Cubs, Mets, Wrigley Field

It’s been a really fun week, a really, really fun week.

Personally, I made my maiden voyage to Chicago for a first-ever visit to Wrigley Field, Cubs phenom Kris Bryant blasted his first home run this weekend, he hit his first Wrigley home run Monday, and the Cubs are giving their fans a ton of hope as they have (as of Thursday morning) taken the first three of a four game set from the New York Mets. (They ended up with a sweep as we all know)

Being a Mets, while the losses are frustrating, there is a lot of things for me to be excited about. Top prospect Noah Syndergaard, made his debut at the game I was at Tuesday, and in my opinion, looked great. Matt Harvey followed up with a stellar performance, unfortunately, our defense, offense, base-running and late game pitching has been abysmal in this series, and this month, so naturally, those two performances were wasted.

But, today I’m going to focus on the future of two franchises I am looking for nothing but big things from going forward.

I start with the Chicago Cubs today.

The Cubs, especially the young players, were as advertised this week. So impressive, I’m having a hard time figuring out where to start.

I’ll start with Anthony Rizzo. Already a superstar, and in my opinion, one of the most underrated stars of our game today, he gets very little respect for being, again, in my opinion, the cornerstone to this team’s success.

Rizzo is off to a tremendous start to this 2015 season. A .333 average entering play Thursday, a ridiculous .463 OBP though is what is catching my eye. I watched Rizzo patiently work young Noah Syndergaard Tuesday into two of the four walks he’d issue in his big league debut (Rizzo finished with three on the night).

Obviously I came away beyond impressed with Kris Bryant. His towering home run late in the game, his second for the series, was a mammoth shot. When I watched the replay, it looked like he hardly swung. The amount of power, patience and flat out skill this guy has is unbelievable, oh and his defense is beyond good enough to keep him at third base long term. He made some tremendous plays at the hot corner Tuesday.

I also was impressed with Jake Arrieta. Coming off a breakout 2014, Arrieta has been very good in ‘15. He started Tuesday’s game very slow, in fact, at the outset, my friend and I didn’t think he’d make it through six, let alone the eight he finished with. But Arrieta settled down, walking only a pair (to Curtis Granderson) despite obvious control problems, and struck out ten.

While the Mets offense has been stagnant at best recently, it was still impressive given the patience the Metropolitans have come to exhibit in recent years.

Despite finishing with an 0-for, I came away also impressed with Dexter Fowler. The guy has charisma with the fans, he’s already a favorite and it’s only the middle of May, and he plays the game the right way and has fun doing it.

I liked what I saw from Addison Russell. The guy barely spent any time at Double-A, and looks like he has been around for a year now. I thought his plate patience (at least the night I watched) was very good, and his defense is excellent.

I’ve said it several times in recent weeks, the transformation of the Cubs from a cellar-dweller to, well, what their arch-nemesis the St. Louis Cardinals have built, isn’t going to happen with the callups of all these young players.

Yes, it is very much an exciting time to be a Cubs fan, and guys, I’m thrilled you finally have something to be ecstatic about, but winning in the big leagues is a process.

Theo Epstein is doing it right. He’s not doing this Billy Bean crap, buying all these “underrated” guys with a .410 minor league OBP then flaming out by late August.

No. Theo is getting guys that are going to last, that have visible talent and are going to make an impact in Chicago for years to come.

But it’s not going to be this year.

I truly believe the Cubs will finish in the middle of the pack in the NL Central, and in the league. But don’t take that as me saying, “I don’t believe in the Cubs”, because that is the farthest thing from the truth.

The truth is, the Cubs finishing in the middle of the pack, is nothing short of a victory. Consider this.

By year’s end, Chicago could have three, maybe four (depending on what happens with Kyle Schwarber) rookies in the top five of the league in Rookie of the Year, with Bryant likely being the unanimous choice for the award.

Friends, for the Cubs to finish at .500 with that kind of inexperience in their lineup is utterly tremendous, in my opinion.

Creating a consist, long term, sustainable winning culture in the big leagues takes time. If the Cubs want to get to the level of a St. Louis or Boston, they need to take the bad with the good. Byrant, Soler, Russell, etc are going to struggle at some point. They need to learn how to deal with that struggle.

I think having a guy like Joe Maddon in their clubhouse and dugout is going to speed up that process of getting the kids through their struggles and creating a winning culture, but again, it’s not going to be overnight, or this year.

I think Jon Lester is going to help in that process from a pitching perspective. While Lester is a great pitcher, and his impact on the young pitchers in the Cubs organization cannot be quantified through numbers, my issue is, in a couple years when the Cubs are ready to compete regularly and they are at a championship level, Lester is going to be pushing the age where he is going to be breaking down.

He may still very well be effective, but my guess is he’ll be giving the team around 25 to 28 starts, but the Cubs are going to need that stopper. They’re going to need that ace, ie Matt Harvey, Adam Wainwright, Clayton Kershaw, that is going to stop the bleeding when they are on a three or four game losing streak. Or that guy that is going to prolong a six or seven game win streak.

Right now, the Cubs simply don’t have that guy.

All Cubs fans point to Starlin Castro as the most expendable guy in that middle-infield rotation, but that’s not going to get you a top flight pitcher. It’s going to take Baez or Russell. It just is.

Just a hunch, I have no factual evidence to prove it, but I think Theo pushed Russell to the big leagues to showcase him to teams, and demonstrate, he is ready for pro-ball, and I think this winter, we could see Theo move Baez or Russell for that big time arm they are going to need long term.

Again friends I say, the Cubs are coming. Sure as God’s vengeance, they are coming.

For the Mets, the strength is evident.

This pitching staff is really, really good.

Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard had very strong showings at Wrigley. Jon Niese continues to be a mentally weak liability in this rotation.

I’ve had my fill of Jon Niese, for about three years now. The Mets think he has value on the trade market. Personally, I think guys like Dillon Gee or even Rafael Montero have more value than him.

But other than Niese, I do like this rotation. And I love what I saw from Noah Syndergaard Tuesday.

His fastball was explosive, his breaking ball was devastating, and he looked like a guy that could be a top of the rotation pitcher soon.

And while the Mets pitching is exciting, and soon to be championship worthy, nothing else about this team is.

Their hitting is putrid. Their defense, other than Juan Lagares, is absolutely awful, and my God, can this team get a runner in when they’re in scoring position?

Until the Mets start putting runs up on the board and field a ground ball cleanly and make a decent throw to first, they won’t be competing.

Like the Cubs, Mets fans are on cloud nine or Syndergaard and Harvey and deGrom, and for good reason, but there’s so much more to competing and winning than just getting these guys into the rotation and getting good performances from them.

I said it at the top of the season, and I still hold to it; the Mets are a year, at least, away from competing for the playoffs.

Both teams may be in the race towards the end of August, but it would surprise me a lot if either gets into the postseason at this point in the year.

I cannot help but be excited for Cubs fans, and I am excited to be a Mets fan at the moment. In good time, each will start to enjoy a tremendous amount of success.

I must address Wrigley Field very quickly.

Like I said, last Tuesday was my first time being there, and while it wasn’t my favorite park (the nachos were just OK, the park itself was just OK), but I really enjoyed it.

I loved the “first timers” certificate the kind woman at the gate put together, juvenile I know, but no other ballpark, not even Fenway, does that.

Now, I don’t know what Wrigley was like pre-jumbotrons, but I loved the new scoreboards. I thought they added a modern taste to a historic place, and truthfully, I don't know if I could have enjoyed the game without them. I don't know how fans went all these years without one.

I enjoyed the new bleachers, and I thought the place as a whole had a great historic feel, and truthfully, I didn’t hype it up in my head, but it did indeed surpass my expectations.

I’m still curious about what Cubs fans think about the new scoreboards. So how ‘bout it Cubbies fans, you like the new scoreboards or what?