Breath In, Breath Out
If a cause for serious concern is when your team is 19–19, 2.5 games out of first place, then you’re gonna be just fine. This is the situation the Cubs are facing right now. They’re coming off the end of the drought, and half way through May aren’t pounding teams into the dirt yet, but they’re talented enough to flip the switch at any moment. This is virtually the same group of guys, the only difference they’ve all been there before now. They’ve tasted champagne, and probably dabbled in substances I shouldn’t even mention. This is the same team that came back down 3–1 on the biggest stage, so calm down, put your shirt back on, and clean up the plate of spaghetti you just threw against the wall.
The Cubs play in the Central Division of the National league, so they don’t have an Astros or a Nationals team stepping on their neck during this rough stretch. Their two biggest “hurdles” are the Brewers and the Cardinals. The latter being a more serious contender for the long haul. However, when the Cubs decide to show up, those red birds are gonna start dropping out of the sky.
The biggest concern for the Cubs has been their starting pitching, as their bullpen has outperformed where they should be. It’s not even that their rotation has been awful, they just haven’t been three-Cy Young contenders good. Lester has been about as solid as you can ask him to be, and Hendricks has come back to earth after playing way over his head last year. Lackey still manages to do whatever it is that he does, while having one of the worst faces in professional sports. The biggest concern should be Arrieta who is choosing the worst time to fade, as he’s nearing free agency. He was Hercules-like during that 2015 season, and it continued into the championship year that followed. However, that’s not a huge sample size, so we should’ve seen some kind of decline coming, unless we really believed he was the reincarnation of Roger Clemens.
Joe Maddon has a tough job with this team, being faced with the challenge of giving a plethora of talented players their due time on the field. He’s used 27 different batting orders in just 38 games, and the lack of consistency has translated to this slow start. The good thing is there is no serious structural damage, this isn’t the Mets. This is a team that’s built to last, and should be taking measurements for a Theo Epstein statue in the near future.
