Chicago Breaking Sports reports that pitching coach Larry Rothschild will return to the Cubs next year, his 10th with the team:
↵↵Rothschild will enter his 10th season as Cubs pitching coach, having outlasted Don Baylor, Bruce Kimm, Dusty Baker and Lou Piniella. Whether Mike Quade will return as the manager is unknown, but he was known to be in favor of Rothschild's return.↵↵↵↵Despite improvement in the final month, the Cubs finished 13th in National League pitching this year with a 4.18 earned-run average, after ranking in the top five in each of the three previous seasons. They were also last in walks allowed (605) and fourth in strikeouts (1,268).
While all that is true, much of it comes from the young and inexperienced relief corps. Cubs starting pitchers led the National League in quality starts with 96 -- granted, a QS isn't necessarily the best measure because a pitcher can post a 4.50 ERA in one, but it's the same for every team and the Cubs had more than the pitching-rich Phillies, Cardinals and Giants.
↵↵Rothschild often gets too much blame when Cubs pitchers aren't good and not enough credit when they are. It's just speculation, but the Deep Dish thinks this likely means the next manager is coming from inside (meaning either Ryne Sandberg or Mike Quade), because an outside manager would probably want his own pitching coach.