ESPN will examine Cubs' switch from David Ross to Craig Counsell on opening-night broadcast

When the Cubs replaced manager David Ross with Craig Counsell, the pervading reaction around baseball was shock. ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” TV voice Karl Ravech, who previously worked with Ross at the network, thought the decision was unfair.

“I thought that the team showed what you want a team to show under a manager, which is this willingness to fight, to exceed some expectations, to get better as the season goes along, to have a clubhouse where the chemistry is terrific,” Ravech said. “I thought given the boxes that you generally would check, David was checking them all.”

Not to the Cubs. The matter will be a topic of discussion during ESPN’s exclusive broadcast of the Cubs-Rangers game Thursday night. The “SNB” crew of Ravech, analysts David Cone and Eduardo Perez and reporter Buster Olney will have the call.

“We had our Thursday night call, and one of the questions that came up was how do you quantify the value of a manager,” Ravech said. “Is there an advanced metric which allows you to say Craig Counsell is going to be worth X amount of victories relative to Dave Roberts or Dave Ross or Alex Cora? So that will be a conversation we have during the game.”

With the Brewers, Counsell earned praise for his handling of the bullpen. But Devin Williams and Josh Hader, who were stars under Counsell, won’t be walking out of the Cubs’ bullpen. In fact, of the eight relievers on the Cubs’ Opening Day roster, six were with the team last year.

“They talk about what’s the hardest part about managing, and it’s about dealing with the pitching,” Perez said. “How is he going to manage his bullpen differently than David Ross did? [Newcomer] Hector Neris was used in Houston as that left-hander that could get lefties out because of his splitter. We’ll see how [Counsell] uses him and the value that Neris is going to have to that bullpen.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to the bullpen. Will the bullpen come through for Craig Counsell?”