{"id":25709,"date":"2019-10-15T10:37:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T14:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=25709"},"modified":"2019-10-15T10:37:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T14:37:00","slug":"chicago-cubs-interviewing-gabe-kapler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2019\/10\/15\/chicago-cubs-interviewing-gabe-kapler\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs Interviewing Gabe Kapler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Cubs Interviewing Gabe Kapler<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It’s been a rough last few weeks for Gabe Kapler<\/a><\/strong> and his job status. He’s fresh off of a second straight mediocre season and removal as the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are potentially good times yet ahead for the first-time manager with another chance to manage. As reported by Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports<\/a>, the former player now manager is interviewing to proceed now-former Chicago Cubs<\/a>\u00a0skipper Joe Maddon<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kapler Among a Large Field\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Cubs are seemingly moving pretty fast especially considering the fact that they’ve already talked with a multitude of other candidates. They’ve already talked with first-base coach Will<\/strong> Venable<\/strong><\/a>, former New York Yankees<\/a> skipper Joe<\/strong> Girardi<\/strong><\/a>, current bench coach Mark<\/strong> Loretta<\/strong><\/a>, and former catcher David<\/strong> Ross<\/strong><\/a>. That is on top of one more reported interview with Houston Astros<\/a> bench coach Joe<\/strong> Espada<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kapler’s up and down History<\/strong><\/h3>\n

With a 161-163 record across two seasons, there isn’t a whole lot of success to look at for Kapler. He was brought on to present a fresh, new perspective and to better relate to the younger players. That didn’t necessarily happen with reported club-house struggles, especially with veteran players. His narrative has changed from a shift happy lineup changing the style to a more traditional setup as of this past season.<\/p>\n

That change has included a far more subdued approach that still drew criticism. Such criticism came in his lineup changes that included Bryce Harper<\/strong><\/a> in the third spot despite the analytical numbers pointing elsewhere. That’s without looking at the regression of key players within the Phillies organization. Players like Rhys Hoskins <\/a>and <\/strong>Maikel Franco<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and more who have all regressed in performance across the 2019 season.<\/p>\n

Another Connection Looms<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Cubs aren’t the only team linked to a possible connection with Kapler. Not everyone shares the thoughts of Phillies owner John Middleton. In fact, the former 12-year player has become beloved by those he worked with over the years. That list includes San Franciso Giants<\/a> President of Baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi. Both worked together within the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> organization. Both also share similar interests in experimentations in analytical thinking within traditional practices.<\/p>\n

Whether through the Cubs or the Giants, a second chance could prove to be the coming-out party that Kapler needs. After all, it did work out for former first-time managers Joe Girardi and AJ Hinch<\/strong><\/a>. Ultimately both teams would like experience but as recent hires, Kapler’s former included, has taught us, the experience is not the only factor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago Cubs Interviewing Gabe Kapler It’s been a rough last few weeks for Gabe Kapler and his job status. He’s fresh off of a second straight mediocre season and removal as the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. There are potentially good times yet ahead for the first-time manager with another chance to manage. As reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2979,"featured_media":25717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[1743,3102],"class_list":["post-25709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","tag-gabe-kapler","tag-managers"],"modified_by":"Jared Cantatore","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2979"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}