What's Wrong with the Cubs?

I was tempted to write this earlier in the week and to suggest nothing serious that three games with the Reds could not cure, but, obviously, that did not happen and the Cubs lost two of the three games.  I still see no reason to panic, but neither do I see a team without serious issues.  In a nutshell, the Cubs have played mediocre baseball in June and terrible baseball the past two weeks.  Why is the question on everyone's mind.

First off, there are the injuries.  Losing Schwarber just a few games into the season hurt.  Losing Fowler, Soler, and LaStella in June hurt even more.  I suppose even the injury to Coghlan hasn't helped much either.  The Cubs are carrying only three real outfielders right now, two of whom are rookies and obvious reserves.  This, of course, means pretty nearly every starting lineup has a couple of players playing out of position.  Not that Bryant and Zobrist and Contreras are not versatile, but it affects the team just the same.

The injuries also seem to have affected the style of play, especially the loss of Fowler and Soler, who were patient hitters.  The Cubs annihilated opposing pitchers early on by grinding out at-bats.  For the past few weeks, that entire approach has changed.  The Cubs are scoring the majority of their runs on home runs, often solo home runs, and they are getting behind on the count much more often and striking out more as a result.  They have got to return to their earlier habits.  Getting back lost personnel will help, but the manager and coaches have got to recondition these guys to the point they were before the slump.

Besides the injuries and the lack of discipline, which, incidentally, has shown up on defense as well, pitching, once the team's strength, has faltered.  Early on, the Cubs starters were dominant.  Lately, not so much.  Maybe these guys are a little tired, which is only to be expected with the advent of hot weather and playing so many games in succession without an off-day.  However, some of Maddon's managerial style has played a role here as well.  Maddon is managing his staff as if he had a strong bullpen.  Unfortunately, he does not.

A good example of this is the Lackey game with the Mets last week.  Maddon pulled Lackey in the seventh with a man on and one out.  However, he replaced him with the since departed Peralta and the game was lost.  Ordinarily, removing a tiring starter at that point in a tight game makes sense, but only when you have a solid alternative to fall back upon.  In this case, again, not so much.

It's clear the Cubs are going to need to retool the bullpen much as they did last year after the All-Star break, but, until they do, they are going to have to make adjustments and show more patience with their starters instead of pretending they have reliable arms available when they do not.  It is really important to win the Thursday game against the Braves and to stop the hot Pirates in the weekend series at Pittsburgh.  If they are swept there, it means they will have only a five or six game lead and they will be in real trouble.