Cubs Aren’t so Defensive, or Offensive
By no means should a single panic button be pressed. By no means should fans think its all unraveling. By no means does a Monday night game in early June mean anything more than one of 162. By no means should Chicago Cubs fans freak out.
If you are panicing because Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals slayed the Cubs lineup, you don’t know who Max Scherzer is. Max is one of the four or five elite, like stop what you are doing and tune in elite pitchers in baseball. The man has a pair of no-hittets to his name, and just last month he tied a MLB record with 20 strikeouts in a game.
DON’T FREAK OUT.
I say this, but there is some reason for concern, which was only highlighted by Scherzer’s performance. Now Scherzer would have shut down every team in baseball on Monday, and if not for Addison Russell’s solo-homerun, we could be having a much different conversation this morning. What Monday’s game should show us is, pitchers that throw hard can still dominate this lineup.
Cubs fans know all too well how a team of hard throwing, elite level pitchers can shut down a lineup. With the Cubs, and their fans, making World Series plans in 2016, the New York Mets rotation buzz sawed through the Cubs hitters in route to a four game sweep in the NLCS.
Now there certainly was a silver lining. The Cubs best fastball hitters were out of the lineup, on the DL – Kyle Schwarber, Jorge Soler, and even Tommy La Stella. While having any of the three bats on Monday wouldn’t of made a difference, having that extra bat, or two, could make a difference in a best of seven series.
This is why there were rumors of the Cubs looking for another veteran bat. They could use another guy that can turn around a 97 MPH fastball. They could use another bat to extend at-bats and put balls in play.
While we saw this Cubs team manhandle Scherzer just a few short weeks ago in Chicago, the team can be susceptible faltering to great pitching, which isn’t unlike most teams.
What is possibly more troublesome is the Cubs sudden inability to catch the ball. Here are the errors in each of the last four games; 6/10 one error in a 5-1 loss, 6/11 three errors in an 8-2 win, 6/12 four errors in a 13-2 win, 6/13 two errors in a 4-1 loss. Luckily the Cubs were playing the Atlanta Braves, who will make a run at being the worst team in baseball this season, otherwise the Cubs could very well have a much worse outcome than 2-2 over those four games.
While the team was considered to be one of the stingiest defenses over the first two months of the season, the 10 errors over this stretch certainly raises an eyebrow.
Sometimes a team which had this hot of a start goes into complacency, which causes a bit of lax play. While they may tune in for an at-bat, defensively they may not be as focused as they were when building their 25 game over .500 start. While fans should hope that this is a focus issue and nothing more, defensive players that could come off the bench could be a valuable commodity for the 2016 Chicago Cubs. While the team does have some stellar defensive guys in Jason Heyward, Addison Russell, Javier Baez, David Ross, and now Albert Almora – there are still several players with below average gloves that you need in games, especially late.
Take note of the verbage, they “could use” instead of “need.” The Cubs are in the position they are because they have the best lineup and pitching staff in the game. But like I mentioned several days back, if there is an Achilles heel, fix it. Regardless of how big, or small it might be. This isn’t a “trade the farm for one, or two guys” sort of thing, and I can concede that some issues might be complacency, but these are certainly areas to be mindful of and should make sense if the Cubs front office makes a move or two to correct them.
Don’t be that guy that reads too much into this, and don’t be that fan that starts a panic run trying to get everyone onboard (or off board…?). This Cubs team is still the best in the bigs, and they are still the overwhelming favorite to be the last team standing. It just doesn’t hurt to look upon things with an open eye and mind.
