Cubs News & Notes: The Sky Is Not Falling

There’s plenty of reasons to freak out about the Cubs’ current 5 game skid. The point of this blog is to (a) recognize these reasons and wayyyyyyyy mor importantly, (2) completely move on from them. It’s times like these we must never forget baseball’s Golden Rule from the presumably-late, definitely-great Jimmy Dugan:

Never mind Dugan’s 58 dingers for his fictional and “beloved” 1936 Chicago Cubs. The guy makes a point that will stand as long as this game is played. There is no crying. Not today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Not ever. And that extends to us fans regardless of circumstances. (Minor exceptions can be made when your club wins its first championship in 108 something years. Not that I cried. Just saying.) We need to get back to being winners and that starts with acting like winners goddamnit. I spent the better part of the Cubs’ April defending Joe more times than I can exaggerate. It’s nauseating criticism and that’s coming from your textbook retrospective perfectionist. Let’s bury these negatives and move on because god forbid you know that clubhouse is 0-0 heading into tonight.

Problem #1 – The Offense

I don’t know if this is a problem or if it’s the bona-fide Five Alarm Fire at this point. I do know, that the Cubs have scored 27 runs over their last 11 games, good for less than 2.5 runs/game. I would venture to guess the run support will get better based on common sense COMBINED with advanced analytics, but for now it stinks bad so let’s get some meaty hate off our chests.

The squad has slashed .203/.251/.318 over the last 11 when all the offensive woes started. The pitching staff has been phenomenal, over this stretch, generally, so a 5-6 record isn’t horrendous in comparison to the offensive output. The only consistency here has been the 5-game losing streak where the lineup managed a .201/.240/.349 line. AMAZINGLY, and I really mean amazingly as much as I can, The Cubs increased their average runs per-game in the 5-game losing streak compared to their previous 6 games in this fiasco. Specifically, the club put up 2.2 runs/game while going 5-1 then managed 2.8/game while going 0-5. I said this after the first loss, and it bears repeating: that bizarre 5-1 stretch created a lot of house money for the Cubs to play with. Obviously they lost it and then some already, but that’s a run I will never forget. And it’s making this tolerable.

Problem #2 – The Bullpen

Just kidding. This isn’t a problem, it’s just two bad blown saves in as many days. Go ahead and cry (see above). Tell me I’m a moron. But this is a fake problem. The Cubs are two pitch locations away from being 2-3 in their last 5 including a series win at division rival St. Louis. Not too shabby. It certainly doesn’t mitigate Problem #1, and I am being a massive meatball here, but I stand by the fact that these recent back-to-back  walkoff losses are the statistical anomalies smarter people than us pride themselves on. Like my heart wants to be mad but my brain is telling me these are blips on the radar. The usual suspects have been phenomenal:

Problem #3 – Joe Maddon

I’ve spent a lot of time holding a grudge against Joe for bullpen miscues. Anyone who has listened to one episode of my podcast knows he can fire me up to the tune of having his own segment, Joe Maddon Is Making Me Mad Again. So let’s not beat a dead horse. There’s enough there to roll your eyes and assign responsibility to him for everyone else sucking horribly recently. So if you want to point your finger at Joe, go ahead. I won’t stop you because I don’t want to be a hypocrite. Maybe the Baseball Gods are more real than I think. (Which, for the record, is very very real.) Maybe sitting AA and Javy after rattling off a crazy hot streak upset the big fellas. Maybe he isn’t creating the atmosphere we all assume. Idk. All I know is that when I hit refresh on twitter there’s a fresh batch of Cubs fans hating Joe Maddon.

The Solutions

For starters, stop hating on Joe Maddon. Understand his weaknesses – managing the bullpen, matching up pinch hitters, playing Jason Heyward late in games while trailing, etc. The list goes on but I can assure you that it is 99.9% tactical stuff meaning it’s  simply related to move-making. That’s where he’s average-to-below-average sometimes, and is unfortunately hampered by the fact that he made one of the most boneheaded moves in the history of managing bullpens during Game 6 of the World Series. Okay so shoot the guy. The Cubs still won. We know that story inside in out. It’s time to move on.

Let there be no doubt Joe is the single best person to serve this position. Currently and in the indefinite future. If you know anything what Theo is building right now, you know that it centers on people and relationships and all that jazz. It’s about the intuitive and intangible. Theo needs someone like Joe to carry this mission into the clubhouse and onto the playing field. That means Theo needs someone who excels at communicating and being cool and laid back and not freaking out and who also happens to be really, really, really fucking smart. That guy is Joe Maddon, and since 2015 the Cubs have won more games than any one else and have gone to 3 straight league championships. He’s doing something right, whether you’re willing to forgive him for the 2016 World Series or not. So cool it with pretending that he is a moron. He makes mistakes but nothing will overshadow his strengths.

Finally, the offense will be fine because it has to be fine. Idk what else to say. That’s common sense, my brain, your brain, history, blah blah blah all working together. Like do you really think they’ll average 2.45 runs for the next month? Or is this just a bad spell with some bad timing? Probably a bad spell. I’d hate to keep my finger pointed at Chili Davis because he’s not in the batters’ box. So let’s just pretend that up to this point everything has been one big practice run of what the real lineup should look like, and now we know Almora is our everyday guy in center. We know Schwarber is as good as advertised. We know Baez has taken the next step. We know a fuck ton. It’s just a matter of being patient and letting it click. There’s no doubt it will. Just calm down.

PS – Cubs better win by 1 billion tonight. Please dear god.