Of course, this is all dependent on whether or not he stays on Theo Epstein’s good side, as the man he beat to win the World Series can amply testify…

Red Sox fans can correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression always was that canning Francona came from above. It wasn't a coincidence Theo left the Cubs virtually the same time.

There was a poster on BrewCrewBall who went to the Cubs series in Miller recently and joked that if you did not know the Cubs manager's name based on Cub fans around him you would think the manager's name was Motherf#cking Joe Maddon

Wait, I thought Epstein was dead.

EDIT: Nevermind, different guy.

I hope he does stick around. I think most of the fan complaints about him are petty if not often outright criticizing him for stuff he does well.

I suspect Maddon will be managing the Cubs for as long as they'll let him. He's never going to find another situation where so many people pay attention to him.

Borrowing from what I said in Gonfalon -

I have more annoyance with the front office than I do with Joe - Joe certainly has the ability to enrage me on any given day with any given move, but find me a manager who doesn't. IOW - while I'm not clamoring for EITHER Joe nor the FO to be canned (I would shake up the scouting staff though - so sure, fire McLeod), I'm more unhappy with the FO's work the last 3-4 years than I am Joe's in the dugout.

That said... Maddon remains (with Bochy) tied for the highest salary among managers at 6m per... He probably wants a raise (and hey - based on the limited market? Probably deserves one).

So... I don't think it's entirely *just* a matter of him/Thed wanting him back... it's a matter of whether they can agree on a salary. If the FO is just going to waste another 1.5-2m on the next DeSuxo? I'd rather give it to Joe.... but if they're going to save that + whatever his replacement will make (figure another 2m or so) lower than Joe AND spend it better?

Maybe it will be another 108 years of Curse of the Maddon.

There’s already a Madden Curse.

Hard to say. For a while, young Cub players were making big strides after they got to the majors (Hendricks, Baez most obviously) but the last 2-3 seasons has seen the stagnation/decline of Russell, Happ, Schwarber, Almora. (Possibly add Edwards to the list but his track record is hardly unusual among relievers.) There hasn't been much to work with but no pitcher who has come up from the minors has managed to improve enough to stick. Other than that, his over-bullpenning sometimes drives me nuts and I can't imagine the SPs are that happy with his odd combination of removing them at the first sign of trouble after the 4th and hanging them out there for 8+ runs to get his 90+ pitches out of them on their bad days.

But I'm not confident there's anybody better out there, he handles himself reasonably well with the media, he doesn't throw players under the bus, he doesn't seem to have lost the clubhouse. I suppose the old adage of "better a year too early than a year too late" applies to managers too and maybe Joe's in that boat. If the Cubs think there's somebody out there that can get Russell** et al moving in the right direction, they should make the move.

** I assume Russell will be non-tendered so fixing him is probably not really a concern. But plenty of control left over the other 3 and 1400+ PA of average out of them would go a long way.

Wait, I thought Epstein was dead.

EDIT: Nevermind, different guy

Brings up a great question, what's the more likely pedophile first name, Theo or Jeffrey?

I'll take your responses offline.

Brings up a great question, what's the more likely pedophile first name, Theo or Jeffrey?

Do we know for a fact that Theo isn't a pedophile?

but the last 2-3 seasons has seen the stagnation/decline of Russell, Happ, Schwarber, Almora.

That's because they were never that great to begin with. Which is to say, that would typically be the explanation, and there's no reason in this particular instance to start imagining it's somehow the manager's fault.

The whole "Maddon's to blame" thing is even weirder, since the Cubs fell back asswards lucky into being able to get him in the first place. The current FO's managerial picks when they didn't fall back asswards lucky were ... gulp ... Dale Sveum and Rick Renteria.

Renteria was and is fine. (Sveum was bad.)