What do the Cubs Want at Trade Deadline?

A good question.  Also their approach at this point seems both tentative and inscrutable.   I mean to say, other than a fascination with having a third catcher who provides a veteran presence and reminds one of David Ross, what does Maldonado bring to the table, especially when you have to give up a not inconsiderable player in Montgomery.  Montgomery was admittedly having an awful year, but he had been injured early in the season and was coming off a season in which he filled in quite capably for Yu Darvish.  The Cubs have a history under Epstein and Hoyer of paying bid for a player they want, but, come on, Maldonado is not Chapman or Quintana.

Actually, most of the moves the Cubs have made this year have been pretty marginal.  They started out with a need to stabilize the rotation, which they accomplished rather painlessly by picking up Hamels option.  After that, they looked for infield help given having to survive Russell's suspension.  Enter Descalso, a major flop who is likely completely washed up.  Exit Zobrist.  Exit Russell.  Enter belatedly Robel Garcia who shows some promise but strikes out all the time unless he hits a home run. (Just as an aside, the Cubs optioned Ian Happ to AAA purgatory for striking out about a third of the time.  Garcia has struck out 44% of the time and has been promoted to leadoff man.  Go figure).

Now the Cubs seem to be shopping for a reserve infielder on the trade market even though they have a surfeit of them.  Personally, I would forget about second base unless they can get Merrifield from KC for next to nothing which is not going to happen.

The Cubs also think they need a right-handed hitting platoon outfielder as a rental.  Castellanos of Detroit fits the bill and I suppose he's OK, but the guy is a butcher in the field.  If you think Schwarber is weak defensively, you have not seen anything yet.

Which brings up the only need the Cubs must fill, the bullpen.  Early in the off-season, the Cubs announced a desire to strengthen their bullpen given the injury to their would-be closer Morrow.  Also that they were broke.  Enter a cavalcade of rehab cases and washed up veterans.  Only Ryan has proved even marginally useful, the rest have been pretty awful or hurt.  Maybe Wick has some talent.  Strop and Edwards have regressed, Strop probably because of injury, Edwards because he has become something of a head case.

Enter Kimbrel, who is defensible acquisition, though he has been rushed into duty with mixed results.  Enter also Holland who is another rehab project though he may be able to get guys out if you pick his spots.  Enter also Phelps, who is actually pretty good and may be the best cheap pickup of the bunch.

I don't think the Cubs really know what they want at this stage or what they are prepared to give up, so I rather think a blockbuster deal is off the table.  Maybe that is for the best.  To illustrate the point, they are apparently shopping Maldonado.  After all, despite losing at least ten games owing to their bullpen, they are just a game out of first in the division, one which pits three evenly matched rivals in what is likely to be a dogfight.

Which kind of brings me to tonight's game and their road woes in general and an admonition not to panic.  With the exception of the Dodgers, all these contenders both in the Central and the East are pretty evenly matched.  Even against the Dodgers, who are running away with their division, the Cubs have played pretty evenly in tough, close games.

One cannot say just how much home field matters in these contests, which is pretty much borne out by the results so far.  Tuesday's loss to the Cards is a good example.  It might have gone either way.  Wainwright and Darvish both pitched well.  The Cubs lost on a home run.  Schwarber failed to come through with the bases loaded and two outs.  The Cubs ran into a stupid, strike 'em out, throw him out double play in the sixth, which preceded a Rizzo double and walks to Baez and Caratini that set up the Schwarber at-bat. Might just as easily have gone the other way.

Strop, Maddon, Loss

The Cubs continue to under-perform on the road.  Friday nights loss continued the trend, the third game blown by the bullpen in this stretch and the second blown by Pedro Strop.  There seems to be something wrong with Strop either physically or mentally or both.  In any case, he is a disaster this season as compared to his prior years of creditable service.  So, incidentally, is Carl Edwards and was  the recently traded Mike Montgomery.  These guys were lynch pins of the Cubs bullpen in former years and highlight the big gap Epstein and Hoyer and Maddon need to fill to bring this team into and through the playoffs.

Notwithstanding the aformentioned failures, I have to question Maddon's decisions in almost all these defeats.  I've always thought Maddon was a terrific clubhouse manager and a questionable and sometimes downright awful field manager.  Tonight's game is a great example.  Hendricks is pitching a two-hit shutout through five innings.  Bote hits a two-run homer to give them a lead.  Maddon pinch hits for Hendricks, the next batter, using Schwarber against a lefty.  Schwarber predictably strikes out.  Hendricks pitch count was getting up there, but you could tell even in the dugout he wanted to give them another inning and might easily have done so.

So this leaves four innings for the beleaguered bullpen to fill.  Ryan comes in and gets two outs sandwiched around a walk.  Why not let Ryan finish the inning?  Instead Cishek comes in and makes heavy weather of things before eventually getting the third out.  How much worse might it have been to let Ryan finish the inning?

So Cishek gets two outs in the seventh sandwiched around a walk.  Kintzler replaces Cishek and gives up a single to Yelich to bring the score to 2-1 before getting the final out.  The following inning, Kintzler begins an inning, like Cishek before after working out of a jam, by getting into trouble.  He leaves with two men on and is replaced by Strop who blows the game by giving up a bases loaded single  to give the Brewers the lead.

Now it is hard to predict guys who will be off or just plain bad, but continually putting pitchers who are struggling like Edwards Sunday and Strop Monday and Friday  into game situations is just dumb.  Also you have to wonder why taking out Hendricks early was smart and whether removing a pitcher who needed only a single out to escape a non-threatening situation was smart and whether sticking with pitchers who escaped trouble in stressful partial innings was smart.

I happen not to think so, but Maddon does it all the time and it does cost the Cubs victories.  I reckon the Cubs bullpen has lost at least ten winnable games this year, maybe more.  It is going to take more than Derek Holland to remedy this problem.