I’ve been pulling for Mike Quade to turn the Cubs into contenders. He certainly seemed to inspire the team to play more solid and consistent baseball in the final 30-some games of the 2010 season.

But his approach does not seem to be having the same impact in the first month and a half of 2011 and all the media-driven promises of how he was so good at drilling fundamentals into players seem to have been so much vaporware.

Is it alright that I’m legitimately wondering what the team would have looked like under Sandberg, who was shown the door after operating for years under the assumption the managerial job would one day be his? I have to believe that having someone the older players weren’t so comfortable with and who many of the younger players had previously known as their minor-league manager would have created a situation that would have continued to train rookies, shown veterans you actually have to try and catch fly balls and more. Because Nice Guy Quade doesn’t seem to be getting the job done.