(670 The Score) Since the Cubs won their elusive World Series championship in 2016, the team has struggled to match that standard, a fall that included missing the playoffs last season.
Change followed, with the Cubs choosing not to retain manager Joe Maddon and replacing him with David Ross, a member of their 2016 championship team. Beyond that, the Cubs feel they need to also enact change from within the clubhouse.
Along those lines, third baseman Kris Bryant is looking to propose a "kangaroo court" system of fines within the clubhouse, as he detailed in an interview on the Bernstein & McKnight Show on Monday morning.
"Everybody wants to talk about holding ourselves accountable, and we've given (the media) those answers the last two years, but we've never acted on it," Bryant said. "We came out flat and this and that. We tell (the media) those answers, but I just haven't seen anything the past two years significant enough to suggest we changed anything."
Bryant has informally discussed the idea of a kangaroo court system with teammates. He hasn't approached Ross about it but believes Ross would support it.
"I mean, we make so much money playing this game," Bryant said. "I feel like if we are getting fined -- like, if you hit a ball and you watch it at home plate and it doesn't go over the fence, that's a fine. You better make sure that ball goes 10 rows deep. We can't have that stuff. Because you could be on third with less than two outs. The next guy gets jammed but gets it deep enough to maybe score the guy, and that's the difference in the game.
"Stuff like that is going to pay dividends throughout the whole season. Just think if we're better with the fundamentals and just playing baseball, rather than trying to look cool or be someone we're not. I think that's going to put us in a better position to succeed."
