Joe Maddon knows he may take some heat for the lineup he plans to use for the remainder of the regular season, but he does not care.
Maddon’s Chicago Cubs are in the middle of an 8-game losing streak and were eliminated from the playoff race on Wednesday. The manager put out a lineup on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates that includes many of the team’s bench players.
Regulars like Anthony Rizzo, Nicholas Castellanos, Ben Zobrist, Kyle Schwarber, Willson Contreras, and Jason Heyward were out. Tony Kemp, Robel Garcia, David Bote, Jonathan Lucroy, Victor Caratini, Addison Russell and Albert Almora Jr. were in.
Maddon is planning to use many of those bench players for their weekend series against the St. Louis Cardinals, who are competing with the Milwaukee Brewers for the NL Central title. He knows some with Milwaukee may complain about the lack of star players in the lineup.
“Of course they’re going to b—h, and I get it, but quite frankly, there are certain things I really don’t give a s– about, and that would be one of them,” Maddon said.
I got news for any Brewers fans who may complain: the Cubs’ regulars have lost eight in a row and collapsed down the stretch. How can you really argue that the “A” lineup with those guys is presently better than the “B” lineup anyway?
The Cubs will still be playing, and they’re not going to fold any more than they already have. Plus, Brewers fans can’t complain about the Cubs being so bad that they were eliminated from the playoffs (thereby helping Milwaukee some) and be upset when it helps the Cardinals. They should just be happy that the Cubs are bad.
