencies faster than McKinsey & Co.

Six months ago, Epstein met Tom Ricketts at a residence the chairman?s family owns in New York. They had sweeping views of Central Park and talked for six or seven hours. The general manager of the Boston Red Sox at the time said that he didn?t walk out of there with a job offer.

?I think he wanted to meet me to make sure I didn?t have three eyes,? Epstein joked. ?I think his concern, if he was honest, was: Would I bring as much energy to the Cubs as I did to the Red Sox? Or was I sort of kicking myself upstairs, so to speak, and putting myself out to pasture??

When the Cubs run out of the dugout on Thursday for first pitch against the Washington Nationals, it will mark the 163rd day of the Epstein administration. By Opening Day, the president of baseball operations had fired one manager (Mike Quade) and hired another (Dale Sveum).

The front office expanded with Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod, two high-level executives who had helped build the Red Sox machine and restocked the San Diego Padres system.

Epstein?s calls for ?the best and the brightest? included Shiraz Rehman, who has an MBA from Columbia Business School, and pro scouting director Joe Bohringer, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

?A fresh perspective,? Ricketts said over the winter. ?They just look at the questions a little differently.?

So the Bloomberg computer system has been installed, focusing mostly on the amateur scouting side, with a basic major-league version up and running by the trade deadline.

Scouts have been given video cameras to shoot prospects. ?Spycam? was installed at each minor-league affiliate, and you can watch the action in real time on your laptop. Each minor-league player received an individual plan for this year that outlined strengths and weaknesses.

To educate players on how to handle themselves off the field, representatives from Northeastern University?s Center for Sport in Society ran seminars during spring training. There will now be background reports on potential draft picks that could run four- or five-pages long.

Remember that ?Moneyball? gave away secrets to people like Ricketts throughout the industry. And spending restrictions in the new collective bargaining agreement destroyed the financial advantage the Cubs planned to exploit internationally and in the draft.

?The longer you?re in baseball,? Epstein said, ?the longer you realize that all we?re trying to do here is shift the odds slightly in our favor. There are no great obvious competitive advantages anymore.

?If you have the best evaluators, the best systems, the best people, the best decision-making process, the best you can hope to do is shift your odds for any given transaction from maybe 50/50 to like 53/47.

?There?s not a lot of ground that you can seize against your opponent. So if you?re disorganized or if you?re doing things by happenstance or if you don?t have a sound process, and you sort of luck into a decision here and there and you can?t repeat it, you?re just losing ground.?

Epstein has likened his ideal front office to a boiler room. Assistant general manager Randy Bush ? who took over on an interim basis when Jim Hendry was fired and is widely respected for how he guided the Cubs through the transition ? amplified that idea.

?They?ve been very inclusive,? Bush said. ?They like lots of opinions. They don?t want people who just sit there and nod their head ?yes.??

The same way that Ricketts wants to renovate Wrigley Field in phases, Epstein hasn?t taken a wrecking ball to the front office, which contains many key employees who were already signed through 2012.

There is still room to grow, particularly in the statistical analysis and healthcare wings. Throughout the game, keeping players healthy, and preventing pitchers from breaking down, is viewed as the next big thing. For now, the Cubs are taking smaller steps, like bringing in an expert ophthalmologist as a consultant to test each player?s eyesight.

?Everyone gives the same answer to that and everyone says medicine, sports science, and they?re right,? Epstein said. ?But I don?t think we quite know what it is yet. Everyone?s in the R&D phase of that exploration.?

Sveum ? the third-base coach on the 2004 Red Sox team that won the World Series and reversed the curse ? has noticed Epstein?s learning curve from wonder boy to brand name.

?Being one of the smartest guys in baseball, he?s always challenging himself,? Sveum said. ?(It?s): How can I make the team better every single day? (He?s) on a constant grind that way. It?s just the way he?s built.

?But the one thing about Theo (over the years is) he really understands a lot about the mechanics of the game now. (That?s pitching and hitting), why guys succeed with certain mechanics, why guys struggle with certain mechanics. (He?s) almost a coach sometimes when it comes to that now, and I don?t know if he had that ability (then).?

In the Boston Globe op-ed column Epstein wrote last October (?Farewell, Red Sox Nation?), he cited football visionary Bill Walsh, and the idea that coaches and executives should seek change after 10 years with the same team. Does that theory still hold?

?I think so,? Epstein said, pointing out that?s about how long he worked for the Padres and Baltimore Orioles combined. ?There are no hard and fast rules, and that?s not for everybody, but (that?s) just how I?m wired.

?Boston was 10 years and you start to get a little antsy. (You) provide your own motivation and your own stimulus as long as you can. But for me after 10 years, you need the environment to kick-start that again, so that?s why change is good.?

Epstein speaks in full paragraphs, but he?s uncomfortable talking about himself. If the Cubs win it all on his watch, he will be on the fast track to Cooperstown, N.Y. If they don?t, well, he should still be in the middle of his professional life. From here, you can?t get kicked upstairs much higher.

Is this your final job in baseball?

?No, I don?t see anything as like final. I?m 38 right now,? Epstein said. ?I don?t know. I honestly don?t think in those terms. What I do think about when I wake up is: How the heck are we going to build enough minor-league pitching? Because we don?t have nearly enough right now.

?Who?s going to pitch the seventh inning this year for us? That?s what I think about. I don?t think about it in terms like: ?Hmmm?will it be 10 years for me here and is that the final step??

?I don?t see it that way. I know how much joy so many people feel when you can win a championship at a place that hasn?t won in a long time, and how sustained that period of excellence can be if you do it with the right people and the right systems.

?I haven?t been here long, but I think I?ve been here long enough to see that?s possible. But it?s a significant challenge. So we?re all pouring ourselves into it, because there?s nothing better than seeing the looks on those people?s faces when you get there, and knowing you played a small part in it.?

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