Padres Series

Actually the Cubs have won two consecutive series for the first time in a while.  Progress of a sort.  They should have won Wednesday afternoon, but, except for the Happ home run, they did nothing offensively.  The Padres were not much better, but they collected the winning run on a bases-loaded walk that turned out to be the difference.

The Cubs have been fielding a cobbled together lineup lately what with injuries to Zobrist, Heyward, and Schwarber.  Also a cobbled together rotation with Hendricks on the shelf.  So I suppose you might say when these guys are all back healthy and Bryant starts hitting again, things are going to get better.  However, all these guys were healthy most of the year and they are still a team that is only one game over .500.

Although hitting has been an issue all season long, the Cubs will probably improve on that account in the second half.  Pitching is where they need to add at the trade deadline and that is the area I think they will address.  They will be in the market for another starting pitcher for certain and possibly a left-handed reliever if Montgomery stays in the rotation, which I think he should.  I was at the game Tuesday night and I have to say his performance was impressive.  Ground ball after ground ball.  Butler has been adequate as a starter, but just that.

The problem the team is going to have at the deadline is finding the right guy.  Everybody wants to pick up that controllable arm.  However, not only is the price likely to be high to get that piece, but the arms in that category that are likely to be available are by no means sure things.  Cole and Archer and Gray come to mind, but they all look like possible reclamation projects in some sense.  These players would have made sense when the Cubs were building and they had nothing to lose, but going for the player who puts them back in the Series is another matter.

Plus, by all accounts, the front office is not at all willing to trade any of the young players currently on the major league roster.  Rightly so, I think.  They are more likely to want to create a package that features Candelario and a couple of AAA and AA prospects.  They certainly have these guys to spare, but that sort of combination is probably only going to get you a rental from a team that has fallen from contention.

The trouble there is that in the AL, you can only make a case for three teams being hopelessly out of it, Detroit, Oakland, and the White Sox.  In the NL, the opposite is the case and you can only make a case for six teams in serious contention,  The Nationals are running away with the East, three teams are playing well in the West, namely, LA, Colorado, and Arizona.  The Central Division is mired in mediocrity, but you have to make some really dire assumptions to conclude the Cubs will not ultimately pull away.

Ideally, the Cubs could match up with the Rangers and acquire Yu Darvish for the balance of the season,  However, the Rangers, mediocre as they have been and are likely to remain, despite being lapped by the Astros, are only two games out of the Wild Card race now.  Plus they have the money to hold onto Darvish in the free agent if they want to do so.  Should be interesting.