What the Epstein-Hoyer-McLeod connection means for the Cubs

Dave Roberts wasnt surprised to see how the dominoes fell across the country last October, reshaping front offices from Boston to San Diego.

Roberts played with Jason McLeod at Rancho Buena Vista High School in San Diego before earning his degree from UCLA.

Roberts is still reminded almost daily of The Steal in the ninth inning of Game 4 in the 2004 ALCS. That began an epic comeback against Mariano Rivera and the Yankees. That Red Sox team made Theo Epstein a legend throughout New England.

Roberts transitioned his career by going to work for Jed Hoyers baseball operations department in 2010, first as a special assistant and then as the Padres first-base coach.

So Roberts knows the three Cubs executives who took on the biggest challenge left in sports.

Those guys have a great relationship, a great chemistry, Roberts said Tuesday. They have a trust. In this game, when youve got those components, then ultimately theyre going to cross paths again. It was a pretty good system (that worked) for them before. So you would expect something similar here in Chicago.

Sitting in front of his locker inside the cramped visiting clubhouse at Wrigley Field, Roberts looked up from the USA Today sports section. Inside, it had a picture of Epstein, who had to meet the press and answer for a 12-game losing streak.

The Cubs (17-32) won again on Tuesday, this time 5-3 over the Padres. Jeff Samardzija went seven innings and earned the win on his bobblehead day. Epsteins front office can use him to a build a rotation. Heres hoping the marketing department features him in the next ad campaign.

Yeah, you dont want to pitch bad and go outside and see your bobblehead smashed all over the pavement, Samardzija said. I wanted to just keep the game close and hopefully people will go put them in their room or something now, instead of in the trash.

The development of Samardzija (5-3, 3.09 ERA) has been one of the better story lines this season. Power arms will be a focus as McLeod runs pre-draft meetings this week in Chicago.

The Astros once picked McLeodthe great-grand nephew of Hall of Famer Carl Hubbellin the 44th round of the 1991 draft.

He was a big right-handed pitcher with a good arm, Roberts recalled. He was always a student of the game. He kind of took his career as far as it was going to take him as a player, and then got on the coaching side of things. Hes always been a great listener and continued to hone his evaluation skills.

To this day, he is one of the best evaluators in the game.

McLeod earned that reputation by delivering Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Daniel Bard and Clay Buchholz to the Red Sox and watching that 2007 World Series run.

A new labor deal, which severely limits spending in the amateur draft, will make that job even more difficult. Its much harder to overwhelm two-sport athletes with big contracts, the way the Cubs once did with Samardzija.

McLeod is on the clock. So are the scouts who had to carry video cameras to every game and store all the datamedical, family, statistical, anecdotalin the new Bloomberg computer system.

He sees a lot of things that many people dont see, Roberts said, a lot of different intangibles in players, the stuff that people dont really look for. Its just amazing all the information that you can kind of come up with and have at your disposal (to) sift through and make a selection.

McLeod and Hoyer felt like they left the Padres (17-34) in a better place, even though they lasted only two seasons. Last winter, the industry viewed San Diego as a top-three system. Privately, some have suggested that Epstein wouldnt have taken the Cubs job without them.

With Jason and his crew, Roberts said, were going to enjoy the fruits in the years to come in this system. (It) was a loss for us, but he put some things in place that were going to continue to build on.

(The Cubs have) a plan (and) with the resources that they have, it should ultimately work out pretty well.

The entire focus is on June 4, when the Cubs will make the sixth overall pick. Heres a sign of how all-in they are for the draftand how much they respect the managers evaluation skillsDale Sveum has watched video of certain hitters they might select.

It will take years before we know if Epstein, Hoyer and McLeod were right or wrong.

They have short memories in Boston, where Epsteins legacy took a hit with bad contracts, fried chicken and beer in the clubhouse, and an epic September collapse. But you cant forget those two World Series banners at Fenway Park. Red Sox Nation got everything it ever wanted.

Things like that just dont happen overnight, Roberts said. With this fan base loving the Cubs unconditionally, its even better when youve got a regime coming in with a plan in place thats shown its worked (before). I definitely expect these guys to kind of right the ship.