Step Into The Spinzone, Last Place Phillies Sweeping The Cubs Edition
Gather round my children, it’s time to spin a 3 game home sweep at the hands of the last place Phillies including the first no hitter the Cubs have suffered in almost 50 years. Impossible task right? Hell no, that’s what the spinzone is for.
Look, this past weekend sucked. It sucked in every way you can suck. Friday was a blown save in the 9th and an extra inning loss, Saturday was a no-hitter, and Sunday was a good old fashioned ass whooping. In terms of losing games that’s the gauntlet, we got it all, and it came against a really bad Phillies team. But you know what, it’s actually a good thing.
*Crowd Gasps*
*Woman in back Feints*
*Baby Screams*
Yes, I said getting swept by the Phillies is a good thing. Why? Because the Cubs were never supposed to make the playoffs this year, that was not part of the plan. Now of course I want the Cubs to win all their games and make the playoffs every year, I never root against my teams, but in the grand scheme of things this may have been a good thing. This year was supposed to be about getting the young guns up in the Big Leagues and learning how to win. Signing Jon Lester and getting Joe Maddon accelerated that by a bit but that’s the truth of the matter. Before the season started the Cubs were supposed to win right around 82 games (they’re on pace for 85). So they started a little hot and got our expectations up, that happens, but they’re right around where they should be in Theo’s greater plan. Having an infield full of guys 25 years old and under is fun, it also means slumps will happen that make you want to rip your hair out and that is exactly what is occurring right now. You know who hit .220 his first half season in the bigs? Mike Trout. In September of his first full season in the he hit .257, a year that he finished at .326. Bryce Harper struggled a lot his first 3 years in the bigs, he had flashes of greatness but he also had stretches of bad baseball. Now I’m not saying any of the guys on the Cubs are Mike Trout, I’m crazy not stupid, but the point remains, baseball is a weird sport to begin with, add in the fact that young players go through slumps all the time and this was all unavoidable.
So why is this a good thing? It’s a good thing because now the expectations are reset a little bit. The Cubs are now 2.5 games out of the Wild Card and the Giants are streaking. Could they still make the playoffs this year? Absolutely, I won’t rule that out, but at least we understand it’s more likely they won’t, and that gives Theo and Jed more time. There is no need for the Cubs to trade away key prospects at the deadline for a rental (I don’t think they would have done this before the weekend anyway). Wouldn’t you want to see Baez a little more this year in the minors? Don’t you want to see if Addison Russell can hit and get some confidence back? Wouldn’t you hope that Starlin can somehow get out of his own way and find his hitting again? (this may never ever happen) David Price is coming to the North Side next year in Free Agency, that is going to happen, so it sucks to say but everyone needs to continue to have patience. This team is young, this team is fun (most of the time), and this team is being built for long term success, not a 1 year window. For the first time since ’08 the Cubs are enjoyable to watch and on the right path, there will be bad baseball, but it’s all moving in the right direction. The juice will be worth the squeeze, I promise you that, and that’s a Big Cat Spinzone guarantee.
