2018 Chicago Cubs, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Courtesy of Sports Illustraded
We are but two games into the 2018 Chicago Cubs baseball season and we have already witnessed some very good baseball, some bad baseball, and some downright ugly baseball. While the good should definitely be celebrated, and we should give pause to some of the bad, there was certainly some ugly that will be cause for concern all season.
The Good
Right off the bat, I don’t know how you don’t take a look at Kyle Hendricks and Eddie Butler, especially Butler. Eddie took one of the hardest losses you will see after he threw 90 some odd pitches in 7 innings of work. What makes you feel good about Eddie’s performance is his roster spot was in jeopardy. With no real promises to break camp with the big league team, and with no minor league options remaining, he was possibly looking at finding employment elsewhere.
But he waltzed out there in the middle of a 1-1 ballgame and threw seven glorious innings. Even the few hits he gave up weren’t hit very hard and seemed to be weak grounders just out of the reach of infielders arms. While two months from now I know there will be fans that look at the W-L record and will count this against Butler, he shined brighter than anyone in game two of this young season.
Kris Bryant has been phenomenal to start this season as well. With three hits in the 17 inning marathon game (including a towering home run, his first of the season) he has reached base six times in the first two games. His slash line of .400/.538/.900 1.438 gives him a nice beginning to a season which Vegas lists him as the second favorite to win the NL MVP award. Oh, and we have got to watch this a couple more times.
Now let’s discuss that Kyle Hendricks start. Kyle pitched through 6.0 innings where he gave up a paltry 4 hits and a single run. He also collected 5 strikeouts in the no-decision.
Kyle had everything working. A fastball that topped out at 88 MPH was perhaps his biggest weapon of the night. If you remember back to last season, Kyle’s fastball was hovering in the 85 MPH range, which just didn’t create enough separation between that pitch and his highly effective change-up. The result – he was getting hit extremely hard. That wasn’t the case on Friday night. With his fastball, sinker, and change all working together, Kyle creates weaker contact than most other pitchers in the league and that was extremely evident in his first start of 2018.
This may or may not be a surprise to anyone, but I’m throwing Ben Zobrist into the good mix as well. In his first three plate appearances of 2018, Zorilla hit three balls 375 feet or further and only had a double to show for it. He would add two more hits on the night and finished 3 for 7. If Zobrist regains some of his 2016 forms, he will push Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber, and Jason Heyward for playing time. Not saying anything bad about those others, but that’s a good thing folks.
The Bad
Now I’m not one to kick a dude when he’s down, but damn Kyle Schwarber… I am the biggest Schwarber fan, so much so that I will argue with anyone about his capabilities to play left field in the major leagues. But when you go out there and make a poor read on a ball hit over your head and allow it to bounce off the wall and give up extra bases, you cannot make another defensive miscue later in that same inning. But that’s exactly what he did, and it certainly didn’t help Jon Lester who was struggling in his own right.
— Jamie Baker (@rljmb23) March 31, 2018
Schwarbs did make up for it a little when he did this.
But then he followed up opening day with a 0 for 4 performance which he struck out three times. I know he will hit this season, but he has got to get out of his head defensively. It is ok to be a poor defender in left, but he needs to make sure on the plays he can’t make he doesn’t make the play worse.
I believe Jon Lester will have a bounce-back season, but game one was not a very good indication that I will be correct. It is one thing to only last 3.1 innings on opening day, it is another to give up 3 runs (a fourth was unearned), but what was alarming is the lack of velocity, again. When he was a young pup, Lester could dial it up to like 94 on the gun. Now, velocity was never his thing, he got guys out by pitching down in the zone and whatever contact was made was weak or to an infielder for an easy out. He was able to do that because stuff, location, and he had just enough velocity to keep hitters off his fastball when it was down.
Now Joe Maddon explained that Jon had a similar start to last season (velocity wise), and he is correct. We also shouldn’t be uber worries about him just yet, but if that velocity doesn’t return and if Jon can’t discover a way to keep hitters off his fastball, there should be a point where we push that mini-panic button. I’m just not there yet.
It is good that this Cubs rotation has Kyle, Jose Quintana, and newcomer Yu Darvish. But that true wild card just might be Tyler Chatwood. As long as those others pitch up to expectations, which there isn’t a reason that shouldn’t, the team can survive several starts where Lester finds his groove.
There might be a few that scream at me for this, but if you are going to you probably haven’t watched past the first pitch of the season. Ian Happ has now struck out in six of his nine plate appearances. That is a remarkable, 67% of his PA. That is not good. I don’t care what happened with the first pitch of the season, if he cannot find a way to make consistent contact, against the Marlins pitchers, then I don’t know how he can lead off against teams like the Washington Nationals, Los Angelas Dodgers, New York Mets, or even the St Louis Cardinals. To this point, in nine PA, Happ has put three balls into fair territory, lets please not put him on the same pedestal as Rickey Henderson or Anthony Rizzo (ok, I kid about Rizz).
There are a couple of other points I would like to make with Happ. I have not believed in his ability to catch a baseball, but he has shown me incredible improvement in centerfield throughout the spring and so far this season. His footwork, while not perfect, has been very good. His ability to read the ball has been very good. That aside, if you complained about Happ not getting the game two nod, you might not have paid attention to how Maddon coaches this team. I’ll let Brad Robinson explain it for you.
It’s baffling to me that after 3 years of watching how Joe Maddon constructs lineups there are still people who use the word “benched” when a guy isn’t starting. “Benched” implies a demotion. I know it’s semantics, but it kinda drives me nuts.
— Brad Robinson (@bradrobinson8) March 31, 2018
The Ugly
The Chicago Cubs offense has got to be the first nod here. While they did score eight in the opener, they completely took the next night off. With Bryant being the only offense, the Cubs were completely quiet. I know they played 17 innings, but Chicago compiled 20 strikeouts against Caleb Smith, Jacob Turner, Drew Steckenrider, Kyle Barraclough, Brad Ziegler, Jarlin Garcia, Chris O’Grady, and Odrisamer Despaigne.
I have to nominate some Cubs fans in the ugly department as well.
Quality start so far by Hendricks; something Jon Lester has never done in any of his 3 Opening Day starts as a Cub. #SubstituteProfessor
— Mike Praznowski (@PrazMaster) March 31, 2018
Well, at least Schwarber looked thinner misplaying that ball in left field for an E-7.
— David Haugh (@DavidHaugh) March 29, 2018
Wow Javy gets no protection while Schwarber still hits 5th against Lefties?!? #BeBetter
— Bama Bob (@ceverett03) March 30, 2018
Why is Schwarber playing? We demand an answer from Maddon
— GMoney (@Gmoneyball101) March 30, 2018
im mad that happ isnt playing
— cait (@caithendz) March 30, 2018
How is Happ not in the lineup?
— Holdy (@aholdy12) March 30, 2018
Bs lineup . Happ earned the right to start more then 1 game to start season . If almora plays sit the left field butcher vs lefty , not happ . Joe trying to hard to appease . Play the best lineup !
— Dan Shaltiel (@DanShaltiel) March 30, 2018
Happ’s hot…..so let’s bench him. Managers out think themselves way too much.
— Boiler Up (@purdueboiler83) March 30, 2018
Why bench Happ for the corpse of Ben Zobrist? It is the second game of the season and Maddon is already triggering me. No more Zobrist starts please.
— Evans Ogbebor (@Philistine55) March 30, 2018
Shoulda signed Greg Holland to be closer anyway
— Michael James (@mljames36) March 31, 2018
I hope Theo doesn’t give Maddon a extension bc he is the worst manager in the league.. he’s lucky the players are good and won him a WS!!
— Scubasteeve (@jrschutt90) March 31, 2018
This is why we should have never signed morrow in the first place our closer is going to have to be babied all season so his arm doesn’t fall off
— kevin donnelly (@grissom_0207) March 31, 2018
I can go on and on and on… So many fans jumping on the attacking Schwarber and questioning Maddon’s lineup. Apparently holding Happ out of the starting lineup wasn’t the right decision (however when he did come in he struck out three times in four at-bats). The huge overreaction of fans has been super apparent since the Cubs won the World Series. Some of it is due to the team just having higher expectations, which I can understand. If this is a good team (and it is) we should expect excellence out of it.
The other factor is, and this is a theory that I have from only observations, is we have a lot of fans that haven’t lived and died with the team before the 2016 season. I’m not judging their fandom or knowledge, and I welcome them to the group, but I feel a lot of them don’t understand how to watch a baseball season. While we can demand excellence, you have to understand that this league plays 162 regular season games that span six months. A poor game in game two doesn’t really impact the season in the way a poor performance in other sports might.
It’s a long season folks, strap in for a glorious ride.
